We weren’t sure if we were ever going to meet the mysterious individual Doc calls his “Rod Buster Buddy.” It’s monsoon season in the Ozarks so it’s been pouring rain for days.

But we came to work this Sunday morning and there they were… not just a single rod buster; a set of three.

Will & David Busting Rods

If you’re thinking you can’t figure out what they’re doing because the photo is blurry, well…. as usual, there are some weird goings on at Focker’s. This isn’t your usual footer ‘n slab foundation.

As residents of and visitors to Eureka Springs well know, the town is built on a site that is really only suitable for mountain goats. Directions here are never “left” or “right.” They are only “up” and “down.” So, if you see what looks like flatland, you know that it can only be fill… feet and feet of fill. Which is the case with the Fockerfoundation.

We did do a soil test to make sure it wasn’t fill over traditional materials like rusty bedrsprings and abandoned ’42 Packards. But Kendra and Bill the structural engineer agreed that it would be tragic if Kendra, Kitty the Pink Focklift, and a triple-stacked pallet of Gatorade went sailing over the brink to where the actual ground is–20 feet below.

So we have to build a foundation that might as well be an overpass. Or, as Doc puts it, “You could land the space shuttle on this sucker!”

Here’s Connor doing rod-busting prep with the alien rod objects that David and Will are busting (in the foreground.)

Connor and... WTF?

They go in the ground. Vertically. Then they get filled with concrete. Imagine every chase scene you’ve ever seen in every action movie where The Bad Guy is chasing The Good Guy in a parking structure and The Good Guy dodges bullets by hiding behind concrete pillars. That’s what the foundation will look like, pretty much. An underground parking structure.

Tomorrow, all Hell breaks loose. Morrell Construction begins the re-construction of Shack v2.2. More rods will be busted. Jan’s truckload of electronics and housewares will be unloaded.

Let it roll….