Nice day

The first order of business was I tuned up the lawnmower.  The oil in it was pretty bad, it was approaching sludge consistency, was completely opaque, and was way overdue.  I didn't do any maintenance on the mower last year since I wasn't sure it was going to survive the brush-hogging I was doing with it.


The air filter was bad.


Really bad.  I have never seen a mold like that.


The mower still needs the blades sharpened.  I tried to find a discharge blade, but was unable to.  For the time being I might just sharpen one on it.  It is a mulching blade, but it seems to be all you can buy.


It seemed pretty clear that the back bricks were the most off-kilter, so I decided to start there with the concrete.


I didn't have to go far to reach rock.


I decided to use a no-mix concrete.  It might work ok for posts and stuff like that, but it didn't work for my application.  I actually wanted to make a column of concrete going all the way up to the 4x4.  I bought one of those form tubes that they use, but quickly ran into a problem.  When I poured the water in, it all ran out the bottom of the tube (I poured the concrete in first).  Since I had the tube at an angle to pour stuff in it, when I straightened it up, everything plopped out the bottom.  I decided to pull the tube off, and I noticed when I pulled it out that most of the concrete in the tube was still completely dry, so the no-mix appears to have failed.  I still think it is mostly my application though, filling in a hole in the ground the water won't run completely out of the form.

Instead I decided to pull up the tube, and just make a piling.  The end result seems to have come out ok.  Assuming the concrete is well enough mixed, it would have adhered to the rock and this shouldn't go anywhere, it just means that I still the concrete blocks there.  At least it is reasonably level though.


I also finished the front part of the loft while the concrete was curing.  It didn't really need the braces in it, so I didn't bother with them.


I also learned from my last experience, and put a chalk line down where the support was so I didn't miss it with the nail gun.  I missed only one nail, and it was because it was at an angle.


I didn't quite finish the piling.  Apparently I forgot to bring up my pry bar, so I will have to do that tomorrow.  I left it up on the bottle jack for the night, though the blocks and stuff are there in case the bottle jack leaks or gives out.