… at work. 3 tons of bricks lifted and placed. It is a little different than gym training where you focus on one area and work to failure, where at our jobsites you use whatever means to make it as easy as possible while trying to conserve energy to complete the entire task PLUS have energy for a 3 year old when I get home. Still an INCREDIBLE workout, as I am wiped out. The hip held up really well today and I have made the decision to go racing on Sunday! *Woot* If I can lay bricks, I can run dammit.
The real trick in retaining wall building is to get the base perfect, then you just lay the bricks down. once the bricks are down, the work begins again in the cutting of the wall caps to fit perfectly around the curves. It’s very labour intensive with the placing, marking, lifting, cutting with the 14” gas diamond saw and then placing again. Then doing it all over again as each capstone gets cut twice (once on each end so they match up to each other well)
We also do really nice woodwork. While not as strenuous as brick laying, it is more mental exercise. It is the genius of my Dad that wood features like this comes out as incredibly well as they do! I love creating amazing stuff like this!
Ok, Reader Andrew O, from Toronto, Ontario writes a request in regards to my running in the Drumheller 5k on Sunday, and about the fact that the run is in the Badlands.
“Post some pics if you can of the outside area ... I understand it's pretty bare ... or maybe I'm wrong.”
Well Andrew, please follow along and enjoy some photos from our last trip to the Drumheller/badlands area this past May.
![[CIMG7702-1[3].jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhko0EIoF1cjUEd9E8OVPQ9qtkw-0a81MNdbgEI85QCI5i6oihuMlNDSorXutmcPGBdFPo3q1gA1mCEDSUDytB7dF0XV9VVNMPN0hOHy3rootsC9-3Y4sMhyphenhyphenf9m60mZSbIRWEqGnfXBrOY/s1600/CIMG7702-1%5B3%5D.jpg)
![[CIMG7706-1[3].jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCsNKq077E-gN1Cp3QcHMV7qWGaJdoSSM9FT6vBCYKSSrvc0zvcBhUfZY9y1uC7xfikL_kSqVknqQqbOZ3Kj35JLKWlKAv5HJz3SXxAUGGdfnaZdMslOP2WmAc0VjPbXayFSvaJVH1tY/s1600/CIMG7706-1%5B3%5D.jpg)
We spend a lot of time in this amazing area, that is only 90 minutes from our house, but might as well be a world away by the look and feel of it! Here are a few other posts from a different blog that I wrote about the area:
Andrew, I hope this helps make up your mind to come visit this amazing area of Alberta. Feel free to call me when you get here, I can obviously be a great tour guide and thanks for reading my fun blog!
Beautiful decking. I also did not realize the diversity of the fauna in your neck of the woods.
ReplyDeleteThe badlands are an amazing bit of real estate. There you are, driving along in gently rolling Alberta farmland, when you start driving into a huge gully. You go down and down, looking at layer after layer of exposed earth. The whole town of Drumheller is down in the gully, along with a good sized river. In the town that's in the gully, there is one of the most amazing dinosaur museums in the world. I know of a guy that came to Calgary, drove straight to Drumheller from the airport, spent a bunch of time there, and when he got back to Calgary he wondered why there were so many people milling around and it was hard to get a hotel room. It was Stampede.
ReplyDeleteOh, and nice work!
ReplyDeleteYou do really great work! I think that comes under the functional fitness category. I always thought it was weird that in modern days we had to carve out separate period of time for fitness workouts and I always longed for a life that kept me fit. That bricklaying is an example.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can see how bricklaying is excellent crosstraining. I wish my work involved cross-training, but desk jobs just don't do that. But I also see a desk job as an opportunity to recover from my morning workouts and have energy to spare when I get home. I like that :-)
ReplyDeleteFrom Bruce Springsteen:
ReplyDeleteBadlands you gotta live it every day, let the broken hearts stand as the price you've gotta pay. We'll keep pushin till it's understood and these badlands start treating us good.