Some students stayed on Sunday to put a texture on the concrete slab.

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The slab was frozen, though.

Frozen trowel!

It still amazes me how different Bluff can be from the ‘rest of the world.’  On Sunday morning, as the students were packing up for the long trip back to Salt Lake, I awoke to two horses grazing out my kitchen window.  Asking around, they were unclaimed — our best guess, taken from multiple sitings over the past few days, is that the mom and daughter duo has migrated east from the rez until they found the gate marked ‘sucker.’

The pair has been caught and are enjoying a fine diet of donated grass/alfalfa mix (thanks Jackie) and water until their fate can be determined.  Lacking identifiable brands, these two could belong to anyone.

Word has been spread as to their predicament.  Still, I struggle to understand how anyone could ‘lose’ such property.  As my partner Dawn has told me, I cannot keep them — such beautiful animals require too much of an investment to properly be taken care of.  How then do they end up wandering the town of Bluff, grazing from yard to yard.  For their safety, and the safety of others traveling the local highway, I have decided to find a home for them.

For me, they are  a reminder of the reality of the ‘Bluff Experience.’  Yesterday a student informed me that the past two weeks have been nothing like what he had imagined.  Thick mud roads, frozen concrete slabs, digging, digging and more digging, life lived in a muddy slurpy with more rain projected.  I know our students are rewarded in this bizarre reality with a new understanding of the world and their actions within it.  I also know that the University, families and friends of our students will never understand any of it — whether they want to our not.  The reality is that you must actively participate in Bluff to understand it.

Two caught horses in a pen made of scaffolding and scavenged fences is a poor metaphor for Hank’s vision.  However, it is the closest thing I have ever felt to the experience of this program.  It is about trying to understand a different culture and reality, one more basic and real than can ever be taught in a structured academic setting.

As always, this year holds tremendous promise.  If we all keep up the hard work, only good things will come.  Whether or not we have two new members of the class is yet to be determined.  At least they won’t require new beds.

Mitch

Studio Slab

Today’s goal was to finish pouring the slab for the Studio Building.  The group spent the last few days learning the finer points of foundation formwork and was able to adjust to changing the work schedule in order to complete the Studio slab so it is ready for strawbales upon return to the site next week.  Everybody has worked very hard this week and is excited for a “week off” in order to gather supplies and plan out the next week of construction.  We have a busy week in Salt Lake but are looking forward to a break in physical labor.

Bobby's Hand

Blake finishing concrete

Moving concrete for the Studio Footings

Mixer

We were happy to have a sunny and warm day for pouring since we had so much to accomplish before leaving Bluff.

What do we do when 80% of us are 60% frozen; and the snow is falling sideways; and you have to reach down finger deep in a frozen soup of sand, clay, and slush to grab a piece of wood or a screw you dropped; and your hands are actually warmer with your gloves off because your gloves are all soaked through with Reservation Slushie; and when Judson makes fun of you for the monster drip hanging by its fingertips from the end of your nose; and when half the crew is crowded into the Excursion to get out of the wind? You call it a day and drive back home with your tail between your legs, and you eat the sweet, hot, tomato soup of defeat; and you grill yourself a cheese sandwich of resolve to steel yourself for the possibility of having to do it again tomorrow. That was what we did yesterday, and we are back at work today. We have a lot more tomato soup left.

-Bob Sonntag

The clouds clearing

Adrian

setting the forms

wheelbarrow race!

meeting!

The site was as sunny as can be, here at Janet’s house.  It was quite a surprise for us expecting snow and rain. The day was very productive, as we learned and dug the trenches for our utilities.  The forms for the foundation on the house were also finalized and we are ready to start on the studio.  I realized today, because of the weather, how many colors there are in our view over the Res as the snow was melting. :0)

Sacred Land, Sacred View by Robert S. McPherson  (a book we are required to read for our history course)

It is amazing to read about this land that we are working with, yet hardly know anything about.  Reading about these places on the reservation can offer us an idea about how much the Navajo know about their land.  They have names for every rock formation, or river, or valley and they associate them with a plant, animal, story, color.  They can do this, and come up with stories because they watch these lands and know how they behave.  One area, called Monument Valley, is described as a hogan to the Navajo.  They have paralleled everything in the vast valley to how a hogan is designed and could only make that association because they have walked its entire perimeter.  How often to we analyze these things at such a large scale.  For us, building the Yanito house, and many others from this generation, I’m sure our views are quite narrow.  Building this residence has already opened our eyes to new experiences.  Let’s continue to open them wider. 

We knew the snow was coming, so we prepared for our day with extra layers of clothing and warm hats and scarves. We began with Monday Morning Meeting and discussed our schedule for the week.  Each group gave updates on their duties such as fenestration design, plumbing, foundation, SIP walls, and special design issues.  We then split up into two teams: four people stayed on the Scorup Property to work on the bath house and the rest of us took off to Janet’s site.  At the site we continued the form-work for the foundation, started digging the studio foundation, bent rebar, unloaded a truckload of cement and enjoyed the cold snow that melted into mud that contrasted the color of the landscape.

Posted by:  Sarah + Nathalia

No work today on Janet’s house, gave us a chance to sleep in and enjoy the last day of the balloon festival.  We awoke to the sounds of the torches from hot air balloons flying just overhead our house.  We watched them fly 30 feet above our roof and land in nearby fields. 

Then we had an exciting hour doing laundry at the Cottonwood Wash. Video games, reading, and eating junk food made the time fly by. Some of us hiked, others napped and some stayed busy doing little odd jobs around the property.

And of course, once the ‘man-tainers’ realized that we could get internet, we had to fit in an hour of Saturday Night Live’s Best of Will Ferrel.

It was a good day…

With 6 students up in Salt Lake City on quests for many things, including windows, the remaining 15 students and 5 staff finished digging the house foundation and started the form work. We are beginning to become pros with shovels and wheelbarrows, working together and gaining muscles. The shallow frost-protected slab foundation means we are digging an extra trench for the EPS foam that will remain along the concrete foundation after completion. It also means we do not need to dig very deep, speeding up the construction process. Our goal is to have the house foundation completed by next Saturday, so we are ready for SIPs on our next trip down. inserting the foam along the form work, ready to hammer

Melina crosses our newly formed canyon

Judson and Haley bring on the gravel to layer over our compacted earth

4 people. 1 form.

Everyone received an education on PV panels on-site. Not only did we begin to understand how they work, but also how complicated it would be to install and maintain for Janet, or any homeowner.

We look forward to our first day off, a chance to explore the area, and an opportunity to relax.

Today began with some high flying action. The Bluff Balloon Festival is this weekend and this morning began very early as a few students were able to help crew a balloon launch. Then came the fun…..a hot air balloon ride over this beautiful countryside.

Then it was off to the site to dig the foundation. Today was the first day when the whole crew was on site working. We finished hooking up the solar trailer, the foundation for the studio was staked out and “The Can” is in place and functioning ( thanks Geneva, for testing it out!). The biggest accomplishment of the day was finishing the digging of the foundation for the entire house. Janet and her family came and helped out as well. Even her father was there and left us with a Navajo blessing for strength to build this home.

The evening was finished with a stop at the elemantary school for some navajo tacos and cultural festivities in honor of the balloon festival. We then headed to our first lecture of the dbB Lecture Series. Jonathon Till spoke to us about some of the significant archelogical findings in the area. A great end to a long, hard working day.