Kickstart a new space

The final layer will be white

We were able to negotiate the continued use of the Allman' garage after the exhibition in exchange for upkeep and installing a new roof to keep things dry.  The deal is good until the property sells.  Sadly, as we are in the process of installing the roof the owners of the garage are currently in negotiations to sell.  

exhibition progress, press, and making a case for Urbana Land Arts

CCarl paints

We have made good progress with the exhibition space and our minds are finding it hard not to think ahead to the possibilities of the Allman's space and site.  The exhibition is set for the 26-27th of august which coincides with Urbana's Sweet Corn Festival.  

The work on the exhibition space has also given way to the Urbana Land Arts, which is a studio that we hope to establish that will focus on blending environmental and cultural remediation with public art.  But that is a story for another day as we have plenty to keep us occupied for the next few weeks.  Thanks for everyone's support  so far; we will do good work.  

The SCAN and high definiton

Bryan returned to the Saline to record more footage, and this time we were able to wade much of the way; taking our time and looking at details.  The last time we took Bryan's camera out the Saline was moving very rapidly and we were capsized almost immediately; nothing so dramatic occurred this time.  The Saline was lazy, slow and low.  We picked through the Saline with our cameras for five hours or so; surprisingly very pleasant conditions; many birds, fish, mammals.  The low water revealed several shopping carts that were overlooked; we should make our way back soon.

Bryan continues to lend his time and skills to the project and has become a collaborator as he has made several trips from St. Louis to Urbana and  produced a video of the project for the creative fundraising site Kickstarter. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1203366116/allmans-boneyard-saline-adopt-a-cart
He has also agreed to produce the video content for the upcoming exhibition.  Thanks Bryan.

Conditions: Sunny and warm, but pleasant, not too buggy, green to clear water

Fauna: 3 owls, deer, heron, gold-calico-and common colored carp, bass, some type of pan fish- Redear? Bluegill?, several types of minnow or small fish.

Some things that begin to look like other things

firing around the clock and exhibition conception

firing 15 at a time, the dull slip transforms into ringing ceramic

The firing of the vessels that were excavated from the banks of the Saline is going well; we are on target to produce 65.  The process has been quite long as slip casting and firing requires multiple repetitive steps.  But we appear to be on track to have all 65 vessels fired for the upcoming exhibition.  Each vessel will represent a shopping cart and be illustrated with an image of a cart and a co-ordinate of a specific location where a cart was found on the Boneyard or Saline.  The vessels will be part of a scale representation of the Saline creek at the exhibition and act as markers pinpointing the locations of carts.  The vessels will also be gifts to those who adopt-a-cart and help us fund the upcoming exhibition and subsequent illustrated map/booklet.  We will be launching a Kickstarter campaign on Sunday the 31st of July with all the details.

prototype of illustrated vessel

The Allman family has been generous enough to allow us to have the exhibition at their fathers former auto body shop.  We recently met with Lisa, the daughter of the late Mr. Allman, and she seemed as excited as we are to be part of the project.  Thank  you Lisa!  Below are some conceptual drawings of the exhibition which will feature video projections, a sound installation, the canoes used to remove the carts, and reproductions of the vessel found in the banks of the Saline.  The exhibition will have both indoor and outdoor elements, the indoor portion will only be accessible visually through a line that stretches the entire front facade of Allman's.  Viewers will have to look through the line that represents the saline to see the exhibition inside.  The outdoor portion of the exhibition will be a sculpture garden made from shopping carts that we have transformed into something like gabion baskets, but only sort of.  There is much to to but we are very happy to do it.

Allmans Boneyard and, Saline is the official, title of the show

From debris emerges form, representation reproduced

The mold making process and the original form

The dig on the Saline unveiled a large cache of  ceramic debris.  We were fortunate to have gathered enough pieces to reconstruct a complete version of a strange but beautiful vessel .  We still do not know what we have found but have decided to reproduce the form once for every cart we have either removed or mapped.  The method of reproduction is similar to the way in which the original vessel was reproduced; a ceramic process called slip-casting.  Each vessel will be marked with the GPS coordinate of a particular site on the Saline and a line drawing of a cart and will be used as a marker for a large scale map at the upcoming exhibition.

