I grabbed the camera to get a few shots of the ARC. Along my way to the ARC'08 site I ran across so many interesting stories that I decided to run around campus and try to catch a photographic sample of a typical summer day. By the end of the day it was really hard to edit it down to only a couple dozen stories.

If you are up to lots of photos with short stories... Read more

This is the year that our desert turned green, mostly because of continuous and heroic effort from our dedicated green thumbs. When they are not sculpting the land, they are mulching or planting or watering...

Jim is weed whacking while Dave is applying probiotic liquid goodies to the plants.

The garden is so yummy that we are erecting a deer fence to keep some for ourselves.

The fence will cover from Old Main to all our berms which includes most of the new fruits and berries.

Meanwhile, in the mani shop, Ryan and Gene are brainstorminig about low cost hot water solar panels.

Their goal is to build solar panels that are so low cost that they can be used for siding a house.

Scott is dramatically back lit while busy soldering at the electronic bench.

In addition to installing HUGnet sensors for ARC'08, he is upgrading the security system.

Here is a new card key reader freshly mud plastered into the cob tree trunk at old Main.

To my right, Bob the cobcat looks particularly alert today.

Closer examination shows that he is now wearing stage makeup. When I get up close he looks a little overdone, but from the back door he looks pretty real.

Inside Old Main, Erika is busy carving Egyptian Hieroglyphics into the cob wall above the cob bathtub.

She knows what to carve because our resident archaeologist is working hard trying to translate all our people and their title into ancient terms.

Katie also works on the gardens and many other chores that come up.

Quinn is earning a spot in heaven while she is giving a tour to yet another bunch of little kids.

The ARC'08 foundation is nearly ready to pour. After pouring over the blueprints and consulting with an infinite number of people, Doug is updating the ARC'08 checklist on the white board.

Neal and crew are busy getting the Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) in the exact perfect locations.

He has to deal with an unusual number of pipes and conduits, and way more foam insulation than a normal house.

Barb and Mark have been installing wonderful cedar benches. At this moment, she is chatting with a farmer who stopped in to introduce himself.

Ben is demonstrating how smoothly it worked when he motorized the vent window he built, by fitting old automotive window motors to it.

Just across the hall, Mark is installing a mirror and a bar in the exercise room.

Lunch was an affair. Thursday lunches usually are, but this time we were celebrating our summer help, before they start leaving us.

Everybody really enjoyed the grilled salmon and tuna, along with fresh stuff from the garden.

After lunch, Donna takes time from accounting to straighten out the paperwork details in one of the college scholarships that we sponsor.

Ellen is whipping weeds trying to make something useful out of our little dry garden pond.

Dave is preparing the 300 gallon tank to go out and deliver rescue supplies to parched trees out in the southeast field.

Jeremiah is temporarily filling in at the shop; getting the trim caps ready to put on top of the building, above the solar panels.

Late afternoon when there is less busyness around the shop, Graham is intently focusing on the burn in his experimental charcoal maker.

All week long our staging area has been getting truck loads of clay and sand and mulch and manure.

Even at 8:00 PM, the Johnson boys are still dumping manure for us.

This snapshot is by no means a complete story. It is just some of what I bumped into while wandering around campus on Thursday.