Cordwood Education Center Update  Oct. 2008

   Well good people, we have been working on the Cordwood Education Center at the Merrill School Forest almost non-stop since August 30, 2008. 

  We have had the good fortune to have over 89 volunteers come to cut, peel, stain, lay up walls, mix mortar, mix insulation and clean up.    It has been a community involvement project from the beginning and we were overwhelmed with the support.  

   One of our local window factories (Lincoln Wood Windows) donated 11 low-E casement windows.   A local door company (F & M Enterprises) who by the way, built the windows for the new Mets Stadium in NY, donated and installed 2 gorgeous school/state approved doors.   The local concrete company (Marathon Concrete) donated the split faced block.   The Merrill Rotary donated $2000 to buy a Vermont Castings Encore wood stove (certified as the cleanest burning stove by the EPA 0.7 grams per hour).   The local building companies sold us materials at cost.  

    The students have also been part of the process.  The high school construction classes came out to frame, put up trusses and do cordwood infill.  The school students have peeled wood, moved piles, chose rocks for the walls and cleaned up the site.

   Special design features:

·        Bottle end Big Dipper Wall to scale with double star in handle (using 2 Tabasco bottles) and the North Star.

·        Animal footprints in the walls for identification purposes (wolf, fox, coyote, turkey, bear, mink, skunk. Etc. 

·        Semi-precious gems, Lake Superior stones and native rocks have all been embedded in the mortar.  

·        Flow through shelves have been incorporated on the outside walls, so the students can place materials they have found on their hikes and adventures to the beaver pond.  This Cordwood Educational Center has over 750 acres of land at its disposal.

·        Solar PV and solar in floor heat are being designed and will be used as teaching stations for the students.  

·        2 time capsules were set into the wall and block foundation.

·        The building is architecturally drawn and state code approved.

Design Features:

·        Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rubble Trench foundation

·        Insulated floating slab with pex tubing

·        Post and beam framework (Tamarack and White Pine)

·        Sustainably harvested wood from the site.

·        Tamarack cordwood infill

·        Split faced block, insulated with extruded Styrofoam.

·        R-50 cellulose insulation in the ceiling

·        R-30 in the gable ends

·        R-24 in the cordwood walls

·        Standing seam metal roof.

·        Interior ceiling, gable ends and exterior gable ends of local wood.

·        This gift to the Merrill School District is being built with volunteer labor, private contributions and donated materials

Happy Trails,

Richard Flatau   www.daycreek.com/flatau

The one day special workshop at the School Forest on Sept. 20th was attended by these fine folk, who did marvelous work with a brief amount of instruction.  

For anyone who might be interested, here is the link to the original posting on the Cordwood Educational Center on Aug. 30, 2008.

http://daycreek.com/dc/asp/forum2002/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=2&TopicID=1845&PagePosition=2

Here are a few more pix of the progress.   Doors donated from the folks (Todd & Renea) who did the new NY Mets City Stadium, right here in little ol Merrill.  www.fmfab.com   Renea is on the Merrill Board of Education.

Coyote tracks along the west wall.  The young students really get a kick out of the tracks.

This one is for a guessing game being developed for a instructional booklet for the students.  Can you find the Tamarack log end?  Can you find Mr. Woodenhead? Can you tell the similarities and differences between the two? (Well, both are a little cracked.)

And yet another:   We have been experimenting with Great Stuff foam for under top plates and window boxes.  This picture shows a can of Great Stuff Foam with a "Contractor's Nozzle."   Whereas a normal nozzle lasts one can, this nozzle will last for 6 months!   Our general contractor let us use his.  What a great tool for sealing all the little cracks and crevices. 

Happy Trails,

Richard    www.daycreek.com/flatau