our second trip to lama
On Thursday, April 21st, our class will be heading back down to Lama, to lay our foundation! We will be staying on site this time, for four days (three nights). During this trip, the goal is to build and finish the structural foundation, so that we can hit the ground running when we return in the summer. To get as much done as possible, our class will be splitting up into groups. Some of us will be digging and preparing the land, while others pick up the concrete, and prepare the batter boards. There will be 15 perma-columns put in, which means a lot of holes to dig, but we think it’s doable.
In between all this construction, we will be spending some more time with the residents of Lama, and familiarizing ourselves with the retreat center. Our building design has undergone some changes since they last saw it, so we will use this opportunity to update them on our plans. It’ll be so nice to see everyone again, and get a refresher on the land we’ll be working with (hopefully covered in less snow this time).
-Shannon Carlin
LAMA Trip Summary
Our most recent trip to the Lama Foundation was extremely productive, and very enlightening! Our class began each day at 7:30am with a snack and some caffeine before heading to the site to work. Friday started with deciding exactly where we wanted to put the building. A team of students put together a life size frame of our building, and after inching back and forth on where to drop it, we decided on the perfect spot. We traced that area of land and got to work! For almost the entire day, all 15 of us, plus the professors, dug holes.
These holes are the key component of our foundation. Each hole will have a Perma-column placed in it. Since these columns need to be level, and our site is on a hill, not all the holes can be the same depth; they varied from 3 ft to 5 ft deep! By the end of the day, we were at the halfway mark, and picked up digging again Saturday morning! Some of the holes were ridiculously stubborn, and took longer than others, but they were all finished by around 3pm. We took a quick break and had a snack, then moved onto the next steps. After triple-checking that all the Perma-columns were straight, even, squared, and level in the holes, we started to pour the concrete! This was a messy and heavy process, but it felt so good to get it done. Because of our fast, hard work, Sunday was a little more relaxed. We spent the morning back filling the holes, cleaning up the site, and packing up our stuff.
This trip to Lama was incredibly insightful. We all learned so much more about our project, and got a taste of what this summer will be like. The food was wonderful, sleeping in the Dome was magical, and the weather was impeccable. I think it’s safe to say we all can’t wait to go back!