Slow Progress, Cold Weather

So now that I have that first course down, I don't really need to worry about rain too much. It doesn't matter if water gets into the excavated trench, caves parts of it in, and turns it all into a layer of mud. So I figured my progress would speed up. Nope. It seems that ever since we broke ground, I can't catch a break when it comes to the weather. Now it's the temperature. 

In order to mix concrete and have it set up well, I'd really like it to be 50 degrees during the day and above-freezing through the night. But other than that first day I started, we haven't hit that mark on the weekend, not even close. Sure there were a few days during the week, but...my real job gets in the way. So everything has been quiet for the last couple of weeks.

Today the weather was marginal, with a high of 48. I was tired of just staring at the place so went for it. I used hot water from the house to add to my concrete mix. I concentrated on adding another course of block in the corners, as that's the next "hard part" of the job. Once all six courses of all corners are set and at the right level, all I'll have to do is fill in between and then the job will begin to move along. I promise. 

After three courses, all of my corners are not right on with where they need to be...24" from the top. There are still a couple of high spots within the span, but those should wash out as I progress higher. 

I've been using my story pole and the string lines to set the block to this point. I think for the 4th, 5th and 6th courses I'll get out the laser level I use it to verify that everything is coming up where they should. It only takes a minute to setup and is good insurance against potential sagging string lines that could cause the foundation to be just a bit off. And we don't want that!

Ok, so today I set 26 blocks, 80 total, 217 to go...