Start by making a pile of sand, gravel, and cement at one end of the mixing boat.

You should leave one end of the boat clear of cement and sand, use the hoe or trowel to get into the corners.

Next, (first pass) grabbing from the bottom of the pile toss the mixture to the opposite end of the boat. 

Again use the hoe to clean up the corners to leave the end "clean".

Always lifting and turning the mix and letting it drop on top of the new pile.  Make sure that all of the cement, sand and gravel is passed to the new pile.  Each time one half of the boat should be clean (use the hoe or floats to clean along the edges).

Do this a total of three to four times (down, back, down and maybe back again) until it is a uniform mix. 

You should not see any sand that is not covered with cement, any cement balls,  or cakes

Once the mixture is thoroughly mixed as previously described, spread out the mixture evenly in the boat. 

We always add water carefully so that we don't end up with cement so soupy that it seems to take days to dry. 

You can start with one full bucket of water.

The water is allowed to soak into the cement sand gravel mix for a few minutes.  After soaking , it is then mixed by hand using the shovel and hoe. 

Make three passes from one end of  the boat to the other to thoroughly mix the cement.