This is hard slow work, especially for the unschooled. At mid-July, we've got about 1/3 of the blocks in place. Our friends Jeb and Pat helped us a lot today (Saturday July 16). Pat's been filling in gravel for the French drain, and mixing mortar (1 part concrete to 3 parts yellow sand--adjust water accordingly, as wetter mortar sticks best to the sides of the block and drier mortar makes a good bed when adjusting to inconsistencies in the footer). Jeb and Julie and I laid block. Then we had a picnic.
Beer & wine optional.
Unlike the digging, the forming, and the scrambling around trying to spread wet concrete, this would seem easy. Just sitting on a block slapping mortar on other blocks. But there's the sun, the mixing, the lifting, and the occasional thrown trowel whenever blocks defy our efforts to get them staright and level. It adds up. We've begun to realize that this is going to take a while--so we took the next day off!
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