THE GREAT WALL - DONE

At least the stacking part is done.  I went through two pallets of block yesterday, and came up one block short.  Fortunately, I had a few extras laying around the house, and with that last block in place, the Great Wall is finished.  Next up is lots of vertical rebar, then lots of concrete, and finally, back filling the wall with tons and tons of dirt.

Chandra, Marc, Laila, and her buddy Lauryn came out yesterday morning for breakfast, before I went to work on the wall.  Today, the kids are leaving for Hawaii, where they will meet Marc's brother Mike, and his wife Amy, who will be flying to the islands from Georgia.

Laila & Lauryn standing in front of the wall before I finished it yesterday.

By the time I finished, it was late afternoon, and the old body was glad this phase was history.  The longest part of the wall is 8 blocks high (5' 4"), and about 50' long.  When I added up the total number of blocks in the wall, it came to just under 475.  At 37 pounds each, and a minimum movement of each block at least 3 times, lets just say that I got the exercise that I didn't during the summer.

Moving the concrete monsters is hard on the hands, and without leather gloves, the fingers would be the first casualty.  This was the second pair of gloves that ended up looking like swiss cheese.   Still on the horizon, is dealing with the county regarding a building permit, and all of the bureaucratic red tape that goes along with that.