April 12 - Building Walls, Hanging Ducts and Clearing the Yard

More Walls Rising -
The interior space is being divided with partition walls giving each area its appropriate space allotment. The front corners of the sanctuary will each own its own room. Andy, Bob and Steve were the designated wall builders on Saturday.

Andy on the left, and Bob on the right rose to the occasion. While Andy climbed the stairs, Bob rode the elevator. The scissor lift looked like so much fun I asked the operator if he allowed sight seers. He did and so I got a few pictures from the high spot of my day.

 Sam is in the doorway at the far end of the room.

Andy and Steve are making long boards into short ones in the carpentry shop.



Andy pauses to use his newly built wall segment for an arm rest. Unfortunately a tall ladder is required to use this new feature so it will not be popular, especially with us older folks.

The space beyond Andy is being made into a room which will hold organ speakers.


























By the end of the day, the room, shown here over Andy's head,  was nearing completion with floor joists in place.

I was not the only sight gawker to ride the lift for sight seeing purposes. Bob's daughters Gwen and Sasha accompanied Bob in order to inspect Dad's high level work. They did not mention any substandard workmanship.








A Carpenter Becomes a Ductor -
Sam demonstrated his versatility by spending the day as a ductor, cutting lengths, cutting openings, adding arms and legs to the main trunk, then hanging the assembly from the ceiling.

Pete joined in the fun. Here he shows the finished product from the hanger strap fabrication department. It seems that the long hanger straps had all been either put to use or converted to short straps. Pete made a long strap from two short ones.

He then attached it to the ceiling ....

Pete and Sam combined their energies and got the entire assembly to defy gravity. Another successful operation by the ductor.

Cutting sheet metal ducts with either a saw or snips leaves burrs and sharp, protruding ragged edges. Here Pete uses a portable grinder to make sparks and smooth the edge of the duct.

After it is all nice and smooth, he and Sam collaborate to add a reducer. Pete's son Gabe inspects the operation to make sure the quality of the workmanship is satisfactory.
















Meanwhile on the Outside ...
The landscaping folks are expected soon to begin grading for the parking lot. That means that all the scrap lumber must be converted to ash and the two containers that have served as construction sheds must be removed from the site.

The scrap lumber conversion went on as scheduled. With the recent, and current, rains there is no risk of a grass fire so burning progressed through the day. Youngsters eagerly hauled the fuel and fed the flames.

Moving the containers, however, was more interesting. The smaller, green container was dispatched rather easily. Here it is shown being secured to the mobile fork lift with chains.

The trusty forklift then dragged it away. The container demonstrated a fair amount of resistance, but as the track shows, the fork lift prevailed.


The larger, blue box in the background proved to be a more stubborn competitor.

 First the forklift nudges it sideways so the big tractor can get a straight line pull on it.

The tractor pulls mightily but only digs furrows with the 
drive wheels. 

Like the ductors inside, the two machines join forces, with the tractor pulling and the forklift pushing, but still to no avail. The big blue box won't budge.

A new approach. Forklift chained to the box, tractor chained to forklift. Now, operators, add the fuel and let the combined forces move the beastly, blue box. 

Try as they might, the box held fast. It seems that all there is to show for the effort is some overturned soil. One of the guys asked if this is the place where the holding pond goes, so that this might be a good start on the excavation. 

As of this moment, the container is winning. Maybe we need to name the container, Babe the Blue Box and call in Paul Bunyon to move it for us. Stay tuned to see the how this stalemate is resolved.