Reconnecting with nature and community in the inner city.
We stalked fish, hiking further up and up the river for our prize. We caught glimpses but the trout waited until our lunch break to come out in force, slipping sinuously under rocks when we gathered up rods again. But the chase is almost as much fun as the capture for the fly fisherman and despite going home with a bag lighter than we came with five flies lost to the river it was one of the most simply enjoyable days we’d had in a while.
Then we were counting speed bumps on the way to a BBQ at the Castle. It really was more of a large scale tin can, but the inside was awesome, like a kind of large scale cubby house. From the roof we could see the Mesa stretched out until it hit mountains on all sides, below geese were causing a ruckus in the same pen as a world weary rooster, who just looked with a “tell me about it” shrug of his feathers.
Mojitos, a sunken fireplace and beams of light on an 80s interior. It had the same signs we had come to associate with earthship, brilliant ideas then a sudden loss of interest, things never quite finished because another idea, another building takes over. This building and those surrounding were the genesis of an ADD way of building. It was fun, unconventional and innovative, but the people staying in the Pods didn’t have running water for two days and the girls in the castle were freezing at night.
After dinner a circle of five braved the night chill and played hot coals around the fire. Three catching and passing and under strict instructions from Dylan the two of us dodging to protect out pump jackets. Then later after a good natured scrabble at the door, with Vera and Melissa not wanting anyone to leave we were back in the car counting speed bumps and singing at the top of our lungs to the hits of the 90s.
After dinner the interns in walking distance filtered into our humble abode. When we first realised we were staying here Sam and I, perfect stranger, hi-fived one another, it was nice. An experiment in a double storey city dwelling it had radiant slab heating, a double height courtyard and most importantly running water which we were told people in “the Pods” lacked. Ground floor and first both had a bedroom/kitchen and after some tossing of furniture between the levels a little table each. The four of us had leisurely lunches together being only a minute from site and we could here Jason strumming his guitar upstairs most night.
Most importantly there is a double height cistern system that was running low after a dry spell. Important because when a water delivery truck showed up they weren’t familiar with the system. Water began spilling across our kitchen floor and it was then with mop in hand that I got my first and perhaps only encounter with the great man of mystery Michel Reynolds. His first words to me were something like “we F@#$ed up”, then they did some tinkering and the tide receded.
The formwork is leveled, and “porcupined” with screws so that the sides grip the concrete. Reinforcing mesh is cut to size and when the concrete is poured it is lifted up somewhere near the centre to give tensile strength. The concrete is hard troweled, timber sanded and stained, then the concrete is stained after it is cured for a few days.
See you tomorrow for some pretty.
