My brothers new house
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My brother Fred (Skip) is building an earth sheltered reinforced concrete 2 story home in NW Arkansas.
Every couple months we all meet there to help pour another major part of the home, the shell of first level is mostly done and the walls of the 2nd level are being formed right now.  Here are some pictures of the construction process.


This is the lower floor and deck, the exposed side is facing south, all the rest will be covered with dirt, built into a hill over looking their boat dock on Beaver Lake.

Here are some more views, click on them for a larger view.
Looking west.
Me, working the end of the chute from the concrete truck. Pouring the garage floor, March 07
Now I'm on the screte board, my brother is right behind me with the hoe. The power screte machine is behind us, hand screteing was necessary in the funny shaped corner.
The homebuilt power screte made to finish most of the floors in this house. Like me and my other brother, he builds all kinds of interesting equipment. The old (present) house is on top the hill.
Tracy, in the blue, Jenny's (my neice) significant other, is getting introduced to the family, nothing held back.
On the bull float, almost done, the power trowel is all that's left. All three of us brothers have backhoes. Can't imagine life without a backhoe.

Sarah, my sisters oldest. delivering water bottles.  My sister bought the house and land down the hill and next to this one as a summer home.
Carol, Fritz, Tracy and Jenny hard at work watching Skip power trowel (He always starts it to early)
This is what we do best.

Clockwise: Me, Craig (sister Sue's husband) ,Fritz, Tracy, Jenny, Sarah, Audrey, Sue, Carol, Skip.
The upper walls formed and ready for concrete

We used a concrete pump to fill these, the overhead screw conveyor wasn't ready, still had some design details to build and test.
A couple weeks later the conveyor was ready for a test.

A mobile A frame was built with 4 large homebuilt caster wheels to lift the conveyor 4 feet and allow it to easily move during a pour.
Removing the outside forms on the second floor.

After the concrete set for a couple days the forms need to come off. I came up with this labor saving device to support the heavy forms and move them inside.  Outside without backfill they are 15 feet up in the air.
Not everything works right the first time.

Just as we were starting to deliver concrete to the form, the engine died from a plugged fuel filter.  I was climbing over the outside of the conveyor frame to get to the walkway to the engine and my weight shift was enough to bring it down.  It was quite a scary ride 15 feet in the air dangling and hanging on with my arms to a very heavy structure heading toward hard concrete. Not knowing if or when I should jump.  I hung on and it stopped with me 8 feet in the air.
The steel actually failed.

Looking at the welds, it actually pulled the steel apart, looking like wood grain.  I guess the steel channel we used was rolled a little to cold.  That days concrete ended up fixing a bad spot in the driveway.  The wheels were fixed and the walls poured a couple weeks later.