Play resumes, 2 for 150

Since I got so little done yesterday with the weather I decided that I’d make another trip with #1 son up to the house site today after the boys’ regular Sunday swimming comp to get some more done. Thankfully all the rain has been and gone, although you can see just how much we got by the extent that the driveway has washed away… :(

Ewan was a great help today, it just goes to show how much more I can get done with an extra (albeit small) pair of hands. He made himself busy cutting and bending up tie wires, denailing the second hand pine, brushing down the course beds of debris, and just generally being helpful. And hungry, and eating, and then complaining about being hungry again. Growing boys… what can you say. But it was $10 pocket money well earned :)

Progress on the wall wasn’t quite as rapid as I hoped - the fourth course was laid quickly, but there’s been quite a lot of tweaking of the next two courses as the wall grows - more attention paid to the vertical alignment than before and plenty of compensation for the quite surprising variability in the sizes of the blocks. I found one which measured 201mm at one end and 195mm at the other! A few of the odd sized blocks I’ve found uses for in the wall, but not that one…

Two hours in, and another course down:

Another couple of hours, and:

6 courses down, 6 more (and a fraction.. still not sure what I’m going to do there) to go. I managed to get 4 done this (truncated) weekend, and the optimist in me wants to think I’ll get the next 6 done next weekend but the realist understands that the logistics are going to get a little more complicated as the wall gets taller.

Aside from the problem of reaching the upper courses (I’m going to try and get the Hilux alongside the wall as a moving platform) there’s the issue of propping the wall. I’m confident enough that it’s not going anywhere while it’s still lower than the cutting behind it, but as it extends beyond there’s the risk of it catching the wind. Even with all the reo steel keeping it upright, I still think I’ll knock up some makeshift props just to be on the safe side.

So with all that to do, with any luck I can think about core filling in three weeks.