Bond beam in! And shares for a post elsewhere in support.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

We have a bond beam! 

The trucks were roughly an hour late showing up. We had a couple of extra guys here to help out, though, and they got the whole thing done in just about an hour. Yes, it's a small house, but it's a lot of work.

It's not easy work, either:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

These two guys had the hardest job, wrangling that heavy hose with cement pumping through it at high speed, all while balanced on a beam less than a foot wide and nine feet above the floor (about eleven feet above the ground; we had to elevate the pad substantially).

Then one of the other guys went around behind them with a trowel, smoothing it out and making sure there were no air bubbles to cause cracking later. This is the support beam for the second story, so that matters. Since the guys have a three-day weekend (well, three and a half; they knocked off early today, with pay, because there wasn't anything more they could do just yet), it will have time to set, harden, and cure. Then Tuesday they'll knock the frame apart; all that particleboard and the plywood braces will come off, leaving a concrete beam behind.

Also on Tuesday: We go to pick out and pick up the vigas (for those who don't know, vigas are the big round rough-wood beams that have always been used in traditional adobe construction as the support beams that span across the ceiling (supporting the upper story, or the roof in a single-story home). It's a very old method, and a very beautiful one.

While we're doing that, the guys will be installing the three spiral posts in the living room area. These are big spiral-cut wood posts that serve as upright support beams, and the spiraling is also traditional to old Native (and then Spanish colonial) construction.

This has been a hugely expensive week.

So we still need shares of our YouCaring page via the widgets on it, and via the widget code from the purple box at lower right:

We also need shares of Wings's site, since sales support this work, as well as pay our day-to-day expenses. And finally, we need folks at the GOS to go T&R and share the diary my spirit warrior sis, kishik, put up for us tonight. They've already managed to raise one match, but they could use the shares and support, and so could we.

Many, many thanks to everyone for all your help thus far, whether in the form of donations, shares, or moral or other support toward our effort to have a real home again for the first time in almost six years. Think I can get some free time out of the three-day weekend? Nah, probably not, but I'm gonna try.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.