Mud Day

Two weeks later...

Finally the stars aligned and the day concrete was available to be delivered and my concrete guy had a few hours of free time arrived. Unfortunately, the rock hard nature of my lawn due to several weeks of no rain had been interrupted by several different rains and so it was not so firm anymore. Above is a picture showing the concrete truck up on the street and I'm standing in my backyard about 20 feet away from the concrete slab being poured and this is the gradual slope where they intended to haul the concrete loader full at a time. On the other side of my house, while a much more direct route, is the very steep hill that we were trying to avoid.

The loader did tear up the lawn a bit and left some ruts but all things considered, it isn't bad. The lawnmower guys might not like it but their days are numbered anyway once I get the lawnmower half of the shed built and a lawnmower obtained. The loader could hold approximately 1/4 cubic yards of concrete at a time and we ordered 4-1/4 cubic yards total. I had figured up we needed 3.6 cubic yards just for the greenhouse slab alone and 3.75 for it and the compost slab. One thing I have learned over the years is it is much cheaper to order too much than to order too little and 4 cubic yards was the minimum amount without another surcharge being tacked onto the bill. My concrete guy says there is always 1/4 cubic yards left in the truck and so we settled on the 4-1/4 cubic yard number.

An hour later, the greenhouse forms were full and leveled out, the compost slab was full and leveled out and an extra form I had thrown together at the last moment just in case was full and leveled out. That form above will eventually be a step into the greenhouse side of the building so I poured it on a sheet of plastic so hopefully I can move it into place when it is cured.

 Above shows the slab I am pouring for our compost bins also shown, around the corner of the house so not visible from the street. We toss all our compost in those bins and then when full, haul them down the hill behind where the greenhouse will be to a pile there. Eventually we hope to use that composted soil in the greenhouse. After all the forms were full and troweled smooth, we had perhaps two or three round point shovel full of cement left over so our order ended up being as close to perfect as possible. I am relieved to have this part done. The large majority of materials are slated to arrive in a week and a half and then all things out of my control should be past and I can proceed at my own pace for a change instead of someone else. Until then, I will let the concrete cure overnight, start removing the forms, level out the dirt around the slab, get it scored to prevent cracking and perhaps get the step heaved into place.