THE DRIVE 4

Sunset is at 5.15 pm and last night they were working until 8 pm by torchlight to get the concrete to their desired finish.  We are very pleased with it.  They came back this morning to do some clearing up that they were unable to do last night and remove the boxing.  They had worked a sixteen hour day having started at 4 a.m. on another job. We discovered today that the wife of the man who we are actually working with is in hospital and had surgery on her back today.  What with that and the long hours from yesterday apart from the clearing up and a bit of work with a water blaster they are having a rest day.  I gather they will be back to start work on the bottom part of the drive tomorrow afternoon.  These photos were taken first thing before the tidying with the water blaster.

 

THE DRIVE 3

The workers didn't arrive until about 11 a.m.  All the concreters work together in the city and at 4 a.m. our workers were on a large job for another firm where there were twelve concreters working together.  It is now just gone 4 p.m. and they are still going on our job.  

There was more work needed to get the job ready for the concrete truck which came at about 2 p.m. and, so far, two of them have spent two hours spreading the concrete in our car port and on the top part of our drive down to the gate.  The concrete all needed to be moved in a motorized wheelbarrow.

                                                               First thing this morning

Ready for the concrete truck

First load in the motorized wheelbarrow

A couple of hours later

 

THE DRIVE 2

These photos were taken last night

They had not been working for long this morning when the rain started.  Luckily, it has now stopped and they are busy working again.  Unfortunately, there is a warning for thunderstorms with heavy downpours tonight so fingers crossed that we miss the worst of it.  The concrete is planned to go down tomorrow.

Doug had a hand physio appointment this afternoon.  She was very pleased with it.  He doesn't need any covering now apart from a small "sleeve" to wear if he is working in his workshop.  He was so lucky not to hit bone or a tendon.  It is just under five weeks since the accident.

OUR DRIVE

We chose a young lad (to us) who has worked in concrete for a while but just started out on his own.  He arrived at 8 a.m. after picking up his hire truck and digger and got straight to work with three helpers.  I can't get the photos to go in the right order.

The next two photos were taken just before we left for the Parkinson's walk a little after 9 a.m.

The next photo was from the bridge that we walked to alongside the river.  There were 14 of us on a very pleasant walk.

Rain forecast for tomorrow.  Hope it is not too heavy.

 It felt very wintery this morning,  5 degrees Celsius.  We didn't rise until 7 a.m. to head to the Growers' Market.  Sunrise 7.28 a.m.  One of the stalls we wanted wasn't there but we got most of what we intended.  We then do our weekly supermarket shop and  always seem to be running late by the time we get home, put everything away and have our breakfast.  I had bought a nice piece of boned lamb so I diced it and made a Moroccan flavoured casserole which I just took  out of the oven at about 4 p.m.  I always find it takes longer than I expect by the time I have cut up the meat all the vegetables and prepped the casserole but it will be good to have several meals in the freezer. 

It is now 4 weeks since Doug cut his hand on the drop saw and finally, this week he didn't need to see the nurse just the hand physio.  The wound is healing well and he can now start some exercises.  Unfortunately, when the saw gripped his glove it pulled his arm and also hurt his shoulder so he started physio for his shoulder as well this week.  

We seem to have been busy but not sure what we have accomplished.  We were waiting for several weeks to hear back from the Council as our concrete drive needs renewing and we had to check that we could do the small part that went over the pavement.  They have finally got back to us and we can go ahead so we have someone coming to remove the old concrete and then build a new concrete drive.   We are also having the carport concreted.  This means we will not be able to use the drive for a couple of weeks (hopefully no longer than that).

Just remembered, one of the busy days was Wednesday, I had put a loaf of gluten free bread in the bread maker before filling in a form on-line with Doug for his physio appointment the following day.  I went through to the kitchen to check on the calendar and noticed the bread was ready.  As the bread is best not left in the machine I quickly removed it, turned the machine off but did not unplug it.  It is on a wooden  trolley that Doug built for me.  When we finished with the form Doug went through to the kitchen while I continued with more "stuff" on the computer.  The next thing there was a loud crash.  I went through to the kitchen to find the bread maker on the floor.  Doug had decided to put the trolley back in its usual position and when it stuck he thought it had hit a mat and gave it a tug but, of course, as it was still plugged in it crashed to the floor.  I checked with Mr. Google and there was one for sale with the sale ending that day so we headed across town to buy it as well as some painting gear and timber for a new gate stop for the drive.  It is amazing how days can fly past.

The new machine is identical to the old one.