Friday

This morning I got up and picked up some basswood I need for my project. Unfortunately they were sold out of the standard scaled lumber so I had to buy double my width and cut it myself. After Ace Hardware, I drove up to see the canal site where we would be building our projects. It's an old part of town, with huge ancient trees planted by early settlers in the area still there. The canal water is an interesting shade of green, and rather full, so that the water level is only 2 feet from the level of the road atop the embankment. I took a lot of picutres and several minutes of video with my comments on the site. Right nearby on the canal is a tiny hydroelectric plant which spans the canal and powers about a hundred homes. This plant was cheerfully remodeled to make it more interesting for visitors, and it has some cool and interestng things- although apart from actually showing us the generators and turbines, there's really not much more they can do to add interest. The rest of the day I spent in studio, pounding out one of the two models I need to have done for monday. I left studio around 9 and spent an hour at home reading/skimming our structures reading on snow, wind, and seismic loads. Tomorrow I have to get up at 6:3o for habitat. It's good for the soul.