Oh my aching back! I think that my body is reminding me just how many years it has seen!

Today I put in a mounting post for our TV antenna to fasten to and to make things more solid in this very sandy soil that we have here, I decided that I should pour a concrete base around the post as well as the concrete that is around it to keep it in the hole. This was the day for that project as the weahter is beautiful, but slightly cool. I believe that we got to the low 70's in midafternoon.

I had set the post last week and found that it was not as solid as I thought that it should be in order to be sure that wind would not damage it. After some figuring the plan became to add a length of angle iron to the post to keep it rigid as well as to add strength and I added a four foot square pad around the base or the post. This morning I began by constructing a form fo the pad and I attached a section of rebar to each side of the post that would extend out 22" beyond the corners of the post on all four sides to tie it all together. Construction of the form was easy and the rebar was little challenge either. Pouring that much concrete when mixing it by hand in a bucket, turned out to be a much bigger project that I had expected. The other part was that I sorely underestimated the amount of concrete required. I stoated with five, 80# bags and had to go back to Lowe's and get three more in order to complete the project. It was a lot of hard work that would have been much less with a wheelbarrow and a hoe, but all of those things are long gone with the sale of our house before we went on the road. The mixing was done in a 5 gallon bucket, using a garden shovel. One thing that I know, before I take on a project of this much work again, I will get myself more proper tools! In any case, the pad is now poured and tomorrow the forms should be able to come off and it won't be long until our TV should be improved with an antenna that is up above things, where it should be.