We appreciate the concern. And I will admit to an appearance of a cavalier attitude when it comes to moving around in Iris. It's an appearance of a cavalier attitude though. I know my limits. Well, most of the time. The past couple of days have been just work. We've put out almost twenty more yards of concrete. Most of them went into eighteen piers sixteen inches by nine feet.
	The rest of it went into beam.
	Last Thursday we had thirty more yards of good washout delivered after us pouring the floor of the pond. This is what's left of that and the balance of what was there before. It's been a good week. Tough. But a good week.
	There's over four yards in this short section of beam by the old spillway.
	This is from the area of the new spillway looking back to where the emphasis of our work has been up to this time. We have eighteen new piers in. There's an additional seventeen to go. The piers are in ten foot spacing. First we cut the road. Then we're placing the piers. After that we're cutting in and pouring the beam. Once the beam's done then hopefully we'll build the cinder block wall. The fancy rock work will go on the last two feet of the wall. Then there's four hundred feet or so of coping we have to place on top of the wall. We're also facing the reality that our normal rains come in about three weeks. Once they're here the pond will fill up. It could get interesting.
	Yesterday was a good one. We used up another pallet of Portland cement, I believe that's the hundred and one bags so far. And I picked up another seventy bags and we kept right on trucking. We've only got two more piers to drill that I know about at this time. Those are the ones for the landings or decks we want out over the water. Instead of using Bois d Arc posts for supporting the landings we're going to pour a pier and have a two foot concrete column. There was a moment of excitement yesterday morning. I'd come up with an auger full of clay when the bank started to give. I froze. Iris did likewise. We tied off to a tree and using a come along we assisted Iris in finding tierra a little more firma. This morning one of the things on my list is to rework the cut in some places because I have many more trips down the cut. And we don't want to have to call Betsy for help again. Here's a shot of the cut and the bank wanting to sink.
	Speaking of Betsy, we got to help her out. Turn about is fair play.
	Betsy's Baptist preacher bud needed two gate post holes cut in this kind of stuff.
	Betsy lives about a quarter of a mile from the project. At her house the Austin chalk or limestone is on the surface. At the project I finally found some in one pier yesterday. Out of seventy piers or so there's one where I hit the rock and it was down about seven feet. The bit I used was one I built using a special head with seventeen replaceable carbide teeth. It'll hurt you just looking at it. But to cut into the limestone you need down pressure. Betsy can't drill a hole. But while Iris's twenty eight gallons per minute high flow circuit spins that auger she can provide down pressure.
	My view as the auger reaches five foot in depth.
	This is what we'll be doing today. Forming up and pouring beam, one oh one, two or two, three oh three.
	I'm sure what I'm doing confuses some people following this thread. Mostly because I'm not the best at describing or defining. This picture might help. The first thing I'd like you to notice is how we're following a twelve inch wide block base with an eight inch wide one. Here's the logic for our doing this. We're using the twelve inch for strength. This is more important at the base of the wall. We're using the eight inch because we don't want to have to look at a cinder block wall around the pond. The static or normal water level will be about the height of the second eight inch from the bottom. We're going to add another course of eight inchers. This will give us a line of four courses of eights around the perimeter. Going from twelve to eight leaves us with a four inch ledge. This gives us a base for our round flat stones to rest upon. So the top thirty plus inches of the wall will have round flats exposed instead of plain old cinder blocks. We think this will be pretty. Two courses below the water level and two above. If you've looked carefully at our forms for the beam I'm sure you've either wonder if the pixels were dancing or we're really making it wavey. Your pixels are fine. We're doing the wave thing. This picture gives you and idea of why. So as you follow this thread and it looks like there's no rhyme nor reason to what we're doing, there is. At least rhyme.
	This is a shot of the freshly poured beam along the south side (done today). You can see the waves. And you'll also see we're stepping up as we're approaching the new spillway. What is important at this stage is the steps be eight inches (height of a course of block). And that each stage be level. What really helps on the keeping everything level part is this http://www.us.hilti.com/holus/modules/prcat/prca_navigation.jsp?OID=-14787 This is one of those purchases that you really really put off and then after you've done it you wonder how in gawd's green earth you ever got anything done without it. I've got a couple of other lazers but this is my first really good one. It's self leveling which is almost mandatory if you're setting one up and leaving it run all day. The manual leveling types drift with the heat or get bumped out of alignment. It was a hard pill to swallow but I feel so much better for doing so.
