A Bit of Wood Removal

After two nights in a row of nightmares about how much concrete was missing under the form, since I somehow hadn't pounded the concrete enough to mash it around the rebar support, I begged Phil to start removing the forms, even if it was a bit too early.

Unlike the last foundation work, which required hacking for days to remove the buried forms, with Jadon using the driver, me using the wire cutters, and Phil using a crowbar, we removed many cleats and the first of the boards rather in a short time.

The cleats proved a bit disappointing: because the concrete came up right underneath them, I didn't float under them. Some turned out moderately fine.

The middle, which had two closely spaced cleats, was the worst.

And when we removed the form board, the concrete was still quite wet underneath, so we quit for the day after removing that one.

Without the use of the concrete vibrator, Phil figured it was as good as it could have been. I am hopeful that as we keep removing formwork, the more wet concrete pours will have filled in the space better.

It's not as bad as my nightmare, but not as good as I'd wished.

***

In other news, Phil moved the cows away from the future garlic patch. We are into winter's almost complete lack of growth, so although there is some grass on the ground, we plan to supplement with hay until next spring.

Isaiah spent about six hours in the sand pile with the hose and sprayer. He had a great time! Phil went to water the cows in the evening and found we had no water. Isaiah then confessed that, yes, the hose had lost water pressure when he was using it. Apparently six hours with the hose is sufficient to run our well dry.

I poured out the peanuts to let them dry in the sun.

With weather in the low 80s today, we are soaking in the Indian summer.