Yesterday began the retaining-wall construction. The Wandering Monk arrived at 8:00 and when I made the fatal mistake of asking, “What do you need me to do?” I got dragooned into nearly nine hours of hard labor.
First job: shoveling dirt out of the footer trench as the Monk made several passes through with a pickaxe, deepening it and shaping it for the concrete pour.
While he finished that and began placing rebar, I cleared the hillside of large rocks, concrete pipes, bricks, and old concrete chunks he and Lester had earlier dug out of the ground.
By lunchtime we were both already feeling the pain, but after a short break it was time to pour the concrete. We’d rented Lester’s cement mixer, so thank heaven we didn’t have to mix by hand. And of course the Monk handled the heavy-lifting of the sacks. My job was to agitate the poured concrete to eliminate airgaps and spread it in the trench with the back of a rake. The Monk performed the final smoothing and leveling.
Although he worked twice as hard as I did all day, by the time we were halfway along that trench, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. But then came the fun part of the job: setting the first course of landscape blocks onto the firm-but-still-wet concrete. Still not an easy part of the job, what with the blocks weighing just under 50 pounds apiece. The part I intended to enjoy, though.
While the Monk finished pouring concrete at the far end of the trench (49 of our 54 bags down), I started setting blocks. Oof. Ugh. Groan. But there they were, looking pretty.
Then, as I tried to lower the fifth block carefully onto the concrete, which was still highly plastic, something audibly popped above my chest bone. I dropped the block and landed on my backside with a yelp.
Sigh. So much for the fun part. Although the pain subsided quickly, I found myself useless for most of the remaining heavy-lifting. I was still able to carry a few more blocks from the pallets to the foot of the wall (the heavy-duty block tongs recommended by Commentariat member AM, who just built his own wall using OMG 80-pound blocks, helped). And once the Monk placed the rest of the first row, I had no problem at all mixing up another few small batches of concrete to do coffee-can pours into the holes in the setting blocks. (This course is the only one that will be cemented. The blocks are designed to hold back the earth with their own interlocking strength.)
After that, the Monk and I had just about enough strength to clean the concrete-covered tools and stagger home. Even without the chest pop, I understood what AW said about the ibuprofen budget on his project being impressive. I slammed down a couple of aspirin and soaked in the tub for half an hour before finally giving Ava her afternoon evening walk.
Today we’ll take off to allow the footer to set up — and allow whatever popped some recovery time. Funny, I still feel very little pain in my chest (other parts hurt worse today). That is, I feel very little pain until I try to do something useful — at which point it’s “Oh, poor me!”
It’s as if my body came up with a perfect excuse for malingering while otherwise leaving me feeling just fine.
Clever, Body. Very clever. But you won’t get away with it. Tomorrow it’s back to work.
Lifting 50 pounds should be ok for someone of reasonable health and fitness, like you. Leaning over, even slightly, with that much weight pulling on your upper body and back… not a good idea. Thus the “snap.” If you are lucky, it was just movement of the rib structure that is intentionally flexible. Since there was no apparent swelling, continued pain or loss of mobility, probably not a problem… but I wouldn’t push it if I were you. Don’t try to lift those blocks and then lean over to place them!
What do the “tongs” do anyway? Sounds as if you should have a small hoist instead.
Mysterious pops – ugh! So, you’re talking where the clavicles meet the sternum? Hope it turns out to be a minor pop.
Just glad that Mama Liberty was able to supply a possibility for that pop that makes it “okay.”
I don’t care how you look at it; pop’s in the chest are not good, your body is warning you about the fact it good get much worst if it ain’t bad enough already now, be careful Madam Claire and work within your limits, it may take longer but the turtle did beat the rabbit you know.
Just a wild guess, Douglas… but I suspect that anything serious would be causing some real problems by now. The key is to STOP doing what caused the pop… because the next one could be a disaster.
As someone who has suffered from a serious back injury for more than 50 years (I fell down a flight of concrete steps), I don’t want to see anyone suffer… and if they have a chance to avoid the injury, all the more so. The spine is a very flexible and wondrous thing, but it is also unforgiving if you push it too far.
