Sacred Groves

Here we are, the current three-some working on the new house site every day–Tere, Sarah, Teagan. Teagan just moved to Sacred Groves last week and is already adding a lot! Here we are taking our afternoon tea break on the new couch. More photos are posted on Flickr–click here. And read on (next post below) to get more specifics about all that is happening in the house. Today we lit the new woodstove for the first time and all the doors now have door handles and locks.

Wednesday was EXCITING! A big boom truck showed up in the late morning, set its ‘feet’ and began moving roof panels. There were 7 of us on the team, including our former Groves-mate Walter, who used to work with cranes in the shipyard. Jonas, Walt and David were on the roof. Tere, Therese, Troy and Sarah were hooking up the pieces from the big piles of ‘roof wafers’ and Evan ran back and forth between the two groups. For 4 hours the big wafers were carried to the roof. However, after a couple minor incidents, Tere began to have safety concerns worried that the boom-operator was not fully attentive. Tere called the trucking company, expressed her concerns and then took a deep breath and decided to send the truck (and its driver) home. Another boom truck and driver will show up this morning (Thursday) to finish the last 14 panels. What a week it has been!

The bright summer heat has given way to a muggy breezy overcast - perfect weather for stripping formwork. Gordon is now tending to his own nascent business - but he’ll be back for the house-assembly in mid-July. Austin brought his friend Eddie to work today - and they did a splendid job of removing braces, stakes and even some of the forms themselves. Yes, the concrete looks like it’s been burnished and polished to a high sheen where it was in contact with the black plastic that protected the formboards. And this side of the formwork is coming off like muffins in a greased pan. (more pics) And for those of you wondering: Therese left for California Thursday morning, after finding out that her sister was rushed to the hospital with a brain aneurism. Andrea is slowly slowly recovering - but is still sedated and on life-support systems. It’s been harrowing for everybody involved. I still find myself leaving the jobsite every few hours to see if Therese has called with the latest update. This close brush with death certainly puts the rest of life in perspective. And thanks for all your well-wishes and prayers. My fingers are still crossed.

It looks like we’re builidng a fortress for a labyrinth. And we’ve only just started on these foundation walls! It’s a bit wet in the pit, after the pounding rain of Sunday - but we were fortunate with mostly clear skies and enough warmth for Austin to take his shirt off. click here for more pics