Work progresses on the boar pen
22 07 2006
I had a backbreaking morning’s work today - mixing concrete by hand and then pouring it around the trough in the boar pen.
The job involved making a 1:2:3 mix - one part cement, two parts sand and three parts gravel - in five batches for a total of 2.5 buckets of cement, 5 buckets of sand and 7.5 buckets of gravel. I reinforced the concrete with pieces of pig netting.
It doesn’t sound much, but add a warm, humid day and doing it all with a heavy shovel and you have a much more productive workout than any fancy gym will give you!
The boys found the whole job fascinating, throwing in helpful questions like why was I finding it hard going to carry the 30kg bags of gravel when the man in the shop did it easily, was I going to hurry up and was it morning tea time yet?
Just wait until they’re in their teens!
Anyway, the trough is now concreted in, most of the fencing is in place, the pig hut is in and all that’s left is three runs of wire plus the connections to the rest of the mains electric fence.
So Ginger, your new “lurv nest” is almost ready…
As for the rest of the day, that went on fencing (again), weeding and watering the vegetables, and shifting 25kg bags of feed. Oh, and all the usual chores and children’s entertainment duties…
I too had to have some concrete mixed at Jackie’s, so we switched on the electric mixer and Grant shovelled the ingredients in while I gave suggestions and stood around. Somehow I managed to stay fresh during the job.
The boys certainly know how to ask the right questions don’t they. I think they make great foremen mate!
Very enjoyable blog.
I have a tip for mixing small amounts of concrete which may make life easier.
Take a reasonable sized square piece of builders polythene, load with cement and sand.
Mix dry by lifting the corners in sequence, rolling the mixture around.
Add water and continue rolling until ready.
Even easier with two people as you can take an end each and walk the mix from one end of the poly to the other in turns.
Add sharp aggregates last and mix as little as possible.
Hope this helps and your well fills soon.
Steph
Loch Lomond
Mate, another way to simplify the heavy side of concreting is……..
Do the mixing in a wheelbarrow and using a garden hoe to do the heavy part of the job. I have a hoe with two holes in the blade and this also would help in my opinion.
Easier than a shovel working off the ground.
Hello
I’ve just found your website and realize that you live just down the road from us, we have about three acres and have our own livestock. Do you ever sell/exchange/barter any livestock you don’t have room for? we are currently looking for some more chickens and will soon be after more pigs. we haven’t gone as far as a breeder yet, we have had a selection of pig breeds so far, including large white and large black. I look forward to hearing from you
Jo
Jo,
We don’t have any spare livestock at the moment, but one of our gilts is currently in with the boar so we should have piglets in due course.
If you’re after any pork, we’re taking two pigs for slaughter on Tuesday (15 August) and they will be butchered on Thursday/Friday. We sell them as half pigs.
Stonehead
Thanks for the offer but we would prefer to wait for piglets (we still have the last of last years pigs in the freezer, just coming to the end of it, hmmm it tastes so good doesn’t it?) let me know when you think your piglets will be ready to move on to a new home. In a month we will have some home grown highland beef which may be of interest to you? if not we do still use cash !!!!.