We had a lot of fun at the Land Heritage Institute!
Check out everything we accomplished:
Used chisel plow to plow 1.3 mi trail to corn crib and front gate (Los Caminos Naturales trail system)
Leveled and finished 1.3 mi of trail
Cleared brush and branches on Presnall Path trail 500 yards
Constructed 16 check dams to prevent soil erosion
Named 1 trail Presnall Path
Named 1 trail Saddle and Spur Trail
Fixed trail grade and removed stems and roots of 30 yards of Presnall Path
Cut and removed brush from 0.8 mile west access trail
Cut branches and trees to clear a 50 ft access to west trail
Scouted and cleared trees and branches of 1 mile equestrian trail by river (Saddle and Spur Trail)
Mowed and chisel plowed equestrian trail with tractor
Mowed 4 acres and 4.8 miles of trail and jeep trails with tractor
Posted 12 signs on 4 trails
Measured and marked every100 yards of 1.5 mi of trails
Removed cactus and wood from dirt of 3 old burn piles
Created 1 new burn pile
Set up feral hog trap and assisted hog trapping with David Thomason
Removed cactus and plowed .25 acre area for garden
Planned, weeded, and planted 600 sq ft vegetable garden
Dug 15 ft long trench for 4’’ drain pipe for rain collection overflow
Dug 25 ft trench for rain collection water pipe to spigot at garden
Cemented gray water tank into ground
Set-up and break down of event by assisting vendors, moving and setting up tables and chairs
Staffed Native San Antonio event which had over 400 visitors
Let guided trail tours, drove hayrides, guided traffic at event
Dug a 1 ft deep trench a distance of 300 ft for electrical wires to power the barn
Filled 10 ft deep soil sampling open cut hole with tractor
Cleaned and organized tool shed
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About two weeks into the project our sponsor from the Land Heritage Institute sent us a Photo of how Daisy's puppies were doing!
So cute:
At the Center we worked with some amazing architecture interns and our sponsor Pliny Fisk III on a project that was inspired by the disaster in Haiti that can also potentially benefit other people post disaster.
We were working on creating easy to put together post disaster housing that can be added to and eventually become permanent and possibly self sustaining housing.
As a side note our sponsor Pliny Fisk III has a
Wikipedia page.
The first thing we always do when we get to a new project is to check out our housing.
This is our kitchen:
This is where I sleep (no walls but we did have mosquito nets that sometimes worked):
This is our bathroom (complete with a compost-able toilet and solar water heater for the shower):
This is our living room, dinning room, common area:
If you haven't guessed it by looking at those photos, we lived completely out side for the entire three weeks. The guys were in tents and all six of us girls had out door bunks.
The first week was super cold and then it got warm and all of the mosquitos came out.
We cooked on camping stoves and camp fires so we had to get creative:
Fridays were the best days because Melony (one of the staff) would make lunch for everyone and we always looked forward to it.
She is an amazing cook:
We spent a lot of time and money on food while we were in Austin because they have some of the best breakfast food restaurants in the world!
I highly recommend the Kerbey Lane Cafe and the Omelettry for breakfast food.
They have the most amazing lemon poppy seed/apple cinnamon/buttermilk/ginger bread/chocolate chip/banana/(insert any kind of fruit and combination of those things) pancakes ever!
Anyway by helping to build the buildings with the interns we helped them to figure out the design flaws through trial and error and to also see what worked and what didn't work.
The interns were trying out a different kind of foundation that would hopefully hold up better in the event of an earth quake.
All of the holes had to be 2ft deep with a post hole in the middle another ft deeper.
Re-bar went in the center hole with concrete and then gravel more concrete and then filled with gravel and we attached cisterns above them.
Leveling the foundation spots:
Attaching and concreting the bottoms of the cisterns which act as support beans for the building structures.
We were working on a total of three experimental buildings, a tent structure, a solar kitchen, and a one story building.
All of the buildings were made out of welded wire mesh. If this building design were to be used in Haiti they would most likely be using bamboo instead of welded wire mesh, because it is more available there. So we experimented with bamboo as well.
All of the pieces of mesh were held together with bar ties also known as rabbit ties. and then we put a layer of chicken wire and attached homasote covered in a layer of concrete that acts like drywall to the inside and then burl-creted the outside. Burl-crete is simply burlap covered in concrete and stretched over the outside of the buildings like siding.