  

The form begins to multiply

                         
                        
                         The Saline presents, form for representation, and reproduction

A field trip to the great rivers and microscopic views of macroinvertebrates

Atop the research center

Our work in the Boneyard and Saline creeks has uncovered many questions; one of them being:  What is the quality of the water and the ecosystems that depend on it?  We have observed for ourselves during our month on the Saline that there is apparently a great deal of diversity there despite the heavy utilitarian use and abuse of the creek.  The Saline and other creek/ditches represent some of the only continuous wildlife habitat in an agriculturally dominant landscape and a good diversity of fauna can be found there.  This fact might go against the popular notions of the Saline that tend to consider the creek as a ditch; signifying waste receptacle.  These "ditches" were built and are maintained by drainage districts funded by public tax dollars but are essentially private property.  We believe there is a great opportunity to both maintain the utilitarian integrity of the Saline, and similar water ways,while maintaining habitat and creating public access.

Vera and the scientific method

We took the opportunity to visit the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to learn a little bit about water health by way of Macro-invertebrates.  Macro-invertebrates are organisms that can be seen by the naked eye and are used by scientists to determine the health of a particular stream or river.  They are an important link of the food chain much like plankton are in the ocean.  We were given a hands on tutorial on the procedure of collecting and sorting macro-invertebrates and detailing stream composition and flow.  Before we sloshed around in a small creek that Vera our instructor named after the abundant ceramic debris found there, we were able to view macro-invertebrate specimens under the microscopes in the lab. The unseen are nevertheless endlessly fascinating. In the creek we surveyed, we found only Sideswimmers or Amphipoda, a small shrimp like creature,  but Vera stressed the fact that late June was pushing the limit of the time frame for finding macros as most have already gone through the larval stage of their metamorphoses and are either pupating or have emerged from the water.  We anticipate putting the Saline on the register for macro monitored creeks in the Fall.



                       sideswimmers were spared, from scientific inquire, we threw back our catch 


.

52 cart pick-up in the Weiss family pick-up

The cart pile has reached 52 and for now the removal of carts form the Boneyard and Saline Creeks is done.  We have encountered a tremendous amount of support for the project thus far and would like to continue to express gratitude to those who have made it possible.  Andrew, Christa, and their son Christian were kind enough to lend their Ford Ranger pick-up and allow us to pile it high with rusty shopping carts, compost, and water tanks and for this we cannot thank you enough.  Sumimasen, Arigato gozaimasu

               
                             The Weiss family, lends us the ford ranger now, fifty-two carts picked up

last loads and exhibition sites

The last haul using the Weiss family Ranger

The end of June brought our cart collection to 52 and the bulk of retrieval is finished although we could easily spend another month collecting carts from the entire 12 or so miles of the Saline creek.  Hopefully we can continue the work in the fall but,we must begin the next phase of our project as the exhibition is planned for the end of August; our cart collection is large and too is the work ahead.  

We have been scouting for exhibition spaces and have found a few that would work nicely.  The first is at Vine and and University (The Cunningham Site) and is a space connected to the old Blockbuster; the original Cunningham Ave. literally dead ends at the door of the space.  The other space is on the split of Main street and Springfield; the current location of the defunct Allman Auto Repair the former location of the Flat Iron Building which was destroyed by fire in the 1940's.  Both sites have connections to Urbana's water arteries.  The first location has an outdoor space that is positioned directly above the Boneyard and allows for SW and NE views of the channel and is very likely a lot created by the channelization of the creek.  The second location (Allman's) was created by relocating the Boneyard 500 ft North to its current course thus creating viable piece of real estate on which to build the Flat Iron Building.  Perhaps the Allman site, or the "Wedge", has the more interesting subtext as it represents the human necessity and drive to manipulate the environment for practical as well as aesthetic reasons.  

