![\"northsideofhouse_regrading-retaining-wall-project-stuff-dug-up_090916\"](\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/NorthSideofHouse_Regrading-Retaining-Wall-Project-Stuff-Dug-Up_090916.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBy 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.<\/p>\n
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<\/em> part of the job, what with the blocks weighing just under 50 pounds apiece. The part I intended to enjoy, though.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Then, as I tried to lower the fifth block carefully<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> recommended by Commentariat member AM, who just built his own wall using OMG 80-pound<\/em> 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.)<\/p>\n 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 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<\/em> — at which point it’s “Oh, poor me!”<\/p>\n It’s as if my body came up with a perfect excuse for malingering while otherwise leaving me feeling just fine.<\/p>\n Clever, Body. Very clever. But you won’t get away with it. Tomorrow it’s back to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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…<\/p>\nafternoon<\/del> evening walk.<\/p>\n