Pullin' Chocks: August 2020

We share a few pictures from this summer's Idaho spot at Buck's RV Park.

Some of you may recall that we arrived in Swan Valley very early in the year, at the very end of March, and there was snow still on the ground here in the valley. Kind of a far north spot for that early in the year.... Government Covid reactions made us do it!And it wasn't finished snowing, we got to see more in real-time! Good thing we live in a Four Season Coach ;-) Hat tip to those in the know....Later, Diamond Jim Brady roared through Swan Valley...On his big ol' Harley Hog! That's one epic journey on a motorcycle from coast to coast.Meanwhile, Ellie the Chesapeake Bay Retriever got a bath courtesy of her owners Cindy and Dennis.Of course we had RV Park parties... this one with new addition William, son of Becca & Chris; Becca with son William seen below.There's new dad, Fishing Guide Chris installs cleat studs on his wading shoes.We saw a few Waxwing chicks leave the nest before they could fly. Soon mom to be Rebekah hand feeds bugs to a bewildered chick.Becca and Rebekah with William. Rebekah delivered a beautiful and healthy girl a few weeks later. We are surrounded by newborn babies on each side of us. Certainly the happiest of RV park visits for us.Larry volunteers to barbecue the spare ribs, and this is the story:
1. Patty buys the ribs.
2. Patty makes a salad, prepares vegetables, and makes dessert.
3. Patty prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to Larry who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.
4. LARRY PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.
5. Patty goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.
6. Patty comes out to tell Larry that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation.
7. LARRY TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.
8. Patty prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces and brings them to the table.
9. After eating, Patty clears the table and does the dishes.
10. Everyone PRAISES THE LARRY and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.
11. Larry asks Patty how she enjoyed her night off and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing her.
This is just a joke folks! Patty and Larry sponsored the Rib Feed and everyone, men included, pitched in to have a great time for all.

Larry and Patty present racks of perfectly smoked and slow cooked spare ribs.

Chad smells something good...

The gang relaxing after a rib feed.

Fun and games, Cindy and Chad work the Ladder Golf. Cindy, obviously was a ringer brought in from professional ranks!

Chad floats a toss toward the ladder.

Thoughtfully, Rebekah hung orange slices in the tree out back and it attracted some nice birds. The shot below is one of the pair of Western Tanagers that hung around for a couple of weeks.

One day, a group of Red Buses from Yellowstone pulled into Buck's for a pit stop on the way back to the NP.

Who doesn't like a vivid sunset scene out the back window?

And there are chores... this time a ceiling vent fan failure. Turned out to be a control board failure. Luckily we had a spare and were back in business as soon as we could dig in to find the failed board.

Voila, now swap it out.

This time it was a broken drawer slider retraction mechanism. We had to order a new set of drawer slides for this one. JB Weld epoxy nor Gorilla glue would do the trick this time, we tried!

Gari will wash windows and more!

Chad reflects on the days activities with Dijon the Miniature Fox Terrier aboard.

Patty snuggles with Maya on a cool afternoon.

Lastly, Steve and Dijon take us out of this segment...

A substantial improvement on the Eagle View Project this month, the concrete pad for the Shop building was installed. The pictures will start with the installation of the concrete forms a few days prior and will finish up with finished concrete slab in place. Kudos to the builder Josh @ Steel Design LLC in Idaho Falls and his concrete crew led by Miguel for an excellent job and outcome.

