Warming the South Gate

Lots of progress has been made this week! Over the weekend, Sarai worked on more lava segments and communicated with Love Burn’s Fire Safety Council to develop a site plan and protocol for manning the fire pit safely at the event.

Meanwhile, poor Rassera nearly froze his tuchas off in our workshop as he began assembling the platform stairs.

Even here in North Alabama, we’re being affected by Winter Storm Enzo, though we’re not quite far south enough to get snow (a strange statement for an ‘upside down’ storm!). Still, with temperatures continuing to drop towards the single digits, and Rassera reduced to shivers, we made a decision to pivot the remaining work on the portal assembly to inside the house. Fortunately, we reside in a log cabin with a vaulted ceiling, which gave us this option even though the portal stands nearly twelve feet high even without the platform.

During this frigidly cold week by southern standards, we continue to work in the house on lava detailing, and modifying and adding/substracting foam at the edges of segments to finish the portal with a seamless look. We’re also putting our robust battery to the test for the first time.

Additional lights are expected this week as well, and hopefully temperatures will rise again by this weekend a bit for more comfortable finishing work on the platform in the workshop and outdoors

Assembling the South Gate in the living room, with 6’2” Rassera for scale. Ultimately the portal will be further raised on the platform.