Third lift

Time to patch in the third lift to the concrete stories at references 1 and 2 and so to complete the series. A series which took place largely inside, largely out of reach of the trusty telephone.

The third lift was conducted on very proper lines, with the shutter including a ground plate to brace it against a convenient wall, a flying buttress sprung off that ground plate to hold it vertical and sundry softwood wedges to tighten things up. An innovation was the use of duct tape to seal the interior of the various joins between panels of fibre board. This worked well enough, the only downside being that placement was a bit awkward and it was not possible to place the tape without the odd crease, with the crease marks being visible in the resultant concrete. And some of the tape has been left inside the concrete, but that can be trimmed back, more or less flush, so not a serious problem.

The shutter was left for a few days while I watered the wet cloths spread over the top of the new concrete, the idea being to help along the curing of the concrete. Several pints a day, and not at all clear where all this water went. Hopefully not too much of it into the fabric of the house proper. Shutter now stripped, cloths and concrete left to dry out.

Of the twelve 20kg bags of ready mix ordered, eleven turned up.  Of those the three lifts took a little more than nine, with the dry left overs dealt with as noticed at reference 1.

First patch

Rather fewer wet left overs from the present lift went into a couple of patches outside. The first was to the back patio, to stop a growing gap at the boundary of five earlier efforts. Three before our time, from the right, the base of the long absent shed, the start of the path up the back garden and what was left of a bit of back patio, now gravel, sometimes a site for jelly lichen, an early notice of which is to be found at reference 3. A close-up is to be found at reference 4. Moving onto my own work, the step right bounding the part of the patio where we sit in the sun of a summer afternoon and the lower step left bounding the part given over to the jelly lichen.

Wheelbarrow top turned back over to protect the wet concrete against weather and foxes.

Second patch

The second was to the solstice stone in the wild part of the back garden, recently undermined by rodent activity, as noticed at reference 6. The opportunity to plug at least some of the hole underneath was too good to miss.

Fish box - from Dublin via Birling Gap - turned back over to protect the wet concrete against weather and foxes. A box which has proved invaluable over the years for collecting plant rubbish from the back garden. See reference 7.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/12/series-3-episode-viii.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/12/second-lift.html.

Reference 3: pumpkinstrokemarrow: Extravagant plants.

Reference 4: psmv2: Jelly.

Reference 5: psmv2: Spring. I mentioned failure to find the move of the beetle house at the end of reference 1. Failure continues, but this morning, while turning up jelly lichens, I did come across its beginnings.

Reference 6: psmv4: More vermin.

Reference 7: psmv3: Gutting fish in Dublin.