Cement Success -- Part 2

Yesterday after our hard work in the morning, we had to head back to the store to pick up 11 more bags of Sakrete for today. We did not want to battle the hordes of people that descend of Home Depot on a sunny Saturday morning!

After our shopping, we took advantage of our membership in the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg by driving down to attend a lecture on their Escher exhibit. We wanted to beat the Friday night rush-hour traffic, so we left early and arrived without too much hassle.

We had packed a picnic supper to eat while sitting on a bench by the waterside; however, when we arrived we learned that St. Petersburg was hosting a boat show along the waterfront.  We did not have our usual access to the waterfront area, so we improvised by having our picnic at the outside dining area of the Dali.

After dinner, we went into the Dali and revisited the Escher exhibit.  We actually bought two Escher prints.  One is called "Three Worlds."  It shows the top of a pond, reflecting the air, the trees growing on the land, and the fish in the water.  I want to frame that one and hang it in our main bathroom.

M. C. Escher's "Three Worlds."

The second print is called "Reptiles." It depicts an alligator-like reptile that starts out as a two-dementional drawing, then it crawls out of the paper as a three-dimensional creature, and eventually circles around and melts back into the two-dimensional drawing.  I am not sure where I might put that print yet, but it is one of my favorite Escher woodcuts, and the creature seems right for Florida.

Escher's "Reptile" which shows his fascination with
multi-dimensional work.

At 6:00 p.m., we went with others into the theatre for a presentation by the owner of the Escher artwork on display, Paul Firos. Firos was an excellent speaker who gave us insight into how Escher completed his work and how his work was influenced by his experiences.  The lecture was well worth the trip down to the city.

This morning we tackled the second half of our concrete project.  We learned from the experience yesterday, so this pour actually went a bit easier and, we hope, with better results.  We will learn tomorrow how good the actual pour looks when we take off the forms.

Our equipment is staged and ready to go.  The
inside form is out, and we are ready to start mixing
concrete.

Rick was pleased with how easily the inside form came off from the first pour.  This form, with holes drilled in it, allowed us to add rebar which will stabilize the two sections together.  Thankfully, we do not have to worry about the ground moving with a freeze-thaw cycle here like we do in Wisconsin, but the ground still does move a bit, especially if the sandy soil under the slab gets washed out for some reason.

We started at approximately 8:30 a.m. and were finished by 9:40 a.m.  Twelve bags of concrete mixed and poured in that amount of time.  Once again, thank God for the concrete mixer.  It allows us to work quickly and to do a generous pour without the earlier pours getting too stiff for us to manipulate.

Rick works the concrete to smooth it in the first
phase of the finishing process.

An hour later, Rick adds the edges for the
finishing touch.

Now we just have to let the concrete dry.  We will give the slabs at least a week before we put the garbage can and recycling can back in place.  I am certainly looking forward to not trying to drag them out of the mud to take to the curb on rainy garbage collection day!

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I, for one, am going to use it as a much-needed day of rest.