This is just a quick post to share the pics from the last two trips. We finished the last concrete pier on Saturday. Even though we mixed the concrete by hand, it was MUCH easier than doing all 7 of the other ones.

We also did a lot of work on the land itself. I didn't get pictures of that. Matt did a lot of weed-whacking. I opened up armageddon on the poison ivy and then made a nice wood pile for the fire pit. For the first time all year, I feel ready to host people. That is a very good thing, since people are showing up in two weeks!

Here are the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

So, we last left our heroine watching oneandonlymatt cart 30 bags of concrete up the logging trail to our Tumbleweed Clearing. Well, after that we made some lunch (we had brought steaks and brussel sprouts for dinner on Saturday but decided to go out instead, so I made them for lunch instead). It was just the fuel we needed. We took ourselves back up to the clearing and started mixing and pouring concrete. It took a couple tries to really get our stride, but we did. We had to find a relatively flat spot for the mixer (harder than it sounds) so Matt had to carry each 80lbs bag of concrete from where he had dumped them to where we had the mixer - about 10 feet or so. By the end of the night we calculated that he had lifted and carried 2400lbs. I was in charge of water - one gallon per bag and we mixed two bags at a time. Then we would fill a bucket and take it to the sonotube and pour it in. Since each sonotube was a different size, the number of bucketfuls differed drastically. Despite our best efforts, we did run into a time issue. We had worked all afternoon and the sun was starting to go down. We really wanted to finish it all, but we had to leave one tube unfinished. We did get the anchor bolts set in the remaining 7 tubes. Next visit, we will have to mix some concrete by hand and finish that last tube, but we figure we can make that happen.

So by this time it was dark and we had to get the ATV back up to the clearing and cart everything back down. We made two trips of stuff essential to return to the barn and covered everything else with tarps. Then we packed up our things and our car and started home. We didn't leave Marshall NC until 11pm Sunday night. My original plan was to sleep in the car and sleep when we got home and go to work at my usual time, but at 1am I realized that wasn't happening. I left a message and said I would be in later in the morning. I hate doing that sort of thing, but I never do it so everything was fine. Matt was really tired at that point so I took over the drive at Tallulah Falls in Georgia and finished the drive all the way home.

In our rush to get things finished up, we forgot to cover the last sonotube. And I also discovered that my camera didn't make it back to Atlanta with me. That meant, it must not have made it off the mountain. I emailed our neighbors who are very gracious to us and asked if they would help us out and cover the tube and find the camera. Both of these things have been accomplished. That means no pictures until after the 14th of June, but I think you can all handle the anticipation.

We will have a post and pier foundation in time to start the build over the week of 4th of July. Hooray!

oneandonlymatt and I are up at Mt. Matt working on the foundation for the house. We have been very pleased with our progress and are planning to stay as late as we need to tonight to get all the cement done. (Hooray for good weather!)

We got here on Friday night and went straight to bed. On saturday we got up intending to do everything but realized there was only so much we could do. So, we made really good progress. We got all the tools up to the tumbleweed clearing. We measured all the sonotubes so we could cut them. We did that with a water level which is my new favorite tool. I enjoyed water leveling as much as I enjoy creating flow charts. You may not know that about me, but I love making flow charts. Then we cut all the tubes. Crazy thing about the human brain. When you look at them they don't look even remotely even but sure enough they are level. Crazy optical illusion. Once we got all those set up and leveled we back filled the holes to brace the sonotubes. And that ended up taking most of the day. We had originally brought food to make but we decided that it would be way too late to start pouring concrete since we really couldn't stop once we started, so we went in to Asheville. We went to Hannah Flannagans and had a couple of beers and some yummy food. When we got back to Mt. Matt we fell right to sleep.

This morning, we got up pretty early and went back up to the clearing. We set up the batter boards and tied up the strings to make sure we have everything level and square. Right now, Matt is taking the concrete up to the clearing three bags at a time on the ATV. It is working very well, but there is little I can do for this process, so here I am. Once he is done with that we will eat some lunch and then it is concrete mixing time. Matt did already deliver the water and cement mixer up there as well. We decided since the weather is so perfect for it, we would stay and do this work as late as we had to. That may make for a long and miserable day at work for me tomorrow, but I'll work it out. It is all worth it to have the Tumbleweed house!

I have taken some photos and will take more. I'll be sure to pop those up on flickr when we get home.