We made steps for the different buildings because the ground wasn't completely flat.
It took a bunch of us to more the structures in between the cisterns since the were assembled elsewhere.
Two of the interns, Brenden on the left and Sheb on the far right, after we lifted and attached walls to the solar kitchen. Drew my teammate is in the middle.
The tent is on the left and the solar kitchen is on the right, farther to the right is where the one story goes:
This is how we left the one story, it only had a roof. We simply stacked it on top of some temporary supports. We didn't get to finish all three buildings in the three weeks we were there but we definitely made a huge dent that would have probably taken the few interns that were there months to do.
While all of this was happening a few members of my team also built a model of all of the buildings we were working on to help figure out what would work and what wouldn't:
We took a team photo with our sponsor (who we are holding, it was his idea) and the interns and a bunch of staff.
I got this super cool app on my Phone called Photosynth that lets me take panoramic photos
Check these out:
This is what we accomplished in three weeks:
Cut and grinded 235 pieces of welded wire mesh in 20 different sizes
Cut 128 ft chicken wire
Cut 128 ft of burlap
Picked up 45 9 ft poles of bamboo
Split 22 bamboo poles into strips
Constructed two 8ft x 4ft cross-hatched bamboo panels
Cut and bent 210 ft rebar
Assembled a work table
17 8x4ft homasote panels covered in concrete mixture
2.5 scale building models were constructed
Assembled tent building module
Assembled 2 96x32in boxes, 4 96x48in boxes of welded wire mesh
Attached 128 ft of chicken wire inside medal boxes
Installed 8 ft panels of concrete covered homasote behind chicken wire
20 wood handles lathed, sanded, and waterproofed for magic wagon
Surveyed land for building foundations
Measured and dug 14 40x40in 2 ft deep holes
Bent right angles in rebar
Measured, cut, and bent fine wire mesh into 17 cages for the holes
Cut 14 concrete tubes
Filled and moved 30 wheelbarrow loads of concrete to pour foundations
Weeded 135 yrds of gravel pathway
Relocated, tarped, and tied down a hangar to provide shady work space
Placed 24 paver stones on foundation
Created 6 in steps using 10 large stones to grade the flooring of the buildings
Hauled 25 wheelbarrows of gravel and 15 wheelbarrows of dirt
Cemented and finalized floors of 6 cisterns
Constructed and placed 3 removable cisterns
Built axel system to move tent module 350 ft. from assembly site to the foundation
Constructed solar kitchen building module out of welded wire mesh, chicken wire, and homasote boards
Moved solar kitchen 250 ft from assembly site to foundation
Constructed building model for solar kitchen
Cut and grinded 40 ft of rebar
Built and experimented with designing 5 solar modules for the solar kitchen
Applied concrete soaked burlap to both sides of tent structure using __ pieces of burlap
Assembled first floor building module with welded wire mesh and chicken wire
Assembled 6 roof vent structures with welded wire mesh
Applied concrete burlap to 6 vents using 6 pieces of burlap
Lifted 200 lbs, 400 lbs, and 25 gallons of gravel in magic wagon trough to experiment in human lifting
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We drove back to Denver for transition week to debrief our projects and get ready for our final round in Americorps NCCC.
On the Saturday before our final round started we had an Ameri-thon were all four units on campus competed.
This is my unit, Earth Unit before we competed:
(I'm on the far left)
This is my unit again after we beat the other tree units (Water, Sun and Fire) and won the Ameri-thon: run for the roses:
(I'm in the bottom right)
Proves that Class 18 Earth Unit is the best Unit.
For my final project in Americorps NCCC my team, which is no longer my shuffle team but my permanent team again, will be working with the Broncos Boys and Girls club in Denver.
We are local this round and didn't have to travel anywhere, staying right on campus.
One major thing that I have been working on since the beginning of third round that I forgot to mention is that I applied to be a Team Leader for next Americorps year.
I had my interview while at CMPBS.
Just this past week I found out that I didnt get Team Leader, but I am an alternate so in the event that one of the people who got the Team Leader position backs out (which happens every year) I might just become a Team Leader.
I have a really good chance!
That's it for now! Until next time.....
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(wake up meg...)
