Weanlings

 The guys were out working in the drizzling rain again.

 They got the metal roofing up and the walls.

  James will be back tomorrow to finish up. It has sheet metal on the roof and front sides.

 The back sides have plywood with 2x4 rub walls since it is going to be exposed to cattle.

 The slab today. The dirt piled around the sides is compost with grass seed.

 The lambs are being weaned. There mom's are on the other side of the fence paying very little attention to them. It makes them angry and vocal.

 Cats are silly. Betty was watching me take pictures.

 Paige.

Downhill Shed

James Taylor, who put in Andy's porch, is building our equipment/hay/run-in shed.

 The forms are off now but this is after finishing the concrete.

  We had a big batch of collards while Anne, Marianne, Logan, Kathy and Cathryn were here. The tomatoes are getting red.

 Logan was watching Daryl call the hens.

 Sarah was watching Logan watching Daryl call the hens.

 First day. All the posts are in and concrete is setting in the holes.

 Second day. Some of the beams and the center wall. This side of the shed will be for equipment. The other side of the center wall will be for hay or animal shelter. It looks skewed because the ground slopes.

 Piper is Leo's sofa.

 Paige.

Slab 2

We had Lisa's second annual birthday slab party today. It was a lot of fun!

 Lisa took a lamb to Halsey's meat packer in Wolf county this week. Cathryn will be taking him home in a cooler next week.

 Getting ready for the new slab. First was demolition of the extremely well constructed and overly fastened porch steps. Then I moved all the concrete patio blocks we had for a walkway. Last I leveled the outer edge and dug up all the grass. Lisa hauled the chunks of dirt and grass to one of the many low spots in the cattle pasture.

 Since I wanted the slab to drain away from the house and be higher than the yard there was a lot of filling to be done. Lisa picked up a load of rock sand on Thursday.

  The form completed and back-filled. I tamped the sand with the hand operated compactor.

 Today was concrete day.

 Allen was in town for the holiday so naturally we put him to work.

 I can't thank Allen and Andy enough for all the mixing they did.

 Getting it smooth.

 Andy worked the other end of the screed board.

 Floating the voids.

 Allen tried his hand at the float.

 Andy brought his ramps to reach the back of the slab. He left them so we could get in the house without walking around to the front.

 Almost to the end. This slab is 8' x 6' and took 24 - 80 pound bags of concrete mix. It took more than the 10' x 6' slab we poured last year. The sand base was low in the middle and the screed board was bowed. We held the board with the bow up so we wouldn't make a puddle. I'm fairly certain this is why we used so much concrete.

 Finished pour. It has a broom finish and edges now. It was getting too late for pictures.

 Louie on a float.

 Paige.