Some Progress Is Better Than None At All....

Well we got back to work today on The Becky's Revenge after a two week hiatus. Uncle C went back to Ohio to visit last weekend and we had a rainout the previous week.

Not that we haven't been busy around here though! Last weekend I got the garden box set and filled with bedding mix and we planted our veggies on Friday night! Little Dude was very excited to help plant and water the new plants!

 I also have been busy putting in a small flowered in the front yard.  Another project that has been on my to-do list for 2+ years! We also got a couple blueberry bushes for the backyard (what with LD's love for blueberries.) They are full of blooms now and the bees are busy pollenating. Hopefully we get some berries and can keep the birds away! As usual, my little helper was accompanying me to do the planting!

Anyway, back to the playhouse... In the aftermath of all the rain, the post holes for the front of the ship had caved in quite a bit so we had to clean those out before getting started. Last weekend I had fastened together the front three posts that will secure the prow (and climbing rope) to make them easier to set. With that done, it was just a matter of measuring and leveling out with the rest of the previously set posts then concreting!

Unfortunately, with all of the cave-ins we have had, the front hole had gotten quite large, so it swallowed up the 5 bags of concrete that we had left before we could cement the two front posts. 400 pounds of conrete later, I don't think those posts are going anywhere. Looks like another Home Depot trip is in order to get some more concrete to set the remaining two posts.

You can finally see the outline of the ship with all of the posts set. (Prow of the ship pointing to the left, with the raised deck and swingset to the back right.) Next up we will be leveling the tops of the posts and starting to frame for the decks! 

That's all for now, check back soon!

TWB

Rain Delay!

We made quite a bit of progress this past weekend despite the fact that I think we surpassed the 2011 precipitation total over the course of the last week! On my Friday off, I went out to check the damage to our newly dug holes and this was what I found:

I was going to Home Depot anyway to get some lumber for another project, so I had the perfect excuse to pick up an item I had been wanting to try out for the past couple years. Fortunately, up until this point, I had never had a drainage issue anywhere, but this was the perfect excuse. Plus, it beat the heck out of what we had to do growing up: that consisted of dipping a plastic cup into the hole and cleaning it out a few ounces at a time. I guess I think it is so cool since it is basically the same technology as a rod pump (pardon the petroleum engineering geekiness!)

Even though my hand-powered pump didn't have quite the lifting power of this behemoth (ahh, nostalgic West Texas,) I was confident it could get the job done.

For your viewing pleasure, here is an action shot of Uncle C getting "pumped" to clean out one of the holes! I am happy to say that it worked like a dream!

Once we got all the water out of the holes and cleaned out the minor washouts (watch out for hole-stability issues in an uncased hole! - again, pardon the PE geekiness!,) we were ready to set some more posts and get them concreted in. To get everything squared up properly, we called on Uncle C's ongoing education at prestigious Rice University and his knowledge of the proper deployment of laser technology!

With the back half of the posts stable and square, it was time to mix some concrete! Once again, the foreman showed up to supervise and "help us out" at the most critical moments...

Mission accomplished for this week: we have half of the posts set and concreted and are on track to get the remaining set in the next week or two. In case the picture below doesn't make sense, the two taller posts to the right are for the swing set and the other three are for the raised captain's quarters at the rear of the ship. Now it was time for some Super Bowl viewing and chili eating!

With a little over four months to the christening of The Becky's Revenge, time is slipping by quickly. Check back soon!

PS - For all you non-Mariettans, here is a picture of the Becky Thatcher in all her glory when she was docked in Marietta. The second picture is of her last moments before sinking near Pittsburgh. :*(

TWB