You Load Sixteen Tons and What Do You Get?

Well, it wasn’t really 16 tons, but at the end of the day, it felt like it!

This is the last picture you saw of our trailer.

From Laying cement for the trailer

Notice that the front part of the front stairs rests on blocks on the bare gravel. What you probably can’t see is that the rear part of the same stairs is sitting directly on gravel. And what I didn’t know at the time is that there was a water leak under the trailer, which was soaking the ground under the gravel. What I DID know was that the rear part of the front staircase was sinking into the ground, making the whole staircase very unstable. Just before our Open House Party! Oy!

The only remedy was to extend and fill in the concrete block walkway so that all the legs would stand on concrete. That would take a lot of concrete blocks (which are actually intended as caps for concrete walls, but they are used extensively as pavers). We estimated that we’d need about 64 tiles (8 X 16 inches, 1¾ inches thick), but we allowed for breakage and overruns and decided to buy 72 of them.

Our car was already loaded with other stuff, so we had to make two runs to Lowe’s, buying 36 blocks at a time.

From Laying cement for the trailer

Pick them up from the sales display, load them on a cart, pay for them, drag the cart to the car.

From Laying cement for the trailer

Pick them up off the cart, put them into the back of the car, drive home. Unload them from the car, stack them here and there on the ground. Then pick up each one at least once, often three or four times, to get them properly placed and leveled. Were you counting? I picked up each of the 72 blocks at least 4, often 6 or more times.

In between all of this, we went to the park’s storage area and brought loads of sand (for leveling). By loads, you can see I mean a bucket or two at a time!

From Laying cement for the trailer

From Laying cement for the trailer

From Laying cement for the trailer

When all the blocks were in place, neighbor Emerson Dayton came and helped me move the stairs back in place. It had to be just right, and it was. It was even perfectly level!

From Laying cement for the trailer

From Laying cement for the trailer

From Laying cement for the trailer

Just for fun, after the project was complete, I weighed one of those blocks. It weighs 12.8 pounds. 72 of them would weigh 921.6 pounds. Picking each one up four times would mean lifting 3686 pounds, nearly two tons! And I did this over two days! On my knees! Scraping and leveling, filling and blocking, then moving them again for proper spacing. Oh poor me, poor me! Oooops, this isn’t supposed to be a pity party!

The job was done in time for the party. Nobody ever knew. Just Suzy and me and Emerson. Here’s what it looks like now.

From Laying cement for the trailer

I forgot to tell you about Kokopelli! He’s a legend among our southwest Native Americans. Kokopelli is described as a god of harvest, fertility, you name it. He dances and plays a flute. He is also a trickster, often playing practical jokes. We have adopted him in our yard, and bought a statue for the front of the trailer.

From Laying cement for the trailer

From Laying cement for the trailer

So here we are, snug in our home, happy as can be. Oh, the water leak under the trailer that was causing the stairs to sink? Fixed that Wednesday afternoon, so now we’ll dry out in order to continue …Our Life on Wheels.