Until the bottom of my left heel (?) started hurting today, I mixed and poured wet/loose concrete into the 3" bored cores that I had drilled as I laid the AAC block. These 3" cylinders are vertical and are located approximately every 4'. Each hole gets filled with concrete and a rebar is dropped down the hole to create a 3" steel/concrete column. These columns - which extend all the way down through the slab & stem wall into the footing - will be tied into the top bond beam that I keep harping about. When I am finished with the bond beam, the block walls will be tied together top-to-bottom and side-to-side with concrete & steel. This picture is a shot down the north wall from east to west (be nice... the wall is pretty straight). The rebar sticking out of the holes will be bent over and wired to another continuous piece of rebar that runs along the entire top course about 3" higher and parallel to the top (12th) course of AAC block. This literally makes a poured concrete/steel beam. Before the bond beam is poured, 8" "J" bolts will be wired to the lower run of rebar and a second horizontal piece of rebar will be tied above the first run (All new construction in Florida (I'm told) is required to have such a bond beam to stiffen/strengthen the house in case of a hurricane). A 2" X 8" wooden plate will be bolted to the top of the wall with these "J" bolts and the roof trusses afixed to this plate.
Here's a blast from the past... the buff kid kneeling in the center is me 90 pounds and many years ago (circa summer, 1966). As U.S. Naval Academy 2nd Class Midshipmen we were in Little Creek, Virginia being indoctrinated by the Marine Corps before our junior year (19 years old... and as I recall barely shaving). We (8th Company, Class of 1968) had just made an amphibious landing in very rough seas (we disembarked from a troop transport ship into tiny landing craft that bounced around like corks until we hit -
HIT being the operative word - the beach). We were wet, cold and miserable.
On a somber note: My dear friend the Honorable LT Spence Dry (over my left shoulder) was the last Navy SEAL killed in Vietnam (I was with Spence in the Philippines during the summer of 1969 the moment he made the decision to become a SEAL)... he was awarded the Bronze Star with "V" for Valor, to wit:
You'll be happy to know that back at the Academy your tax dollars paid for the following kind of frivolity. This is my classmate and friend, Scott McRoberts, who later became a Naval Aviator (P-3 pilot) and retired as a Captain (O-6):
Here's a blast from the past... the buff kid kneeling in the center is me 90 pounds and many years ago (circa summer, 1966). As U.S. Naval Academy 2nd Class Midshipmen we were in Little Creek, Virginia being indoctrinated by the Marine Corps before our junior year (19 years old... and as I recall barely shaving). We (8th Company, Class of 1968) had just made an amphibious landing in very rough seas (we disembarked from a troop transport ship into tiny landing craft that bounced around like corks until we hit - HIT being the operative word - the beach). We were wet, cold and miserable.
On a somber note: My dear friend the Honorable LT Spence Dry (over my left shoulder) was the last Navy SEAL killed in Vietnam (I was with Spence in the Philippines during the summer of 1969 the moment he made the decision to become a SEAL)... he was awarded the Bronze Star with "V" for Valor, to wit:
You'll be happy to know that back at the Academy your tax dollars paid for the following kind of frivolity. This is my classmate and friend, Scott McRoberts, who later became a Naval Aviator (P-3 pilot) and retired as a Captain (O-6):
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