The Great Wall of Soledad: Progress Update

It's slow, but it's coming along. Several weekends ago, we got the second footing for the back wall poured and right after Thanksgiving, Brian and I started putting in the first row of rocks. We made a lot of progress in just a few hours! Brian borrowed a concrete mixer from Dave's brother (thank you!) - just to help speed up the progress and it has made a HUGE difference. Dad also gave us the great suggestion of adding lime and clay to the mix - we're very happy with that addition - it does seem a lot stronger and easier to work with (thanks Dad!). Hoping to have this done soon, though we joke that it will be done in 2012. Why or how 2012 started coming up, I have no idea, but it stuck and we laugh about it all the time!

Here are some pics:

In the beginning:



Front wall:



Digging second trench:



Pouring footing for second wall:



The second wall that Brian and I are building one Saturday, Sunday and rock at a time...



And finally a "stitched" panorama of four pictures of the wall:

Pictures taken December 7, 2008.

Back soon with more cookies and knitting projects for Christmas.... the two things consuming my time today! :)