Below Joe operates the skid loader with 3 ft auger attached while Josh, the General Contractor directs the auger and clears away tailings. This shot is the first of about 16 holes to be established as foundation pilings for the Shop columns. Josh is a General Contractor that is very involved with his projects!Steve and Josh in the holes clearing away the Idaho Sand that falls back into the hole. The bottom of the holes must be 32" to pass inspection.Gari gets in on the fun of digging marbles out of a bucket with a butter knife! Haha. The sandy cobble soil as it is described here in Swan Valley, is an artifact of the mighty Snake River running through this valley. The considerable amount of rock, all round and smooth river rock is very attractive, but a challenge to dig through. Everytime you throw five rocks out, two rocks roll back down into the bottom of the hole. Hence the feeling of digging in a bucket of marbles!Gari and Josh take a breather break.Gari claws the rocks out of the holes with her hands, this method works as well as, or better than using a butter knife!Looking down into the bucket of marbles.Steve holds an average size grain of Idaho Sand for show and tell perspective.Fast forward a few more days, Gari looks on as Miguel's concrete crew begins installing the concrete forms and reinforcing steel.Miguel and Junior set up the laser level.Jesus sets forms while Junior cuts rebar for the piling reinforcements.Setting the side forms in just the right spot.A corner established with reinforcing steel in the piling hole. 2"x 2" blocking will be added along the top of the side form boards to establish a notch in the outer edge of the slab. The siding will extend past the sill plate and will end at the bottom of the notch at the concrete edge.Jesus fabricating piling steel reinforcement towers; the progress continues.It looks like Jesus is the only one working, but that is not the case. All the guys work very hard and long hours.Junior and Miguel install the Shovel Footing. This is a 10" x 10" thicker area of concrete all around the perimeter of the slab. This aids with temperature differentials and concrete slab expansion and contraction between the inside and outside of the building. Junior had to use the pick to punch through the packed crush stone. He asked what we did to get it so hard and compacted. The only thing we can figure is that it rained for two days right after the crushed stone was installed and compacted on site. Pretty lucky, because that was the only rain we've seen for a month. Junior said this was perhaps the hardest pad that he has seen. With all the river rock and the compact gravel, we should have a good foundation it seems.Below is a shot of a 2"x2" that will form the notch in the edge of the concrete slab.The crew installs the vapor barrier and wire mesh reinforcing for the slab.Miguel and Junior retrieve more wire mesh for slab reinforcing.Below, here comes Miguel with a pair of 20 ft long, half inch thick rebar that runs in the shovel footing around the perimeter of the slab.The next day, we went and marked the location of two slab penetrations, one is pictured below by an "X"marks the spot. We plan to have a 2' x 3' void where we will install a 4" sewer and a frost proof water hydrant for RV hook up. We will do this on two sides of the shop, so we can park an RV on either or both sides simultaneously. We plan to add a third RV hook (water & sewer) up outside the Shop, and possibly even a fourth spot.Gari cuts vapor barrier away from piling holes to ensure that the vapor barrier excess does not cause any unwanted voids in the concrete pilings.Inspector #3 reviews the results of the day. Do you think she is pointing out a column piling that is out of line?Gari collects construction trash at the end of another day. We are ready for the pour! Gari gives the work site one last look.We arrived on site on pour day at 6:00 AM and the crew was already there working in their truck headlights!Junior and Jesus set a box form for the RV hook up concrete penetration, Gari watches closely.

The shot below shows the Ufer or rebar ground that will be used for the electric service.

More box form tweaking, we need those to be in just the right place.

Miguel begins to set the grade boards that will be used to accomplish the initial screeding of the concrete. Jesus far side and new guy hold the string line for Miguel to use for the height reference.

First of five concrete trucks arrive on site at about 7:00 AM.

Big concrete truck driver from Rexburg, ID sets up his concrete delivery chute and gets ready for first pour.

The first truck went around the pad and filled all of the piling holes as the first step of the pour.

Miguel directs the first pour from concrete truck number 2 into the slab area, the piling holes are by now filled with concrete by truck number 1.

Junior takes a call while pouring continues.

First screed starting at the back third of the shop floor.

The sun breeches Baldy Mountain top at about 7:30 AM.

Concrete truck number 3 starts the second third of the shop slab.

Jesus begins with the initial bull floating.

Miguel carefully sets the wet set brackets for the shop columns.

Carefully pouring around one of the RV hook up penetration box forms.

The pour is down to the last third and now the crew works together to close the form where the concrete trucks were driving into the pad area. They dug a quick shovel footing, set the half inch rebar and completed the side and notch forms.