The Big Pour
July 29, 2005
Yesterday, we had an 80 cubic meter pour. Spent almost 10 hours shoveling, breaking up and stirring the cement powder to help push it through the hoppers during the pour. Because the cement has been sitting up here for months, it froze, it thawed, water got into the bags and it is no longer that fine powder. It’s chunks. And it’s nasty.
Of course, this is where Murphy’s Law comes into play once again at the end of the already long day – while they’re trucking the last load to the site, we’re spending our time doing the final cleaning at the batch plant. You know – getting all that partially hardened concrete out of the bins and hoppers and shutting it down for the night. During the last pour, one of the forms broke, spilling the cement all over the place. That had to be cleaned up and the form re-stabilized. You guessed it, we had to start up the batch plant again, make more concrete, send it off with the truck once more and start cleaning everything again.
They had to send someone down the hill to the dining tent to ask them to keep it open for the 15 people still up on the hill. They close at 8pm and we finally got down there at 8:30pm.
I’m unbelievably tired and after shoveling and poking the cement all day, I feel like I’ve been hit by a cement truck. Maybe I was – I’m so tired I don’t remember.
July 30, 2005
I got sicker today – rain and wet – everyone in the tent is sick. Got that irritating cough that lasts about a month - no cough drops, no hard candy, and I'm almost out of gum. I can’t wait to get home.
Just learned tonight that the big pour for tomorrow is located 1 foot off and needs to be relocated before we pour the concrete. My words: "Sorry, can’t stay any longer". The weather forecast for Pevek, which is 200 miles north, says rain for Thursday – the day of my flight out. Not good, considering it's the helicopter from here to Kemperveeum, and on to Anadyr.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home