Phew – we were fried by the time we packed it in yesterday – and in spite of the heat – we made great progress. Installing the inside forms was not as difficult as I thought and in a few short hours we got more than 3/4 of them up! Therese popped in and out throughout the day – hauling piles of chopsaw cut-offs and organizing the recycling / garbage area. As well as providing watermelon and keeping the water jug filled and bringing me lunch! All this besides the general work of keeping the Groves running smoothly… Francis stopped by long enough to help get Gordon’s refilled oxygen tank down into the pit and inspect the progress. The crew for Friday’s pour is coalescing – I think we’ll have plenty of hands – let’s hope we have enough ice-cubes for the post-pour-margaritas. We’re starting at 8am today – hoping to beat some of the heat – the temps are slated to be even warmer today! Oh – and Oregon Yurtworks plans to deliver the packages ( 3 truckloads of house-panels) July 9 – 11, and their foreman will arrive July 16 for the BIG HOUSE raising party! We’re still assembling the crew for this two week adventure….

Yes – we invited the building inspector to take a look – and were given the go-ahead to take the next step in the building process. We can now pour concrete with the sanction of the powers that be. Of course, we’ll have to finish building the formwork – and that’s our goal this coming week. Concrete has been ordered, the pump company has been notified – all we have to do is provide the formwork, the crew and a couple of checks. Calling the Crew I called Francis on Friday, to see if he would be available to help us with this pour – and when I ran into him at the farmer’s market on Saturday – he said YES – he’d be there! I was very pleased. I’ll call David K when he returns from vacation in a couple of days and see if he and his compadres are available to provide the muscle and expertise…

A beautiful day for a pour! I woke up feeling excited and a little nervous. Would our flimsy plywood forms hold the massive weight and pressure of the concrete? Did we order enough or would we have too much concrete? Did we get the steel in the right place? Did we get the layout of this complicated 28-sided building right? Gordon arrived early and started in right away pounding the ‘extra’ 80 stakes into the hardpan ( there’s a reason it’s called ‘hardpan’ – the ground beneath all the organic matter that we walk upon is damned hard) with our trusty ‘smaul’ ( a small maul /sledge hammer). I’m still not sure how I whiled away the 3 hours before the scheduled arrival of the boom truck. Because of the terrain, the concentric ring shape of the footings, and because we’re all older now – we decided to use a boom pump to deliver the concrete, rather than the typical line-pump. I know that I’m not up to dragging a 4” hose full of concrete even 4’, much less the 268 lineal feet of footings we were intent on filling – and I’m not interested in having my friends drag one around either. It’s still hard exhausting work to wrassle that hose dangling from the end of the boom and keep it’s open end aimed into the footings, rather than having the mud sploodge out all over the place. Troy did an amazing job of concrete control and containment. I ran around behind him with the vibrator ( not the bedroom kind, this is an industrial model – tho probably adequate for the Jolly Green Giant’s missus). Evan alternately worked with me holding the motor while I dipped the business end of the vibrator ( aka ‘stinger’ ,‘donkey dick’, etc you get the picture) into the just plopped mud and fell back with David and Therese and Gordon screeding, trowelling and generally getting the concrete smooth and flat after it had filled the forms. Gordon got to do a little fire-pole work – some of the forms did bulge and buckle a bit – and this is where Gordon got to shine. He grabbed stakes, the real sledge as well as ‘smaul’ and ran around pounding stakes against sagging straining plywood forms – and generally managed to hold off that ‘disaster’ that creates so much excitement in any concrete pour: a blowout. When the formwork loses it’s integrity and allows the mud to move in an undesirable direction – you have two options. Keep on pouring and plan on renting a jack hammer the next day. Or stop the pump, all hands on deck as you shovel sticky heavy globs of mud away from the gaping wound and figure out some way to staunch the flow and repair the breach. In any event, you have an ugly job. Gordon saved the day several times! David and Therese filled in admirably – screeding and trowelling and generally managing to stay ahead of the concrete setting up and becoming so stiff that no amount of muscle is able to get it to relax into a nice smooth surface. Thank goodness for friends showing up at just the right time! And that’s been the story of this project from the beginning. Everything has unfolded at just the right time! We’ll keep you posted… although this kind of excitement doesn’t happen everyday – at least not around here.

Labels: foundation

In early 2006, we were catalyzed to build a new home here at Sacred Groves, a home for Tere and Therese to share with a few others, to expand our residential facilities and community living on this beautiful land. Therese has always had a dream of a round house and Oregon Yurtworks is helping us make this a reality with their beautiful designs. This photo is similar to what our new community house will look like. This new structure will be the heart and hearth of the Sacred Groves community, home for 4-6 residents. We will share the space in a communal manner similar to how the 4 of us currently living in the Groves now share the log cabin. Residents will have private space in one of the house bedrooms or in cabins detached from the house. Our intention is for those sharing this communal house to have a good blend of privacy and shared-life. We want to model a “small is beautiful” lifestyle with each person ‘downsizing’ to private spaces generally less than 300sq. feet. We intend to share cars, kitchen, bathroom and laundry with a commitment to the spiritual and personal growth required for community living. In May 2007, our dream is becoming a reality. We have ‘broken ground’ for the new house and the foundation is being built with carpenter Tere Carranza at the helm. Watch this blog for progress as the house grows.