The Second Pour

So the day after christmas, bright and early, my body working on a good head cold, the Concrete Man came again.
He rolled up the driveway looked at the sight and then decided to head back down the driveway and back up. This is harrowing, if you know the driveway and the general size of a cement truck.
He unfolded the spout and pulled a few levers and lumpy wet concrete began to plop grotesquely into the pit like so much elephant dung. My dad and I hoed it into place and The Man helped out with a shovel. Eventually it was full, overfull really, and The Man and I screeded it into place, that is we took a 2x4 and layed it atop the edges of the frame and sawed it back and forth while pulling it from one end to the other. This pushed the larger aggregate (gravel) down and pulled the more liquidy components to the top leaving a smooth surface. The man pulled up onto the driveway where he cleaned out the truck (leaving us a nice patch of concrete) while I used a small float (a hand tool that is basically a 5"x12" piece of sheet metal with a handle) to make the edges, that is, the only part that will not be under more block and brick, even smoother. As we cleaned off the tools it began to drizzle so we put a piece of heavy duty plastic over the fresh slab. This had the unfortunate effect of leaving a strange lined finish on the slab from the creases in the plastic. Oh well. I will include pictures when I am home next.