Wow! Things are moving fast up at the work site!!! It's really exciting to see how quickly things are moving along. Of course, as a general rule, it is always easier to tear something down than to build something up, but it is still encouraging to see things progressing so quickly. As I type, a crew is up there busily dismantling the building's steel skeleton. I anticipate that the next update I bring you will show a completely bare spot where once stood the venerable old Tabernacle.
As I said in my last post, it is really striking, in a strange sort of way, to see the building without its walls, and now with the roof gone it looks even stranger to me. It has been over fifty years since the sun shined on that concrete floor.
I feel like a little boy again watching the crew work.
Of course, taking down a steel building can be noisy, and we have had a group from Thanksgiving Korean Church meeting in the Mt. San Jacinto Chapel, which is right next door. The workers have been really accomodating by trying to keep the noise down, and by working around the campers schedule. Of course, the campers, and the work they are doing here, is the reason why we exist as a ministry, and it goes without saying that the campers are the most important people on the grounds at any given time, so we were more than willing to put their needs first, and we were grateful for the construction guys' willingness to accommodate our requests.
Please forgive me if my language isn't technical enough. I don't have a background in engineering or construction so I sometimes don't know use the proper terms to describe a building's components. (I'll try and avoid descriptive terms like "thingy" or "Thing-a-ma-jiggy" though.) Yesterday afternoon, the guys started taking down these beams, which run north to south.
As you can see, when I went up to the site to check things out this morning, all that remained of the extreme north end of the building were the base of the supports (...or "Gilly-Wompers" as I call them) in the corners.
...and taking the pieces down to the ballfield.
Pretty exciting! Keep on checking here for more updates as they become available.
It has been a few days since my last update. During the interim, the work site has continued to be a beehive of activity. Most of the work has consisted of moving dirt, digging dirt, hauling dirt, filling holes with dirt, compacting dirt, smoothing dirt, and so on. All of it dirt related. Oh yeah, and rocks too! That big rock above is the very same one that used to sit at the southwestern corner of the old tabernacle. We were wondering how we were going to move it until...
...Keith ate a can of spinach and WHAMMO! he slid it 15-20 feet of the way!!! He didn't even break a sweat!!!
Alright, I must confess, that wasn't entirely truthful. I was no less impressed though to learn that a bulldozer was able to shove it over. That's a lot of granite right there! I had become resigned to the idea that we were going to have to break it up and cart it away, but thanks to Keith...er...um...I mean, the bulldozer we able to preserve it as a nice climbing/sitting place next to the New Worship Center.
For the past several days they have been working on compacting and processing the soil upon which the foundation of the new building will eventually be laid. It has to be good and packed down before they can move on to the next step. In the photo above Walt Shirley, our most tireless and devoted volunteer, is wetting down the soil to aid in the process while the dozer shoves dirt around.
I don't have much to comment on a lot of these pictures, but I wanted to include them so you can get some idea of what has been going on up at the work site.
It's kind of a crummy picture above, but the aforementioned rocks look really nice arranged under the shady arbor of the cedar trees. It has always been a nice spot, and a favorite with the campers, but it has only been improved by the addition of the rocks. I can imagine how very nice it will be to eventually have this spot, with rocks, benches, picnic tables and graceful trees right outside the new Worship Center.
They scraped another two feet off the bank on the eastern side of the work site to leave room to seal the back side of the retaining wall that will eventually be built there. I walked along the edge hoping to find an arrowhead or some other artifact sticking out of the newly exposed dirt, but found nothing.
This big brute has been doing most of the earth moving.
One day the engineer on the project came by and instructed the guys to dig down thirty inches, soak everything down and compact it really well before the foundation could be laid. I learned that digging out thirty inches of dirt from an area that size makes some mighty dirt piles. Anybody up for a game of king of the mountain?
I think the dozer would win.
Our little garden house was not putting out enough water to do the job so they brought in this big water truck and a fire hose.
Well, as I type they are busy leveling out the dirt. After digging down thirty inches and compacting all of the soil they have to smoothe everything back out. I suspect that the next time I check back in, it will be to report that they have begun pouring the foundation. Pretty exciting, eh?
