Playing in the Dirt

Actors in the musical The Fantasticks sing, "Soon it's gonna rain," and that is just what is predicted for tonight and at least half of tomorrow.  Because of that, we debated on whether we wanted to pick up a yard of dirt to put around the forms for the shed floor. Our impatience to do something while we wait for our shower to be addressed again won out, so before 9:00 this morning, we had the truck lined in tarps and on the road.

We had no trouble getting the dirt dumped into the truck, and by 10:00 a.m. we were back in our driveway.  Then the hard part started: shoveling all of that dirt out to the back yard and wheel-barrowing it into the right place.

Getting all of the dirt into the back yard took about two hours, and Rick said he felt like he was going to have a heart attack.  (Apparently HE can tell me to stop working so hard, but I can't tell HIM to do the same thing!)  By noon he was sweating and dirty, but the truck was empty, the dirt was distributed around the forms and somewhat tamped down, and the tools were safely stored back in the garage.

I have to admit that most of the shoveling, most of the dumping, and some of the tamping were all done by Rick.  I did a little raking, a little shoveling, and more of the tamping.  I learned that I am still not as strong as I once was, and that Rick does not know when to stop even though his shoulders and leg again were killing him.

Additional dirt fills in the ditch in front of the form where
the former patio rested.

The result, though, is that we have the dirt in place and weakling-tamped down around the forms.  The rain still has not fallen, so what comes tonight will just help the dirt settle more around the forms.  Let God do some of the settling for us.

Rick measures where he should place the re-bar to distribute
it evenly so each row has a bar and is crossed with three other bars.

After the dirt was distributed, Rick took our re-bar supports and distributed them around the slab, clipping in the re-bar as he added them to the forms.  Tomorrow, after the rain ends, IF the area is not a giant mud puddle, we can tie the re-bars together and cut the board to support each section inside.

Spacers hold the re-bar up from the ground so they will float
in the center of the concrete rather than lie under it.

One other irritant to deal with is the live oak tree that continues to drop leaves into our pit. So who remembered that fall comes in February in Florida? We may have to add a tarp above our work area just to keep leaves off our newly-poured concrete when we get to that stage.

For now, we are satisfied with the work that we completed today.  Chris told us that when they were putting up their fence, she wished for an occasional rainy day so they could take a break from the daily grind.  I almost feel that way, but I know that a good night's sleep will help. We'll let nature tell us tomorrow if and when we can move forward with this next project.