The Cunningham space is to the right of the electricity meters

Sadly no longer an option

To our great disappointment, the Cunningham site (above) will not be possible as while i was making this entry I heard from the Realtor who will not accept our offer of $800.00 for a single months rent in August.  It is difficult to convince business people to accept the fact that our endeavor is not commercial and thus the price per square foot should not be based on the assumption that space equals profit.  Sadly our $800.00 is not worth the hassle.  So be it, the space remains empty.

The next potential site

Burch Kaiser won't budge, the future is the Landing Pad, Starwalt is our man

The Lincoln Returns, Twenty more carts are staged, the Land is Filled

The Lincoln has been repaired and once again needles its way through the Saline carrying precarious loads.  Twenty more carts have been staged at a site near the recently capped landfill, and three at High Cross Rd. Bridge.  We have cleared carts from the Cunningham Ave. Bridge and Saline to Interstate 74.  Two miles Fifty carts.   

  

Almost Home

A Dig Reveals Artifacts, Industrial Ceramic Production 

The banks of the Saline have historically been used as land-fills and to a large degree still are.  We thought we might excavate after finding an area with many bits of strange ceramic pieces exposed by erosion.  The dig revealed a cache of objects relating to the industrial production of ceramics: Kiln stands, plaster molds, clay residues, mold positives like a keystone, and many hand sized steel discs and plates each treated with a different porcelain finish.  Perhaps the most striking forms were those vessels looking something like jet engines.  We found many broken examples but managed to find one complete although in three pieces.  It is not clear what these vessels were used for but they certainly had a specialized function.  One in particular was found with a copper tube nestled inside.  Evan speculates that it could have been some type of electrical component.  I believe we may have discovered the remnants of a long gone Urbana Industry; it will be interesting to see if we can locate a possible source for these objects.  My best guess for time period is 1960-70, based on the style of Pepsi Bottle found in the same layer but I am not certain.  

   

Still life at the Saline

Conditions: Cool and overcast becoming clear in early evening,  Water very low, clear, moderate insect perturbance

Observed Fauna:  Heron, Three Owls ( these are the same three barred owls we see each time we near the old landfill,  today one had a squirrel in its clutches) , Grackle ( This is a common bird of course but this one in particular perched in the Bush Honeysuckle above my head and whined a mammalian sounding call), Geese and three adolescents 

Urbana Parks Lends a Hand and Piles Accumulate

Daniel and Chris

Today we met with Chris and Daniel from the Urbana Parks.  Chris showed up with a backhoe tractor but he quickly realized that what we really needed to do the job was a large trailer, and graciously offered one up.  Evan and I showed up with a Ford Ranger expecting to load and drive 5 or 6 loads and we quickly agreed that a trailer would be fantastic and a welcome reward for all the trips we have made thus far schlepping debris up and down the Saline's water and its muddy banks.  Chris returned from getting the trailer and with him came Daniel; they both helped load and drop-off the carts and other debris.  They made what would have been 7-8  loads for the Ford Ranger in two.  For that we Thank Chris and Daniel very much and also their supervisor Shane and ultimately Tim who has taken an interest in the project and made the arrangements.  Coordinated effort pays off and the Urbana Parks District and its staff should be commended. Thank You!  

The pile as it stands June 9th.

 We have dug and removed 30+ carts from a half mile stretch of the Saline Creek.  We originally believed there to be only seven-teen carts, but as the work began and we spent more time in the this stretch of the creek more carts were revealed.   If we can manage to pull carts from the Saline all the way to St. Joseph, we might collect 60 carts.  The heavy concentrations of carts are in Urbana and as the Saline runs its way to St.Joe the number of carts per half mile is reduced significantly.  The next section we are to dig contains sixteen carts but we are likely to find more.  

