A few photos from today’s birthday girl hike in Casoli and Metato

The oldest portion of the building has no foundation. We’re remedying that by pouring one underneath the existing walls. To do this, sections are excavated and a footer is poured down to a depth of 1.2 meters or more. The sections are joined by rebar.

After the footer is poured, there remains a gap between it and the wall. That has to be filled by first cutting and hammering pieces of brick to fit the gap tightly: mortar will recede and leave a gap, but brick will not. After the bricks are hammered into place they are mortared to hold them.