Wednesday- Day 3 of Construction: Notes
I can't speak for all of my teammates here, but I was excited about the idea of seeing a house built, and I was hoping to see at least some walls go up. It turns out that there is a lot of prep work that goes into getting a site ready. On the first day, team one dug our trenches, some of which were about three feet deep and more than a foot across (wet gooey clay in some areas). Day two, we finished up the trenches and realized there were more trenches to dig. By day three, I was hoping for concrete, but we were greeted with two giant piles of sand and another kind of sandy dirt, and we were told to start filling the trenches back in with this special dirt (20 cm or so of it).
We all took turns digging and using the pick axe to remove dirt from trenches while others became the regular wheelbarrow brigade. First, someone would use the pick axe or a giant hoe to break up the dirt, then someone would use a hoe and/or a shovel to get the dirt up out of the hole into a wheelbarrow. Then someone would move that wheelbarrow to the dirt pile away from the house, run up a ramp to get to the top of the dirt pile, dump it, and go back for more dirt. Ken, Ron, Mark, Jeff, Jack, Patrick, Bob, Shelby and others (including Don Hector and his son Jose who will live in the house) took turns getting the dirt out of the trenches. Beverly, Leigh, Cathy, Ann, Betsy and Bob, among others took turns with our three wheelbarrows making sure our trenches were kept cleaned out so we could dig more.
By day three, Jack, Patrick, and Shelby began working with our site boss on building the rebar that would go into the trenches to strengthen and hold together the concrete. Jeff and Bob worked a lot with the steel that needed cutting and bending for various applications, but they also took turns with the other big job- tamping. The dirt that was poured back into the trenches needed to be compacted, so we essentially walked around with giant heavy upside down Thor hammer type tools (see pictures) and pounded it down into a pancake. Even the women came over to help with tamping, and they worked hard. Nancy, Beverly and Leigh were all a little bit scary. Serious muscles there. Ron and Jeff just continued steadily working, tamping, digging, pick-axing, shoveling. They worked hard, but it was all widely accepted that the hardest worker was Shelby. That girl could shovel. Sometimes she was just a blur as she moved mountains of loose dirt into wheelbarrows.
Supposedly, the concrete will be poured into the trenches tomorrow (Thursday).
Team two worked down the street with a man named Don Alfredo. He needed a small mountain of dirt moved out of the front of his house from the recent completion of his Habitat home (thank you Greenland Hills!). He wanted to use the dirt to lay a new layer in his yard to make it level. Stuart, Marcia, Judy, Debbie, Betsy, and Mark were the usual players, and they took turns shoveling into buckets and moving them pumpkin-line style to Don Alfredo to redistribute. By day two his backyard looked amazing. Despite having reported back problems, he had moved some sand to cover the clay-like dirt so that when it rained it would no longer turn into a mud pit. Day two and three they even filled a lot of dirt into the ditches and the ruts in the road outside of his house.
I guess it can't all be done in one week, but we've been busy. We are all happy at the amount of work we've accomplished as a team. Oh, and did we mention that it's hot?
We all took turns digging and using the pick axe to remove dirt from trenches while others became the regular wheelbarrow brigade. First, someone would use the pick axe or a giant hoe to break up the dirt, then someone would use a hoe and/or a shovel to get the dirt up out of the hole into a wheelbarrow. Then someone would move that wheelbarrow to the dirt pile away from the house, run up a ramp to get to the top of the dirt pile, dump it, and go back for more dirt. Ken, Ron, Mark, Jeff, Jack, Patrick, Bob, Shelby and others (including Don Hector and his son Jose who will live in the house) took turns getting the dirt out of the trenches. Beverly, Leigh, Cathy, Ann, Betsy and Bob, among others took turns with our three wheelbarrows making sure our trenches were kept cleaned out so we could dig more.
By day three, Jack, Patrick, and Shelby began working with our site boss on building the rebar that would go into the trenches to strengthen and hold together the concrete. Jeff and Bob worked a lot with the steel that needed cutting and bending for various applications, but they also took turns with the other big job- tamping. The dirt that was poured back into the trenches needed to be compacted, so we essentially walked around with giant heavy upside down Thor hammer type tools (see pictures) and pounded it down into a pancake. Even the women came over to help with tamping, and they worked hard. Nancy, Beverly and Leigh were all a little bit scary. Serious muscles there. Ron and Jeff just continued steadily working, tamping, digging, pick-axing, shoveling. They worked hard, but it was all widely accepted that the hardest worker was Shelby. That girl could shovel. Sometimes she was just a blur as she moved mountains of loose dirt into wheelbarrows.
Supposedly, the concrete will be poured into the trenches tomorrow (Thursday).
Team two worked down the street with a man named Don Alfredo. He needed a small mountain of dirt moved out of the front of his house from the recent completion of his Habitat home (thank you Greenland Hills!). He wanted to use the dirt to lay a new layer in his yard to make it level. Stuart, Marcia, Judy, Debbie, Betsy, and Mark were the usual players, and they took turns shoveling into buckets and moving them pumpkin-line style to Don Alfredo to redistribute. By day two his backyard looked amazing. Despite having reported back problems, he had moved some sand to cover the clay-like dirt so that when it rained it would no longer turn into a mud pit. Day two and three they even filled a lot of dirt into the ditches and the ruts in the road outside of his house.
I guess it can't all be done in one week, but we've been busy. We are all happy at the amount of work we've accomplished as a team. Oh, and did we mention that it's hot?
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