Construction Manager

Sandy took on a BIG project today... as project manager. He went to visit his friend Maphew, a black Scottie dog. Maphew needed a new slab of concrete for the front sidewalk so Sandy thought he could come help supervise...

This is Maphew... his nickname is sometimes Phoo... or Boo... or Phooie... He is very friendly with me... a bit too friendly.

Like most dogs, he tends to forget that I am a real bear and tends to treat me like a new dog toy. But after a bit he gets used to me and doesn't try to carry me around in his mouth (ewww)....

Anyhow - this is where the concrete slab has to go...

Maphew's daddys did all of the hard work (hacking out the old concrete). And then they put an adhesive onto the old stair block... because anyone who watches HGTV knows that concrete won't bond to concrete without it!

This is the pile of old concrete - someone else will have to take it to the dump... way too heavy for Sandy!

In order to lay concrete, you need bags and bags and bags of it! They weigh 66 lbs each so Sandy supervised their placement as well. Once you have the concrete, you need to make sure you have shovels (to stir the water into the concrete).

That's four shovels because there will be four peoples mixing and stirring and pouring and distributing! You also need one of these... a beary big wheelbarrow to stir up the concrete and the water - sort of like making a cake batter!

Except there is no recipe so it's kind of hit and miss. Sandy would like to show pictures of that - but there was water involved and concrete dust and he decided that it would be better to sit at the far side of the yard with Maphew and supervise from a distance. Everybody else got liberally wet and dusty!
After all the dust had settled... and the concrete was all poured... it had to be levelled roughly using a 2x4...

"Down a bit on the right guys!" And once the rough job was done, then the trowels came out...

This is an important piece - to get the concrete as smooth as possible! Maphew walked through it (only once) and luckily it was still smoothable! Some parts were wetter than others (soupier concrete batter) so it took a while to get it just right!

There we go - all in all... the humans did a pretty good job and Sandy did a beary good job supervising! And after it was almost done drying... somebody stamped a picture into the concrete!

Is it a bear??? Paying homage to the super-bear supervisor??? Nooooo... it's... it's... a Scottie dog!! Sigh... Sandy does all the work and Maphew gets all the credit!