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We did it! Pouring concrete for the stem wall

After a late night, we rose at 6:30 this morning. We picked up a few emergency backup supplies at the lumberyard, and got up to the site. We double-checked that everything was straight. Eliot vacuumed a few weeks' accumulated crud out of the bottom of the forms, and I sprayed things down with water to cool the rebar. I measured out placement for the anchor bolts, which we'll push in after the concrete is in place.

We were just getting these last tasks wrapped up when Tye drove up in the pump truck. Eliot enjoyed the fact that the pump truck dealt with the tree in his way by just going over it, by a large margin.


Boy, that little 3" rubber hose was hard to handle once tons of concrete came blasting out of it! It really enjoyed shoving us around, and we made a fantastic mess. It's pretty wild directing 32 tons of concrete around with your hands. If Quadlock is big kid Lego, then concrete is big kid Play-Doh.

The pump truck stopped about a half-yard short -- oh no! -- but he had enough in the hopper to just finish off the wall. Whew!

Here's a nice vintage/instagram-chic selfie with the pump boom, courtesy of all the concrete goo on my phone face.


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