Friday, 24 June 2011
On a bitterly cold and blustery Friday we made a date with Neil to go and do a bit of crack repair. Unlike Leonard Cohen of whom I borrowed the title quote our crack didn’t let the light get in but rather let the water out and the field was rather muddy.
![](http://test.vanstadens.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/IMG_7939.jpg "\\\\"\\\\\"IMG_7927\\\\\"\\\\"/")
My bright idea of a clamp and a rubber strip wasn’t quite good enough to stop the leak until Neil had the brighter idea of opening the valve at the old nursery to release the pressure in the pipe and hey presto, we could do our concrete bit, pictures tell the story:
![](http://test.vanstadens.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/IMG_7931.jpg "\\\\"\\\\\"IMG_7931\\\\\"\\\\"/")
The pipe with its bandage
![](http://test.vanstadens.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/IMG_7932.jpg "\\\\"\\\\\"IMG_7932\\\\\"\\\\"/")
Mud, glorious mud, me preparing the hole for the formwork.
![](http://test.vanstadens.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/IMG_7936.jpg "\\\\"\\\\\"IMG_7936\\\\\"\\\\"/")
Mixing concrete and smearing the pipe with cement
![](http://test.vanstadens.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/IMG_7941.jpg "\\\\"\\\\\"IMG_7941\\\\\"\\\\"/")
The foreman is happy with the result.
![](http://test.vanstadens.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/IMG_7943.jpg "\\\\"\\\\\"IMG_7943\\\\\"\\\\"/")
And lastly, shovelling the mud back in. Now we wait for it to set and hope for the best. Neil isn’t in the pictures because by the time he came back the job was done. We forgive him because he organized coffee with Wesley afterwards.