Big weekend at Eagleview! Maama Mia! a'concrete'ing its'a hard'a yakka mate!
I worked until midnight Thursday, yep under a full moon with head lamp
..was fun (kinda)
to get the formwork for the slab ready and pillar prepped properly for an 8am Friday concrete delivery up the mountian. Pulled the rebar mesh out by myself (all one piece) all the while watching my rib
layed down black plastic, installed taller mesh lifeters and constructed an isolation joint between the end of the slab path and the pad for the dob. Put all the rebar mesh back in and hammered 14 or 15 more formwork posts in.
In the end it came together...but it felt like one big mad rush from 7pm Thurs until 3pm Fri, bit of a blur really, trying to remember everything, lathered with sweat, body aching and sore from manually agitating the (too) thick concrete mix with a star picket to make sure it got everywhere in the pillar mould..up-down up-down, quick, shoulders screaming! at one stage it felt like a past strongman event, don't give up, don't give up, you have only one shot at this!...arrrg!
Then the spreading and the skreeting of the slab! faaark, that's hard yakka! especially without really good tools, much respect for builders who coordinate and do all this palava on a daily or weekly basis!
Finished off fabricating a make shift kangaroo fence to stop creatures walking over the curing concrete through the night...the finished product, while far from a perfect slab, is a fine observing platform!
Next my builder will construct the 4.6mx4.6m deck around the top of the concrete pillar and I will erect the 3m X 1.9m X 2.15m colourbond shed on the slab, to house the 18" Dob.
Coming together slowly....
Mike
and those things you risk ..do you really need them anymore?
