They drove up in their High-Lux utes, the vehicle of choice for the blokes that came to help son-in-law Robert with a spot of concreting. He was laying the floor on his new garage and friends and neighbours were only too willing to to help. Even Ross the Boss was lending a hand. That’s what it’s like when you live in a little country village like Kiwitea. Russell had brought out his own concrete mixer so that certainly made a difference having two mixers going at once. We were visiting for the weekend and Robin was lending a hand too, tapping down the wet cement to get the air bubbles out. My job was to help with lunch.
Work started bright and early and by mid morning it was clear that the builders mix was running low. A quick phone call to the suppliers soon put that right, and a large truck rolled into the property with another load. The truck backed in, the tray was lifted up on pneumatic struts and down came another load. That should be enough to get the job done.
Making concrete the old way is hard work. Six shovels of builders mix to one of cement get tipped into the churning concrete mixer, add some water, and mix till done. This gets tipped into a barrow , wheeled over and tipped out at the appropriate place. While the mixture is getting tapped down and smoothed out the next lot is being mixed up . The work was relentless. The guys on the shovels will probably have sore shoulders after this job is done.
Robin and Ross were working down at the site smoothing the wet mixture over the the steel mesh which is laid to give the concrete added strength. The long handled float was used to help smooth out any little lumps and bumps. Even with two concrete mixers going at the same time it was a long slow job.
Finally the last barrow on concrete had been poured in place. More smoothing over with the long handled float till the job was declared completed. Son-in-law was told firmly, “Next time you want a concreting job done, get in a truck full of Ready Mix!!”
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