27th Febuary – Boldes Baselayer
The morning greeted us with a mild glow behind clouds, cold fresh air and peanutbutter pancakes with curry. Our preemptive scepticism was clear by an interesting but good and filling taste. Together with Dabindra and Dhan Dhoj, our bricklayer, we got of to a good start. The first layer was layed extra carfully since the entire project depends on it. So we took time. Layed them out, measured them, rearanged, chalked and finaly set onto refractory concrete.And then mother nature decided to pay a visit. In the form of slightly to strong rain to keep working. We had just finished the base layer and got ready for the second one when we had to cover the entire site in a tarp and retire for lunch. The rain did not stop and we assumed we had to delay till tomorrow. To everyones suprise the sun cleared the clouds around 2 and gave us a chance to use the mortar we had already mixed and which would otherwise go to waste. So we got straight back into it and bricked away.
Happy ending to a first day? Well, nature was in a mood today and around 3 pm and just when starting the thrid layer of bricks the wind suddenly picked up and a quick look westwards confirmed that we had limited time to cover back up. Dabindra rightfully didn’t want to waste the special fire resistant cement and proposed to tie the tarp to some young trees and keep going. With the rain already setting in we managed to pitch a form of tent as you can see. Dhan Dhoj kept working with great precision and Dabindra suprised us with unknown massonry skills. He split a brick clean in half without effort and helped with the mortar to finish quicker. Around 4 we finished with the mortar and three beautiful layer. We were deeply inpressed by the work ehtics of the entire team and their skill. With a team like that we feel confidant for the next days and are looking forwards to the time here.
Depending what nature has in store for us tomorrow we will have a day of bircks or a day of pure calculations before the metal hopefully arrives on friday.Until then
Best rainy regards form Bolde,
Arne and Henning