Series 3, Episode VIII

It is not just in the kitchen that we have a care to use left-overs; the same holds true in the garage, where yesterday I wanted to find a home for a bag and a half of unused concrete mix. I decided on a new picnic table for Polly and her friends, to be planted on the edge of the deep, dark wood near the bottom of the garden. Actually the top, as the back garden slopes up to the west, away from the house.

First job was to dismantle the shuttering used for the job proper, last reported on at reference 2. Screws returned to store.

Second job was to make a box without a bottom. Where in the snap above, the panels right and left were being recycled, panels top and bottom were new, taken from the still well-stocked store of good quality fibre board lifted from a nearby skip. The external lug visible top was for the placement of bricks to hold the shutter down while it was being filled, there being a similar lug bottom, just about visible behind the spade. Unweighted, the shutter would surely have risen, with a good proportion of the wet concrete flowing out to make an unseemly puddle, not what was wanted at all.

Installed and ready for concrete. The remnants of the box bushes struck down by the caterpillar visible top, and the wire intended to keep the foxes off the replacement yew bushes visible left. Tamping bar ready for action.

In the days when I used to make test cubes of concrete, we used a pair of stainless steel tamping bars, getting on for an inch square in section, intended to be used one in each hand, alternately, with so many strokes to the layer of concrete, of which for a six inch cube there were three. The idea being that the concrete was tamped down in the mould in as regular and repeatable way as possible. In any event, tamping bars certainly do the job, despite first appearances.

Concrete poured and tamped. Enough space for more, so guess as to size of box relative to amount of left-over concrete mix not too bad. And clearly better to be too big than too small.

Roofed against the rain to come. Estate agent's board acquired in the days when my morning exercise was walking rather than cycling, more than six months ago now. The timber weight being what I use when I need to saw round wood up, things like Christmas trees, otherwise awkward in a carpenter's vice.

Beetle and wasp reserve visible top right. Hopefully in better use now that it has been relocated from next to the garden bench by the ponds. 

Then this morning, Polly took Pedro and Yuri along to inspect their new picnic table, next to the deep dark wood. Everything seemed satisfactory and they are looking forward to using it in the spring, after the shuttering has been removed, naturally.

A gallon or so of water then poured into the shutter so that curing could continue. The cloth which had been used for both wetting and insulating the fresh concrete visible bottom right. All in all, not a bad job, despite the shallow foundations and the failure to apply mould oil to the inside of the shutter.

Report of the third lift of the job proper to come.

PS: annoyingly, I can't track down the post in which I noticed the relocation of the beetle and wasp reserve. Perhaps it will come to me later.

Reference 1: psmv4: Series 3, Episode VII.

Reference 2: psmv4: Second lift.

Group search key: wwwy.