Heavier work began yesterday with the arrival of the breaker yumbo. Today the crew spent the day cracking up slabs of concrete. We are reusing old concrete from around the property in the back of the gabion cages.
I feel really good about this. It’s ecologically sound. We’re repurposing materials already on site, so keeping them out of the landfill. And some of the concrete was ancient stuff dumped down into a corner of the blueberry farm, so we are cleaning that up. The Kawasakis are on board with it, and happy to be able to support the SDGs. Not that this is going to have a big impact on the sustaining planet but its a little thing we can do personally and it feels right.
Economically, it’s probably a wash. Yes, the concrete is free, but we could have bought all the stone required for about 250,000 yen. Instead, I am using my laborers and renting heavy equipment. And I still have to buy stone for the facing parts of the wire cages.
However, as an unexpected bonus, having cracked up concrete and rubble on hand allowed me to take care of another little thing that I’ve been meaning to do.
Just around the corner of the farm shed there’s a drainage ditch that ends abruptly. All the channelled rainwater flows down the slight slope in front of the shed making a slippery mess right where we often tread. So I have cobbled together a temporary fix by slapping down some concrete chunks and filling the gaps with the pebbles of broken concrete.
I call it Sankaku Road, because I tried to stick to triangular pieces of concrete. It looks nice to have things in a similar shape and it is fun to puzzle them together to fit nicely. I got about halfway before the end of the day. I’d hoped to finish it today, but it rained heavily and we all went home before lunchtime.
Someday, I’ll fix the drainage problem properly, but with luck this will hold for the duration of the construction and maybe even a little longer.
