Pokey Pokey Pokey

First, I'd like to welcome Peanut to the list of blogreaders. He and I used to work together back in Santa Clarabelle, but I flew the coop leaving him in the capable hands of StinkyJ. I had a little chat with Peanut today, and I see he's been catching up through the archives all evening.

Tonight, The Mrs. was feeling a little under the weather for no apparent reason, so after dinner I took The Childrens outside to "play." Now, I can't hardly set foot in the back yard these days without seeing some man work that needs to get done. Tonight, I decided to continue demolition on the decommissioned pond that we plan to turn into a rock garden. I decided it would be nice to bust up the thin concrete layer the installer poured over the liner so that I could remove the liner and thus have decent drainage for the rock garden.

Cuz, as I understand it, you actually grow plants in addition to rocks in a rock garden. I can hardly wait.

So my deck installer guys had noted how I needed back fill for the trampoline retaining wall, and they had kindly helped me out by backfilling a good deal of it with broken-up mortar and concrete block from the built-in grill they removed. I figured since tomorrow I was planning to "finish" the trampoline project, it'd be a great time to get that concrete out of the pond to use as some more fill.

I got out the little hand sledge hammer and started busting up the concrete, which is only about a half-inch thick and set on a bed of rubber and felt, so it busts up pretty easily. HannahC decided to help, so her job was to peel off the concrete from the pond liner after I smashed the living hell out of it. MaxieC then needed a job, so he got HannahC's mini-wheelbarrow and loaded up the broken pieces as HannahC freed them then dumped them around the retaining wall.

We had a regular little production line going.

Then, eventually, The Childrens got tired of actual work and went to run around like crazy idiots for a while, as childrens are wont to do. I decided that pulling off the little pieces of concrete with my fingers was a pain, so I decided on a new plan.

Before I tell you the plan, I want to share a couple of photos I took today before I forget. Here in this first photo is my favorite set of work boots. They are Timberland Pro Series, waterproof, and steel toed. The toes meet the ANSI Z41 PT99 spec (now known as ASTM F 2413-05) and are rated to withstand a 75 lbs. impact and a continuous crush load of 2500 lbs. In edition, they have the "EH" designation, which means they can withstand the application of 14,400 volts at 60hz for one minute without leakage. They're about four years old and a bit scuffed and worn, but otherwise fully functional.



Here is this next photo is a pair of Teva sandals. I got these guys for a trip to Hawaii also about 4 years ago. The little Velcro straps on the back for tightening the heel promptly tore off because, after all, Teva's are really overpriced pansy crap. But, you know, if you tighten down the ankle strap enough, you can keep them on your foot despite a lack of heel pressure. Kinda like clogs, I guess. They're not particularly comfortable, but they're good for kicking around in on a hot summer day when you don't feel like wearing socks.


This here is a Roughneck 36" wrecking bar. It turns out that if you lay the curved, claw end down on the pond liner and pull towards you, it'll go right under the concrete skim coat and tear the stuff up in big hunks. Much bigger hunks than you would be able to tear off using just your fingers. But you've gotta pull really hard to slam it into the concrete edge or it won't go under.


Of course, which shoes do you think I was wearing when I came up with this brilliant plan?