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