22 May 2014

5 o’clock Thursday and the start of a four-day weekend, so kickin’ back, writin’ me blog, and havin’ a Bud.  Yep, since Sean has been spot on with all his recommendations so far, figured I’d try the beer that he prefers and, you know, that brew ain’t half bad.  Sean arrived at 7:30 and, not having a long list of house building issues to discuss, regaled me with stories about the adventures of owning a boat. Jimmy Ploof got here about 9 to start backfilling the west frost wall and putting down the compacted crushed stone that will be the next to bottom layer in the cellar floor matrix, consisting of: 7,926 miles of earth (some of it molten), 4″ – 48″ of 1¾″ crushed stone, 6 millimeters of polyethylene sheeting (vapor barrier), 3″ of closed-cell polystyrene (insulation), 4″ of 2,500 psi concrete, and the finished floor (tile, carpet, whatever).  Over the course of the day Wink Rhodes brought in 6 truckloads (about 84 cubic yards) of stone for the cellar and 3 truckloads of sandy gravel backfill for the exterior side of the frost wall (cheaper than having Jimmy find suitable material by pawing through the “stuff” that came out of the cellar hole).  James Ploof came at 3:30 for his after-school job, using the skid-steer to spread stone around, something he learned to do when he was 10…  My job throughout the day was to help shovel stone, when shoveling stone was needed, plus Jimmy had me operate the compactor for much of the afternoon.  During breaks I moved all of the leftover wood walkway construction lumber out of the car-turnaround area and then took a stab at organizing the mess in the shed upper level.  After every rain shower kept finding more nails in areas that I would have sworn were “clean”.  It’s like they were sprouting!  Also sprouting are the mosquitoes!