Began Casting The Cement Yard Drain
[ Monday October 21st 2019 at 3:03 pm ]
Today we began casting the cement yard drain. This very quickly turned into a practical life skill of working with cement. It just hasn't gone well. But I don't regret this.
The first thing I discovered was that I did a silly mistake calculating the pre-mix cement needed. I purchased bags based of the volume needed to fill the void the drain will create for water to go down and not what is needed for the drain. I am needing to buy another 10 bags of pre-mix cement.
It also now obvious I am needing a cement mixer. It is so important to get the ratio of pre-mix cement to water correct. If the cement is watery it won't have the strength needed to stand the test of time. A second benefit of the cement mixer is to help set the pace. The cement mixer will force a 5 minute break as each bag of pre-mix cement is stirred by the machine. I like this idea. This will be helpful on account of all the energy needed to shovel the cement into place. This makes it possible that only 1 person could be needed to help me with this process.
I've also learned of a adhesive that bonds cured cement together. This makes it possible to do cement casting in stages. Sometimes it is beneficial to think of a project as a marathon and not a sprint. It makes it easier to accept not being completed on a given day and have more reasonable expectations.
Finally seeing the effort made today has got me thinking about what I could do that will be special and show appreciation to the youth and young adults for how hard they are working to help me. I have a turkey in my freezer right now. I'm thinking about making a turkey dinner to express my gratitude.