Concrete

I didn't do any real cooking yesterday, but I did mix a lot of concrete. As I was standing there at the mixer I was thinking how in a way it is quite similar to mixing up a cake.

So in case, like me, you happen to have a cement mixer hanging around and you feel like doing a bit of building one day, here's how you make concrete!

Three buckets of gravel,

two buckets of sand,

(the sand can also act as a great babysitter)

and one bucket of cement.

Note the colour-coded buckets. I think you can tell a girl was involved in this building job!

Mix it all up in the cement mixer while adding just enough water to make a sloppy but not runny mixture. Keep making loads of it, starting a new lot every time a load is taken away in a wheelbarrow, and keep going until you're told to stop by the Man In Charge.


This is where all the concrete was going (actually it's called grout because it's runnier than concrete and is used for filling the concrete blocks).

These are part of the footings for the veranda for the back of our house. Hopefully one day soon we'll be all sitting out there sipping drinks and eating something tasty I've made.

I won't put a picture of the rest of our garden, but I think maybe you can imagine what it might be like!

Which is why last night we ate our dinner (fish nuggets and potato wedges from the freezer because it's all I could manage between loads of grout) in the front garden.

Happy New Year everyone!