A sigh of relief

This week we received the news that Chris' mother had passed away ... mixed sadness and joy, she was a great lady who had a long and incredible life and raised four kids who all turned out just fine ... a great feat any way you look at it. We will fly back east for a memorial get together with family and friends in early July.

Meanwhile, the work goes forward here. Seemed to get more and more intense by the day as we approached "the pour" when the ICF walls would be filled with concrete. Chris spent a great deal of time checking and rechecking measurements and sealing gaps along ICF joints with plywood "band-aids" as I called them (he called then "scabs"), and sealing the tops of our electrical conduits with red tape so they wouldn't fill with cement accidentally. Lex is seen building up the foundation for our Tulikivi wood stove which is the central point of focus in our open floor plan ... it is a massive soapstone heater that will keep us cozy in the cold winter.

I continue my lookout for the local flora and fauna ... this week the cactuses exploded with lovely yellow blossoms ... but the bluebirds are too quick for me to catch with camera, they are everywhere and love to pause atop out dirt piles and watch the proceedings.

The big day finally arrived day before yesterday. Chris was up at the site by 6 AM and worked frantically all day, and we didn't leave til 6 PM. The pour was history and we were all cold and soaked to the bone for a thunderstorm chose to descend upon us with a drenching downpour in the late afternoon ... this was not good, but there was nothing to do but keep working. I supplied fresh baked banana bread to the crew when they were done.

I was sort of nervous about the walls hardening up properly because they were filled with about 76 yards of concrete, a loose slurry of humongous weight, and I had nightmares of the tall basement walls toppling over during the night. So we tiptoed up there yesterday to find that all was well and we could breathe a sigh of relief.