Up to Taylor Rental first thing in the morning to liberate their monster grinder, the one that ‘bout killed me last summer when I was “fixing” the concrete column heights. Over the last year the grinder hadn’t lost any weight (15½ pounds) or power (lights throughout the county dimmed every time I pulled the trigger). Even though the grinding wheel said “concrete”, it did a number on the steel rebar lifting bails in no time flat. Then I used the grinder to smooth various concrete surfaces that needed attention. By the end of the morning I was pretty well whipped… but everything needing grinding (and some things that didn’t) was ground. While I was beating myself and everything in sight to death with the grinder, Chree finished disassembling concrete forms. Applied epoxy to the now-flat ends of the lifting bails to seal them against rust and water intrusion. Started applying hydraulic cement to the too-wide seam between the concrete roof and the rock walls. When they say in the directions that the mix sets in three minutes they don’t mean three minutes and thirty seconds! Tried mixing 1 part Type S cement to 2 parts masonry sand to ½ part hydraulic cement to get a (hopefully) somewhat water-resistant mix that had a working life of 10 minutes or so. Got about half that job done by the time I’d had enough fun for the day.