Thank you all — and yes, I think ML is right. I’m not suffering any major consequences, not even minor swelling. And I agree it wasn’t lifting the blocks that did me in but bending over oh-so-slowly to try to place a block precisely that did me in.
I don’t know the nature of the potential disaster ML speaks of. I just know I’m not doing that again!
Well below the clavicle, jed. Right on the sternum. Probably, as ML says, a normal-ish, if momentarily dramatic, adjustment.
And I do believe we (and I) might very well go slow on stacking all eight courses on the wall from here on out.
YAY!! Lift and move those things some other way!
The potential disaster is damage to the spine and ligaments that are attached. You can have life long problems from that – even after a seemingly small injury., and there isn’t a lot medicine can do for it – or even worse, WILL do for the pain. I’ve talked to literally thousands of people who have had back surgery. Many say it helps some, but most say it only caused more and different problems. And it most certainly it is not a cure for the pain. So, the best cure is prevention, as usual. 🙂
Years ago my sternum developed a “pop”. Now I can make it pop on cue by stretching. It is sometimes painful, and always an impressive sound. You may have gained a new party trick to add to your repertoire. You know, if you went to parties…
Ouch! Be very careful, Claire! After a few days, it might be a good idea to do some stretching exercises, to keep whatever moved from getting locked up.
Levers and fulcrums, blocks and pulleys, wheels? Some mechanical advantage to go with the body building and back and sternum busting? If bone and cartilage popping sounds can be appreciated at all, maybe best from a distance?
You need to set you up a little trolley system like John said…It would be pretty easy looking at the pics and seeing all those sturdy trees…
Actually not quite so easy. Block has to be carried 20-40 feet to the wall, then the wall itself is 24 feet long. So no simple pulley system would work. Something could perhaps be rigged, but it might be more work than it’s worth.
It will help to transport blocks to the wall via wheelbarrow and garden cart, but I think putting them in place on the wall will have to be done by hand by the Monk and me.
You need a roller conveyor ramp- or a suitable substitute.
I considered making a two person lifting tool, using the Bon HD block tongs as a foundation. Something like a very large eye bolt – big enough to fit around the handle, or a large bolt to act as a pin to insert in the handle of the tongs – in the center of a 6 ft 2X4 so two people could pick up a block. My big concern was lowering an 81 lb block into the trench. When it became obvious I couldn’t talk anyone into helping I stopped thinking about it and just toughed it out. I suspect I’m a bit larger than you (6’1″, 230), so I had it easier. I still planned each lift, being careful where I put feet, hands and knees to minimize stress on the body. The real killer was: set a block in the trench, check level, remove block from trench, adjust the stone base, replace block, check level, lather, rinse repeat. A few blocks went in and out of the trench 4-5 times to get them perfectly level in all axes. Since I was placing block on compacted stone I could stand or kneel (barely) in the trench, which you couldn’t do on wet concrete. I limited myself to 4 hours a day of “fun,” and the first couple of days were brutal. Once I was done with the block in the trench it got easier, but that first course above grade was at ground level, and I was careful to go easy on the back. If I were planning on doing another wall (nope – I learned my lesson on this one….) I’d buy another set of block tongs and modify them to have a securely fastened two person handle and hire someone to help if I ran out of friends.
Glad the block tongs helped, maybe you and The Monk can come up with some sort of two person cross handle for it. Whatever you come up with make sure it’s solid and WATCH OUT FOR YOUR FEET. (Thought: Gandy Dancers moved rails with two-handle rail tongs; they have long been replaced by mechanical equipment, but maybe some antique shop has a set of tongs.
UPDATE: Found new ones: http://www.railwayparts.com/product/173/Tie+Tong,+Two+Person
Well I guess I should of said easy for me;) but that’s part of my job so I guess I’m use to it…Wish I was closer because even though I couldn’t help right now I have taught my boys how to rig and they would be glad to help out…
lineman — Thank you (and your boys) for the intentions. We’ll be good.