The half mile stretch, 30 carts

The next half mile should deliver 16+ carts

                               

                                   

                                                                 SURFACE QUALITIES, SKINS, SEDIMENT CYCLES

                                                                                                                                          

  

The Saline is us, Created in our image, There our waste does flow

Conditions: Partly sunny and comfortably overcast, a rotting corpse was nearby the loading site but a light breeze helped alleviate the stench

Observed Fauna: Hawk, Two Ground Hogs,  a largely brown bird the size of a quail with an unusually narrow and long downward curving beak ( i have seen this type of bird on the saline once before but do not know what it is)

Equipment for the Manual Dredging of Urban Waterways

Ever since the beginning of our dredging operations, we have attempted to use a winch to ease the workload on our tired backs, however we weren’t really sure of its effectiveness until this week.  With the simple addition of a beaver stick, our opinion quickly changed.

For those not familiar with a winch, it is a mechanical device that is used to wind up, wind out or adjust the tension of a rope or cable. It primarily consists of a spool and attached hand crank.  Our winch was purchased at Harbor Freight for around $30.  Several components, including the bag it came in, are already showing signs of wear, however it is still going strong. 

How we use it:

The winch is used when we find a cart that is almost entirely buried in the bank or bottom of the creek.  We locate a tree with a diameter of at least 8” and that is within 5-15’ of the cart.  Using ratchet straps, we secure the winch to the tree, and using a wedge (in our case, a beaver stick) we adjust the angle of the cable for better leverage.  This simple modification has made the winch all the more useful.

If we are lucky, several cranks on the winch will do the trick, however this is rarely the case.  Usually both of us will shovel out part of the cart and then vigorously rock the cart back and forth until it is free from the sediment.  In any case, the winch is here to stay and we highly recommend this device for the manual dredging of urban waterways.

Scanning the spirit of the Saline

                           
                                                                                      

                                         Spirit of the Saline,Plastic Garlands and Carcass,Baroque Light and Dark



The Dr-100 has survived being baptized in the waters of the Saline with only a short circuited battery. Thankfully the design of the recorder allowed for two power options.  Two AA batteries should do it.Today Evan was in Chicago collecting data on native bees so a solo journey was required.  I took along the video camera. 7.34 miles; Meredith picked me up from the bridge at the tree farm.  Co. RD. 1900 E.Bridge/Saline. I have not been able to figure out the focus.  Auto focus is useful in a pinch, but I do not like the disruption in more controlled settings.  Tomorrow we will dig out carts and put them on high ground until we  have figured out the location of the staging areas.  Andrew's Ford Ranger will enable us to finish the cart removal.  I think we can take advantage of low levels on the Saline which will allow us to walk the Lincoln and SCAN up-stream to stage carts at each Co. Rd Bridge that crosses the Saline.  Now is the perfect time as levels are getting back to normal after the recent heavy rains. Maybe we should dig and stage all the carts before trying to remove them; taking advantage of the normal flow conditions.

Conditions:  Sunny and breezy, The levels of the Saline are near normal,Water is warming up; still turbid but clearing, Light insect perturbance,

Observed Fauna:  Two packs of Wood Ducks and chicks; one pack of nine and the other a pack of seven, two Owls, Blue Heron (I saw one with its wing stuck splayed out and stuck in a branch), Orioles (they are showing up down south Illinois as well, I think they are new to the area), Indigo Bunting, Ground Hog, Weasel (I have seen one other north of Crystal Lake Park but they are somewhat rare),Musk Rat, Painted Turtle, three Deer, Raccoon, Two types of large Butterflies one black the other Yellow, Dragon Flys,

Observed Flora: Mulberry Trees, Mr. Morus Alba and friends, are producing fruit, very green.  At a power line cut, i observed Pagoda Dogwood blooming(Cornus Alterniflora) , Catalpa trees are still blooming not positive if they are bignonioides or speciosos.

