To say that the past two days have been tiring would be an understatement. We have been sweating, running, lifting, grinding, and measuring. Though we have been working ourselves in this Texas heat, we are extremely grateful for how much we are learning about sustainable structures and biomes and how much we are learning about ourselves (band-aids, blisters, and all).
On Tuesday, we were approached by the director of the non-profit to continue the building of their "food forest." A food forest is a concept that means that edibles plants of many different types, usually native to the area, are planted alongside and within existing landscapes rather than than clearing the land and planting just a few varieties of plants. This involved an ample amount of teamwork as we took turns shredding mycellium (allowing the production of fungus and mushrooms), overturning mulch, and spreading all of the above along berms and and flats sections meant to catch water. With that being our main job, we took turns helping out Aaron, the ever-helpful construction maestro, in finishing the sculpture for the shade structure we are helping to finish. And finally, we started working on a shade-trellis that turned out to be another critical thinking brainteaser.
After a full day of work, we went and had a family meal at the delicious Donn's Barbecue, just a few minutes away from our site. We, of course, stuffed our faces and stomachs necessitating a walk around downtown Austin, with a quick walk through the campus of UT Austin. Parker does not know how to walk on sidewalks and we found the Texas star.
Wednesday turned out to be quite a trying day -- frustrations became apparent as we were all trying to find the best way to tackle the trellis project.
This trellis project was ingenious indeed and we were left to find out how it can come to life. To give perspective, a metal trellis has been attached to a 'green' library on the site in order for vines to climb up. This trellis is designed to carry vines in such a way that it provides ample shade and temperature regulation while providing food for those inhabiting the area -- you can pluck food from the very vines from which you are getting shade.
This trellis had to be pushed away from the structure, but the beams that force the trellis away from the structure could not be fixed to the structure. We ending up having to measure, cut, and clamp steel cables to suspend the beams in such a way that would not allow side-to-side and forward-backward motion. This project definitely tested our mechanical abilities in a pretty high sense, but we muscled and thought our way through and finished that aspect of the project much faster than the director thought we could! Tomorrow, we add plants and bring the sculpture to the shade structure park!
We finished out the day by doing laundry (oh how that was needed), going on a grocery run, and Mahir making tandoori chicken (delicious DELICIOUS). We got to share this delicious dinner with the Pliny, the director, who followed up our dinner with a very informative and very cool lecture that gave us very unique insights and developments in sustainable engineering. Of course, we finished with more s'mores.
On Tuesday, we were approached by the director of the non-profit to continue the building of their "food forest." A food forest is a concept that means that edibles plants of many different types, usually native to the area, are planted alongside and within existing landscapes rather than than clearing the land and planting just a few varieties of plants. This involved an ample amount of teamwork as we took turns shredding mycellium (allowing the production of fungus and mushrooms), overturning mulch, and spreading all of the above along berms and and flats sections meant to catch water. With that being our main job, we took turns helping out Aaron, the ever-helpful construction maestro, in finishing the sculpture for the shade structure we are helping to finish. And finally, we started working on a shade-trellis that turned out to be another critical thinking brainteaser.
This trellis project was ingenious indeed and we were left to find out how it can come to life. To give perspective, a metal trellis has been attached to a 'green' library on the site in order for vines to climb up. This trellis is designed to carry vines in such a way that it provides ample shade and temperature regulation while providing food for those inhabiting the area -- you can pluck food from the very vines from which you are getting shade.
This trellis had to be pushed away from the structure, but the beams that force the trellis away from the structure could not be fixed to the structure. We ending up having to measure, cut, and clamp steel cables to suspend the beams in such a way that would not allow side-to-side and forward-backward motion. This project definitely tested our mechanical abilities in a pretty high sense, but we muscled and thought our way through and finished that aspect of the project much faster than the director thought we could! Tomorrow, we add plants and bring the sculpture to the shade structure park!
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