my number one assistant Gabriel !!
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Well Completion AND House Completion - "all good"
Prior to departure for Nairobi, we were able to finish up the second well and complete the Structural Foam prototype house. A good ending for this trip !
Sunday, September 29, 2013
House Assembly Begins
Panel forming quality improved with each panel made …
controlling the variables.
All panels have been completed and most all “welded”
together. Panels are chemically welded together with same structural foam
materials. A very good bond.
For this house, a foundation is formed with the wood columns
integrated, which will hold up the roof structure. In poverty housing situations,
IDP and refugee camps (to save funds and speed construction to 2 days), the
house will be assembled direction the ground, and then a floor installed within
the walls of the house. This will in no way affect the performance, or life of
the house.
Thanks again to IADDIC shelter for their help and support prior
and during this trip, and the prototype construction. http://iaddicshelters.net
Friday, September 27, 2013
Ground is Broken for the new Malava Well
The new well at the Malava home for orphans and school will
serve over 200 children, faculty and staff upon its completion. Currently water
is drawn from heavy silted and contaminated river some 1 ½ miles away …
Well digging is nearing total depth …
this area’s clay is
not as cohesive so additional culverts will be used to keep well walls intact.
Culverts are being lowered into the well.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Chesamisi Well Completed
Final steps of the Chesamisi Well work over have been
completed.
Water production tubing comes next.
Concrete surface work area and well head mount in the final
stages.
Down hole pump bore lowered into well.
And final the pump plunger and rods.
A group from the 450 total students at the school come to
the well opening.
On
behalf of the Children, Faculty, Administration, & Staff of the Chesamisi
School,
the Wind & Water Foundation sincerely thanks the listeners of
Russian Radio 7, Portland, Oregon, for their generous contributions and to Eugene Volosevych for his support.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
The Kitale Around Us ...
A variety of scenes from the Kitale area.
Forms of hauling lumber and charcoal
Monday, September 23, 2013
Little Helpers
The Children of the Orphanage are eager helpers as well as mimicking many of the adults.
Michael wielding a big hammer.
Gabriel on his "cell phone".
Michael wielding a big hammer.
As we begin to work on the wood truss structure for the roof, the local lumber continues to be a challenge with its irregularities in size, and some severe bows & bends. “Stay Calm and Plane On”.
The Bishop has decided he would like the house directly inside the front gate, a real compliment, but requires moving some large piles of sand and rock ballast. No problem with good help from Daudi and Zachery.
The house will be painted for weather protection and appearance. A color similar to the clay soil houses will be used to resemble the typical construction in order for it to be “accepted” … sort of a Swahili HOA you might say.
It has rained every day but only in the late afternoons and with heavy cloud build up as a 30 min warning sign. It helps cool off the days though, and we've adjusted our work schedule to account for this timing.
Door panel and a window panel completed
Light weight individual panels ... a plus to construction / assembly.
Two panels chemically “welded” together to create side wall. This welding process will be used for all connections to increase strength and insure weather tight construction.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Chesamisi School Well - Work Continues
The well has now been completely worked
over and a steady flow of water fills the bottom 5 feet of the well. The walls
of the well have been shored to insure continued lengthy use of the well, and
clear water.
Next steps are to “re-assemble” the well; constructing the
concrete work area at the surface, including mounting location for well head
and pump operation handle.
First steps of surface work area and mount for well head.
Rains blow in rather quickly requiring us to wait for another day to
finish.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Quality & Consistency
Quality and consistency increases with each panel made.
Variables, even ever so slight ones, such as humidity, temperature, exact
measurements of liquids, can make some differences in the finished product. Our
efforts therefore, as stated in QIP 101 (Quality Improvement Process), are to
minimize the variations. This work will pay off when we start assembling the
panels into the house.
Reminder (managing expectations) no mansion going up here,
8½ ft x 12½ ft house for 2. Poverty housing, Refugee Camps, and IDP camps
(Internally Displaced Peoples) are the focus at this point. Yes, concept may be
applied to other construction of all types, but one step at a time, based on
most urgent need.
Our site is the Gilgal School and Ephraim Orphans Home in
Kitale. High School students attend classes in the compound, whereas the little
children and middle schoolers go to classes just a short walk away, returning
for lunch, and then of course for dinner and overnight.
During class breaks, the HS students always come join us to
check on progress and discuss the process. They are very interested in the
developments and have great questions. It’s Chemistry, Physics, Design, and
Math, one of them pointed out – never thought of it that way …
Forming structural wood into the panels to support the door
and windows after house assembly.
Panel inventory increasing … need 12 to build a small house.
Weight (in any form; full cans, boulders, and students)
added to top of form for first 5 – 6 minutes of expansion, as Foam will
literally lift the lid off the base.
Form has been used for 11 panels thus far and is still in
good shape. This is significant for future planning of mass production.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
The Chesamisi School Well – Major Workover and Pump & Wellhead Installation
A
Christian based school established for the poorer families and orphans.
They
currently have a non-functioning well so on most days they are walking varying distances to
different sources to gather their daily water.
The
current well at the school is literally just an open hole in the ground with an
aging concrete deck around the open hole. A piece of wood covers the hole.
This
has several difficulties:
-
the water, when available, is brought up by a rope and a bucket (one gallon at
a time) … usually by the women and children.
-
the rope and bucket method causes turbulence in the water down hole therefore
supplying dirty water.
-
the open hole is a safety issue.
-
the open hole also is more subject to contaminates getting in the well.
We
will clean the entire well and shore the walls down hole. We will also dig out
the bottom depth of the well to develop a proper “reservoir” area to insure the
greatest continuous use of the well. Following that step, we’ll install a new
properly designed concrete work area at the surface, including a mounting
position for the well head and pump handle assembly.
A
pump will be installed at the bottom of the well, a tubing string for the water
to get to the surface, and a series of rods to operate the pump from the
surface well head.
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