block

the block and mortar was delivered monday morning. it's wednesday afternoon, and so far i've laid about 1/3rd of the first of 6 courses. at this rate, i'll have all the block laid in 3 weeks lol. ugh.

the pace is ridiculously slow, so slow it's discouraging in itself. but worse than the pace, is the quality of my work. laying block is fucking hard.

i've been telling myself that i've got a good mortar mix going now, but i'm really not sure. i rarely get it to stick on head joints for long. is this my trowel technique, my laying technique, the mix, or all of the above? i don't know. that's what sux. it'd be much easier to learn from an experienced mason.

this is most frustrating because i have little faith in the strength of the blocks i've laid thus far. most of the head joints are void of mortar after the block is set, and i'm just stuffing in some mortar in the gap. which is like, teh suck.

hopefully i get this worked out with more experience. i've been watching the few block laying videos i've found on the net, but well, there's not much detail in youtube videos so it's basically just offering me examples of basic motions and what not. which is helpful, but i'm still not sure about the details with the mortar..

meh, my hands are gettin scuffed up pretty bad.