And it's done!

 The concreting exercise was successful and we are pleased!

Cheese scones were produced early which was a good thing as the concrete truck's arrival was brought forward again to 9:30. 

The truck arrives and only Pete is here from the contractors ...

Pete needed the wheelbarrow dampened so the concrete slid off easily

Warren reversing down the driveway. I had moved the motorhome back out of the way, but a couple of the roses beside the drive got a bit of an unwanted trim ... Of course, he was more interested in avoiding the cabbage tree for some reason!

Zack and Mike arriving wondering how come the concrete truck was early ...

David likes to check my height against the wheels ...

Warren is ready to pour.

Mike on his way with barrow number two, I think

Westie was in charge of spreading and placement. Westie was one of the guys who built that fence to his left some years ago too.

The mesh had been placed on the first layer, Westie was spreading out the first part of the second layer and Zack was on the big rake.

Mike bringing a barrowload - that is extremely heavy. Pete who is in his 60s was only doing half loads - very sensible! Mike was using it as softball training, I think - good for arm and back development.

David and I watched - a much better use of our time and skill. I did take photos though and made tea, coffee and the scones ...

Warren holding back the flow while Pete leaves.

One layer on all over and Westie doing something I'd love to do - standing in wet concrete. Zack is waiting for the next spreading manoeuvre and Pete is watching - I think he needed a break.

Zack's turn at the smoothing while Mike delivers the next barrowful and Westie keeps an eye.

Starting to look really good.

After a late morning tea, Westie did an initial float smoothing where he used a very wide smoothing trowel on an extremely long handle. That float operation is designed to bring the excess water to the surface so it can be swished gently off the edges. After that, they all left with the hope that the rain would hold off.

It didn't, dammit! It wasn't hard and mostly was not a problem to the surface - except where the magnolia tree next door overhangs the concrete. The drips from the tree were MUCH larger than the rain drops!

In the front left, you can see that the surface is pocked. The offending branches are just above. You can see Westie's float trowel. It was leaning against the raised vegetable box and was very long!

They were due to return to do a final float after about an hour. But because of the pockmarks and because it was over an hour, I called the contractor to find out when they would be back - the concrete takes a while to go off, but there isn't really a long timeframe where it is still workable.

Zack and Westie came back and sorted the pockmarks - it was not a simple task, and we are grateful they did such a good job of it. Westie is kneeling on a long metal plank  and leaning on a trowel - just shows how fast the concrete starts to go off that his trowel didn't sink under this weight!

Edges being smoothed and rounded

The almost finished, not yet solidly dry result. We are happy

The guys have to come back on Friday to do two cuts across it, from front to back and from side to side. Apparently, according to the lovely Luke, they are required to ensure that it doesn't crack. Must be right because he did it on the concrete pad under the motorhome and that has not cracks at all!

Friday's morning tea is going to be banana and blueberry muffins. I am not sure how many people are needed to do the cutting, but I will make sure there's enough muffins for all of yesterday's team...

Right now I am going out to give the concrete a little wetting with a gently running hose so it doesn't dry out too fast.