Just one more picture I promise--what I do for a living:

[panader0]

This is crossing over the garage door entry.
I laid the job out, poured the foundations and floor, and laid every block on this garage. Ordered and installed the trusses, roofed
it, built all the shelves etc. I love construction. It just doesn't love me back.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. It's really hard work, my dear panader0...

Looks like you're skilled at what you do.

[Adsos Letter]

2. I did two years on a concrete crew, and then 35 years as a painter.

Many people don't realize just how much work is involved in the trades.

[panader0]

3. You got that right brother.

[pinboy3niner]

4. I admire you who do that hard work

And you obviously take pride in doing a quality job, which is expecially admirable.

[Jim Lane]

7. Hard work and RISKY work

I'm a lawyer, and a big part of my caseload is construction workers injured in on-the-job accidents. If one small thing goes wrong, the victim can end up unable to work and/or with lifelong pain. Me, I sometimes get a paper cut.

[jeff47]

8. Yep. Everything that gets built in in order to make the place safe

has not been built yet.

Had a scaffolding collapse on one of the houses my family was building back when I was a kid. It did not go well for the worker who was standing on it.

[jeff47]

9. Yep. Doing Masonry like that causes a real beating.

You do masonry work like that, you become a real tank....for about 15-20 years. Then it catches up with you quickly.

[mike_c]

10. I lasted one short winter on a concrete crew back when I was at my physical peak....

I dunno, early twenties. I could walk all day with a heavy pack. I was a runner and a weight lifter. Humping wall forms for concrete construction in housing subdivisions damn near killed me, or at least made me prefer death to showing up for work, some days. It didn't help that we often had to dig out footers and foundations in frozen ground, with picks, shovels, and digging bars. To this day I remember the shocking jar of a digging bar bouncing off hard frozen clay. I ended up having to quit because of chronic tendonitis in my elbows from swinging a sledge.

I still love building things. But I've found that, like cooking, construction is fun when you don't have to do it for a living.

[lovemydog]

5. Outstanding work panderO.

Built to last. Bravo.

[cwydro]

6. Hey bakerman!

I wish I knew how to do what you do. That looks fantastic.

So many things I want to build on my wee property out in the woods.

[mike_c]

11. beautiful work, panader0....

I can't do work like that anymore, at least not at a pace that would make any money, LOL. But I miss working outside.

[panader0]

12. Thanks. I've done it all my life, over 40 years.

And well over 2 million block laid. I could do it in my sleep, in fact, sometimes I do, and then I wake up tired.

[seveneyes]

13. That span needs a larger I beam

Even it won't be bearing more than the 8" blocks.

[panader0]

14. The two quarter inch angle irons are welded together (with the vertical rebar too)

The next course is a bond beam with two #4 rebar horizontally. The entire span was braced and grouted solid with concrete.
Another bond beam at the top of the wall also two #4 rebar. It's strong as hell and exceeds specs.
If you look closely, you can see that the next course (on the left) is a bond beam block, as is the top course.
In fact, I've done much longer spans with no beam at all. The strength is inside the block, concrete and rebar.

[seveneyes]

15. Fair enough

I remember when four of us would hoist an eight by eight beam into place by hand for such a span.

[Kali]

16. needs facing with some pretty rockwork

[madamesilverspurs]

17. May I ask --

Why does it look like the fellow inside is about to have a brick land on his head?

[panader0]

18. Oh, that's Bubba--it wouldn't hurt him.

No one was injured in the making of this building.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. We have a neighbour who considers himself a real good handyman.

He built a retaining wall against a steep dirt slope, at one side of his driveway, with those concrete blocks. There was a house and a yard on top of the slope, the street has a downhill slant.
20 feet tall, 40-50 feet long.
Just stacked them up, cemented them together, row by row.
Mr. dixie had tried to mention there seemed to be a lack of re-inforcement, but was ignored.

Then the guy parked his new and very expensive pickup in the driveway next to the wall, just before one of our torrential monsoon thunderstorms.

You know what happened, no doubt.

We call the guy Jericho now, when he is out of earshot.