This is looking good!!

Early in the cutting process

More cutting (watch out for the edge!)

Seriously, no falling!

More photos.

So it turns out 13,000 pounds of very small rocks are just as heavy as 13,000 pounds of soil (though their volume is bigger, meaning we can grow more in them).

Dan writes:

Thanks to everyone who came out, especially Mike Phippen for bringing the crane!  We managed to get all the materials up on the roof and in place, including all the “paks” of rocks.  We still need to cut into the bags and actually plant the plants, but the really hard (and it
was really hard!) work is done.

Here are some pictures from the big day:
http://s486.photobucket.com/albums/rr221/DanKorn/HUB%20Co-op%20Green%20Roof%20Installation/?albumview=grid

Some sample photos:

• With heavy bags, two people lifting goes more than twice as fast, and makes me a lot less tired.
• Wheels are good.  After we unloaded the truck, we had to get the 215 bags (what’s 13,000 divided by 215?) from the street to the courtyard.  We used a wheelbarrow (3 bags per trip) and a dolly (5 bags per trip optimal perhaps – sometimes overloaded, I hope not permanently damaged).
• More people is better.  I think having two people loading, two people unloading, and one person pushing each wheeled vehicle would be ideal, if we had enough people.  We started with 4 people so had two people on each vehicle, both loading, both walking to the other end, both unloading.  This works.  Adding more people can mean less walking, and adding more people means everyone can get a rest.  The pushers rest during loading and unloading and the loaders and unloaders rest when the pusher is active.  Add a 2nd vehicle into that grouping could also work.  Maybe we should have done that.  We had two vehicles.  Didn’t think to split into one pusher for each one and a loading team and unloading team.

Next steps.  Well, now we need to get the stuff on the roof and installed.  There seem to be two ways to do this, a crane and a pulley.

With the crane, we’re going to need to bring the bags back out to the street, and stack them neatly on pallets.  Once each pallet is on the roof, it needs to be unloaded and each bag moved into place.  See above for what we learned about moving them, both on the ground and on the roof.

With the pulley, we may be able to do this from the courtyard, so less distance move per bag, and potentially lifting one bag at a time.  Again, wheels on the ground feeding the pulley and wheels on the roof taking the bags to where they need to be installed.  And plenty of people to avoid injury.

So, who wants to help?

Last night Sarah and I had an impromptu depave planning meeting in the courtyard. We both took a piece of yellow chalk and drew outlines of walkways and future garden beds on the cement. Our mutual hope is to have enough room to expand the garden beds although enhancing the aesthetics of the patio would be a significant side benefit. My worry is that after the depave day we will have a patio full of holes in no particular order, none of which will be useful for planting rain gardens, lettuce beds or absorbing run-off. Hopefully the formal planning meeting tomorrow will help us prioritize our cement-breaking efforts. In the meantime, the chalk is on the dryer: please feel free to add to Sarah’s and my initial design.

Details to follow…

Join residents of Chicago’s Marshall Square neighborhood Saturday April 7th 2007 for a depave-a-thon. Various neighborhood depaving needs will be addressed with a variety of tools from hammers and picks all the way up to jackhammers. Meet at The HUB Housing Cooperative, 2358 S. Marshall, at 9:00 A.M.
Contact: Howard K hk@marshallsquare.com