Mixing it up

This was the view from the end of the mixing hoe Tuesday morning.

Arnold and Mike were finishing up on the right side of the front gable, Mr. B was off on an urgent errand and me
. . . well, I'd watched the guys mix concrete before, and it had reminded me of getting the lumps out of brownie batter, only kinda gritty.

Right, if you're talking about 240 pounds of flour. It took only a few minutes for the first blister to rise.

By the time Brantley got back and got the load poured, Arnold ambled over, studied the form, studied the bags yet to be mixed and said, "That looks like it'll be a couple of yards' worth -- gonna take you a while mixing it by hand."

We put in a quick call to Jimmy Lee, a plasterer friend, to see if he was using his gas-powered mixer today.

He wasn't, thank goodness.