Taking Forms

One advantage of digging is it keeps you warm when it is cold. Many ruts and potholes in the yard were filled so that it is much easier to mow now than it was. The remainder of the dirt was piled up at the back of the excavation for later backfill. 

I have seen many wet basements and crawl spaces over the years, so I wanted to drain the backfill and seal the wall well. Here you see the sock-covered drainpipe that I fitted into the notch that I cut with mattock behind the existing concrete pad.

Next, I pounded in support stakes for the back of the form. I was not careful enough about how deep that I dug the area for the slab. This turned out to make a convenient place to make use of my cairn material instead of gravel and not have to haul it offsite.

Having taken out so many roots from the tree, having noticed that it was not an attractive tree, and knowing that Silver Maples shed constantly and copiously, I decided to take it out. I had begun building the forms but only the part below ground. If I was going to drop the tree, the time was now.

Building the forms out of 2 x 6's allowed me to make the footer eleven inches deep and 12" wide. The inner footer form I built up to 6 1/2" so that the slab would 4 1/2" thick. All of this underground, under concrete form would be permanent, so I backfilled it with more broken rubble from my piles.

 I would have dug the back side of the slab deeper into the ground so that the front would not be so high, but the existing slab prevented that. I wanted some new concrete level on the old slab but not too thin. I decided that 3" was the minimum. This minimum determined the depth of the back wall and height of the front of the slab (about 14").

Now the forms are nearly complete minus diagonal supports for the front stakes. Concrete is seriously heavy. Later I was very glad that I installed the diagonals. The concrete definitely would have flattened the forms.

Under the tarp is a utility pipe to come through the concrete. The debris backfill was almost complete.

The cairn is gone, all used to fill in behind the forms.

I needed to calculate the amount of concrete to order. I was told to add 15% to be sure that I had enough for slab and footer. I didn't think that my calculations would be that far off, so I wanted to have a place to put the excess. I built the footer forms for the back and side walls of the carport. I should have taken more pictures. You can see a bit of it here. The picture was actually taken because I was amazed at the lack of crown and bow in the next board I picked up. It is rare. You can also see some of the tree I took down, cut and stacked.

Rebar was next on the agenda. Given that I am building a 16' x 20' workshop, I want 1/2' x 20' rebar. For most of it I borrowed a 24' trailer. I came up 9 pieces short. I made a way to carry the remainder on my pickup without scratching it, though I don't know why I cared.

Notice the jig to support it at the back of the cab.

I made a simple jig for bending it. It was quite the workout. Notice also that I epoxy coated the rebar to reduce rust.

Here is the nearly complete rebar set-up. The black plastic support structures are called chairs.

The corners should be stout.

 I installed a screed base in the middle. We would have to screed the slab by half and bull float it smooth.

The inspectors showed up unannounced. You can see that I used available materials for the diagonal form supports.

One inspector felt that there might need to be a little final earth moving.

One of the neighbors stopped by for a going over.

Emotionally, though I had been at this project for many months now, I just now felt as though I was ready to begin. Phase 3, Forms was complete. The largest investment of time, energy, and money was about to commence. It was time to call in some help. 

Much Rubbish

Sometimes a desire and plan morph into a project. For that reason, I don't have many pictures of the beginning of my workshop, and the first one is incidental. The following picture was taken of one of two fawns that bedded down 30 feet from our back door for several weeks. The picture was taken with my old phone that did not have better than a passable camera which was worse on electronic zoom and here used through a windowpane. Even with me sneaking up to the window, the fawn is on high alert. The point for this blog entry, however, is not the cute wildlife but the pile of rubble in the background. This picture was taken after 90% of the brush had been removed, revealing the construction rubble. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started this project. I determined to recycle what could be. That resulted in some 5+ 5-gallon buckets full of broken glass, more aluminum cans and plastic, random steel cans and auto parts severely rusted by the buckets full.

Then came the whole and partial block and brick, rock and asphalt out of which I formed the following cairn. Since the dump charges by the ton, this pile would have cost several hundred dollars to remove to there at great effort on my part. It turned out to be useful later.

It took months of off days from work to clear the debris, roots and dirt. A good portion of the dirt was actually ash. Evidently, there had been some kind of out building here that had been burned down with all of its sundry collections of jars (some melted-wow, intense fire), auto parts, plastic containers (mostly in the form of melted plastic "drops"), globs of aluminum (with hints of can rims), insulation, and charred wood. Besides the cairn of broken construction materials, I collected a pile of gravel-sized brick-block-rock and a pile of full and useful partial block. Underneath it all was another surprise, a ~14' x 20' concrete pad. I was initially excited about a pad on which to build my workshop until I realized that it was cracked at the edges and slanted a full 8 inches downward from back to front. It will still be used but as a "carport" surface rather than shop floor.

