The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – the concrete base

We thought clearing the shed would be a cinch after the garage but, being very much smaller, it was far more densely packed. Nonetheless, we emptied it fairly rapidly. I use the pronoun 'we' advisedly since my part in the operation was mainly that of support and the provision of much tea. What wasn't discarded was stored in the now tidy garage or put under tarpaulin next to the conservatory.

At this point the garden looked a little untidier than usual but still quite respectable. Then P and J arrived to dismantle the shed, repair the fence and lay the concrete base for the log cabin. There's a lot of clay in the local soil so drainage is not wonderful and the water table was very high after frequent and persistent heavy downpours. The ground was extremely boggy. By the time ten cubic metres of concrete had been barrowed across there was nothing left of the grass, and the ground more than ever resembled a quagmire even though we had laid down makeshift duckboards. P and J shovelled and levelled as each wheelbarrow was emptied and finally, after four hours of backbreaking work, the two-level base was complete.

Now it had to dry out.