The Heinleins have a new passion

My wife and I have a new passion.

It involves physical exertion, lots of teamwork, and kneepads. Sometimes it gets loud.

We're mixing our own concrete and pouring a patio, one 32-inch square at a time. We finished two squares last week and only have 37 more to go.

Because it's hunting season and I made a prior commitment to my dogs, we only get passionate in the afternoons. Once I return from the morning hunt, however, Barb and I get frisky.

She tells me what to do. I tell her that doesn't sound right. We discuss it for a bit. I storm off and then we do it her way.

Barb's father was a masonry contractor. She often reminds me of that fact when I question her "techniques."

Having spent more than a few years in the trades myself, I'm a bit of an "expert," too, although I'm more comfortable with a shovel in my hands than running a "crew."

After we completed the first square, which was much more work than anticipated, I was ready to quit. There had to be an easier solution to sprucing up the patch of dirt that runs from our existing patio to the bunkhouse.

Barb, on the other hand, was smitten.

She liked the look, and didn't consider the project quite as daunting as I did.

"But it's hunting season!" I cried.

"Oh, you don't hunt all day," she countered. "This will be fun."

And there began our afternoons of fun, setting forms, feeding the cement mixer, and pouring concrete.

We completed two other construction projects earlier this year and remain married, so we're confident we'll survive this one, although I have caught Barb with a shovel in her hands giving me a strange look on more than one occasion.

As much as we have embraced this project, it has more to do with a lack of options than with any real love we have for pouring concrete. Our cabin is in a remote location in a county with a population of just over 1,200. While we'd be content to just watch someone else do the work, there simply isn't someone else. We have to do it ourselves or not get it done, and one of us didn't consider that an option.

I guess this is the price I pay for having my own cement mixer. I should have sold it years ago.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]