The project continues forward in bounds and thuds, much like a sack race where the competitors have labyrinthitis. If the momentum is not kept up then the workshop guys get diverted back onto their other work (fair enough I suppose!), so it's taken a little while to get things moving again since our little break. So I've had a fairly quiet couple of weeks working on my temperature monitoring electronics - more on that another day.
Still, this week we've started making some progress again, with I and one of the guys making a start at getting the frames put in position. A decent trench has been dug for the pipes between the array and the laundry - and will probably remain open for a least a couple of weeks until we get our pipes and pipe insulation sorted out.
The frames are covered in several coats of nasty brown oily stuff which apparently stops the termites getting interested in our wood, and also keeps the rain out. The downside is that you get covered in nasty brown oily stuff while working on them. Which begs the question "why didn't we wait until it was assembled before coating them?". No idea - they were already being painted when I came into work one morning.
We've had a couple of teething problems to work round, of the "how-do-I-screw-this-screw-in-now-that-I've-placed-things-in-such-a-way-that-I-can't-get-at-it-with-my-screwdriver" nature, along with the more expected little-bits-of-drill/saw/file-work to make things fit together properly, but on the whole I'm quite pleased that it's coming together more or less as I'd expected.
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| I'm not really sure what this little concrete step is for... |
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| A little old man with a huge beard was hired in to dig this trench for the pipes. |
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| The first cross-piece about to be fixed in. Note our safe and healthy collection of home-made extension leads in the foreground. |
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| We managed to get the nearest 3 lined up rather beautifully (though I say so myself); the ones on the far side might require a little judicious application of power-tools to get them quite right. There needs to be a gentle slope up towards the middle to prevent bubble traps. |