puncture wounds and staging precarious loads

                       

  Today the Lincoln was rescued from the Saline after being pinned below the surface for an entire week.  He suffered three puncture wounds but is crucial to our tug and barge strategy and must be repaired.  We gained access to the Saline through the automobile junk yard at Macks.  In the waiting room there was video playing on a flat screen t.v. of cars being flattened in a hydraulic smashing machine; i am sure the video was made "in house" as the shot was made without consideration for the sun which flared in the camera's lens and filled the scene with dramatic bursts.  A man named Donny came and escorted us through the yard.  He grew up in the neighborhood and is now in his fifties. Donny and his buddies used to swim in the "Boney" at the weir where Bryan and I lost the Lincoln.  The Boney that Donny mentioned is actually the Saline and I think kids still swim there; at that very spot I saw a rope with a loop tied at its end hanging from a tall, thin Ash or Hackberry tree.  Donny didn't know of the homeless camp that I have heard existed at the present day City of Urbana maintenance facility; which was previously Chief Shemanger Park, but he said some people might have stayed there if they didn't have any where else to go.  I guess i consider that homeless.  Donny escorted us all the way to the creek and helped us pull the Lincoln through the strip of dense Bush Honeysuckle and into the junk yard.  He seemed to enjoy recalling his days romping in the Saline. He warned us of the leeches as we waded into the Saline to lift the log  that pinned the Lincoln but he also mentioned their usefulness as fishing bait.  There are indeed leeches in the Saline; we have uncovered them burrowed in soggy heaps of plastic, but I do not consider them a threat.  

The SCAN has proven to be a very useful boat.  It is wider, very responsive, more stable and can be maneuvered easily by one person while carrying a passenger.  Our plan is to use the SCAN as a barge while pulling it with the Lincoln.  The next rounds of cart removal will require that we be able to float more carts over longer distances and to minimize the number of carts on the boat we are paddling.  It will be ideal if we can float five or six and possibly seven carts at a time.  Five on the SCAN and two on the Lincoln.  The carts are top heavy when piled on the Lincoln and can easily topple him.  Thankfully the SCAN seems to be well suited for precarious heaps of plastic and rusting metal. 

The Lincoln is fine,  The SCAN has proved it's useful, many carts remain

We managed to stage all the carts and debris that we had dug up between the East Lawn Cemetery and the
gigantic shed at the sewer treatment plant.  The conditions of the Saline were finally manageable after several
 bouts of heavy rainfall that kept the water high and moving very quickly.  There were sixteen carts, and three bicycles, in addition to clothing , plastic bags and wrappers, car parts, building materials, landscape fabric, fencing and barricades, a crutch, pull top beer cans, BBQ grill, and various other unknown objects.  The pile is impressive and we hope to remove it from the staging ground on Wednesday granted Andrew can spare his  Ford Ranger for the day.  The Urbana Parks District leases the property from the Sewer District.  The Parks District has been extremely helpful and sympathetic to our project by allowing us access to the Saline and the staging area from their lot, and, lending us a staff member with equipment.

The Material Annex

Conditions: Sunny, hot but not uncomfortable, fast moving turbid water, minimal insects.  

Observed fauna: Owl, Blue Heron, water snake minus head, Egret, Toad, Ground  Hog

Observed Flora: Catalpa trees are in bloom

The Project Emerges and the Work Begins

During our exploration of an 11 mile stretch of the Saline Creek, we've discovered approximately 50 shopping carts wedged in log jams and incorporated into the banks .  The carts originate in Urbana and we assume are carried by high water and fast current down stream as far as 10 miles.  The map above shows the Saline from Urbana to St. Joseph and the locations of each shopping cart found along the route; each cart was marked with GPS and photographed; the portraits can be seen below. 

The work has presented itself and we have begun removing the above carts and returning them to their origin in Urbana and Champaign.