We have a foundation!

And some other stuff!

As the crew was pouring, I kept looking up, certain I would see pigs gliding across the sky on newly sprouted wings.

As with everything else associated with this project, this was not an easy task. The pour itself went flawlessly, but issues with the city the day before nearly threw us off track again. No need to bore you with the details, but you should know we’re grateful to the one person in the Public Works Department who gets things done. If we were younger, we would name a child after him.

This is how it looked the day before:

Then seven concrete trucks delivered their goods and another machine pumped it into place. (Fun fact: because of the weight, concrete trucks aren’t allowed to drive on the highway. Apparently back roads are better equipped to handle them?)

It was fun to watch the arm, which was controlled by what looked like an Atari(TM) joystick on the ground, move and pump the stuff into place.

Here’s how it looked going in:

I walked around all day saying “all right, all right, all right…” under my breath. If you didn’t read that in the voice of Matthew McConaughey then you’re missing out.

The crew worked their arses off. We plan to use sealed concrete as our floor so the project manager told the guys to make the foundation “shine like a baby’s bottom.” I’m not easily impressed and my expectations tend to run high, but these guys delivered. They were still working as the sun went down, but by that time the concrete set enough for us to walk on it. We had enough light to know their work looked good, but then we stopped by the next day, took our shoes off and walked around on it barefoot and I’m happy to report it’s as smooth as a baby’s behind.

After many more days of curing, the structural steel went up.

Around the same time, the embedded cables were pulled, stretched and tightened and – finally – cut off.

Framing should start next week. I’m hopeful those pigs have enough wing power to stay in the air a bit longer.