Dear Friends,
Although activity at Ishwar’s construction project in Wisconsin slowed after mitti-seva day, work continued on several other projects — in spite of the relentless rain! The primary project continues to be the ISHA Maintenance Shed, but workers also moved forward on installing electrical power and high-speed internet. Here’s a peek at a few of the projects.
The next phase of work on the Shed was to finish the roof, but nearly 3 inches of rain fell in early October, and so the project was delayed. Because the roof plywood needed to be dry before the metal roof could be installed, volunteers placed a huge plastic tarp over the building.
Fortunately, strong winds did not accompany the rainstorm, and so the tarp remained in place until the rain stopped several days later.
During that time, the metal panels for the roof and sides of the Shed were stored next to the building. These bundles of steel paneling weighed from 600 to 1500 pounds.
Also, during the rainy days, the local electric company arrived to install the new 30-foot lamp post near the Shed and ISHA Office.
Here the post has been put up, but the lamp has not yet been installed. The light will illuminate the parking area between the Shed and the Office.
New, underground, electrical cable must be installed from the highway to the lamp post and the Shed. This large reel contains the colorful plastic conduit that will protect the buried electrical cable.
The electric company has now installed the buried cable to our new meter box on the side of the shed.
It was also an exciting time for ISHA’s internet future. The company installing our new high-speed, fiber-optic, internet cable was hard at work. The Internet is being installed at two locations, the Dome site on ISHA Hill and the ISHA Office. In both cases, the company must drill under the highway to get the cable to our sites on the east side of the highway, and, on ISHA Hill the cable must be installed underground from the highway to the top of the hill. In each case, the contractor used a “directional boring machine” to install a hollow pipe that will protect the fiber-optic cable. Here’s a photo of the 20,000-pound machine in action on ISHA Hill. The drill is powered by a 125-horsepower John Deere diesel engine. The driller can steer the angle of the borehole, and so here he is drilling from the Dome site downward at a shallow angle toward the highway.
After the hole is drilled, the operator threads this flexible, orange HDPE (high-density polyethylene) hose through the hole. HDPE is extremely strong plastic and should protect the buried fiber-optic cable from damage for many years.
This view is from the west side of the highway up to ISHA Hill (the dome will be located on the hill behind the trees), and shows the orange HDPE pipe emerging from the ground (red arrow). After the fiber-optic cable is threaded through the pipe, it will be spliced onto the main cable that is buried along the highway. And so the cable will be in place when construction begins on the Dome next year.
At the ISHA Office, the internet cable has been installed. The round, plastic riser in the foreground marks the location of the buried cable. In the background is the Maintenance Shed.
In the next blog, when the rain stops, it’s time for roofing …
With warmest regards,
Paul Bauer
Chair of ISHA Building & Fund-Raising Committee
Paul Bauer
Chair of ISHA Building & Fund-Raising Committee