Onwards and upwards

Nick tells me my Testing Times post is very boring! Heh heh - sorry about that - was having a nice time talking about crush test results and trying to explain some of our decision making ...

Short version: We're adding cement to the bottom half of our wall. Once it's had a chance to dry it's much stronger (obvious really!)

Tuesday: A reasonable day's ramming. The scabbler broke, and took an hour or so to fix and spent some time in the afternoon putting up the next layer of shuttering. Nick caught up with wayfinding work in the afternoon so just me, Neil and Michael then. 3 people worked ok. Sore hands and shoulders for me though. Progress around 70cm.

Wednesday: Unfortunately I'm back at work the rest of this week. There was a manpower shortage yesterday - Michael wasn't around either. Nick had posted an add in Gum Tree for someone to help (paid) last week which generated several calls. Working on a 1st come 1st serve basis we had a chap lined up. He had sounded ok over the phone but texted first thing to say he wasn't coming. Why, oh why, couldn't he have called the day before? Useless (insert own word here). So a bad start for Nick but he carried on down his list of responders and found someone with nothing better planned for the day!! Progress around 70-80cm.

The wall going up really does look the same as last time. So i'm posting pictures of the wall fallen down instead:

All that work ... in a heap.

Jeremy, our architect, helping Nick dig the next day.

Where the wall gave.