SEATTLE JAPANESE GARDEN'S OLD GATE LOST AND FOUND

I heard things might be getting started so I went and took a look.

Indeed, a payloader is always a good sign of things about to happen.

On closer look, the gate was gone. Very carefully removed. Wonder where it went.

Alterted by an email from Mary Nagen that it was at Kubota Garden,  I went to see.

Sure enough, there it was, propped up in the maintenance yard. The friendly staff said they aren't quit sure what they are going to do with it, but glad to have it there.

>Here is a view we hardly ever saw, as the sides were buired in plant material in the old location.

And here is a closer look at the nice Kanshu-ji style stone lantern, seemingly also awaiting a home in the Kubota Garden.

CLOUD HOUSE GETS FEET

31 JULY the first concrete was poured for the foundations.

Aaron and Bud Erickson (DJ Drilling) work on one of the four, 

two-foot wide x 30-foot deep  piers.

As the fourth pier drilling was being finished, the steel re-bar 

cages arrived from Portland.

They were a bit longer than the holes were deep, so Ryan and

 his son Trevor shortened them.

Bud transformed his rig from driller to crane, and lifted, 

then lowered the cages into the shafts.

Plastic donuts are attached to keep the re-bar the required

 minimum distance off the shaft wall.

Ryan calculates how much concrete is needed,

 as Charles looks on.

The first load arrives, after backing about a mile along 

the narrow road, fearing the space at the site 

too tight to easily turn around in.

Trevor and Ryan guide concrete into a pier hole.

Ryan checks the drawings (how nice!)....

...then checks the pier placement.

A detail only a concrete person could love.

The hooked ends are left exposed so to lock 

the pier to the footing slab, 

which will be part of the next pour.