so, we were theoretically ready for the cement and had it scheduled to arrive on election day ( yes, i had already voted ) which also happened to be an unseasonably warm 75 degrees F ( 24 degrees C ) which meant that everyone and their brother was also trying to get their cement work done which meant that the truck was two hours late which meant that we were just starting in waning late fall sunlight.

we planned to have the truck drive into our neighbor's back yard and, to make things that much more interesting, access to their yard was blocked by parked cars in the street and we couldn't find anyone who could move the cars. just when we were about to give up someone came up and pulled away. phew!

except, then we discovered the mixer's path was blocked by a large tree limb that hung lower than it looked from the road. the driver offered to let me climb up the "crow's nest" ladder on the front of the truck if i could quickly come up with a plan for cutting the limb down. so i scrambled and borrowed a chainsaw from one neighbor after getting permission to cut the limb down.

that's when i found myself standing on top of the running cement truck with a running chainsaw precariously leaning over the crow's nest railing trying to cut down the limb while wondering if i was putting myself in the running for a darwin award. thankfully the tree limb came down with loss of my own limbs and we finally got to pouring the cement.

and about 30 seconds after i shot this picture, we came to the realization that finishing the pad was going to be a lot more work than we anticipated and we could have easily used 2 more people to get the concrete finished before it set.

thankfully, even though the concrete company told us the driver wouldn't help us, he had pity on us and helped us shovel, fill and level the mix. and when he had to leave some sturdy neighborhood high school boys offered to lend a hand!

so, it really does take a village to raise a sauna.