By the time all the Fockers & Fockerettes got to work this morning, there was an obelisk in the back yard.

Mysterious Focker Monument: Evidence of an advanced civilization.

Doc was finishing up the almost done/nearly last part of the concrete on loading dock lane.

Doc... at the point where we all realize that the concrete guys have poured 50 million yards of concrete and we have yet to sign our names in any of it

Out back, the Fast Boys from Morrell Construction had nearly half of the roof trusses done.

Mountain goats set the trusses; pit crew moves the scaffolds.

Setting the roof trusses was a swift, efficient, fear-producing, nail-biting operation.

The crane operator set up outside the building. With all the construction materials, dumpsters, recycling containers and gawking Fockers on the ground, plus all the power lines overhead, the crane operator only had about six inches of working room.

Zero margin for error

Inside the building, some Morrells guided the trusses with various contraptions involving 2×4’s and rope while (amazingly) managing to avoid knocking the other Morrells off the two-story roof into the 20 foot ravine below.

Whew!

And the Fast Boys at Morrell Construction set the last roof truss at high noon.

Don't blink or you'll miss the Fast Boys. Whoosh!

It’s been “Roast the Contractors” Week at Focker’s. There is simply no other way to describe this week’s weather except, “hot.”

Barbarously, ruthlessly, relentlessly… “Dude, I think your camel just passed out…” hot.

Not that the small matter of being sentenced to hard labor in the blazing inferno has slowed the regularly scheduled game of Focker Chess.

While all the Fockers have been unloading trucks, loading trucks, and moving merchandise around and around, the Morrells have been sizzling away, putting up the sixteen-foot walls out back.

Sean demonstrates a building site so hot you could fry a Morrell on it

Doc and crew have been poaching like a bunch of six-minute eggs out on loading dock lane.

Need a little ham to go with those 6-minute eggs?

By the end of the week, the Fast Boys at Morrell Construction had all the warehouse walls framed up and the building is ready for the next step: The part where the gigantic crane comes on Monday to set the roof trusses.

Still life with roof trusses. Ready for all Hell to break loose.

The longest day of the year, Summer Solstice, started at six this morning.

The weather has been typical for late June in the Ozarks… as in… nearly indistinguishable from the instructions on the back of a pack of cake mix: Preheat to 350 and bake. So the Fockers and Morrells were all milling smartly about at daybreak.

By 8:00 a.m. or so, the truck was unloaded out front; home, garden, housewares and electronics were scattered festively ’round the parking lot; Jan and Kendra had set up an employee break room/satellite executive suite out front between the ice machine and the Big Focking Monkey; and the Morrells had made visible progress on the warehouse out back.

Jan and Kendra conduct a top-level strategy meeting

Wall One: Up and Away!

Shortly thereafter, the daily game of Focker Chess began in earnest.

Doc & Kendra demonstrate the Parade Wave: Elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, touch pearls, wave, blow a kiss.

The Fockers moved merchandise and trucks and customers and carts around and around (and around) in the parking lot while Doc & crew tied rebar on the side of the building and the Morrells hammered merrily away out back.

Construction Porn Stars Tie Rebar on Loading Dock Lane

By the end of the longest day of the year, a full truckload of merchandise had been assembled, priced, picked up and put down somewhere else (at least nine focking times–as is tradition;) Loading Dock Lane was ready to pour; and the Fast Boys at Morrell Construction had the east wall of the warehouse framed up and were running for the southern border.

Turning the South Wall Corner

Doc and crew started tying the rebar for the slab on Thursday.

Step One

By the end of the day, the first mat of steel was done. There are actually two mats of steel in the foundation but the second one was done on Friday so it’s not pictured because all the Big Focker Paparazzi were attending the regularly scheduled Friday afternoon safety meeting at Henri’s.

We told Doc, “Hey, Saturday is all our day off. Just tell us what time to show up with the beer.”

“One.”

So, by the time we called in the order to Mr. T’s pizza and showed up with the Budweiser and Shiner Bock, this is what we saw:

Buff boys buffing

The crew started at 6:30 am, under the watchful eye of a couple of visitors from the motel next door. By 2 pm, when the job was done, the crew was done in.

Trail's End

Kendra assumes the position while Jan & Pam do laps

Next week, Morrell Construction will start putting up the building while Doc & crew roll on with the loading dock.

Now we’re really rolling.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch….

All the Focker’s have been spending a lot of time hauling heavy things around (and around and around) in the hot sun while the construction project continues. Among the many exciting things that happened since we last tuned into the Focker channel:

Shack V 2.2 got a lovely Hansel & Gretel-style door:

Nibble nibble like a mouse, who is nibbling on my house?

Seriously. If there is a more ridiculous door on an industrial building out there somewhere? Send pictures!

Lately, we’ve been calling the construction site our “ivy covered cottage,” what with all its rebar picket fence and Hansel ‘n Gretel door.

But, hey.

Harrison Overhead Door gave us a great deal on an abandoned special order. If you’re in the business of giving people great deals, whadda ya gonna do? [insert shrug here]

There’s been too much Doc & Leroy running around in the hot sun/grade beam action to adequately illustrate here but we are now at the point where they’re ready to pour up the loading dock.

Don, the Don, digs the truck dock

Mostly, it’s like going to work at the Grand Canyon every day. It doesn’t do to walk out any side or back door at Focker’s these days because every service exit heads off a cliff.

But, after all the months of planning and engineering and city meetings, it’s getting real now. Clearly closer to done. We’re getting itchy to go shopping and fill all the new spaces up.

Stephen & Jan ponder 'bout the gravel pile