Life with Jane

[okmunky]

Originally Posted by Curtis in TX

(PEcan Waffles with bacon and coffee. )

Yummy! But I prefer OJ rather than coffee. I'll be right over.

[Curtis in TX]

Originally Posted by okmunky

Yummy! But I prefer OJ rather than coffee. I'll be right over.

I have a citrus allergy, so no OJ for me. Break out on a rash if I even smell citrus. Weird!

At.least it's not chocolate.

[Wroughtnharv]

Hmmmmm, chocolate tears my gut up, avoid it when I can.

Yesterday was day one with laborer. He’s never seen anyone do concrete prep like me. He’ll learn and he’s a hard worker so we’ll get along fine.

I’m up early to get some breakfast made, 18 eggs, 12 jalopenas, pound of hot sausage, onions, garlic, cheese.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

The squirrels are back, but wary, very very wary, big bees scare them evidently.

The road runners are getting friendlier. And yesterday a couple of bob white quail came out to show off, pulling a Delilah with dust baths.

We are truly blessed, hard work, garden going crazy, and birds.

[okmunky]

Originally Posted by Wroughtnharv

. I’m up early to get some breakfast made, 18 eggs, 12 jalopenas, pound of hot sausage, onions, garlic, cheese.

Whoa! How many hungry people joined you for breakfast, Harvey?

[okmunky]

Originally Posted by Curtis in TX

I have a citrus allergy, so no OJ for me. Break out on a rash if I even smell citrus. Weird!

At.least it's not chocolate.

Ok, then I’ll have tea. I'm with you - a chocolate allergy would be a terrible way to die. I consider it as essential as my daily vitamins.

[Wroughtnharv]

We dug 26 pier holes yesterday after squaring up the pad and laying the pier holes out. We only went down 8’ because of rock. We tried to dig holes 27-29 but could only get down to 3’, 4’, 5’ because of a rock shelf.

We have rain coming in this morning and we’re still fabricating the rebar with stirrups for the pier holes. Oh Joy. Basically we’re taking four pieces of 1/2” rebar and tying them together with a 6” square made out of 3/8” rebar, looks like and is called a stirrup. We’ll fill the pier holes with concrete with the rebar sticking up. The pier holes are along the exterior beam and we’ll bend the ends over and tie them into the 4 pieces of 1/2” rebar running through the beam.

We were both exhausted at 6 o’clock last night, it was a good day.

Our bob white quail couple have moved into Thereabouts. They’re the only birds Dozer chases. I suspect it’s more about color and movement than being a bird, kind of squirrelly I know, but Dozer is old and eyesight isn’t what it used to be.

I’ll try to get some photos up this evening or in the morning.

Barb, I made the big batch of good stuff to give us spicey food guys breakfast for the week. This morning I only have to warm up the eggs and put them in tacos, yum.

Glenda got the place mowed yesterday while we were working on the pad. Supper was light and late, we were both exhausted, the good kind of tired. We like salad with some meat for supper, yesterday was salad with barbque’d ribs.

[okmunky]

Work hard and eat well. It can’t get much better than that.

I'm redoing the front flowerbeds at my daughter's house. There are 4 adult nerds living here year round. I'm not sure any of them know what a shovel or rake is ... and they’re all allergic to sunshine and sweat. I'll work all summer on the yard to get it looking nice before I leave in October. They hire a lawn service to mow, but the weeds are left for me.

Dirt therapy keeps my sanity intact.

[Wroughtnharv]

Barb it’s no wonder you and Glenda get along so well. Yesterday she worked on the weeds in the garden all day, that and installing the mulch.

We were building the cages for the piers. The skid steer comes in handy for everything!

Today we’ve got concrete going into the pier holes, rain tomorrow.

The new old drill press was delivered yesterday

[Wroughtnharv]

It looks like we’re going to need to put 21 mixer loads (7 cubic yards) of concrete out today to fill the pier holes

[ronspradley]

Like the looks of the new drill press.


ron and pebbles

[okmunky]

Originally Posted by Wroughtnharv

The new old drill press was delivered yesterday

What a monster! Was it originally steam driven? Those belts are massive!

[ronjhall]

During my younger years I set up production runs on a drill press like that. Reliable machines. Just keep a bucket of belt dressing close by. [emoji849]

[Wroughtnharv]

Yesterday we put 33 bags of Portland cement through the mixer. The 12 yard load of pre-mix lost its volume by a bunch. But all of the piers are done and we can start the forms today. It was a long tough day but we got through it.

When I started looking around for a concrete contractor all I could find was outfits that wanted to do it turnkey. I had two problems with that, one, they don’t do it like I want it done. Two, I couldn’t afford to pay them to do it my way.

The concrete plant recommended a company. I talked to the owner last year and he told me he would handle the pour and finish by the square foot. I called him last week and we looked at my project. He offered to give a good laborer by the day. I get it done my way and I’m saving a ton of money doing so.

It’s kind of funny, everyone told me I would never find a company wanting to help me out. I found one. And the laborer and me get along fine. We’re total opposites faithwise and politically, but we have the appreciation for the work in common. And he loves spicey food!!!!!!

[Wroughtnharv]

The laborer is learning some new stuff. He had never made stirrups before. Everyone else buys them. And he had never tied them into the cages like I do.

Then yesterday after the first mixer load he came off of the pile with his shovel ready to shovel the load into a pier hole. I told him to start the next load, I had this. Later when his boss came by to check on the progress he got to see the loader in action. I might have some work later on subcontracting out moving concrete for him.

We also cut a deal on buying the concrete from him vs paying for it to the plant. And he’s interested in buying my forming lumber when I’m done.