Spraying concrete...(Don't try this at home)

We flew in Micah (Adam's brother) from Alaska to help us spray the concrete.  He was the "Boss Man"for this event.  It was the week of Thanksgiving---aka, one of the coldest, windiest, and most miserable weather weeks of the year.  We even got a little bit of snow that week.  Adam only had a a day and a half of vacation left for the year, so Micah and I were the only ones there every day.  I was working night shift.  We also hired a guy,Jason, for the week to be an extra hand for us as well.  We really needed atleast 3 people there at all times to make it work. 

Basically this is how it works...The concrete truck drops the concrete in the concrete pump.  That pushes the concrete into the hose (which is hooked up to an air compressor), and then we spray the concrete on the wall.  

                   

       The Concrte Spraying Crew:   

Micah, Kristi, Jason, Adam

                          

The Equipment we had to Use

Stupid Concrete Pump:  Die        

Concrete Pump Die!!

           

This is the fan that blows the  air into 

the dome to keep  it inflated

  

    The air compressor(this 

pumped air into the hose which 

made the hose "spray" and not "pour"

                             

The stupid concrete pump which later

became our worst enemy.  This pumped the 

concrete into the hose.

 

Micah is all smiles and all clean BEFORE we started to spray....his expressions soon changed.

 this is how w e got the hose into the dome

Clearing out the hose.

It kept getting clogged
       

The concrete truck putting

the concrete in the pump

  

The Beaver Concrete Truck.       We finally got it to work!

One of many!

     

Running from the falling concrete

  
 

     

Day 2:  

    

     

Kristi spraying concrete!            Adam took off a day of work 

for the last day of spraying

          

    

                       

After the last day of spraying concrete...are we happy or exhasuted? Both!!

We had more problems that we could count with the stupid concrete pump.  Micah was amazing at fixing all the untimely problems we encountered.   I am so glad that we hired Micah to do this instead of someone else.  Even with all the problems we had, and the millions of hours that we worked on it, and the little sleep we had, and the bad concrete burn Micah had, it was actually kind of fun---just kinda!  BUT---it is now on the top of my list of things that I NEVER WANT TO DO AGAIN!  Haha!