RICES for Joints

The weather, as predicted, turned colder, so though the sun was out, it was still in the 40s. We started off the day admiring yesterday's progress.

Phil experimented with the mortar: rather than a 1:3 cement:sand ratio, which is in the approved range, he tried a 1:2 cement:sand ratio. And oh, was he disappointed he hadn't tried that before! The mortar was "stickier," and he felt it was much easier to use. (For myself, tooling the joints seemed a good bit more challenging, so I am less of a fan. Except I do appreciate anything that helps Phil work better or faster.)

Phil has to build up the corners again. We had debated initially whether to build them all the way up or to do what we did in the end: build about halfway. I am so thankful we opted for the halfway. Because the wall is built up around the scaffolding, Phil has places to stand. The scaffolding itself doesn't seem quite so rickety: if there's a wiggle, the wall is right there to support us, rather than a 10' drop onto a concrete corner and protruding rebar.

I don't think Phil had to reset a single block as he built up the corner to the ninth block of 12 (counting only the 10" blocks, not the foundation or crawl space ones).

He was just about done with the mortar when our neighbor friend from yesterday stopped by to bring us a deer (already gutted! what a sweet thing!). We have a block and tackle, and Phil went to get it out of the woods. He had to jump to grab it, and somehow he tweaked a joint on his right hand. Once the deer was safely hung in the big blue barn (yay for the high ceiling, and how thankful to have cold weather!), Phil came for homeopathy. I went with him to do the last four blocks, and he was groaning with every one.

After lunch, I told him what I had learned about joint injuries: they need RICES: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, and Support. We didn't Ice it, but he did run it under our water for some time: that's extremely cold at this time of year. He taped it to the next finger (Support and Compression). We cleaned up for the week, fed the cows (those lovely cows), and headed in to clean and bathe (my tasks) and Rest and Elevate the hand (his tasks). Somehow, that took up the evening.

In this, the fourth calendar week of laying block (in which, by my reckoning, Phil has actually placed block 14 days), Phil did a record 180 blocks, for a running total of 588. I guesstimate that's about a third of the total.