This fall/winter I'm volunteering at Sevilleta (seh-vee-et-ah) National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro NM. My first project was to finish the new entrance sign. With a deadline. Before an open house type event called Celebrate Sevilleta.
It's a big deal for the public since this particular refuge is mostly off limits to the public. Research is a primary focus. There's a UNM Field Station with housing that's bigger than the refuge headquarters and volunteer village (my home). There are more off-site organizations that access refuge property for their projects. Sevilleta is over a quarter million acres BTW.
The open house includes special guided tours. A rare opportunity for the public to access restricted areas. I look forward to it myself. Who knows what I'll learn tomorrow. Meanwhile, I pitched in to help get ready. There were some smaller tasks. Speed bumps. Barricades. Overflow parking. Orienting a scout troop of reinforcements for traffic control.
My main task the last two weeks was the new sign. The old entrance sign was in sad shape. So it was taken down. The steel frame was already replanted when I arrived.
A contractor was supposed to finish the job. But so far no action, and time was running thin. So I took the project. The goal was basically a masonry base. An ample stash of terracotta blocks were available. Except they were 6x6x16 not 8x8x16 inch blocks. That complicated the usual corner pattern somewhat. After mocking up different options I chose a solution.
My plan involved mitered corner blocks. While renting a wet saw to make mitered corners, I also removed the webbing from other blocks, harvesting the sides for capstones of matching material. A little unorthodox? (shrug)
In hindsight, I wish we'd had more runway for the project to beef up the steel frame. During the masonry work I realized just how flexible the steel framework was. The blockwork may be strong enough to fend off wind loads on the big, heavy sign. Or not. Time will tell. Meanwhile, Sevilleta has other projects to distract me from over worrying this one. Plus lil' yeti needs more attention. Hope y'all are equally well occupied.
