Drains and Frames

I have installed another draining system on the trails. This was a different situation (no initial puddle/mosquito pit - just soggy trail.)


I dug a trench in the soggiest part of the trail. The water immediately began collecting in it, so I dug a slope so the water could run off the hillside. I then filled the trench with gravel (which was not an easy job, seeing as how the trench was in the woods in an area inaccessable with a wheelbarrow.) I covered the gravel with larger, flat rocks to (hopefully) prevent/slow buildup of leaves in the gravel.

I also went back and covered all the PVC pipe at the older drain site.

We had a few rainy afternoons this week, so I spent a fair amount of time completing smaller jobs indoors. One that I am specifically very proud of is organizing the paint area.

I didn't take a before picture, but I assure you that it was bad. I didn't even know we had drawers in the paint area (so I painted on labels.)

Dave, Ashley, Anna and I have been working all week on framing some windows for the Home Design/Build class. Because the structure is being built with rough-cut lumber, the pre-made frames that came with the windows weren't the right size. We had to adjust them. So we milled all the wood and built the frames for five windows (several different sizes.)

Then, the Home Design/Build class installed them.

The Home Design/Build class is over now; there was a nice celebration last night for the group. I still find it incredibly odd to have class switch-overs.

Yesterday was my last day of intern duties. My next two weeks should be a completely insane rush of Community Design/Build. I'm pretty excited about it. After that, there's an intern reuinion that I intend on staying for and then I'm heading home. I'm amazed at how fast time is going by here. It doesn't seem so long ago that the core class was here, and they were my first introduction to the school. Strange.

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.

Building the Wetland

My Constructed Wetlands class ended yesterday. The entire week whirred by. There will be multiple posts about it. I've been working on this post all week, adding on every day. I haven't been forgetting about you - just haven't come to a good stopping point. Until the class stopped, that is.

The class was officially titled "Constructed Wetlands for Waste water Treatment." So, we constructed a wetland for waste water treatment.

There's already a wetland from last year's class that treats the water from the solar shower. In the "master plan" for Yestermorrow's expansion (new buildings to accommodate more students and classes at one time,) there was a plan for a sink area near the solar shower. So, we decided to expand the water treatment capabilities by adding another wetland.

First, we had to survey the area. I was in charge of keeping track of the measurements. I fell in love with the transit completely. It was hard to get level.

Basically, one person would stand with a ruler-pole, holding it as straight as possible (and wiggling it some. The lowest number read is the right measurement.) The other person peeks through the transit, which zooms enough to read the numbers on the ruler.

After we surveyed our site, we finalized our plan for the placement of the wetland. We chose a place that was sunny, downhill slightly, nearby (just across the path), and not too close to the pine cabin.

For something so organic, the wetland required some precise measuring. We triangulated to make sure that our wetland was perfectly rectangular.

Then, we dug. The top of our wetland (not including the berm) measured 6 by 11 feet. There was a 1:1 slope, so the bottom of our wetland, which was 2 feet deep, was 1 by 6. We had to be careful not to cut out the slope too much, because it's much easier to carve the soil than replace it.)

We got our depth first. The wetland had to be level, and since the ground isn't, we had to make up for the differences. Therefore, our downhill side sticks out much more than the uphill side.

We connected our old wetland to the new wetland. (Also, you can see Barton holding a tape measure. This is because our ruler stick wasn't tall enough.)

We strung a line to help us keep the berm level and at the right height. You can see the slope of the wall shaping up in this picture.

The end of Day 1.

We wanted to divert the water that came off the pine cabin. Instead of letting it flow into the wetland (which would push the waste water through the wetland too fast) we dug a trench.

Kendall came and gave our class a tutorial on stop dams.

Kendall had built some stop dams the day before. The idea is that the dams slow down the water to keep it from eroding the path. We wanted to implement this idea in our trench.

So we built our own miniature dams. Theoretically, they will divert the water downhill and away from our wetland.

In the above picture, Pete, one of the instructors, is tamping the sides of the wetland. He got the sharp rocks out of the way, ready for the liner.

We put down a protective barrier.

Our waterproof liner was 10 by 15, a dimension that we had to keep in mind when digging our hole. Shoes weren't allowed on top of the liner.

We had to cut a couple holes in the liner for the inlet and outlet pipes. It was a fairly nerve-wracking process.

Our outlet pipe, perforated.

We set another protective barrier on top of the liner and started filling the wetland with gravel. We used large (3-6 inch) gravel at the top and bottom (to prevent any sediment build-up.)

We filled the rest of the wetland with 3/4 inch gravel. At the inlet, we placed a half pipe. This prevents rocks from getting too close to the inlet and clogging it. It also lets the water spread out freely. We installed our clean-out pipes (for pumping out any kind of sediment that might ever possibly build up at the entrance - the most likely place for sediment to clog.)

The top layer of gravel is pea gravel, to prevent organic materials from falling into and incorporating itself into the wetland. Here, Pete plants the first wetland plant. We picked plants from around campus, especially around water sources and the septic drain field. These plants have deep roots, and will grow until they are submerged in their water source. We'll keep the water level high for the first couple of weeks, then lower it (using a control in the sump pump) so that the plants stretch. A little later, we'll lower the level again so the roots get even deeper. Then, we raise the water level to operating height.

All the plants, with the finished rock wall. (And Barton, the other instructor.)

The sump pump was made of an old shop-vac with a grill lid for a cap. The shop vac was covered with the rock wall, but the grill lid was still visible, so we decided to paint an interpretive sign on it. This is the sketch for the sign, which explains the water process in the wetlands. (Shower, first wetland, second wetland, drain field.)

Many people worked on the lid. We would paint for a bit (with very limited colors) and then pick up the lid and rotate it, so we'd be working in a different spot that someone else started. It was an amazing artistic process. It was a lot of fun.

And the lid ended up looking pretty good. (This is a bad shot of it - you can't see any of the actual detail around the bottom. It looks great though, I promise.)

The Constructed Wetlands class and instructors, with our finished wetland.