Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Day by Day Hellowood Journal

Wednesday, July 13 - arrived at Hellowood around 6:30pm. On the drive we watched a large storm developing around us. At 7:10pm the storm erupted with golf-ball sized hail. A very unusual storm, said everyone who was from Hungary. After the storm I walked up to the building sites to get a feel for what areas were available. It was very clear that the "ruin" that was located on the maps was a foundation of a center-door pass-though barn.



Thursday, July 14 - Martin, Lucas, and I walked up to the building site and chose the barn ruin as our site, We saw a large black snake in the field. Students arrived at at 1:00pm. We met with our team and walked up to the site. The truck of wood arrived at 8:54. Everyone unloaded. In the evening we had a lecture on Plato and Greek city planning - a presentation that was good, but did not have enough images of Greek cities. It was very cold.



Friday, July 15 - started digging post holes at 9:30am. everyone else went to a tool safety meeting for two hours. Our goal of the day was to get one "bent" up. Martin, Lucas, and Raya participated in the two hour site planning meeting. We were allowed to keep our site that we had already started digging post holes on. Risky but worked out. Began cleaning the foundation of the ruin. Set the smallest bent in the ground. Notified that storm was coming. Moved all our wood again to protect it from rain. Project presentations were given by each team. Balkan Brothers band played under the tent next to our site. First big party.

Saturday, July 16 - day was rained out. At 10:00am we held the evening lectures in the barn. I went up to the site and cut 26 joints in our 2m and 3m posts with Saba and Attila, which foreshadowed the week to come. Martin and Lucas met with the rest of the team to work through our wood allocation and to begin the design of out fire/altar space. During the evening we had four more lectures, and then another party with Mongoose and the Magnet playing in the barn.


Sunday, July 17 - still raining and damp. Cut wood, dug post holes, and cleaned foundation of ruin all day. Started burning the ends of our posts with the people from "Play with Fire." Everyone worked under the tent with all teams working on top of each other.

Monday, July 18 - Day 5. Super big work day. Lifted bent 2 then bent 1. Everything cancelled so teams could work all day. After dinner we worked through the night filling in post holes. Started our first fire at the site, 40 people hung out. Worked on the site until 3am. Attila and Ania glued and screwed the 9m ridge beam together




Tuesday, July 19 - Woke to find wall very skewed. Lucas dug out the post holes and we reset the posts using a string line. Erected "bell tower" and 2m deck. Big work day. Lectures during the evening. My lecture was last. I spoke at midnight.






Wednesday, July 20 - big work day. Started work at 7:30am  Erected double posts on the front elevation. Placed double posts for the ridge beam supports. Lots of meetings about the ridge beam. Thought crane was coming early afternoon. Worked to get ridge beam supports but had many delays. At dinner time, 7pm, our crane arrived to lift the ridge beam in place. After dinner we set the rock wall bent. Attila would not let us go to bed. Cut and set deck floor joists for 3m deck. Worked until 3am.


Thursday, July 21 - final work day. Started working at 8:30am. set second deck. erected last "white" double post. Installed Shinto gate. Installed final board as the bar on the 3m deck. had to be finished by 4pm. Press interviews. At 6pm all teams walked the site and leaders presented projects. Symposium and round table. First shower in three days. Evening party with band. All projects lit by flood lights. I went to bed at 11pm when I thought the party was winding down. Martin and Lucas went to bed at 4:30am. Others were still up when I awoke for coffee at 7am.


Friday, July 22 - left Hellowood at 2pm. Two hour drive to Stacio Airport Hotel. Did not see anyone up yet or get to say goodbye to anyone from our team.  

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