Drain and Home D/B

Days have been very busy around here.

I have been adopted by the Home Design/Build class as the assistant while the class is doing construction. They spend their mornings in the studio working on designs and receiving lecture, then the afternoon in the quansit hut building a small house that will later be taken to a client. There are two instructors, but many students with different skill levels, so they ask that I supervise and make sure nobody chops off any fingers. So far, I have done an excellent job.

The Home D/B project at the beginning of today (yesterday, there was no frame at all.)

The project at the end of the day. They were building their first wall in place. Today made me thankful for the weeks spent putting together a traditional stick-frame modeled house in my Ecological Design class freshman year. I knew what a cripple was.

There are a lot of people around campus this week. NBI, Home Design/Build and a masonry fireplace course. It's always a little strange to have a massive class shift. I generally get to know the majority of the people involved in week-long classes. (I do not always get to know weekenders - it's too short of a time period to try to remember names.)

I have been checking things off my list, although the process is going slowly since my afternoon has been taken away. My big project for today involved a puddle of mosquito-breeding stagnant water.

The stagnant water is, in this picture, below the trail. In actuality, it's uphill from the trail, causing the walkway to be mushy at times.

I dug a trench through the trail leading downhill (where there is plenty of drainage area.) When the mosquito-pit was mostly drained, I stuck a PVC pipe into it.

To keep critters from dwelling in my PVC pipe, I drilled some holes in the top. Water flows easily, but frogs do not. (During this process, I did relocate a frog to a new marshy area on campus. I haven't chased a frog in years.)

There are still some aesthetic issues that need to be taken care of (like the exposed PVC pipe) that I didn't get a chance to finish today. My goal, which I achieved by working through most of lunch, was to install the tube and make the path walkable again. I will poke around more tomorrow. (When I went back up to the site after helping the Home D/B class, I noticed that the puddle was still draining- coming out of the pipe, just as planned.)

I'm pretty happy with my progress this summer. I have learned quite a bit of technical information and skills, but I have also been learning a lot about working and living with others. I'm able to identify a need and take the initiative to solve the problem. I am someone who students go to when they need an answer. I am far more comfortable here than when I first arrived.

Lawnmowing, Maple Creamie and Stupid Bugs.

Today was dedicated to grass and weed cutting, but involved a few other fun tidbits.

I woke up really early and served breakfast to the students. (It was cold breakfast, so not a big deal at all, but somebody had to make the coffee and unlock the building.)

I weed-whacked all around the building and gardens and trails. This took the majority of the day.

Around lunchtime, Heidi called me into the kitchen to help finish preparing lunch. We have a lot of students around now so she needed an extra set of hands - the core class has 19, the NBI has 10 and there's a weeklong Carpentry for Women class of 3 (these numbers might not be accurate.)

Dave, who is in charge of the interns and hasn't been introduced in this blog yet, received a complaint from the last person who drove the van for a field trip - said it was shaky when stopping. Dave wanted to check out the problem for himself, but needed a full van, so all the interns (except Kendall - she was already working on a roof) hopped in and went for a ride.

There was nothing wrong with the van.

I worked late today mowing the lawn. I used a riding lawn mower, which I've never done before. I was really jerky on it at first and left a few patches of tall grass behind, but I got used to it and now the lawn looks so much nicer. As we were playing hacky-sack after dinner, a few people commented on how much nicer it was to play in short grass. Makes my work feel appreciated.

Stephanie went on a town run and brought back maple creamies for some of us. (We ordered them in advance.) I've never heard of creamies before, but it's the same as softserve ice cream. Maple flavored though! It's from a local place that I always sit next to when I go into Waitsfield to use the phone - I've eyed it before but just have never acted. I have spent very little money up here. This creamie was totally worth the money, and may have to become a weekly occurance.

Tim (1) and I were talking at dinner today about how the weeks are better than the weekends here. Granted, weekends allow sleeping in and staying up late, but the sun wakes me up in my tent early every morning anyway, so sleeping in doesn't really happen. This weekend went by really slowly - lots of sitting around, reading and talking to people, but nothing compared to a busy day of good work. It just feels better to have something productive to do, which isn't always how I feel. I think the atmosphere here just encourages and inspires people to do something. Days go by so fast during the week. I was just antsy all weekend.

There are tiny bugs that bite here. My arms and legs are covered in bugbites. I haven't been this bitten since my childhood, for sure. I am incredibly itchy, but trying very hard not to scratch.

I'm not carrying my camera around as much as I used to. I need to fix this.