We poured concrete on Thursday, the 26th of April 2012. 22 ½ yards. Everything went great.
Kevin Jennegis and 3 of his concrete technicians arrived at 7:45 am. Carol was tying rebar, “Do you want me to
help you with that Ma’am?” one of the technicians asked. Carol replied, “No thanks, this is my last
one.”
“Don’t you have anything left to do”, he asked. They arrive on the job site early to finish
up last minute things that homeowners typically haven’t completed.
“Nope”, Carol replied.
I had one form remaining, the top step on the tower section.
We started building the forms on the 30th of
April. It is hard work more fitting for
young bucks and not old guys like me. We
worked 5 to 6 hour days, slow and steady, 27 days in a row, hampered by some
rain and cold weather. We had three soft
start dates for pouring concrete and on Monday the 23rd committed to
pouring concrete on Thursday. We worked
until 7 pm on Monday, 8 on Tuesday and set up work lights on Wednesday. I got up at 5:30 on Thursday and headed out
to complete the forms. We were pretty
tired of building forms.
The concrete truck arrived about 8:00 am and they started
pouring concrete on the lower section of the forms, where the great room and
guest bedrooms will be located. This
gave me time to continue to work on that last form and by the time they had
emptied the truck, 9 yards of concrete, I had completed the last of the form
work. We waited about 40 minutes for
the second truck to arrive, another 9 yards, this load completed the lower
section and started the tower section.
The third load was 6 ½ yards.
The forms held beautifully!
They gathered up their equipment and were off the job site a
few minutes before noon.
We really enjoyed working with Kevin and his crew! They were very skillful and South Dakota
polite.
As soon as they had gone, I opened a beer. Yeah, that is a bit unusual for me, but I
felt like a bit of celebration was in order.
I had two.
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| Eyore's brother |
That afternoon Carol drove us through the wild life loop at
Custer State Park. It was a wonderful
trip, the scenery is beautiful and varied and we saw lots of wildlife: deer,
several herds of bison, eagles, meadow larks, mountain goats, antelope, and a
wild burro. We stopped by the park
office and got our new Custer State Park annual pass.
We continued through the park, our destination Lintz
Brothers Pizza in Hermosa, roughly 20 miles from Custer. Lintz Brothers Pizza recently won the Pasta
Madness Contest through the Rapid City Journal, a contest juried by the
public. We had the whole wheat thin
crust made with beer, it was exceptionally good. We will be highly motivated to go back again.
After pizza we headed back through the park, this time
taking the road to the Black Hills Playhouse.
This road wanders through the park, out into the Norbeck Wilderness
Area, and then back into the park.
Along the way we saw a male wild turkey serenading a
female. His snood and wattle so red that
you thought they were lighted… strutting his stuff, doing a little
dance… it was great fun to watch.
Further along the road we came to the Black Hills Playhouse,
where two bison were quietly browsing next to the administration building… very
close… and moving closer. The folks
inside were pretty titillated, we could hear them from the road. What an adventure that must have been for
them.
The last leg of our adventure was along the Needles Highway…
through tunnels and past the Needles Eye. The rock formations along this
highway are fantastic – so majestic – beyond description.
All in all, a great day!
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