Digging in Dubuque or As The Shovel Turns

Don't want to speak too soon, but the trenching is apparently done. Just pray the plumber agrees. Scott returns the THIRD and FOURTH rented jackhammers tomorrow. Cutting the concrete on this second trenching attempt was Scott's intended last act for his old circular saw - he has a spare. Tony and Scott finally hit rebar on this go-round, which they cut through with Scott's grinder. I just learned older rebar is called "twisted bar" and it is in some of our building, but this rebar is simply square and was laid with large diamond wire mesh on top of earth. The reinforced concrete floors date to the Sanitary Dairy, which owned and operated a plant and retail shop in our building from about 1921 to 1943, and which put in the smokestack. Once through the rebar, today's gentlemen hit dirt and found this little collection:

What the hell is this stuff?
Clockwise: Shards of pre-1880 earthenware bottles that once held Apollinaris Mineral Water,
imported from Germany; a clamshell;two small bottles of the exact same type, but from different manufacturers; 
a small round glass bottle; a broken bottle neck; and what seems to be a serving spoon

Close-up of the Apollinaris logo, the company and its spring still exist in Germany

This weekend's little archaeological find is likely from the time our building was a hotel, its original and intended usage. Built by Joseph Gehrig, who bought our property in 1851, the hotel first opened as the Adams House in 1856, but Gehrig took over its management shortly thereafter and changed the name to the Jefferson House. A Swiss immigrant to Dubuque in the 1840s, he soon became a '49er and allegedly dug the first two basements in Sacramento, made real money in the Gold Rush, then returned to Dubuque for good. He and his family operated the hotel until about 1916.

Our discovery is nothing compared to Gehrig's of 1852 when he leveled the Indian Mound, the site which would become his hotel, now our corner building. That's when the coffin and body of the murderer Patrick O'Conner was discovered, buried in the Indian Mound on which he was hanged on June 20, 1834, in front of over 1000 people who came from all over the region, for killing his business partner George O'Keaf, events which made national newspapers almost immediately and forced the United States to take its first step toward creating what would later become the State of Iowa. O'Conner's trial and execution were the first in what would become Iowa. Our property has a long and interesting history, but it's for another day.

"You're gonna need a bigger boat" or Our Building vs. The Jackhammer

Jackhammering

It is almost a year since my madman and I moved to Dubuque to begin what we anticipated would be the project to end all projects. We were right. This property has been and continues to be tenacious. The property is quite content in its present state and it does not yield anything without a battle royale. Yet another example occurred this weekend.

In January of this year, shortly after we came to Dubuque, concerning the 2nd floor of the smaller building on this property, the space that is to be our residence, Scott said to me, "The building is winning, but I am determined." Within a month, he told me, "I've got the building on the run."


We've now been working on the larger building for almost 6 months since it took at least 6 months for our seller and his family to clear out their belongings - let's say the place functioned as a chock-full, small warehouse. The smaller building was a beast to tame, but it has proved to be nothing compared to the larger building.

Those parallel lines? The saw cuts for the trench. 

Now back to this past weekend. To trench out the concrete slab for the bathrooms and kitchen on the first floor of the larger building, Scott went to our local hardware store and rented the electric jackhammer, the gas-powered 14" concrete saw and the diamond blade (instead of buying possibly 20 concrete blades). One would think these tools could handle the job. WRONG!

The concrete saw handled fine and most of the needed cuts seem to have been made. The rented diamond blade may have seen its last day cutting through this slab.

The jackhammer trying to create the trench

our building vs. the electric jackhammer? The building won, hello! Our friend Tony is working this particular task with Scott, he's worked serious construction, and he was flabbergasted. The electric jackhammer went back to the hardware store shamed. It was no match for the 9-inch slab which does not even have rebar, but is just straight concrete slab on grade. It took an hour of jackhammer insanity just to yield a foot (apparently this would qualify as "career work").

Next step: renting a pneumatic jackhammer and the diesel-powered air compressor needed to run it and another friend with a real truck to haul them to and from the rental shop across the Mississippi.

All Shall Be Well.