Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Chapter 763 A Busy Scene
Time flies, and it is the next morning in a blink of an eye.

Just when everyone was busy with their own work, the car sent by Wu Dong and Wang Shuai arrived.

This time, there were 6 trucks coming.

Among them were 2 full trucks of cement and 4 full trucks of sand.

That is 30 tons of cement and 60 cubic meters of sand.

I have to say that Wang An’s half-brothers and half-sisters were really helpful. Even though 23 tons of cement were needed, they delivered 30 tons.

It can be seen that the reason why each truckload of cement is 15 tons and each truckload of sand is 15 cubic meters is not because they don't want to load more, but because each truck can only load so much, which is already the limit.

Wang An looked at the tire that had been pressed flat by the elder sister, and thought of the tire that was also deflated when he used a four-wheeled vehicle to pull cement. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart:
Whether it is the cars of this era or the agricultural tractors of this era, they are all really suffering!

The reason for this is that they have been bearing weights that they should not bear.

However, with the arrival of cement, Wang An's family's nine mules and horses and two donkeys, one big and one small, were all tied to the backyard.

There is no way. Cement cannot be exposed to moisture or rain. If it gets wet, all the cement will be scrapped.

So all the mules, horses and two donkeys had to be led out of the open shed, and the vacated space was used to store cement.

After unloading the trucks, the drivers declined Wang An’s offer to keep them for dinner and drove away.

To be frank, these people's discipline is really strict.

After seeing the drivers off, Wang An looked at the open shed filled with cement and suddenly discovered a somewhat annoying problem.

That is, if as Wu Dong said, the ratio of cement to sand is 1 to 2.5, then the cement and sand we have now are just the right ratio.

Including the cement purchased by Wang An and the cement donated by Wu Dong and others, Wang An's home now has a total of 51 tons of cement.

As for the sand, there are 90 cubic meters, which is about 126 to 130 tons.

But if we follow the optimal ratio of 1 to 3, or 1 to 4, then we will be short of 26 tons or even 51 tons of sand, which is 19 cubic meters or 37 cubic meters if calculated in cubic meters.

The reason why it is calculated by cubic meter is that in the local area, sand is priced in units of "cubic meter", and no one will weigh it.

To be honest, the sand at that time was not that expensive. Ordinary sand, the kind that has some large pebbles in it, was 3 yuan per cubic meter. Very good washed sand, like the one that Wu Dong and his team sent, was 4 yuan per cubic meter.

Although sand is not expensive, it takes some time to get it home.

There are sand factories in the village, and there is more than one, because where there is a lot of water, there must be many sand factories.

You just have to be careful when dealing with those people in the sand factory. I'm not exaggerating at all. Among those people, there are very few good people. Most of them are hooligans and swindlers.

Fortunately, the sand is enough for the short term, so there is no need to rush.

With these things in mind, Wang An returned to the track car.
In this way, Wang An drove the trolley for two days before he completed the foundations of the two houses and the ground fire dragon combustion chambers of the two houses.

Looking at the results of his work over the past two days, Wang An suddenly felt an immense sense of accomplishment.

After walking around the fruits of his labor, Wang An could not help but nod his head in satisfaction. The work was done beautifully, and the foundation was pushed straight and level.
The local water level is very shallow. Fortunately, Wang An's homestead is on a slightly higher slope, so Wang An was able to push the foundation two meters deep.

Even so, the soil two meters below is already very moist.

In fact, if you build a brick house normally, a foundation more than one meter deep is enough. However, Wang An built the brick house according to the standard of a two-story building, so he built such a deep foundation.

However, after these two days, Wang An felt that he would most likely not bother with the second floor again. It was both mentally and physically tiring, and most importantly, it was of no great use.

Such a spacious brick house is comfortable enough to live in.

As Wang An finished pushing the foundation, the bricklayers Sun Xiangyang and Sun Xianghui, who had been helping with odd jobs for two days, and stonemason Li Laicai and others, brought a group of people in to start laying stones, that is, laying the foundation.

If you follow the normal procedure, you need to tamp the foundation after digging it, and the tool used to tamp the foundation is called a "rammer".

As for the "ramming" thing, it is actually a roller without a frame.

It is worth noting that a roller is not a millstone, and the functions of a roller and a millstone are completely different.

Although both of these are solid stone tools and are extremely heavy, the millstone is a cylinder with the same thickness at the top and bottom, and its surface is very smooth.

But the roller is different.

It is a cylinder that is thick on one side and thin on the other, and the surface is also uneven.

The "tamping" thing is to stand the roller upright, with the thick side facing down and the thin side facing up, and then tie a pickaxe handle more than one meter long to each side.

To tamp the foundation, two people would lift this thing and pound it, relying entirely on the roller's own weight.

The reason why Wang An could build the foundation directly after he had dug the ground did not need to be compacted like this was because the foundation had already been compacted where the track tractor had passed, so there was no need to compact it again.

Looking around, the entire homestead of Wang An's family was a busy scene.

In the southeast corner of the homestead, carpenters Niu Yichen and his son Niu Dalong and several others were making triangular beams.

In the west front of the foundation, uncle Wang Dashu is leading a group of people with cement and sand, because the sand pile and the spring are right here.

As for moving bricks, that has already stopped. We will move them again when the wall is built. There are many people, so there is no need to rush.

Surrounding the foundation are piles of stones. Of course, these stones are now constantly decreasing.

During these two days, the group of rock blasters led by Wang Daliang and Wang Li had already brought back quite a lot of rocks, but it was still not enough and they had to continue blasting.

Besides, Wang Li’s family will also need it when building a house, so it would be easier if they could just blast it together and bring it back.

During these two days, Wang An also discovered something. That is, his eldest brother Wang Yong, second brother Wang Shun, and third brother Wang Gan were learning how to drive a walk-behind tractor from Wang Li.

And these three people are now fully capable of doing it. It is obvious that Wang Li wants to free himself from driving.

I have to say that Wang Li’s thoughts are quite thoughtful.

(End of this chapter)