11th November 2013 - CRC2

A good turn out today! Here is Jo's report:-

Hi Bill,

8 people on site at CRC today: 3 on brick laying, and 5 on the mixer / stacking bricks. Peter D came and joined the brick layers for his usual half day, so quite a lot got done:

One row of corbelling on section 3, leaving one last one to complete this section. This was also backed up.

 

One row of blues on section 4, also backed up

One row of blues along the next section, No. 5. This is a new section, and brings the length of platform being worked onto 40m (out of 220m). Just about 20%, so we are starting to make a good impression on this monumental task.

Paul C stayed in bed today with laryngitis, so John O took on the task of muck making, while a team of 4 shifted 4 pallets of bricks, leaving 34 still to do, out of the original 80.

It struck us, seen form afar, that the journey for the trolley is definitely getting shorter, and further inspection of the little markers set out by John O revealed that we had just passed the 100m mark on brick stacking, with the next marker at 110m being exactly half way.

Mid way through shifting bricks, yours truly and Keith S were asked to put a fresh layer of ballast on the path leading from the mixer, as clay was rising up and making the journey with the barrows very slippery. While we were doing this, we were astonished to see John O return with a full barrow of muck (not 220m of trudge, but 440m!) and start to shovel it back into the mixer. You can see the pained expression on his face. It would appear that the brick layers rejected the colour as not dark enough. And the job was hard enough already….

Stopping for tea is becoming increasingly pleasurable, as the quality of snacks improves. Today we were treated to a hazelnut and cream roulade by John O, with mini Swiss rolls and chocolate biscuits also tempting the happy campers. And it was nearly dry, how good can it get?

Best regards,

Jo