13 May 2014

Spent the morning putting rebar in the sauna building footer trenches then moving more dirt and rocks around down at that site.  Larry, Kevin, Victor, Ben Cook, and Scott Messer all arrived about 11:30, ready for some football to pour concrete.  The Carrara truck, fully loaded with 11 cubic yards of 3,000 psi concrete, arrived at 12:45 and then the hard work began, wheelbarrowing and shoveling the mix into the house footer forms.  I helped with the shoveling for awhile, then was giving the task of inserting the vertical rebar into the forms that will tie the footers to the cellar walls.  The house footers filled and floated (i.e., smoothed off with a trowel), the driver estimated he had a ½ yard left… and I had calculated that we would need about a yard and a quarter to do the sauna building pour.  So Larry ordered another yard to be delivered while his crew began the arduous task of taking wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load of very heavy concrete down the wood walkway to the sauna site.  Kevin and I spread the mix around and then floated the top surface smooth.  I put the J-bolts in very carefully (they hold the building to the foundation) and then discovered, much too late to move them, that I had put them all 5¼ inches from the outside edges of the footers instead of the 6¼ inches that they were supposed to be.  Marty & Merry came up to review progress, then, having heard my tale of woe vis á vis the sauna building bolts, invited me down to their place for some scotch and steak… in that order.  The12 year old helped considerably to ease the pain. The steaks and potato salad came from Dave’s Ferndale Store (very local) and were exceptionally good… as was the 2012 Blackstone Pinot Noir that we washed them down with.