This Day in History...

Photos from Walden Pond

Wednesday May 29^th ,

Today was a rain day and as the last rain day left me stranded without a plan, Mr. Esty and I agreed that I should head down to Walden Pond and go see the replica of Thoreau’s house. I had already read the section of Walden about building the house on my first day and wanted to see for myself what it looked like. So I set out to see what the finished product of my work at Pingree would resemble and began my journey down the I-95 super speedway.  Then I went through swirly, twirly route 2A, where I came upon the familiar sight of construction. Soon I found Walden Pond and began my trek from the car past about six trees to the small house on the side of a well paved road. All I could think was “ Mr. Esty would deem this a real Thoreauvian journey”.  I couldn’t help but draw similarities to the Pingree House and where it was going to be built, due to the fact that it would also be surrounded by man-made objects. Thoreau’s dream of a life alone in nature has been replaced with a road, a parking lot, an automated parking ticket machine and of course the restroom right across from the house.  I mean, they couldn’t even make it look like an outhouse? Due to the length of my journey, I was faced with the dilemma of sticking to Thoreau’s ideals and digging a hole next to the house and doing my business there or using the restrooms with running water. Sadly, the only Thoreau like thing that I would be doing this day was going inside his house.

Based on my interpretation of the reading I thought the house would be slightly bigger and seemed more finished then I would have thought it would but overall it was as expected. The logs bark left on one side and a small chimney. I think that if you put some of the wilderness back and most likely some of the deer I could probably learn to survive however the realities of myself alone in the woods probably wouldn’t settle in till about the third day on the brink of starvation. It is hard to image a replica at Pingree, mostly because in my lifetime going to Pingree, since I was about 4 or 5, the few changes to Pingree were a science wing and a hall way to the gym. However the Pingree replica would be about the same as the other replica and have the similar views of all man-made objects.

Videos from the week of work

http://youtu.be/TVkuaOPr3Lo

http://youtu.be/Leb6Y8VFq6s

Photos from the weeks work

Hello  my name is Hank Martin I am working on the Thoreau house for my senior project.  I will be posting about my activities.

 

FIRST DAY BLISTERS:

I spent today sawing and stripping the bark off the tree. It took along time to saw the ends of log as it was from a very strong tree. The hand saw was a lot work of the hands and shoulder as it is obviously not as fun as using a chain saw. I now see why people want chainsaws. The stripping of the bark was very easy. I used a short chisel that stripped the bark very easily and in log stripps. I ended the day as my hand hurt and later I discovered blisters on my palms.

 

A BALANCING ACT:

On Friday I began the day with attempting to cut notches in the log. However due to rain I was only able to begin one and shave the down slightly. I still got a good 5 hours in of work on the day which will make Tuesday a lot easier.

 

Seniors!!!! You're axe-ellent

Nick: Wow. I remember my first experience with you was watching you and Dylan run around the theatre while the Batman theme song was playing. I was amused...until you threw my shoe on the stage. But nevertheless, that's a memory I won't ever forget. Don't lose your funny personality at college!

Allegra: I first met you (although you probably won't remember it) when I came to see a Chicago rehearsal last year. I remember being absolutely blown away by your amazing voice (which I'm still blown away by every day). You can light up an entire theatre. Seriously. I'll be sitting in the front row for your Broadway debut. Break a leg next year!

Caitlin: I am amazed by your ability to play completely different characters. A water genie and Doctor Who couldn't be more different. You're an amazing person and you made me feel welcome on my first day of theatre. I loved being on your Springfest team (it was obviously our strong arm muscles that won the girls tug-of-war). Good luck at college next year!

Keira: You're great. Really. I never heard you complain about house-building and you always get the job done. I just wish I had more than one season to spend time with you! You're a hard-worker and you're definitely an amazing person just all around. Have fun in college!

Seniors, We'll Miss Hew

SURPRISE!!! Get ready to be appreciated!!!
Caitlyn: Though I know I don't say it very much, you really mean a lot to me. I don't know how I ever would have survived advisory meetings without you by my side. I only hope that I can be as welcoming a fellow advisee to our new members as you were to me. Also, thanks for teaching me how to shave logs. That was pretty cool.
Allegra: You probably don't remember this, but you were one of the first people to really welcome me at Pingree. I'll never forget freshman year when you encouraged me to try out for a solo in Singers. Your support and kindness rally helped me find my place at Pingree. You always made me feel like I had someone who I could seriously vent to. Next year's going to be rough without you.
Nick: Your theatrical talent has really intimidated me these past few years, but the more time I spend around you, the more I realize that you're probably the least scary person ever. I wish I was half as funny as you are. Your constant hilarity really made house building that much more fun.
Keira: I know we never really talked until the beginning of house building this spring, but I wish we had. You seem really cool and fun to be around. Also, your soccer skills are really impressive. I think as the only official athlete on the house building team (except for Jay, of course), we can give that soccer game to you.
I don't want to get too sappy, so I'm just going to say that I had no idea what to do for an activity his spring, and I think house building was definitely the best choice, and you guys were a big part of that. We're really going to miss you next year.
Good luck at college! Break a leg!
- Love and hugs, Carolyn

Progress Report 5/10

Hello Fellow Thoreauvians,
It has been somewhat of a slow week due to inclement weather and the elusiveness of the town building inspector. However, we took the opportunity to organize and get in gear for the home stretch! We made good progress on our 6-by-6 logs which will become wall plates when we put up  the house. We're hoping to finish shaving and leveling them next week.  Overall, it has been a very productive spring, with a collective effort to carve about a dozen pegs which will be used as nails. Monday was spent creating a to-do list of things we'd like to accomplish this season. Some of our tasks included talking to the building inspector to finalize the location of the building site, ordering official t-shirts and caps with special housebuilding-related nicknames. Though next week is officially our last week, we plan to finish off strong! Also, the housebuilding team will be featured in the spring concert, with photographs of the team taken by Mr. Goff appearing on a slideshow. The accompanying piece, "Make Our Garden Grow" from Candide, featuring lyrics like "we'll build our house and chop our wood" will be performed by Pingree Spectrum.
That's all for now, but look for an update next Wednesday!
- from Carolyn and Alyssa

So far this week we have cleared a pine tree that we knocked down from the woods. We also began work on the two stumps in the woods from cutting down trees earlier this year. We sawed one of the down to the ground and will begin the other later this week or next. Also this week we opened conversation with the science department about mixing a Glycol-borate solution to protect our finished timbers from rot.
-Catherine

Hello everyone!
Sorry the blog has been inactive for so long. we've had a lot going on, and we forgot about the blog a little bit.

So far this week, we've had two groups working.
One group has been down at the site working to finish hewing down the last two or three logs before the end of the school year. The other group has been working up in the woods at the site where we felled our tree last year (see below). That group has been clearing away all of the branches and stuff that we left behind. In addition, we've been cutting down the two stumps we left from our tree-felling (one by us and one by the other group, whose blog you can find in the side bar). Progress has been coming along quite well, which is good because we only have about three more weeks of housebuilding before school ends and we've got quite a lot of things to do.
Check back in for another update on Friday