Hell is cooler.

I have decided that hell must be cooler than Oklahoma. When you open the door at 5:30 am, it feels like you are in a tropical jungle. The sweat starts the second you go outside. Unfortunately, we can't work at night when it is marginally cooler and the sun is not beating down to cook whatever we are pouring.

This is the job we just finished. Here we have just torn out the old drive and parking area. The guys are picking out the little stuff.

Here is our destructo boy, Skip. He tears stuff up for a living. He is very good with that skidsteer. See his truck full in the background? Skip is a nice guy :)

We poured the parking area by the garage in two pours. They wanted colored/broomed concrete with stamped borders. Of course they wanted two colors, which is the bane of my existence. You have to color everything by hand, very carefully. This means more crawling around on my hands and knees. This job was particularly fun because the border cut through the middle, which meant that I was crawling on a walk board. The guys were stepping on the end of it and making it bounce! This is not amusing. Oh well, it's done now.

Here is a detail shot of the border. I hand tinted individual blocks to make it more rustic. She wanted it to have a lot of variation, so I used several colors. I like how it turned out.

Next comes the driveway. Here it is all set up. We had to move the rebar out so we could get the mixer backed up. It just fit inside the forms. Whew! I would have hated to have the guys wheelbarrow up that slope. Not fun. We dropped the rebar mats back in as the truck poured out. Much easier that way!

At least here there is a bit of shade. The parking area is full sun, and it was 100+ when we poured it. It is fenced on one side and thickly treed on the other. There was NO breeze at all. Curing concrete puts off heat and humidity. It's about 125 or so degrees on a curing slab. I do not sweat without artificial help. It's very difficult for me to pour in this kind of heat. The tools we use are black, so they get damn hot. I use an 8 lb, or a 12 lb sledge to set the tools. That means picking up that sledge at least a thousand times. Then there is moving the tools. Some of them weigh 45 lbs and are as long as I am tall. When it is 100+ degrees, this is not fun, but when there is concrete on the ground, you can't just stop. Bill helps me when he can. I move the tools and he sets them. Isn't he sweet? I sure think so :)

Here the drive is all stamped and cut. YAY!

And here is the final pour, the approach. It is the same color as the broomed part of the parking area. Thank goodness this was a small pour. Full sun all day, and 105 degrees. It is ridiculous. If it were just us, I think we would sell plasma during the sumer. Unfortunately, we have people depending on us to feed their families, so we work. Sheesh...some people just expect the world..... (just kidding).

Here is my man sealing the driveway. It is so hot that the sealer spins threads like a spider web before it can travel the 8 inches from the sprayer to the drive. Lord help us all!

Here are a couple of detail pictures. Unfortunately, it was way too bright, and I couldn't get any decent shots, but you can get an idea from these. I *really* like this pattern, and especially these colors. They are dark and warm.

If anyone has an answer, I need to hear it. I would love to know why it is that the *only* picture someone has taken of me in the past ten years that did not make me look like Bertha Butt is the one where I am absolutely filthy? Anyone?? Anyway, here is what I look like after a day of pouring. Fun huh? Anyone want to come help? Paige? How about it? I will make sure you have lots of cold water to drink. Come on, it's a blast, I swear! So here I am in all my Fairy Princess glory. Ain't life grand?