Another very productive day - this team is amazing. People do whatever is needed and make an effort to include others. Those with knowledge share with others - everyone learns from each other. This has been an amazing day at the end of an amazing week.
Our hotel stay includes breakfast. Some have been very interesting. Yesterday was a hamburger with lettuce, tomato and cucumber on a roll. Today was tea, watery cream of chicken soup and a hotdog with lettuce, tomato and cucumber on a roll with mayonnaise on top.
Every day on our 45-50 minute van ride to the build site, we see many interesting things. Most mornings, we see the passenger train that comes from Russia and goes to Ulaanbaatar and Beijing.
We also pass a large train yard and station where there are numerous cargo trains.
One of the projects I worked on in the morning was cutting six of the cement and styrofoam blocks into four pieces. The blocks are 12" by 14" by 24" and they were cut the long way into pieces approximately 6" by 7" by 24" - this was a lot of sawing and it was all done by hand. My understanding is that these pieces will be used as insulation/spacers between the roof truss ends.
Two houses were built by a team before us; we refer to them as houses #1 and #2. We were supposed to build two houses, but a third was added to our agenda - so we work on houses #3, #4 and #5. House #5 has had progress better than expected progress.
House #4 is the one I have worked on the most and is the one farthest along. This morning started with wetting the concrete (to help with curing) that we had poured yesterday.
Meanwhile, the progress on House #5 had been too good to be true. In fact, one wall followed the concrete foundation instead of using strings to make sure it was straight. Out of a total of six blocks high, that wall was five high on the corners and three high in the middle. It was decided that the wall had to come down and be rebuilt correctly. Several of the Mongolians tried to loosen the blocks - however, at a weight of 110 to 140 pounds, they were unsuccessful. It turns out that a 240 pound American putting his shoulder in the blocks allowed them to be loosened and removed.
And those blocks were promptly replaced in correct alignment on house #5.
Meanwhile, over at house #4, a team worked on pre-cutting and pre-drilling the 2" by 6" boards that would be anchored to the concrete piers created on top of the block walls.
Here are some more photos of the removal and new installation of the misaligned wall on house #5.
After a wonderful lunch of fried fish, rice, green salad and Mongolian coleslaw, the concrete piers on house #4 had cured enough, insulation and the plates were bolted to the top of the walls. Then we needed to move ten beams into place. While they are pine beams, they are very green and heavy. They are 6 inches by 6 inches by 15 feet. There is no crane to lift them into place - rather a team of us did so. We put one end of the beam up on the top of the wall (about eight feet high) and then lifted the other end up. It helped that two of us were tall.
Back at house #5, the walls were reaching completion.
We also started building the roof trusses for house #4 - we completed six before the end of the day.
House #5 walls were nearly complete (except for headers and blocks over the three windows and one door).
On the way home, we regularly pass by some large farms. We stopped at one today where there were large fields of rapeseed growing.
And now we are back at the hotel and getting ready to go out for dinner as a team. Our team includes: Grace from Singapore; Erika from Finland (who just finished a year of studies in Singapore); Thai and Minh from America but originally from Vietnam; Susan, Kim and Peter from Australia; Karla from America but originally from Panama; Franz from Germany; and Lara, Jeannie, Jonathan and me from America - what wonderful people to spend time with!
Our hotel stay includes breakfast. Some have been very interesting. Yesterday was a hamburger with lettuce, tomato and cucumber on a roll. Today was tea, watery cream of chicken soup and a hotdog with lettuce, tomato and cucumber on a roll with mayonnaise on top.
Every day on our 45-50 minute van ride to the build site, we see many interesting things. Most mornings, we see the passenger train that comes from Russia and goes to Ulaanbaatar and Beijing.
We also pass a large train yard and station where there are numerous cargo trains.
One of the projects I worked on in the morning was cutting six of the cement and styrofoam blocks into four pieces. The blocks are 12" by 14" by 24" and they were cut the long way into pieces approximately 6" by 7" by 24" - this was a lot of sawing and it was all done by hand. My understanding is that these pieces will be used as insulation/spacers between the roof truss ends.
Two houses were built by a team before us; we refer to them as houses #1 and #2. We were supposed to build two houses, but a third was added to our agenda - so we work on houses #3, #4 and #5. House #5 has had progress better than expected progress.
House #4 is the one I have worked on the most and is the one farthest along. This morning started with wetting the concrete (to help with curing) that we had poured yesterday.
Meanwhile, the progress on House #5 had been too good to be true. In fact, one wall followed the concrete foundation instead of using strings to make sure it was straight. Out of a total of six blocks high, that wall was five high on the corners and three high in the middle. It was decided that the wall had to come down and be rebuilt correctly. Several of the Mongolians tried to loosen the blocks - however, at a weight of 110 to 140 pounds, they were unsuccessful. It turns out that a 240 pound American putting his shoulder in the blocks allowed them to be loosened and removed.
And those blocks were promptly replaced in correct alignment on house #5.
Meanwhile, over at house #4, a team worked on pre-cutting and pre-drilling the 2" by 6" boards that would be anchored to the concrete piers created on top of the block walls.
Here are some more photos of the removal and new installation of the misaligned wall on house #5.
After a wonderful lunch of fried fish, rice, green salad and Mongolian coleslaw, the concrete piers on house #4 had cured enough, insulation and the plates were bolted to the top of the walls. Then we needed to move ten beams into place. While they are pine beams, they are very green and heavy. They are 6 inches by 6 inches by 15 feet. There is no crane to lift them into place - rather a team of us did so. We put one end of the beam up on the top of the wall (about eight feet high) and then lifted the other end up. It helped that two of us were tall.
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| Dorjo, our construction boss, making sure that the beams were properly placed. |
Back at house #5, the walls were reaching completion.
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| Amara, our other construction boss |
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| Franz diligently making sure the walls were straight and level |
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| Jeanie and Lara doing great work making sure seams are filled |
Here is a video of some of the workers on house #4 as they nail the ceiling beams into place.
House #5 walls were nearly complete (except for headers and blocks over the three windows and one door).
On the way home, we regularly pass by some large farms. We stopped at one today where there were large fields of rapeseed growing.
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| Karla out standing in her field (or is it outstanding?) |
And now we are back at the hotel and getting ready to go out for dinner as a team. Our team includes: Grace from Singapore; Erika from Finland (who just finished a year of studies in Singapore); Thai and Minh from America but originally from Vietnam; Susan, Kim and Peter from Australia; Karla from America but originally from Panama; Franz from Germany; and Lara, Jeannie, Jonathan and me from America - what wonderful people to spend time with!
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