The focus this past week or so has been to get this ag building slab completed so we can get moving on framing it up and getting a roof on for the bales before winter. Things have been going very smoothly and we have learned so much just doing the monolithic slab / footing foundation. Alfred and Stephen did all the form work and this past week laid the 6 mil plastic vapor barrier and reinforcing mesh on the gravel. Next we wired up the 1/2" rebar into the footing trench putting 2 across the bottom of the footing and one up on top. Below is a picture taken at 6 am when we were out for the pour in order to get it all done before it got too hot. Lately its been upwards of 114 degrees. You can see the screed guide that Scott Azevedo, our concrete finisher setup in order to provide a guide to strike off the concrete when its poured.





It was Stephen, Scott and Paul, Ray's nephew which did the pour. Scott guided the chute from the ready mix truck and it amazed me how well he was able to motion to the driver where we wanted the driver to move. It is definitely an improvisational thing! The total pour took about 14 cu. yds of concrete with the first truck being a dryer mix for the trench footings. We did those first. Paul and Stephen assisted with holding the mesh from sinking too deep and cutting out the wire that held the rebar up once the footings were in. Here's a pic of Paul working on the slab after we screeded off the section above it.



Here is Scott Floating the slab with a Bull Float meant to smooth out the surface of the slab and get the water to come up to the top.



It took a total of about 3 hrs to finish the slab and then after 3 days of letting the concrete cure, Stephen and Renee came back and removed all the form work so we could admire the slab in all its simple glory!





We are really fortunate that we have the ag building to get some experience before doing the main house. As we do more work on it we more have becomre more confident about the construction of the main house. Any mistakes we make on it are less costly and are good lessons to learn for the big project.

Next week Alfred and Stephen will focus on finishing the pump house sheathing and roofing it then its off to work on the post/beam framework for the ag building. We are all really excited about that! We do have a deadline dictated by the weather since we need to get the roof on the ag building up, the bales in and the exterior surface finished before Oct/Nov when the rains start up! So it should be an exciting time this next couple of months.

With all this ag building stuff not much work has gone on with the main house drawings. Which is one of the drawbacks of having 2 projects going at once but it cannot be helped. We have more time now that we decided that we wont be breaking ground on the main house until probably next spring. But nonetheless Stephen has been making small progress on getting some preliminary plans done to pass on to the engineers to get bids and feedback.

til next time. s