I'm not sure why this surprises me...

...Since I've done it before and all, but an 80-pound sack of cement just doesn't actually make a lot of cement.

I've been waiting and waiting to get started on Landlady's retaining wall, morosely watching my window of time get narrower by the day, but I needed a period of time when the weatherman promised (hah!) that the temps wouldn't dip below freezing overnight. This was the week. Monday I cut rebar and cleaned off the wall foundation for what I hoped was is now officially the last time. Tuesday W and I laid the first two courses of block. The hillside will most certainly collapse against the wall - that's what the wall is for - so it needs to be strong. That means I need to fill the blocks solid with cement. No big deal, right? I had ten sacks, and while I knew going in that wasn't enough for the whole wall, surely it was enough for the first two courses. From then I could do a more solid count.

Well, it only took two sacks to anchor the first course to the foundation, so that was good. But it's taking an appalling amount to fill the blocks. We only got two sacks' worth mixed to fill the second course when my back warned me that if I didn't stop there was a week of anguished bed-rest in my future, so I called a halt. That left six. Yesterday after shit-shoveling I did two more. I'm not halfway through the lower part of the wall, and I've used more than half my cement. I'll finish it off today.

No big deal, really, I still need to order materials for the french drain and the rest of the wall. But still - this is going slow. And the clock is ticking here. It's not so much that I'll run out of time before the house build, because it doesn't take a month to build a low wall. But it's awfully early in the season to be working with cement, and the weather will betray me soon.

UPDATE: And...it's raining.

MORE UPDATE: Rain stopped. Now it's snowing. Gail-force wind blew the router right off the barn wall, but apparently did no physical damage. It appears I won't be pouring concrete today. Instead I'll take this opportunity to track down the weatherman wherever he hides...