Another week in Teton Park

© Tyler Hopkins 2007

Another week of working at the Visitor's Center at Moose, WY has ended. We wroked 3-12's and a 'half-day.' The half-day became 10 hours. But the long hours were not too bad, we started earlier and we were able to keep busy and get a lot accomplished. One day the clouds even broke up and I got this shot of the Tetons from just outside the building. This will be the view from inside the building.

This shows our curtain wall in place, almost ready for glass...I stitched this from 3 photos (I need a much shorter lens!)

It felt so good to get so much done on it. We even started setting glass on some of the frames that were set before I started at Jenkins Glass. But Mostly I felt good about getting so much of the big curtain wall done. We are almost ready for glass on a lot of it. I don't know if I will be up there all of next week. I think that there could be about half of us up there setting the base for the next run of curtain wall. Our material is the smaller black stuff that sticks out from the bigger black stuff. We are now waiting for some stone boulders to be set so we can build off of them...again this is a really wierd design for a building. When it is done everyone that gets a chance must go see it. It will be beautifull!

This shows the only 90° corner on the system...it still leans into the building at 9° though...I stitched this from about 10 images...kinda messes with your eyes 'eh?

It is finished...

OK, so the house isn't but at least the bank in Victor is. We did have a break from it for a week or so...but that was only because we were hitting a job in Jackson really hard...like 12-16 hr days last week. But today we went up to Victor to finish the last remaining things on the bank. I am really glad to have that job out of the way. Not to say I am really excited for this one in Jackson. At least we won't be staying up there for weeks on end working on it like the visitor center at Moose.

Steve caulking the last little bit.

The new job in Jackson is right downtown (just half a block from the Town Square). We can tell when it is 6PM...we hear the street show with the singing and shooting...stupid street show!

The house isn't quite done, but very close. The big thing we are being held up on is still the cement. That is quite the mess. I am not sure we will have the same guy do it. He has been yanking us around with getting it done, and what he has done is pretty crappy. I hope we can get a better price (I am sure we can get a better product) from another contractor tomarrow.



While we were working on Saturday, Jess put the kids in swim suits and filled the tub. They had a blast! I can't wait for my turn. That will feel so great after the LONG days I have been putting in at work.

We also sarted going to our new ward. We went once or twice becuse of other things we had going on and wouldn't be able to go to the current ward we live in. Well that got them really excited and they requested our membership records! So a last week the Bishop called and asked if we would come visit with him. I was thinking just a "we'd like to get to know you" type of thing...OH NO! They gave us callings...OK they gave me a calling (Varsity Coach) and said that Jessica's was coming (there was a 'glitch'). Even though we aren't moved in yet, we have been welcomed into the new ward with open arms...and callings. Let's hope the talks in Sacriment Meeting will be held off.

Back to Moose

This week at the visitor center was an adventure. On Wednesday we had strong winds and the tenting started to come down. We were trying to brace it from the inside but the wind was too strong, and the braces that were in were 'exploding.' No, I mean it, they just exploded in the middle. So we took the two gradall lifts out and tied the tent to them and pulled it out a bit while we re-braced the inside. It was kind of scary. This picture shows one lift still tied there the next day.

I have said before that this will be a beautiful building. Even the ceiling is beautiful.

The most exciting thing is that we finally set the first bit of glass in the big curtain wall. The glass is also big. The typical size (the glass that is not in corners or on the top row) glass is 64" x 109". In other words BIG. This is the first one we set. Next week we should have a lot more set. It will be really cool when it is done.

Teton Park Visitor Center

So I've been working a lot in Jackson the past 2 weeks. Jenkins Glass has a pretty big job there, the new Grand Teton National Park Visitor Center at Moose. It is a really wierd building! Right after I started, we began work on the main curtain wall (really big window framing system). It has strange angles all over (the building mimics the teton ridge) and the entire system leans into the building at 9 digrees. However it is nice to have the whole area tented off so that we can work in 40-50 digree conditions. This is an inside view in the main area...this will look out directly to the Grand Tetons...it will be a beautiful view! The black vertical posts are the steel structure that we will attach our aluminum structure to, that will have the glass in it...our windows. It is pretty tough just getting the base, head and wind-load clips (attached to the steel) ready and in the right place. The posts are not plumb...well yea they tip in 9 digrees, but they are suposed to be plumb left to right, but our aluminum must be.

You can see our wind load clips and our base here...as well as the tenting that keeps it a nice 45 inside the building.

Anyway so I have been pullng long days working on this and a little bit of stuff here in town. We have only spent 3 or 4 days in a row in Jackson so far, but those were 10 hr days...so most of tomarrow will be overtime $$$. I haven't had much ti me to photograph lately, but I did make some images of the Tetons that I plan to put together in a mosiac/collage...we'll see how that turns out.

Weekends sure have taken on a new meaning for me and the family. It is spent finding ways to have fun with the kids and spending quality time with them and Jess. So far we have done good by going out on dates together too. It has been tough to be away for much of the week. But the pay is already helping pay off some bills and start saving more.

Yellowstone

I worked hard to get those windows done for the Harts this last week so that I could have my weekend to play. After work (around 3 each day) I would go to do the windows for the Harts, and get as much done as I could. So between working at Cherry Glass and for myself, I was working from 7am to 8pm...I was sore and tired all week. But my reward for working hard all week was a trip to Island Park and Yellowstone. It was a lot of fun (when the kids were sleeping), and we got a lot figured out for the reunion in 32 days! The B&B we are staying at looks great! I am very excited for that.

Here's my Buffalo picture. They were holding up the flow of traffic...stupid wildlife.

It rained most of the weekend, kind of off and on, but not too bad. Traffic was not too bad in the park on Saturday. A few stops for Buffalo in the road, and for people who stopped to get pictures of deer on the side of the road (woo hoo). The only thing that bugs me about Yellowstone is that if anyone sees ANY animal on the side of the road, they have to stop and take pictures "OH look! A ground squirell, use a roll of film!" Then if they see a car pulled over taking pictures of the stupid squirell, they have to pull over to take the same pictures. And they always pull over right before of after a pull out. Don't go to Yellowstone to get away from hoards of people and traffic!

This one is for Darren...I think it was a moose. It was 100 yards down wind from old faithful and only 10 feet from the pathway, wonder if he went up to wet his whistle?

We drove in as far as Old Faithful, and thought we would drive the whole loop, but the kids were crazy, TJ was getting sick of his car seat and I was beat. So we headed back. We needed to check one more place in Island Park for tube rentals anyway. I had to have Jess drive home, and by the time we got to Rexburg, TJ was very ready to eat and we all wanted out of the car. We stopped at the BYU-I campus to walk around a little and see what art is on display in the Spori...the Marilyns are up!

It was a very long day! Wonder if I should have just done the windows...no, it was worth it.