At about 8:30, M called the rental place to find out if they had any concrete "Pups." These are the tow-behind mixers that you can rent for the day. MUCH easier than mixing all the individual bags, and just about the same cost. Unfortunately the place that's about 2 miles from the house had some trouble with their concrete plant, so wouldn't have any Pup rentals for another few days. Plan B: luckily there's another place in Newcastle, about 5 miles away. They had some available, so we ran over to M's parents to borrow their Suburban, ran down, got the Pup and got him home to DG. It was exciting on the freeway!
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| Looking out the back window at the "Pup" |
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| Are you as excited about this as I am? |
We immediately started pouring. We got the hang of dumping a small load into the bucket of the tractor (that tractor has been a lifesaver. M has said over and over that she could've never built this house without it!) and then drove the tractor over to a form. Then we'd shovel the concrete into the holes, place the rebar, smooth it out, insert the post holder, and move onto another.
M's dad came right after we started to help, so he and I were the manual labor. M drove the tractor and operated the mixer (which made for a loud morning as the mixer keeps mixing--loudly, and the tractor was running the whole time). We got a good system down, though I was so in the midst of my tasks I couldn't take any in progress photos. But we completed the task within about 2 hours. Here are the forms, ready to go:
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| gee, haven't you seen enough of these already? |
And here are the finished footings:
It really was a great, satisfying (though exhausting) day. The weather was perfect--warm enough that all the water involved (constant spraying of the tools) didn't make us cold, and cool enough that we weren't drenched in sweat.
Up next: deck posts, beams and under structure. I'm sure we'll be tired again tonight.
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| As always, Willie supervises |
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