Today we had what would have to be best described as a most excellent day. We added four extra pairs of hands with strong backs to our mix. They did the trick. A little after eight this morning we started mixing cement, two mixers doing a dance with four partners.
	A third of a yard at a time eventually adds up. But when you've only got about four or five of them down it looks like finish is only forever away.
	At noon we had fifty one or two mixer loads down so we broke for lunch. That's about seventeen cubic yards, mixed, poured, and spread.
	After lunch I put three to work removing the old observation deck and three forming up the end beam of the pour. Here's the deck crew.
	The beam forming crew didn't have the shade. But they did have a fan.
	If you get the chance to talk to an old folks that worked through the depression they'll tell you stories about hand shoveling ten fifteen yards of sand and or rock a day for next to nothing while being proud to have a job. We ended up mixing twenty yards today. It was a good day. No one fainted. No one quit. And I didn't see any evidence of hard feelings either. In fact I had to back off the pace of the guys feeding the mixers to keep from wearing out the guys in the hole. I did this spontaneous water breaks and breaking their rhythm. Once everyone realized where I was coming from the testosterone levels settled down a bit and the competition slowed. After all, four men working you're going to have at least sixteen competitions going on semitaneously. One of the things I did to make it easier on the guys feeding the mixer was to move the mini-hoe in between them and keep a pile of freshly turned mix for them to handle. It's easier to load a mixer when the pile is at a certain height and the mix is of a certain rate of compaction. (almost none, compaction)
	Look at a our material pile right after we started. That's four ten yard dump truck loads of sand and gravel mix.
	This is the old spillway. We're modifying it. I know. You're surprised. But our plans for it required us removing the observation deck. If you look close you can see the old footer didn't go down very deep. The dam leaked. We're going deeper and hopefully we'll not have a leak there anymore. This particular feature is going to be pretty interesting when we're done with it. It'll still be a spillway. But it will also be the head of a unique and different waterfall. And it'll have a sandstone slab bridge similar but different than the one up by the greenhouse.
	Today we powerwashed the old wall.
	It made a difference.
	Since the observation deck was out of the way I went ahead and excavated for the wall to the spillway we're remodeling. Then about four thirty this evening we decided to dig three pier holes and of course fill them with concrete. I only had one helper today. Made lunch cheaper and more simple. But it sure made my share of the work appear more.
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