Construction Journal Entry Week of 7/31/11

8/3/11 Bought 6 sacks of concrete mix and loaded them into the truck. I probably should have bought 60-lb sacks instead of the 80 pounders I bought because I could feel a strain on my lower back after lifting the last sack. At least my back did not go completely out.

8/4-6/11 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Thursday through Saturday.

On the way I stopped at Priscilla's to see about fixing her staircase railing. I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 1:00. I was pleased that there were noticeably fewer mosquitoes. I had the load of six 80-lb sacks of concrete with me so I drove directly up to the upper roadway. I parked short of Rosy, the rosebush, with the passenger door even with the stairs.

I brought my gear in and found a mouse in a trap. I had two traps set and the other one was untouched. I have no idea how that mouse got in, but I guess the rodent wars are never really over. I threw the mouse out and reset the trap. Then I had my lunch and a nap.

When I got up, I tied Rosy back and then drove the truck forward so that I could unload the concrete mix. I used the porch crane to lift the sacks directly out of the truck and set them down on a riser on the porch. It worked slick. My back was stiff and sore from loading those sacks the day before, and I was glad I didn't have to lift them again.

After backing the truck back down, I took three buckets into the woods and watered the 11 surviving sequoia trees. They all look healthy. There were mosquitoes in the woods but they were tolerable. They didn't seem to be so aggressive. I didn't even put any bug juice on.

I was supposed to call Terry at the Marson and Marson design center with some bathroom measurements but I completely forgot. Too many other things to think about, I guess.

Since it is a new month, I tested the AFCI and GFCI breakers and recorded the septic pump event counter. It had advanced by 2 since last month. It is gratifying and fun for me to me to know for sure that the pump is working, and to know how many times it started.

First thing Friday I made the bathroom measurements and called Terry. I learned that he was off for the day so I wouldn't be able to contact him until Monday. I felt bad for not remembering to call him yesterday.

I spent the rest of the morning under the porch chiseling on the channel through the granite. I had a look at it from the top and concluded that it was even more inaccessible from the top and that all the cutting had to be done from down below.

It was awfully hard work. Now that the hole had been chiseled in about 8 inches, it was now harder to reach to the back of it and it was impossible to see what I was doing with the roto-hammer nearly filling up the hole. In addition to the Bulldog and a star drill, I used a couple different cold chisels and a bigger hammer. They seemed to be pretty effective so I did make some progress. I cut the channel back another 5 inches or so. It was hard, awkward work. In the process I broke chunks out of two of the flutes on my star drill. I don't think many people do that.

I took a picture from under the porch of the channel I had cut.

After lunch and a nap, I had another look at the possibility of chiseling from the top. Since I needed to cut in 18 inches, and I had only gone about 13 inches, it seemed like I really needed to go in from the other direction.

I could barely get my body in the space between the foundation and the cliff and my head had to go under a projecting log end from the Grid E1 corner, and under the log bench against the Grid E wall. There was no room for my elbows to swing, so to get my hands in a position to work, I had to either tuck my elbows next to my body, or stick my arms straight out in front of me.

There was only about 10 inches between the surface of the rock and the deck plank above, and there was only about a foot between the end of the deck and the cliff face, so that made it very difficult to get the Bulldog in there. But I did make some progress.

I started by drilling a few holes almost straight down from the edge of the deck plank. Then as I started holes further under the deck plank, the roto-hammer had to slant more and more, limited by running into the cliff face. By the end of the day, I had a pretty good channel cut, about 5 inches long, leaving about 2 or 3 inches left to connect with the channel on the other side.

Since I couldn't reach in any further from either side with the Bulldog, I decided to buy a smaller roto-hammer that I could reach in and run with one hand to finish the channel. As it was, I could pour the concrete up to the beginning of the channel, and finish the chiseling later. I decided that I would pour concrete in that first bay, between Grid D1 and E1, the next morning.

I went in for my shower and dinner very sore and tired. I called Mike Dickinson to see if he had someone who would be willing to come over in the morning and help me pour concrete. He said his daughter's boyfriend, Ian, would be there. I also asked Mike to take a look at grading the hairpin turn now that the snow shed is gone to make it easier to drive up to the cabin. And, I reminded him to bill me for the event counter that I still owed him for.

On Saturday morning my hands were cramping up so badly that I thought I might have to cancel the concrete work. My thumbs would jamb so tight up against my index fingers that I would have to pry them loose. Other fingers would cramp up and hyper-extend one knuckle while flexing another one. I had to be careful not to make the moves that brought the cramps on, and I learned what stretched and relaxed them so eventually they went away.

I was up pretty early and after breakfast, I went to work setting up for pouring concrete. First I went into the woods and retrieved the hose nozzle and brought it back and installed it on a hose that reaches the porch. I had a hard time finding a good hose washer but I salvaged one from another hose in the crawl space.

I spread tarps on the porch deck where we would be working with the concrete. Next I filled a 5-gallon bucket with water for mixing the concrete. Then I got out my masonry tools and set the mixing box up on a piece of plywood atop two sawhorses. Since Ian is a young man, he probably wouldn't have any trouble mixing the concrete with the box on the floor, but it is a lot easier on your back if the box is up higher. I figured I'd give him the option.

With the batch plant all set up, I scooped some bentonite into a bucket and brought it behind the cabin with me. I used a whisk broom to clean the seam between the granite bedrock and the footing as clean as I could get it. Then I spread a bead of bentonite powder against the seam about an inch or an inch and a half high. The theory is that the moisture from the wet concrete will swell up the bentonite and make a watertight seal where there is now a crack.

Just as I finished placing the bentonite, Ian drove up. It was 9:00. We got started right away with Ian mixing the concrete and bringing the buckets to me behind the cabin. I poured and troweled the concrete. While he was mixing his first batch, I strung a mason's string along the side of the footing to mark the depth the concrete needed to go. There wasn't much slope so the channel I am cutting through the granite at the end is really necessary not only to get below the 4x4 post at Grid E1, but also to provide sufficient gradient for the water to run off.

I got concerned that we wouldn't have enough concrete so I got a bunch of rocks and embedded them in the concrete as I went. As it turned out, we used four and a half sacks of concrete mix, so we had one and a half left over. The rocks might not have been necessary after all, but we saved some concrete that way.

We finished at 10:30 and I was pleased with how it went. We went into the cabin afterward so Ian could have a look at the project. We went up to the loft where we set up the bronze Mt. Rainier model so he could have a look at it. He had visited Paradise and Sunrise so he had some familiarity with the park. He had also skied Crystal Mountain, so I pointed out where that was on the model and he got his eye down so he could see the view of Mt. Rainier from the top of the chairlift on Big Chief.

Ian said that the display case was nearly as impressive as the bronze casting and he helped me fold it back up into its storage/travel configuration. He also said that he would like to come back and help me with more concrete work. I'll sure try to take him up on that because it works out so well having a helper when I pour concrete. I felt good about the progress for the week. I took a picture of the concrete I had poured and left for home at 1:00.



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