6.30.2022

Thankfully, we got no rain in the evening or overnight but it was good that we were prepared just in case. We did the unveiling this morning...

Looks perfect!  Jim is going to give it another day to cure before removing forms.

So he turned his attention to the pole barn project, starting to take off the many, many screws holding the siding in place...

Then starting to remove the siding pieces...

Jim had to work off a ladder on this slope trying to remove the last piece...

Removing blocking pieces...

Then we put up another header piece and Jim started fastening it into place...

He removed all the bottom flashing...

He put up a temporary ledger board to hold up the siding while he got it in place...

We brought two pieces of siding out and Jim started maneuvering them into place...

Setting the first piece on the ledger board...

He got two pieces in place and is striking a line for fasteners...

Starting to fasten.  Once he got a few in, he switched to his drywall gun to make the job a little quicker.

We all had so much fun this morning - Jim called us because he saw probably 20 baby turkeys!  They stay close to mom so the babies are a rare sighting.  It's hard to get good pictures of them but you can see quite a few of them in this picture...

High 80.1/Low 53.9 - gorgeous!

6.29.2022

Jim started to investigate why our upper lawn hydrant wasn't working - it would sure come in handy if it was.  We haven't used this one at all except for a few times when it was first installed. 

Once he got it apart, he discovered that the clevis pin had broken off inside for some reason.  He has already ordered a new one in stainless steel - hopefully he'll be able to get the bottom of the old one out to replace it.

He spent about two hours getting everything ready to pour concrete today - he brought up the forks and the pumpkin, the mortar box and all the concrete...

Since the upper lawn hydrant isn't working, we have to bring a hose from the lower one and make a cleaning station and bucket fill up area near the driveway...

Yesterday, Jim had finished off this corner of the form with some plywood...

Jim keeps some old motor oil and has a special hose connected that he uses to spray the inside of the forms so that removal is easier when the concrete is cured...

Starting to mix!

Jim mixes 3 bags at a time in the pumpkin, dumped it into the mortar box and mixed up another 3 bags and dumped it...

Then he had to offload the pumpkin onto the pallet and put the forks on the Bobcat...

Then he could pick up the mortar box and bring it over to the site...

Starting to hand shovel it into the form...

Vibrating the concrete to remove voids...

Putting the wire on top...

Vibrating again to make sure the wire is encased well...

Then the process started all over again - offloading the forks, putting on the pumpkin and starting to mix more concrete...

Another six bags mixed and Jim is starting to place the concrete...

Vibrating...

Another layer of wire...

We mixed up another 3 bags (for a total of 15) and Jim placed it - pretty much perfect amount with just a tiny bit left.  Vibrating...

First float...

Then it's time for two hours of clean up and put away!  Cleaning the mortar box...

Cleaning the pumpkin...

Stopping the cleaning process for another float...

Then stopping to do the edges...

It turned out perfectly!

As luck would have it, all of a sudden rain was in the forecast.  As I write this, we've only had a couple sprinkles and hopefully we won't get more than that, but Jim had to prepare for rain.  In this area, all the water comes off the roof and splashes down - it would ruin the concrete.  So Jim made a multi-level cover - none of this is sitting on the concrete so it should all be protected in case it does rain.

High 80.7/Low 52.9

6.28.2022

 This morning, Jim started carefully working on getting the second set of air conditioning plumbing lines to the outside, always being mindful not to kink anything along the way...

Second line is out now!  

The view from outside...

Starting to cut old plywood to make the concrete forms for the compressor pad...

Assembling the form...

Bringing it out for a test fit - it's perfect!

Now to start prepping the ground...

Site is looking good...

Form is in place and starting to level...

We all walked up to the top of the hill and brought down some stakes - Jim started screwing the stakes into the forms...

Then we took the Bobcat up and filled up some buckets of small gravel...

Mounding dirt up around the form...

Putting gravel behind and to the sides of the form...

Jim cut and bent the edges of the wire we used in the concrete slabs for attaching the Pex tubing - will work perfect here to provide extra strength in the pad...

Jim cut a little grass at the end of the day.

High 76.6/Low 51