What a change in the weather, summer to winter in one day; Joe calls me this morning to see if we want to go ahead with the pour. The sky is completely clear and yet the radar shows it's coming. The next few days don’t look so good, so we decide to go ahead with it.Seven yards of concrete coming and 4 different pours…The largest is the garage pour and then we have 2 separate patios. We are also helping out my neighbor, Dean, by pouring 4 soni-tubes for him in return for his time on his mini-excavator when getting our electric line in. I am happy to help him out. Mark Sumner, who runs the Enterprise Bar here in Rico, knows his concrete. Between Mark and Pat, they keep the rest of us rolling in getting the pour done.
Within a few hours we have the slabs poured, but we are far from completion. Most of the crew breaks for lunch and it’s cloudy with some major rain clouds developing quickly. I have enough time to inhale a peanut butter sandwich before the wind comes up strong and I, knowing we have some challenges ahead, head back to the cabin in a hurry. The rain is begninning and we cover the wet slab.
The rain lets up long enough for Mark to run the long floats across the slab, but now the rain starts up again and is coming stronger. Quickly the crew pulls it together and builds a tent across the entire slab. Mark, DD and Pat are under the tent hand-finishing the slab. Greenbay, Joe and I, being the less experienced with flatwork, do what we can to keep the leaks plugged and attend to what the rest of the crew needs. It is definitely a group effort and everyone pulls their weight and soon the rain turns to snow with large white flakes and slushy snow landing all over our tented tarps.
Greenbay has done an amazing job in keeping things dry on the upstairs floor. It's an endless job trying to keep the drips stopped. It’s total slop outside with mud everywhere and very challenging to get a decent finish in the rain and snow. The temperature has dropped at least 20 degrees in the last few hours. It will definitely freeze tonight, but the catalyst in the concrete produces enough heat that it won’t freeze, however, the next few nights it will have to be covered.
Pat does a broom finish on the south slab and Mark has completed the final finish on the garage slab. I put the final broom finish on the north slab and it's time to go home. It's raining again and I go next door in the cold wet dreary weather and hose my pants and boots off to remove the concrete and mud debris clinging to my clothes. A hot shower will feel good.
technorati tags:Rico+Colorado, reclaimed+lumber, hand+hewn+timbers, log+cabin, salvage
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