Day 1: Spirit of Place, Inishturk

We were welcomed to Inishturk with glorious weather, blue skies and calm seas for our arrival by ferry to the island on Sunday, June 9.  

Arrival to Inishturk harbor (could be the Carribbean, right?)

However, typical for Irish weather, our first day on the job brought a vast change to cold,wind and rain.  Undaunted, we had a full and productive day, first adapting a sheep pen into a much needed shelter for gear and a refuge from the pounding wind and rain.

With demonstration from Danny O Toole and his great team:  Eugene, Gus, Joe, and Liam, students learned to stack the stone walls, mix mortar, dress the stone to be cut and fit into the walls, place steel supports for limestone end walls, and set foundations for the next walls.  We finished one stone wall (5 more to go!), and made design decisions in the field about the stone patterns.  Tomorrow, the foundations will be poured for the glass walls, and stone wall construction continues.  Everyone will be an expert in stone masonry by the end of the project!

Setting posts for refuge

Holdingdown the fort, and hoping to avoid windsurfing to the neighboring island

Finishing the first stone wall

Travis supervising the teams