March Meeting Hall Building Update
well, thanks to many helping hands, march brought us the third floor’s roof! yippppeeeee! no more tarps!
an incredible feeling of accomplishment and calm has washed over the moonshadow community as we remember all of the aspects of our lives that are *not* related to this amazing building project… we have a lot of folks to thank for the month of march.
patrick has been out there every day, rain or shine.
beau (who is now off hiking the appalachian trail), alex, bradley and myself have dedicated quite a lot of our time to getting this structure under cover.
randall joined us for a week and then came back a few weeks later to be on the svi staff for the spring and summer. he became incredibly proficient with the power drill and is now in the garden every day.
didi, chad and their 2 month-old daughter, pippi, joined us for three wonderful weeks. they successfully juggled childcare, cooking (every day) and helping out on the structure.
andrew donovan was here for 9 days, bouncing between bringing new life to our computers and helping out with the building. we are so grateful to him for his help and gentle nature.
david del vecchio joined us for a fun-filled week. what a treat!
a group of past interns traveled together for a weekend of construction - sean, brian, melissa, berea and adam - they brought along their friend monica, too. hop, adalila, ayanna and sarah were here that weekend, also - we all got lots accomplished during the days and had lots of fun playing games together in the evening!
meli came up from florida for 5 days during her spring break - she was enthusiastic, helpful and a pleasure to have around.
and then there have been a few successful work days - some with one helper, others with a dozen. many thanks to jon, trish, melony, jeannie, caara, gilbert, chris, will, aurelia, jake, nada, willy, ashley haley, kelsey, sean, danny, trae and jerry!
and here are the pictures!
getting the logs from the ground up to the third floor as posts was a fantastic dance of bodies and wood.
anyone who wanted to sling a drill had plenty of opportunities. the posts were drilled into place while others drilled braces between them.
it takes a village to raise a building!
beau’s final project before heading out on the trail was maybe the most challenging job he took on during his two plus years at moonshadow - the stairs from the second to the third floors. will helped get the job finished.
after the posts came the beams.
then the rafters:
and to make the structure safe for the little ones - railings (soon to be followed by a fence):
and, yes, the most important accomplishment of all - the third floor roof!
now we’re ready for april - fencing below the handrails, the stairs from the ground to the second floor, bracing to ensure more stability and our opening event on april 12th - a tour of the grounds, two performances by david rovics, a pot luck dinner and more.
- ashley ironwood and the moonshadow crew
on April 30th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Hello! Wow what cool pictures and work you have gotten done. Tell Patrick I said hello and Hope to see you all soon.
Dave Ayers
on May 30th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Your accomplishments take my breath away–the meeting hall built over the original Moonshadow cabin is truly amazing In urban Seattle, we are attempting to build an island of food production in the midst of crack sales and other human degradations.