Standing on shaky ground

Sounds like a song title?

Yes, I does. At least this one does to me. Late 80ies it was when Standing on shaky ground found its way into my band’s repertoire. One of the absolute greatest songs by the one and only Delbert McClinton – and to this day one of my all time favorite vocalists on this planet.

That song came to my mind instantly when we started digging the footings for our new home. Never having built before in my live and without warning my ground started shaking the day we got the news that work for footings needed to be stopped. The grounds in Clarens are not without surprises and so we got presented with ours: “As you know the soil that we found when digging on site is not the best load bearing soil in the world. Although this structure is not a multi story building or very heavy we are still required to construct the foundations and building according to the engineered signed off design” Boom. Oh yeah. Double boom. FOUNDATION DELAYS. Great.

New sign off needed from the engineers. Delay. New way of constructing the footings. Delay. Extra material needed. Delay. Concrete pouring delayed. And like this was not enough good news – Clarens started getting the most rain in November and December 2021 in about 12 years. Sounds very, very nightmare-ish. Close to 1000mm in December. That’s a lot, a lot of water coming down. Perfect Christmas present……

But life’s curve balls are part of the experience and so we finalized the footings by mid-December 2021 only. Hand-dug and built with love. And with silly season ante portas a decision was made to let the hard working builders go and enjoy their deserved holidays. What? You do not know what the silly season is? So for our readers in the northern hemisphere – this is it!

Happy chappies we were and ready to get stuffed like turkeys and to enjoy sunny weather that was forecast for Christmas.

And now we are ready to pick up the tools and continue the work!

PS: Standing on shaky ground – here it is. Funked up and rocked by THE MAN himself:

Just don’t forget – Never too old, never too crazy. Stay tuned!