Down die Kaninchenbau - Wilkommen in der Schweiz

The train glides quietly past apple orchards and fields and hamlets.  Along the way, hillsides are dotted with small clusters of houses that spread gently out from church spires. Conversations around me are occurring in Swiss German (Burreduetsch) and Italian; but I sometimes hear French, German (Hochdeutsch), or even English.  The day is beautiful, with a clear sky and snow-capped mountains that dominate the far landscape.

Today is my first full day in Switzerland, and I've almost missed it.  Jet-lag has inspired me to sleep until 11am, when I was roused by a phone being handed to me. Blearily I answer the phone that I'm offered, and get an update from Barbara.  My sister was trying to get a hold of me.  I called her back via skype.

She answered in a voice that sounded more tired than even I was. Oh. it's 4am there.  Apparently, I'm not at my most alert when I'm jet-lagged, and forgot about the 6 hour time difference.

I'm on a train on my way from Buchrain to Zurich, where I"ll meet a couple of friends (Marijke and Brad) for a coffee.  The train is passing through a mixture of old wooden houses, complete with shingled sides and tall roofs, and modern industrial areas.  The combination of Concrete and Wood is quite interesting.  Hillsides are beautifully manicured with small forests punctuating the fields.  Here and there, a small cartoon character is displayed from the top of a pole, announcing the birth of a child (apparently, it's the godfather's responsibility to make these proclamations).

Moments ago, I made the switch at Rotcreuz.  (Red Cross).  When leaving Buchrain for Zurich, there is no direct train, and you'd either need to switch at Rotcreuz (for trains leaving at :32) or Zug (for trains leaving on the hour). As expected, the change was seamless. Trains on this section of track seem to always be on time. And by "on time", I mean "arrive and depart within seconds of the expected time".

Overall this particular ride will take about 50 minutes (I'm too lazy to look up the exact time... but it would be exact).

When I arrived in Zurich yesterday, the weather was schlect. Fog & clouds.  Barbara picked me up at the aiprort at a little before 8.  Passing into this country is a true joy compared with going to the US.  Only one question at immigration ("How long..?") and a direct route from picking up your bags to

[Oh my. I just saw double-decker bike racks.  I was too surprised to take a photo.  They're fair game next time I ride this route.]

... where was I?... direct route from where you grab your bags to the outside, so long as you have nothing to declare.   That's one thing I already love about this country.  They treat you like an adult. Another example: Buy your tickets & board a bus or train.  Nobody looks to see if you've done it [most of the time], it is just assumed that you do.  There will be spot checks, and you're in big trouble if you didn't buy a ticket; but it's not like they automatically assume you're screwing the system. Plus, they don't spend $$$$ trying to make sure that every individual pays. So what if a few bad apples don't pay? The system remains friendly and efficient and free of turnstiles.

[We just passed through a tunnel and are now on the Zurich side of some place or another driving through a pretty little wooded valley with a stream running down the middle.]

Back to the arrival... Barbara picked me up and we drove back to her parent's house. When we arrived, I noticed a beautiful handmade sign they'd set up. It was a cut-out wooden switzerland shape (painted red), with "Wilkommen dahaim, Celso" written in colorful letters; all against a blue background.  What a great welcome!

Welcome home.  Yes, I'm now in Switzerland for the long run.  After much planning and shedding and selling and farewelling, I'm finally here.  This isn't the first time I've been in Switzerland, but it's the first time that it seems permanent. With that thought, I figured I'd better start writing things down.

[right now, we're passing along a long lake, about to arrive at the Thalwil pronnounced something like "Tall-veal" station]

We ate croissants, "Gipfeli" and yogurt "Yogurt" for breakfast, after which I promptly took a long nap.  We woke in time for lunch, and then started running around taking care of the important stuff... like purchasing house slippers. oh, and starting the paperwork necessary for our wedding. ;-)

Barbara's father also made me a most-excellent extension cord that translates the swiss plugs to American-style plugs.  The voltage is still the same, but most adapters these days can run on either 240v/50cycles OR 110/60cycles.  With that, I become electronically invincible.

[I'm in a tunnel again, and am guessing that I'm only about 5 minutes away from arriving in Zurich. So, I'll end this post here.]

Somebody poke me if I start to take a long time in between posts; since I really would like to document my initial impressions of life in Switzerland.  I'm really curious how my impressions will change through time.

Cheers / ciao / Tseuss,
Celso

The final meltdown

So-- first thing: The ice park people were thinking about placing our saguaro into the Ice Museum! That's a refrigerated building downtown that's open all summer, and where the tourists can go to get their ice-art fix. Very cool, though it would entail chopping the saguaro up, and rebuilding it in the museum. However, due to severe melting (see next paragraph), this may no longer be an option, though there's still a chance we may rebuild one there.

