A New 2 X 2 Foot Wall

I left work a bit early and when I got home went down to look at my pile of brick and think everything threw. I decided I would need to make my mortar layers 1 inch thick instead of 1/2 inch thick or cut another layer of bricks in 1/2. I decided to break more bricks.

My chisel was getting beat up and this row of bricks was tougher then the ones the day before but I eventually got a good row. I decided to put my 1/2 row along the bottom to help hide it.

Then I headed upstairs and cooked up some pasta w/ a ton of veggies in it and some turkey meatballs. I had a huge bowl and got really full but was hungry again a few hours later. I watched some TV while I ate then headed back downstairs. I got Stephen to come by and we filled up buckets w/ mortar and water and then mixed them.

We laid down a 1/2 inch of mortar and then a row of bricks and worked the mortar around them all the time trying to keep them level w/ each other, the bricks in the front and keep them from bowing in either direction. We figured it out as we went and got a 4 brick high wall fairly quickly.

Stephen had to go and I cleaned up the area and my tools. I was able to clean up some of the mortar in the wall when it was just starting to harden but had to be careful not to mess up the wall. Mike and Stooks came by and I got some things ready for work then went back to the wall.

It had been about 40 or so minutes since we finished the top of the last row and everything felt much more sturdy. As we got higher the wall got wobbly so we waited after the 4th row.

I mixed a new batch of mortar and started on the next two rows. I mixed my mortar a bit dryer and had a better idea of what I was doing and so the last two rows went really well. Nothing in my studies told me what to do at the top since my wall was just to fill in a hole so I just used my fingers to wedge mortar in between as full as I could.

I cleaned up and filled in mortar on both sides and got everything looking good. As it hardened I was able to clean up my mortar layers better and better.

The mortar got fairly hard in an hour or less but I think will take a longer time to fully cure. I didn’t look this morning but last night before bed the mortar still looked darker or wetter then the old stuff around it.

Once it is dried up I’ll get a wire brush and clean up the bricks and get off any mortar I don’t want on there.

After the wall I cooled off with a beer and watched Stooks and Mike play Madden on the Wii.

It looked pretty cool and I have never been a big video game person but the hand movements made it better and after a big play the game encouraged them to dance.

I headed to work once I stopped sweating and my beer was gone. I had servers to reboot, anti virus to install and a new desktop to put in. Everything went really well and I got done faster then I had expected. Heath called right as I was getting done. She had been at some coworker gathering and we decided to meet at Ugly Joe’s for a beer since we had not seen much of each other this week and had missed our date night all together. Also I would be gone most of the weekend on Jon’s Annual River trip.

After our beers we headed home, checked on the wall, visited with Mike and Stooks then headed to bed.