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- #21
It's been nearly a year, since I did the layout and dug the footers...Good thing that it was in rootbound ground, or I'd be digging them again...As it is, I just had to clean them up.
Progress was stopped, due to lack of funds for materials, and the personal refusal to mix over 2 cubic yards of concrete by hand. I've done it before and could have done it, but trying to cajole friends to help, is useless.
After a good paying job, in midsummer, I had a pocket full of money. As luck would have it, I was given nearly 2 Cu.Yd. of crushed limerock, from that same job, so things were looking up.
I had the posts planted in finely crushed limerock, since last year, and obviously, someone was looking out for me, and didn't allow me to jump the gun, because, while I was on vacation, in Idaho, in early June, a treetop tornado came through, and here are the results:
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As you can see, from previous pictures, I tend to leave things where I last used them, if I see no harm in it....Well, 5 ton trees and 80 lb. fiberglass ladders aren't compatible. FYI..LOL.
The tree fell directly into the area where the chicken house would be. In the next month, a friend helped me cut up the tree and get it out of the way. It pushed all of my posts askew and jostled a couple of batter boards.
This caused me to rethink the block/ wood combination, seeing as how I had also recently aquired a trailer full of used block, which just needed to be cleaned up.
So, it was off to Craigslist, for a tool/ toy which I have wanted, for a long time.
Used 3 times. A $400 mixer for $275.
On Labor Day weekend, I got busy. Cleaned the footers, removed the posts, checked the batter boards, bought, bent and tied steel.
On Monday, I hired a neighbor kid to help with the mixing. It was a good experience for him, but I had to listen to him whine about shoveling the rock and sand into the mixer, and the concrete dust, and how I had the easy job, pushing the wheelbarrow, with 2 cu. Ft. of concrete and floating it down.
Since then, it's been laying block, a wheelbarrow of mud, at a time, of an evening, when I'm home early enough, or about 6 hours or so, on a weekend day. 70 block in a day, what with moving block, mixing mud and laying the block, isn't bad, for 6 hours of work.
I always say that the man who pours the footer, should have to lay the first course of block, and jobs would go so much smoother, from the ground up.
The cut outs, in the lintel blocks, will recieve a brick sill, which will be a nice little detail. The screens, which I am currently using as my coop, will fit into these openings.
This last weekend, I also aquired another, long desired, toy. It's a 1948 Lincoln arc welder. $50, on Craigslist, and just around the corner. I had to do some minor repairs, but it works perfectly. So, I'll be making my doors out of tubular steel.
Progress was stopped, due to lack of funds for materials, and the personal refusal to mix over 2 cubic yards of concrete by hand. I've done it before and could have done it, but trying to cajole friends to help, is useless.
After a good paying job, in midsummer, I had a pocket full of money. As luck would have it, I was given nearly 2 Cu.Yd. of crushed limerock, from that same job, so things were looking up.
I had the posts planted in finely crushed limerock, since last year, and obviously, someone was looking out for me, and didn't allow me to jump the gun, because, while I was on vacation, in Idaho, in early June, a treetop tornado came through, and here are the results:
As you can see, from previous pictures, I tend to leave things where I last used them, if I see no harm in it....Well, 5 ton trees and 80 lb. fiberglass ladders aren't compatible. FYI..LOL.
The tree fell directly into the area where the chicken house would be. In the next month, a friend helped me cut up the tree and get it out of the way. It pushed all of my posts askew and jostled a couple of batter boards.
This caused me to rethink the block/ wood combination, seeing as how I had also recently aquired a trailer full of used block, which just needed to be cleaned up.
So, it was off to Craigslist, for a tool/ toy which I have wanted, for a long time.
Used 3 times. A $400 mixer for $275.
On Labor Day weekend, I got busy. Cleaned the footers, removed the posts, checked the batter boards, bought, bent and tied steel.
On Monday, I hired a neighbor kid to help with the mixing. It was a good experience for him, but I had to listen to him whine about shoveling the rock and sand into the mixer, and the concrete dust, and how I had the easy job, pushing the wheelbarrow, with 2 cu. Ft. of concrete and floating it down.
Since then, it's been laying block, a wheelbarrow of mud, at a time, of an evening, when I'm home early enough, or about 6 hours or so, on a weekend day. 70 block in a day, what with moving block, mixing mud and laying the block, isn't bad, for 6 hours of work.
I always say that the man who pours the footer, should have to lay the first course of block, and jobs would go so much smoother, from the ground up.
The cut outs, in the lintel blocks, will recieve a brick sill, which will be a nice little detail. The screens, which I am currently using as my coop, will fit into these openings.
This last weekend, I also aquired another, long desired, toy. It's a 1948 Lincoln arc welder. $50, on Craigslist, and just around the corner. I had to do some minor repairs, but it works perfectly. So, I'll be making my doors out of tubular steel.
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