33 yards.

     After our pour was cancelled on Thursday, we needed to end the week on a high note, and still be on the 2:45 ferry home. Yes that is right, on Fridays, being on the 2:45 ferry is important. You are away all week, doing your job to the best of your abilities, but Friday, all you care about is going home, to see you wife, your children, friends, or just to sleep in your own bed. So as the foreman, my job is to make sure my guys get on that 2:45 ferry every Friday, and some Fridays, the 11:15. We still have our jobs to do though, so pour 33 yards, get started working on Tuesday's pour, clean up and head down to the ferry.

     Getting concrete on this island is more difficult than I had thought, mostly because drivers are not properly badged. What that means is unimportant, what I have to do to get them to the jobsite is the story. Phone calls the day before to find out who the drivers will be, fill out a visitor apps. for them, when they get to the island, meet them at the ferry, escort them to the main office, switch their badges over, escort them to the site, pour concrete, escort them to the office to switch their badges back, escort them to the ferry. With the right badges, I wouldn't have to do any of that. Why don't they have the right badges? That is an excellent question, but we are working on that. Anyhow, the pour went off well, we poured, and covered with thermal blankets and put our "high-low thermometer" under the blankets. As concrete "cures" or gets hard, it generates heat. The thermal blankets are meant to keep the heat in when it is cold, and the thermometer records the heat, it measures the hottest it had gotten, and the lowest it had gotten. Below 32 degrees would be bad. I could get more technical with the curing process for those of you who would be interested, but unless you ask, I am going to assume this has been enough. Some, like my wife, are more interested in the human aspect of this, she likes to hear about the men, I will do a better job of mixing the technical with the human interest.

 

 

Our concrete supplier, Suffolk Cement.

 

The piece of concrete we poured, covered in blankets.

 

     Matt and Wild Bill beginning to tie rebar, in what I hope will be Tuesday's pour. We built the form work, the water proofers came to put their water proofing membrane in, and then we tie our rebar and pour. The water proofers came in on Friday, leaving us a few hours on Friday, and Monday, after we pour concrete, to finish this up for Tuesday morning. There is quite a bit of rebar in this mess, and I am afraid we will be taking the 6:45 ferry back on Monday. That pour is not until Tuesday, and we still have one on Monday, which we are also not ready for.

 

     Monday we are going to pour 20 yards in some footings and interior piers, two of the three piers are ready, and most of the footing is ready. Concrete is at 8 am and 9:30, so we have a little bit of time before the first truck shows up.

 

 

Two of the three interior piers.

So, 20 yards on Monday, 30ish yards on Tuesday (as long as no ferries get cancelled) a half day on Christmas Eve, and we will not be back until Monday. And, another short week, not the best of starts for a job.