Were this not arduous enough, I began to dig out a notch for the workshop pad. I had almost everyone who observed this process say that I should or was crazy for not renting an excavator. My reply has been the same from the beginning: 1) That is expensive, 2) Having a need to fill numerous holes and gulleys in the yard, most of the dirt needed to be distributed and spread, 3) An excavator would destroy the lawn, and 4) It would require a larger, more expensive excavator to remove the roots (some up to eight inches in diameter). From before the first picture, beginning to clear brush, until this near completion of excavating required a year. Of course, weather and the rest of life (OK, some of it was just going on hikes with a friend) prevented any speedier completion of phase 1 and 2 (clearing debris and digging).

So, you may either admire my perseverance and strength of body and mind or decry my stubbornness and cheap nature, but I am thankful that I was able to complete this process. Now I was ready to begin.

 

Developing Youngsters

We so enjoyed talking and playing and eating with and reading to our grandchildren. And yes, we enjoyed talking with our son and his wife. All smiles just before lunchtime makes you just want to pinch some cheeks. 

He doesn't always smile but it is rare for him not to. He was so much more talkative and more understandable on this visit. They change so fast.

Lots of family resemblance in this crew. The newest one is also changing fast.

She was happy about her tartan dress. She is the social butterfly of the family, never met a stranger.

Big brother is often tired these days, working to help his dad load and unload trucks. You can see him growing in consideration of others and what is socially acceptable.

This boy just about galloped across Kansas by the time we ate lunch.

Big sister helps out with the cooking, seriously. She can make a full meal.

This one is all boy. I asked him how he got the scars. He replied with downturned eyes that he was being too rowdy.

The advantages of a large family are being thoroughly socialized, learning to share and help out, and loving to do things together.

The second-born is very detail oriented, as you will see momentarily.

6 out of 8 smiling and only one truly scowling, not bad.

Mamaw is all about those grandbabies.

He is showing it to me but with a bit of reticence. 

My son and I took the six oldest children for a walk across the street into the local cemetery. The lighting is not great, but you can definitely pick out the death as August 1810. That makes for a very old cemetery by East Tennessee standards, considering that James White's Fort was only built in 1786.

There were veterans of at least 3 wars (Civil, WWI, WWII (1)) in the cemetery and veterans from both sides of the War Between the States, from the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR),...

...and Confederate States of America (CSA).

A pretty dress doesn't mean that you can't play. She did get some tire rubber on her white tights, but mom and dad were too busy to notice when they all had to leave soon afterwards.

My wife and I gave the second-born son a woodburning set for his birthday. So, he made a little panel. I assume, though forgot to ask him, if he drew or traced the picture before he inscribed it.

The family all went off to prayer meeting, so my wife and I went to visit my older brother and his wife for few hours before heading home. It was a different kind of enjoyment, quieter and contemplative. We had a blessed day and good sleep afterwards.

1. I feel confident that there were probably others like the Revolution, War of 1812, and more modern wars, since the latest stone was August of 2024.

Two Frozen Head Waterfalls

 My brother and his wife are always very gracious and hospitable to allow us to stay at their house when we come to visit family.

The extended family was going to watch the football game together. My brother wanted to do a short enough hike to get back. Travel time to the trailhead is a major consideration. This commute was about an hour. The hike goes up a deep draw between two ridges. Cold drainage was chilling with a slight frigid breeze coming downstream at our faces. About halfway up off to the right is 12' Debord Falls.

The next picture I took accidentally, but I kept it because of the curious tree it captured. You wonder how some trees remain upright.

Right next to the falls was this odd Hemlock trunk. Unlike most Hemlocks of any size, this one is still alive. It appears to be plagued by shelf fungus, maybe, certainly overgrown with moss and algae in this moist environment. The woodpecker holes tell you that it was/is full of bugs. Still, it hangs on.

Pictures don't always suggest temperature, but my brother's clothing does.

The next falls was Emory Gap Falls, just barely visible atop the boulder field at left. I saw this couple and their dog, and I offered to take their picture. I am confident that they got a better picture than I did when they offered. I got up close to them so you could see their faces and the falls. I thought about saying something when she stepped back to take the picture, but it wasn't worth the bother.

Emory Gap Falls is 19' high. As with any Cumberland Plateau falls or creek, it barely flows unless there is a big rain event. The soil is shallow and has very little storage capacity which makes the high water higher and low water lower and more common.

The "cave" only goes about ten feet back, but there were several parallel fissures in this limestone, suggesting that there may be caves in the area.

Between the ice and the hornworts, I am reminded not only of the cold, but also of the fact that splash zones are a very unique and isolated micro-environment.

It had rained the day before, but evidently dried before the freeze, since the splash zone was the only place we saw ice cycles.

It was good to get out again and catch up with my brother. In the new year, I plan to reveal why I have not been blogging so much and hiking even less. Thank you to those who do read my entries. Having an audience pushes me to write better. Of course, you can't know what I write like without an audience, so you will have to take it on faith that this is better.