	I really got looking making the cut along the northside. When I shot my grades I only had a three inch variance. So what I did today was use the mini-hoe and excavate for the beam. It's much easier for me to rough it in with the excavator and then have the laborers pretty it up with shovels.
	This where the new spillway will be. Monday we'll put in the iron and pour this cut on the left of the picture. This will be where our new ramp to get in and out of the pond will be located, over the new beam. We've used up just about all of our sand and gravel at the other location. And we have seventy plus yards stockpiled about fifty feet from this cut. So we'll move the mixer, water barrel, and process to this end of the pond. It will put us closer to the majority of our work. It will also enable us to clean up the other end and prepare it for final detailing. Maybe by then it will look like we're doing something besides making one heckuva mess. Ya'll are entirely too kind
	I didn't take any pictures today, again. It was after six and my tail was tucked so firmly between my legs I plumb forgot about pictures until I was sucking a/c in the truck. We got most of the remainder of the beam dug out and the iron placed today. We also got about half of what was left to do formed up and ready for concrete. I ordered the rest of the block for the wall today. I have two pallets (sixty blocks of twelve by eight by sixteen per pallet) on hand. I ordered nine hundred and sixty more. Have four pallets of eight by eight by sixteens on hand (90 per pallet). I ordered six hundred and fifty more. I also put another pallet of type S masonary cement on the trucks. Yup, two ten wheeler loads. Today I did the ultimate no-no for a man. I was driving in a piece of half inch rebar into an existing piece of concrete we're tying on to. It was a full length, twenty feet, and the hole was about four inches deep. Half inch rebar really complains and fights fitting into a half inch hole. I was using my three pound hammer. I was in full down stroke when one of the laborers came up and got my attention. Being a single focus individual I looked up at him and forgot about the three pounder two thirds through it's down stroke. A millisecond or so later the hammer got my full attention. There are places on a man that can take a three pounder impacting and it's just a thing. It didn't land on any of those places. Now there's one place on a man where a three pounded can hit and a man will just double over and cry big tears. Yup. You guessed it. Laborer disappeared for awhile. I'm not sure if it was the sight of me crying that got his legs moving or if it was the bad words bouncing off of everything around and about the skeered him. When he came back the look on his face reflected a lot of concern. I accepted it was for me and not his job. Since ya'll like pictures here's one of Iris in about as much pain as her daddy was today.
	I don't think any of us feel comfortable watching a grown man double up and cry. There appears to be no after effects. I worked a long hard day yesterday without any unusual discomforts. The usual discomforts were there, wouldn't know how to act without them. The beam got poured yesterday. Eleven yards was all it took.
	It's a thick beam and took lots of concrete.
	We ended up doing fifteen yards yesterday. We shut it down about six thirty. Three day laborers feeding the mixer and handling the pour with me keeping the materials flowing with Iris. At lunch I asked the laborers if they wanted some help. They asked for one more guy to help with the mixer. The first guy that the administrator of the day laborer site gave me complained about the concept, shovel work for eight dollars an hour. I didn't argue. I asked if there was anyone else interested. There was. About three hours into it we made eye contact and I got the distinct impression he thought I'd said "worm" and he'd gotten "snake". But at the end of the day he wanted to return and the other guys wanted him back. So it looks like he worked his way in. This is what we're doing at the new spillway.
	One of the things I really really hate are traffic lights that change at the last minute. Especially when there's a cop sitting at the intersection.
	Here's a shot of why it took so much concrete to do the beam.
	Today was a good one. They brought in the last of the block we ordered. We're using over three thousand block on the wall around the pond. I tried helping the guys place twelve inch blocks. They're heavy. That's heavy. Heavy like in a pallet containing sixty weighs more than a pallet with twenty bags of Portland cement. Those bags weigh ninety four pounds each. To get the blocks down to the pond I split a sixty pallet into two thirties. And going down the ramp into the pond is interesting to say the least. It's literally the angle of the dangle that makes the heart stop. Losing a pallet of block would be sickening, and expensive. Here's a shot of what we got in today.
	From the other side.
	As we get to the new spillway at the east end of the pond the grade becomes more shallow.
