Ministerios Ancla de Amor A.C.

Here is an arial shot of the house as the work progresses

Here is an arial picture of the house when the team arrived

How is the sunshine guys? Sure beats -40 C back home eh!

Guys are lifting the vigas (beams) into place!

Here the guys are installing the beams, they have to be placed in the exact spot so that everything lines up. Excelent work boys!

Looks like it is time for a breather before they lift the heaviest beams into position.

Continued progress

An arial picture of the beams that are being installed. Looking good!

Handing up the foam blocks for the ceiling.

In order to suspend the rebar structure that is on top of the roof the guys poured a long slab of 5 inch wide strips of concrete. Once it was cured, they cut brick like pieces to put under the rebar grid. This was to ensure that the rebar is placed in the middle of the concrete.

Welding up more teleposts!

It is not coffee break! BUSTED!!!!

Here we are rolling out mesh that will serve as rebar to add strength to the structure of the concrete. The steel mesh needs to be tied to the existing rebar.

Gawain, what are you thinking about?

In this shot you may notice that the edge of the foam has actually been trimmed. We did this because this piece of foam will actually rest on a supporting wall. We wanted to add a thickened edge of concrete in these areas to help support the second floor.

It is looking good! Coming together.

The foam blocks rest inbetween the cement beams that are resting on the wall.

Good Job Pedro!

Good job boys, its looking great! The guys working below you are enjoying the shade.

The completed product looks pretty good! Way to go team!!!

Tying rebar

Overview picture of the progress so far!

Here the guys are placing the exterior forms and ensuring that they are in the correct position. With the help of a laser of course!

Safety Meeting!

"They didnt seriously ask me to mount a chainsaw to this table did they???" Only in Mexico!

Al is mounting a chainsaw to the table that he built out of an old door. This "table saw" will allow us to trim back and edge the foam blocks. The foam blocks are 8 inches thick so the blade on a chainsaw is just the right length to work. Ingenuity at its finest :)

At Ancla we build all kinds of things. Our welder is going non stop. Always thankful when a welder arrives at Ancla.

About a year and a half ago, the pto drive on our John Deere 4010 broke. At times it would enguage for us but most of the time it was ceized up. Knowing that we would have to split the tractor open we were very hesitant to do it on our own. In Gods timing the exact person for the job showed up! In less than two days Darwin had the tractor opened up, the problem diagnosed, repaired and put back together. Thankfully with the help of Green Valley Equipment in Altona, we had the right parts on hand so that Darwin could fix it. So thankful that is problem is finally resolved.