The ice park's final day was yesterday, and most of the sculptures lasted up until the very end. Well, the last day, anyway. Warm temperatures these last couple days, combined with breezes have chewed up some of the sculptures somethin' fierce. A few had fallen over, while others were highly eroded nubs of their former selves. One, a single block "Cell R' Ice" was standing when we first walked by (before the lights were turned on for the night), and had fallen by the time we made it back around later that evening. Several statues were making faint cracking sounds.

I'll put up a few before/after shots when I get the chance.

That's a wrap!

Wow, what an amazing week. I can barely type, my wrists and trigger finger are so sore. After 5 1/2 days of redesigning, sawing, grinding, chiseling, prying, dragging, scaffold climbing, gluing, freezing, more grinding, and torching, create "Sonoran Sunset". Now, all we need to do is a little more cleanup and drop off the lighting diagram and we're Done! Done! Done!



I wonder what we'll carve next year....

Day 4 - Saguaro stands TALL

What a great day! The wall is finally complete, we've lifted our sections (mostly cut by Tim) onto the saguaro, which now stands at approximately 18 feet. Katie came in and whipped out a baby javelina (off camera), the cougar is now taking shape in its' cave, Jill's prickly pear pieces are in place. It's amazing to see it all coming together.

We had a mad rush, and ended at 2am last night, because we needed to get all large pieces glued into place so we could start working them today. Today, all the rest of the elements will probably be in place, so that tomorrow we can spend the entire day going over our sculpture and texturing it.

Right now, we have nearly 2 unused blocks worth of ice... which will go a little towards our river, but will likely remain mostly unused. oh well... the desert doesn't need to be crammed full of stuff, anyway. :)

next day....

The saguaro midsection has been carved, but is off camera. Also, some prickly pear. Katie arrived in the evening as we were mounting the cougar cave. Feelin' good! and tired.
Catch the action here, or at icealsaka.com
http://kiska.giseis.alaska.edu/Input/celso/iceSB2010.html

multiblock - second day

A really quick summary: We built wall. We built wall from 10am to 1am. As usual, there were plenty of little hangups, like pieces that don't quite connect. But, the wall is essentially done, and we can finally move on to other stuff. Today: Tim'll probably work on the cougar, Jill will probably work on her prickly pear, and I'll be running around like a chicken with his head cut off.

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....

AAAAaand they're OFF!

We registered yesterday, and will be at site #7. Tim's got gloves, Jill *finally* got her chainsaw, and Katie will be joining us Tuesday night.

Somehow, after lots of planning (and continuing through this writing), we've finally survived to our first day. The blocks look thick, and the site is smaller than anticipated (20'x25'). NOW it starts, and you can expect this blog to get terser and somewhat less coherent as the week wears on.

Yesterday was mostly a break, with a trip to Chena Hot springs with other sculptors before we returned to the ice park for final registration and a safety briefing.

Today, if the camera is up and working, expect to see us clearing the area, scraping orange marker off the ice, and then cutting the large blocks of ice for the saguaro and backdrop. Catch all the action HERE: http://icealaska.com/videocam/10Cam/mb10/CAM10mb07.html
The camera will take a new picture every minute or so, so if we've been stationary for a while, refresh the browser.

Deep breath...

Single Block in progress

But the ice-alaska webcam pages are messed up. Here's my own page that has the correct images for a few webcams.
http://kiska.giseis.alaska.edu/Input/celso/iceSB2010.html

Back to the desert

OK. So, I suppose it has been a little while since I reported upon our own ice preparations. Over the last couple weeks, Jill and I haven't touched much ice, but have been doing plenty of background work. We've been modeling in clay, modeling on the computer, sketching this & that, and working more on templates.

Of note, the puma/cougar/mountain lion will be hanging out in a cave near the waterfall. Instead of being completely exposed and open (where we'd have to carve the entire thing) he/she'll be chilling, paws crossed, taking in the action from halfway within a cave. The waterfall itself is changing (not present in this diagram), to be a smaller, split waterfall coming in on either side of a perched boulder. I'll add the sketches as soon as I find them.

Another positive thing: Some while ago, I'd discovered that the cholla will be best created as a table, with the various appendages glued on to that. It'll provide some more stability and allow it to be fluffier. An inital attempt at carving the cholla base was promising.

I'm ALSO contemplating the addition of an Agave plant. maybe multiples. I think they'll be good groundcover and will help to use up those inevitable diagonal ice fragments that get scattered everywhere.

- -
By now, a small amount of panic has set in: We start in just under 120 hours. Tim left Africa Yesterday, and will be arriving tomorrow evening. Meanwhile, Katie is coming in either next Tuesday evening or Wednesday to help with our final push.