Friday, August 26, 2011

Great insight

This is a great TED talk about how bacteria in your body communicate. It gives me a sense of wonder and appreciation for how we relate to the bugs that make up 99% of our body, and our genes.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

HUG Information Kiosk Beautified

Those of you who have visited the HUG campus may have noticed that our welcome kiosk was a little run down. Season after season of use has made it imperative to give it a face lift.

We wanted to make the kiosk as welcoming as possible. So, we took down the information placards and added some beauty to them. Lisa decorated the edges with pink flowers.

We put relevant information of the new buildings on the placards. With the information in place, we cleaned up the glass and put the unit back together again.

Here you can see Ryan and Lisa reinstalling the sign.

Jim and Jake cut the grass around the kiosk and added a nice layer of wood chips to make the sign more welcoming.

Here you can see Jake planting some beautiful perennials around the sign. He transplanted some St. Johns wart, menarda and catmint plants from a berm in the garden.

Jim added timed irrigation lines to the newly planted flowers. Don't they look nice?

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

TWARC Foundation has Started

Several weeks earlier, Schrupp Excavating allowed access to the water and electrical lines. After water and time were given to allow for settling, we were prepared to begin construction.

If you look at the south field of the HUG campus, you might see a little pink. The foam insulation for the TWARC foundation has been installed. A layered method was utilized to help maximize heat retention. We went with five layers along the walls, with five layers on the floor.

Here you can see the amount of hose we would be using to heat the double occupation house.

Once the insulation was installed, we laid plastic hosing along the base. The hosing is meant to take the heat from the greenhouse (not installed, yet) and bring it to the foundation where it will keep the house warm. You can see where the hoses are sticking out. This is where the greenhouse is planned.