Pouring concrete for the first part of the foundation

Delivery of 10 yards of concrete

Pouring Concrete

Paul, Barry, Shane, and Jim

This space will become the battery compartment
for the solar energy system

Paul, Barry and Shane working hard to pour concrete into
forms and vibrating it to make it flow well

The new concrete floor for the pump house
between the two cisterns

A full-size concrete truck

Extra concrete is used by Urs to do the first three
steps to the sundeck with in-laid natural rock

Video of Concrete Pouring 1

Video of concrete pouring 2

Ready for pouring concrete

Forms are finished and ramps have been built

Barry and Priscilla

At 18 years old, Priscilla has somewhat
wobbly legs, but still a gleam in her eyes.

A weekend excursion to other islands

Judy on fore deck of Raven Song

Judy on bow seat of Raven Song at a favourite anchorage

Sunset mood

Site clearing and excavation

Stacking logs

Hauling away slash and stumps

Moving the old outhouse out of the way

Excavating the building site

Large rock slabs removed

Excavating down to solid sandstone rock

Steve with the excavator

Steve

Using the large jackhammer to break out rock

Hauling away logs; Steve and Peter

One load of firewood

One load of saw logs. These will later be cut into beams.

Steve building the "Great Wall."

Cleaned up to bare solid rock

Solid rock under the kitchen

More jackhammer time to carve out space for the cisterns 

Surveying work to determine the exact corner locations

Paul studying the location of the building's corners

David on the instrument and Paul on the laser reflector

The laser reflector

David and Urs working the survey

Paul the builder with David the surveyor

Measuring the height of the tree obstructions to solar energy collection

How many degrees above the horizon is that tree top?

A home-built plywood sextant to measure vertical angles.

Survey field notes

Field notes recorded in a spreadsheet and
converted to true azimuth angles.

Field notes plotted on site plan

Some notes about height angles and solar paths

A rough plot of tree heights and solar paths for
spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Conclusion: in winter the back-up generator will get its excercise.

View to southeast from intended solar collector installation.