Entry #12: 1st November 2010

Most of our efforts are now based centrally at the site. There are a few members of the team still working back at the studio laser cutting logos for the cladding and promoting and selling the hoodies.


Site today was pretty muddy and it felt like we hadn’t done very much apart from discover issues. There were some steep variances in the heights of the feet - which puzzled us for a while - until we realised that they had been placed the wrong way round, all part of the fun!
The drilling for the resin bolts is the most time consuming currently. The 18v drills are pretty good and last a good while when your working on timber, but after attacking the holes on one pad of concrete the poor thing needs charging for a good couple of hours - just cant hack it.





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We all stayed at site till the bitter end last night. The weather was pretty horrendous but we powered on through. We managed to get one frame up by the end of yesterday. Everything seams to take so much longer when we were doing it. The frame needed aligning and then drilling and because it was so tight we then had to use a mallet to bash the bolts through... One is up though, only a few more to go!




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What really held us back was the left hand footing on the south frame. The ground is so soft because of the weather and the way that it has been sculpted, so the concrete just wobbles around. We have attempted to stabilise this by adding more concrete around the pad to support it.
This meant that we couldn't attach that frame till it was dry. We had to prop the North frame up last night before we left as it is supporting itself - windy conditions could easily be the end of it.
Hopefully it will still be there tomorrow - 4 days left to go!

Entry #11: 30th October 2010

To catch up, a few keen beans went to the site today to push the feet along. 

Joe was in charge today, so I caught up with him in the afternoon to find out how the day had gone...

The group managed to get 2 shoes finished - so these elements are now fixed to the concrete - they would have kept going but the drills ran out of battery - AGAIN!

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4 of the frames have been properly fixed together, we didn’t want to do this poorly on Friday as we were worried that under tension the frames could snap, we do not want to have to buy more! They are done now and are ready to lift up into place when the feet have been completed. 

We managed to get some filming done whilst the second shoe was being drilled - everyone was really optimistic but then the drills died, so - not as much got done as was hoped. 

One positive was the weather, clear skies have allowed the site to dry out a little - it was turning into a slippy mud bath, health and safety nightmare - saws and drills flying everywhere...

So a big thanks go to our dedicated Saturday team; Pat, Aoife, Joe, John, Jess and Kawther. Hopefully we wont have to see the site next Saturday as we are still aiming for a Friday finnish, fingers, toes and everything crossed. 

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Entry #10: 29th October 2010

Lectures till 12 today so that set us back a couple of hours initially anyway...

Design and Construction

The two teams continued as they had the previous day, with some based in the workshop and others at the site. 

Mindaugus and Pat carried on with cutting out the notches on each individual piece of cladding - by hand! This process is really time consuming and if we had know what the situation was at the site it was have probably been for the best if the majority had stayed there helping with marking out and generally moving the large quantities of timber around the workshop. 



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The site was basically at a standstill as we didn’t have the fixings that we needed for the next stage of the construction. The holes couldn’t even be drilled at this point as the drill had run out battery and was on charge...

The lads did find out some interesting information about monkey puzzle trees; first that they are native to Chile - so the area that we are building in is actually the chilean plant section. Also;

• Did you know that monkey puzzle trees are called this as when they were brought across to Britain someone looked at them and said “it would puzzle a monkey to climb those trees!”
• The trees on site are currently flowering, and there are female and male varieties - you can tell this by the spike arrangement at the top of the tree

More building - less chat tomorrow i hope...

When the girls arrived with the shims, bolts and resin it was action stations, or we had hoped - but the drills, 14v just aren’t powerful enough so by the end of Friday we were a little behind on schedule with only the holes drilled for one shoe.  We also discovered that the frames were a little large, but they have now been cut down. Lets hope for a more productive day tomorrow.



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Documentation 

Some site videos have taken place today, with new backdrops. We are all waiting with bated breath to see what crackers John gets out in the final piece. ‘Johncam’ is getting a little too good, it has become very sneaky - so watch out, John could be about!