Monday, March 01, 2010

First day Recap

We started working with our ice as soon as the 9am horn sounded. Jill and Tim started by trimming the orange marker marks (made during the ice harvest) from the edges of the ice, and then cutting the white ice off of a block or two. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out which ice blocks needed to go where for the wall, and strode around the site with a measuring tape trying to figure what-goes-where.

After leveling the site (a futile effort I was to learn) we pulled our first block up into position. That big vertical block in the back is going to be the base of our cougar, and anchor for the background wall.

Another block we had moved into a vertical position to stage right. That is going to be the base of the Saguaro. Unfortunately, we learned after the first cut, the saguaro block is riddled with fractures. Actually, most of our ice is very fractured. This may be a side-effect of such a low snow year, because the snow, which cushions the ice as the forklifts push, pull, and drop each bock, was AWOL. We got to experience this throughout the day as each of our blocks were in turn abused and fractured. Mimi, a few sites down, had one of her blocks completely crumble.

SOoo, with the ice not behaving ideally, we spent some time wandering around our site trying to decide just how bad the damage was. Our tool: An iron which we used to clarify the blocks enough to look inside. Our answer: pretty bad, but we'll give it a go. If things get really bad, we have the option to get 2 replacement blocks of ice.

One of the challenges we face comes from the depth of the ice. Our ice is somewhat thick this year, and while that's nice, it also means that even our longest chainsaw can't cleanly cut through an entire block in any direction. That's why you'll see us circling the blocks with chainsaws, and cutting in at both sides.

Our next little setback was when we tried to split the third block in two. The resulting pieces were to be stacked upon each other, making up the wall right next to the large vertical block. The back piece fell over and shattered. (another victim of little padding). We had to split the remaining piece to make up for this. We opted, however, to do it in smaller sections. which would also go to make up the wall. As for the shattered bits? They'll make nice craggy bits to top our wall.

All this took quite a while. Meanwhile, off camera, one block had the edges rounded off of it. That block was destined to become a prickly pear bush. Another block was marked to become the middle section for the saguaro.

Somewhat near the end, we had a couple blocks pushed into place and glued.

Lessons learned yesterday:
  • Whenever a block is going to change orientation or has the chance of falling out, scoop lots and lots of snow to cushion it
  • Think ahead of time about what ice is going to fall where, and make sure that nothing else you care about is nearby.
  • Get scaffolding early in the competition. We don't really have any, as it's all doled out to other teams.
  • Move thicker blocks and wrench them into position to carve, rather than trying to move anything delicate.

Today's assault: Finish the wall, get the saguaro to level2, start saguaro #2, and get the prickly pear into position. We may even get to cut out a block specifically for the cougar/cave, and another couple blocks for the javelinas. Of course, this plan is subject to change....

No comments: