the cole mill chain gang

We started work on breaking up the concrete lid of the old septic tank. And I have to say, it went a lot faster than I expected! Don't get me wrong; it's really hard. Chain gang hard, as Georg said. You have to whack the concrete with a sledgehammer until it cracks, then whack it some more to break it into manageable pieces. And the concrete is reinforced with wire inside, so then you have to cut the wire with bolt cutters. The problem is that when the concrete cracks, it falls in on itself, which makes the wire hard to reach. So sometimes you have to whack at the broken places to open it up enough to cut the wires.

This is definitely the hardest thing we've done in the yard. The swinging the sledgehammer part is about as hard as chopping wood, except that you can place the wood where you want to hit it, but getting to the concrete can be awkward, especially if it's fallen in and you have to stoop down. Also, stacking chopped wood is a lot easier than moving chunks of concrete.

We had identified an unused area in the back where we could dump the concrete, but then we realized that Jane likes to ramble around that part of the yard. And we don't want her running around and over chunks of concrete with jagged wires sticking out of them. So we ended up dumping all the concrete in a hole I had been digging outside the fence, where the dogs can't get to it. It's unsightly but we'll take it all to the landfill when we're done.

Which won't take that long if we get decent weather! We worked for less than 45 minutes yesterday, completely removed the slab that was already broken, and also made good headway on one of the intact slabs. On the other hand, by the end of the 45 minutes we both collapsed. My shoulders are so sore. Maybe it's good that it's too cold to work outside today.

The good news is that the sides are made of hollow concrete blocks, and will be much easier to break apart than the lid. Georg thinks we might even be able to use the digging bar to pry the walls loose, instead of having to smash each block with the sledgehammer.