My first task was to suspend the rebar about 3" off the ground and about 3" away from the edges of the forms. That required drilling holes through the cleats and threading tie wire through. It was not intellectually challenging work, nor did it require muscles, but it was tiring nonetheless.
Phil had the more challenging task. He needed to finish the bridge over the formwork, so that when we need to pour concrete, we'll be able to access all around.
When he had finished building, he went around and sawed off the edges of the various boards near the bridge, "in case I tip over." Isaiah took about 80 photos of the tractor's first crossing: we wanted to watch for any deflection.
Happily, the boards held firm. And equally happy, Phil was able to turn the tractor around and drive out. There's not much excess room to maneuver, but it's enough for now.
Next came the unpleasant rebar-bending task. Phil bent ten or so a few days ago, but even when I stood on the rebar to prevent the bar from rolling, it didn't do much good. And Phil didn't like the motion, either, which used muscles to pull the rebar up. He designed a jig so that he would make a rowing motion, pulling the rebar toward him. It took him about five minutes to design and build it, and about 30 seconds per bar to bend. Physically difficult, but much easier (I even did part of one!). And since he had to bend almost 60 bars, easy is good.
We needed to suspend these bent bars in a perfect line, three inches off the ground. We had previously marked with chalkline and measuring tape where to drill, and then burned out our drill making holes for these rebar supports. We used tie wire to tie them in place.
It took a long time.
One final check with the surveyor's level to make sure we're mostly perfect, and that was our work for the day.
In neither visuals nor text does this sound fabulously exciting. But since I did very little with the metal building, I'm finding all these steps interesting.
This afternoon, Joe and Isaiah commandeered various discarded wood. Isaiah took the jig down, then thought it looked like a good plane body. As we finished with smaller wood sections, he would add them. When he needed a joystick, he switched out the drill bits and made a spot for his rebar controller. He would tell Joe what pieces to get, and Joe would cheerfully fetch them. They worked together, and talked through what they were doing. It was a brother moment, and beautiful.
They flew their plane for a time, pilot, co-pilot, and a passenger or two.
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