Major projects for a friend.

Location, Home, CA

On Monday we drove to Tehachapi, CA after stops in Ventura to put flowers on Clyda’s parents grave and have lunch with her brother, Roger.

The plan for the week was to help our friends Budd and Brenda with some yard projects. Fortunately, Budd decided to have professionals do the hardest part. On Tuesday morning at 7:30 AM a truck load of cement arrived and was pumped into forms Budd had ready for a new concrete pad for his RV. Three professional cement finishers, one pump man, and two loads of cement later, it had been pumped into the forms, screeded smooth, troweled to a fine finish, and lightly broomed. Five hours after the first truck arrived, all the workers had left. A really nice job and we just stood around and watched. What a great feeling!

Forms ready for cement.

 Cement truck and pumper.

First cement. 

 About half done and waiting for a second truck load.

All done!

After lunch, Budd and I tackled the next project. Budd had poured a cement footing around some birch trees for a raised brick planter. The bed was kidney shaped which meant almost all bricks had to be cut because of the curvature of the planter. Fortunately we had a tile saw which was just able to cut the bricks.

Cutting bricks.

 Laying first bricks.

On Monday afternoon we completed about 1/4 of the planter.
 

By 5 PM on Wednesday it was all done. It looks really good!! 

Almost done.

Last brick.

Completed  planter bed.

On Thursday morning we pulled all the forms around the new cement pad and started building a block wall on 3 sides. After a fairly steep learning curve setting the first course of blocks we made great progress in the afternoon.

All these need to be moved and placed.

First course done.

Moving blocks with the trailer and tractor.

Friday morning before breakfast we put all the remaining blocks into place. After beakfast we back filled the wall with dirt. We used the garden tractor with a blade on it to level as much of the dirt as we could. The remainder of the job was done by hand with shovels.

Finished wall.

Our final chore after lunch on Friday was to reload all remaining blocks from a pallet on the ground to one in the truck so we could return them for credit. This meant lifting and stacking 148 blocks, wrapping them with plastic like the original pallets were and adding the remaining bricks and motor to the load. We also had 5 pallets to return for credit.

A big load.

At Budd’s suggestion, we celebrated with a root beer float. Look at the size of those floats!! It’s a good thing that they are two for the price of one.

This morning we drove back home after a stop in Fillmore to visit a friend who also provided lunch for us.

I should have been half dead after working so hard all week but actually, I feel pretty good. A great project completed.

I think I will take the next two days off however.