Seven volunteers on site today, with a very windy start. Two people had the doors of the cars ripped out of their hands when they got out! Wow. That sure set the scene, and it stayed windy all day.

Three of the seven were brick layers, so we had three areas that were addressed - corbelling on the 40m section (first course), two rows on the 50m section with backing up, and one row, backed up, on the new 70m section. All in all, 725 bricks were laid. This was immediately inspected by our eminent Chairman, who came for a much appreciated chat.

With all this brick laying going on, our relentless brickies were soon short and a cry went up for 'more reds'. This request was taken on by the other four volunteers, who got the ladder chute out and attacked the last three stacks remaining in the middle part of the top. We are well over half way now moving the stacks down to track level, perhaps 70%.

Are you ready down there? Well, they're coming down anyway... Brian and Derrick try to catch a set of three bricks plummeting down the chute, adeptly thrown by Keith.

This is pretty backbreaking work especially for the two at the top of the embankment, as they have to bend over repeatedly and pick bricks off an ever diminishing stack. By changing places from time to time the pain was transferred to other parts of the body, and we managed to clear three stacks, or 1500 reds. These were brought to the workface and stacked on the duckboards ready for use.

Now, where exactly do you want these, John?

John has just finished a layer of corbelling, and each brick is counterbalanced by another balanced on its end, until the mortar has set. It is not possible to do more than one row in a day, until the row underneath is properly set.

New volunteer Derrick is allowed to do the pushing.

After unloading and stacking the bricks comes the fun bit. One of us gets a free ride to the other end of the site ! This is not for enjoyment (honest!), but someone has to sit on the trolley and hold the brake off. There's no other way, really...

In the foreground is Bob, on his hands and knees. This is how you lay the first rows of bricks, until the wall is high enough for you to stoop down. Not ideal either actually. Next to Bob is the line, fixed in advance, from which the heights of the individual rows are determined. This ensures that the wall is at a constant slope, and neither too high nor too low. Tricky, when the concrete base goes up in steps.

The current extent of the wall, at 70m.

Towards the end of the day, the new 70m section had two full rows on it, and was being prepared for the laying of the concrete blocks. A sample block has already been placed. Now for the 89 others.

The site at the end of the day

The final effort of the 'shifting gang' was to get a supplementary 60 blocks on the trolley, and lay these out with the 30 already stacked on site along the 70m section, ready for laying on a bed of mortar.

Finally, a plea from John and Bob. Is there anyone who can help us with block laying, and backing up? We are trying to divide our labours so that John and Bob can lay blues as often as possible, so it would really help if we had a couple of guys following them with backing up in reds. As the reds are out of sight, accuracy is not a problem.
It is likely that the next working day at CRC2 will be Thursday (deferred from Wednesday, when the forecast is not favourable), so anyone who can help lay reds, please get in touch with John or Bob.