New solar panels

Wayne is working hard on the puttery business of installing our new experimental solar hot water panels on ARC08

Kitchen garden evolving

Jim is spreading black dirt and mulch all over. The compost in it is still a little fresh. (phew!) But it looks nice.

New concrete aproach for the art sidewalk

This is nice and inviting. It leads to the new boardwalk, which makes a pleasant entry past the cob artwork while keeping people out of rain and ice and snow.

Making solar panels

We are finally to the point of building the solar panels for the ARC. The trick is to make them so they look like they belong on the building. In our case, that means making panels. Of slightly different widths so they come out roughly even around and between windows.

Wayne has done several detailed drawings, but it's always a bit different when you really try it out. So we built this wall mockup to prove out the idea.

Here we see a shot of the "Table Saw of Death" that has 3 blades and can process the 6 foot by 19 foot sheets of the twin wall into more manageable pieces. In this case, we needed several different sizes and widths, so this saw is just for the rough cuts.

Wayne is stacking the rough cut pieces before he trims them to size for assembly.

Meanwhile, Marlin is making the mounting rails that will frame the panels.

Tune in next time to see them going on the wall of the ARC.

Spiral Garden Update

The spiral garden is looking good


As is the keyhole garden...plants compose the perimeter of the garden and compost goes into the center.

Teamwork!

It was such a nice day it didn't take much encouragement to get extra help outside...even moving rocks

With Ellen you just never know... :o)

Jim, Barb, Quinn, Kathy & Ellen cheer for a job well done

Nice work!