	The final four courses will be eights but for most of it we'll have five courses of twelves, darn, did I mention those puppies are heavy?
	What is interesting is spinning Iris around, doing a one eighty, on the trail. It's less disconcerting than backing out. Yesterday we wheeled the wall and footer. Our perimeter is almost six hundred feet. It is a large project when you stand back and try to take it all in. I look at it as a group of projects.
	The client is dropping a fortune for sure. He bought the property in 1983 because the original owner who'd built most of the features was a character with some really unique concepts. He's wanted to refine and add to these features all this time but he couldn't find someone as zany as the original fella. When we're done the property will have the potential for generating income as a site for special events. I believe the rock deck by the waterfalls will become a favorite place for wedding planners. One of his issues with the place has been the occasional beaver setting up shop. The new wall will make the place very unattractive for beaver habitating. Another issue has been erosion. The renovation will eliminate that for the most part. We're also adding infrastructure for irrigation and electrical service to areas where that wasn't available before. I also believe us documenting the construction as important too. It not only gives a future owner the complete picture and map of original construction if they want to remodel. It also gives them a story to relate to visitors. Hopefully some of the features will be intriguing to visitors. And some of those who find it intriguing might find our documentation fun also. The most expensive remodel I've been involved with was this one http://harveylacey.com/id44.htm Again, that one started with me being asked to bid a fence. Then I was requested to bid on building the cedar work, arbor and two pavilions. When that was all done I was asked to replace an existing pavilion. The big difference between that job and this one besides the medium, wood versus stone, was on that one I was trying to bring another's concept to life. Where on this project it's a joint effort between me and the client. One of us will come up with an idea and that's just the start
	I believe the water only flows four or five months out of the year. The rest of the time it will be just a pond. The customer said yesterday the pond catches watershed from five hundred or so acres. This is the third pond in a chain. Each pond is on separate property.
	If you'll grab your imagination I'll take you for a walk around the finished project as it's in my mind at this point in time. Let's start at the south end of the old wall and go east. Here's the new terrace that cuts back into the bank. The wall is about four inches above static water level. And if we want we can walk along the path we built along the old wall to the bottom. This terrace has a rock floor with a large rock table. The terrace will go underwater when it floods. If we look out into the pond there's five boulders that appear to be floating. If we were here after dark we'd see the effects of the lights in the floor shining up at the boulders. We'd also see the glow of the lights along the base of the old wall highlighting the floor of the pond. Each boulder has a noodle head fountain. Noodleheads are fountains that seem to have a random spray pattern that change constantly. When the noodleheads aren't on there is constant water flow oozing out of orifices in the rocks. This is to not only keep the waters wet which highlights their beauty. It is great source of moisture and adventure for insects and birds. When we turn east we see the rock deck. From the terrace we can see there's a single column in the water that supports large six inch thick sandstone slabs form the deck. The perimeter of the deck has sandstone benches. The sandstone deck is conversation pit above the water. East of the deck is the new flood level spillway with waterfalls. There's a three foot wide sandstone slab walk way across the waterfalls. Below the walkway is a series of holes in the boulders that are the columns supporting the walkway. From those holes come water that's being recirculated from the fish pond below the falls. The sound of the falls is one of the features that make the conversation pit so pleasant a place to, well, converse. Continuing east we come upon another observation area. This one is a large sandstone slab that hangs out over the water. It's a place to look back at the features to the west. It will be higher than the conversation pit and the terraced area. So if there's a bench or furniture on it the furniture will be of a medium that isn't stone. As we continue east we come upon the new spillway. If the water's flowing we can step across the spillway on stones spaced for just that. Along the east wall there's another terraced area that's designed to highlight landscaping plants. As we turn back going west we come upon another terraced area with rock features. This is an area that takes advantage of shade and the view of the south side of the pond with all of it's features. This area is more for comtemplation and appreciation, and individual's place if you will. Continuing west we come upon the original wall and spillway. After we cross the original wood bridge we can come down the new sandstone slab walkway to the new deck along the original wall and the entrance to the greenhouse on the west. We can stand in front of the greenhouse looking east and see the incoming spillway to our left, the rock terrace on our right with the stone deck just beyond the floating boulders. The wall that surrounds the pond is granite boulders with a sandstone coping all the way around. You now know as much as I do about the future of this project. Well, except for the dancing fountains
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