...And at the End.

I guess it's time to close off now - I have to talk about something that I have been putting off, the reason for this blog & also the reason for why it hit me so hard. You see, I have this thing that although many people will only see a 'pet' or a 'dog' I have always been very close to my friends - not pets! The loyalty that is shown by these animals is just too great to be brushed off & requires a greater return from us. Well, that's the way I feel, anyway. Responsibilty to them & for them. So that is why, when the last deed has to be done for pity's sake, then I must be with them at the end.
So this is what happened that day, that Sunday. As I said, he was already pretty far gone & I thought that, after talking to the vet, it would have to happen that morning. I had to carry him to the car as he could'nt walk at that stage. Took him for a bit of a ride through the country for the last time & then on to the vets. Again, I had to carry him out to the table in the operating room. Thing is - the vet hit him with 30ml of the stuff....... and it didn't work! He actually pushed himself up, looked me straight in the eyes & gave a deep throated howl/groan that basically said to me "You Bastard!! I trusted you!". The vet had to hit him with another 10 or 15ml - I'm not sure how much any more 'cos that's when I cracked totally! He then subsided & threw up a load of grass green gunge - no idea where it came from 'cos he hadn't eaten or drunk anything for 3 days - & then it was over & so was I. I ran from that room saying, I don't know what to the vet over my shoulder & then drove home. He was taken to be buried in Cape Town 'cos we, apparently, are not allowed to bury dogs in our yards anymore. Load of bollocks if you ask me!
The reason for the stuff not working immediately was, according to a vet friend of mine, was that his kidneys were too far gone - still doesn't make me feel any better!
So that's it then, no more on this blog I don't think - no reason really.

Rebuilding cont......

So, finally all the old stuff is off & new fill has been put in & compacted (correctly!). Hopefully the builder has got all his levels right & we won't end up with water in the front room! Never saw a dumpy level at any stage so....
However, here we go, plastic sheeting down & steel reinforcing laid & tied together.

 Then came the 'fun' part. The concrete went down fairly well, although the lawn did not do as well! There was like more stone & concrete on the lawn than in the wheel-barrows at times. Sounds like a bit of a whinge, doesn't it? Well we had just come out of one of the worst droughts in about 30 years so I was a bit sensitive about my lawn. ;)

Concrete 45% down now - I think Jan was trying to get a shot of a 'Builders crack'. There was the warning of a large cold front looming offshore but it didn't materialise. Next step after all down, keep damp for 48 hours & then the screed. All in all not too bad a job considering. Total cost about R14000 (that's about £1400 Ditch) I dunno what a job like this would cost over there but we used 42 bags of cement, 6 cubes of sand (fill as well) & 3 cubes of stone. The re-inforcing matting was 6*2.4m*6m & 70sq m of plastic sheeting. The rest was for labour & transport

Finished. Well, except for the stain & sealer - but that can bloody well wait a bit! My back & my credit card need to get back into shape!

Rebuilding.......

Been a while but maybe the time was needed. Started ripping our front patio apart 'cos the damn thing was sunken in places. You can put it down to piss-poor workmanship really. People are always quick to blame the labourers but "the rot starts at the top"! If the owner of the building company doesn't give a monkeys as long as he gets his money then why should the labourer who gets paid next to bugger-all? The problem is that the house was built on a slope & there was a fair amount of fill needed. So, they just dump enough stuff in to fill it & THEN they compact instead of doing it the right way - fill 6" to a foot, dampen & compact & so on until the right depth is reached. Result of doing it the easy way? As the soil settles the concrete slab cracks & follows it 'cos they don't put reinforcing steel in either. Mebbe not a bad thing or I would be having a suspended concrete floor.
The surface was also covered with 'Slasto' - not too sure what other people call it but it's basically coloured slate. That had to be removed first.

That's 'ol Rossi keeping an eye on me! As you can see the main  slab has collapsed completely in places. Bloody hard concrete in places - other areas as soft as butter! I started off on my Pat but decided a couple of extra hands would be a good idea. The back is NOT as strong as it used to be!

This is Willem & Flippy, 2 local piss-cats that agreed to forgo their daily piss-up to help me - for a fee, of course! They had been on the rip the night before so I got a few free tots just breathing! The work ethic improved after a few cups of strong coffee tho'.

This is as far as I got after 2 1/2 days work. As you can see, Ross was not overly impressed! This was on the Tuesday of his last week. Funny how it gets easier to talk about, isn't it? We have talked about getting another Ridgeback but - we are not sure. For a start we would always be comparing the new one to him & that would not be fair - not on the new one anyway! He was really something special.

This is just some of the crap we had to remove. The stuff at the back is the Slasto.
This is gonna be a loooong one so I guess I had better stop now before I bore the hell out of myself as well! Next installment later.....