January 2021. Here’s to a new year, a new hope, and new concrete pad. As soon as the weather clears out.

The New Year came and went and Boxes in Fields was a stuck duck in the work department. Concrete forms a make for a great lake if you are a duck. If you are Boxes in Fields with a concrete window the lake is a major delay. To aide in water abatement, the Planner used the water pump to remove water from the rebar ditched. Less water in the ditch means less water soaking into the concrete forms.

Pumped water was carried away by a 50′ garden hose down the side of the Shop Box alongside the neighbors fence to the low spot at the back of the property. This water jam was caused by the neighbors fence to begin with so if the pumped water ran behind his backside and competed with his drainage then oh well. I know this thinking is not very neighborly but there are rules in place about drainage and fill dirt in these areas for a reason. Just saying…

Saturday morning dawned just as bright and clear as Friday revealing a mud slide, slurry mess. Not wanting to make a mud boot mess the remaining forms were made and set aside. These five forms took less than four hours to complete. Measuring, cutting, assembling. Form forming system was finally settled into place and now there are no more forms to make. Go figure.

With the rest of his Saturday free, the Kid took off for the unknown. Little did I know it was only to the kitchen for his second snack sandwich. Snack. As in there are three meats and two cheese slices. Later he was found absently perched on the saw horses. Free to roam the streets on his bike, play with friends down the street, or do whatever he chose to hang around. What it really was, was a display of compliance. The phone and the computer were off limits and he was sulking. Guess when he gets board enough he will wander around finding something to occupy his mind. Whatever you want Kid, tomorrow is work so do as you wish.

Sunday was again bright and clear and still muddy. Yesterday there was a work around, today there was work through it. Ugh. It wasn’t the mud that bothered me it was the excess weight it added and the increase in slip risk. Failing on my bottom can be done without the need for mud. The Planner managed to stay relatively clean because he so kindly stayed in the trenches and allowed me to crawl under the boxes getting muddy gloves, muddy knee pads even though I used a 4×4 plywood scooter, and a muddy bottom. Turns out I sit on my bottom when on my knees more than I realize. Drat. These were my last clean jeans. Now I have to do laundry.

While I was crawling under the boxes do my thing the Kid and the Planner were having an honest to goodness mud fight. Not that wanted to participate or anything but hello I am under the box crawling through mud. A pig or doggo I am not!

Muddy or not, full placement of the form boards with recleaned out ditches makes for a fabulous sight. The missing form board on the west wall is for further ditch preparation with the tractor. Boxes in Fields does not shy away from work but the amount of work needing to be done will go much quicker with a tractor rather than shovels.

Tuesday the Planner filled in the ditches with what sand was available. There should have been a couple more loads worth but the weather has postponed the delivery until roads can dry out. At this rate, it is going to take a solid two more dump truck loads of sand maybe even three. Good thing sand is cheap where we live!

This afternoon, a week into the New Year, the weather is calling for yet again more rain. In efforts to keep the forms from bulging even more they were covered with thick heavy plastic and stapled on the backside and at the bottom. We have no way of knowing if this will work but we have to try something. Now we wait for rain.