Session: Advanced Design/Build, Spring 2021 (Weekend session)

Builders: 5 participants

Materials: timbers, hog wire, work gloves, a whole lotta elbow grease!

Description: In late May, the most veteran members of our Advanced Design/Build cohort (11th and 12th graders) were invited to reconstruct timber fences at Wawona Visitor’s Center in Yosemite National Park. The damaged fence was initially built in 1960, and although it sorely needed an upgrade, any renovation had to comply with strict historical preservation guidelines to uphold the traditional design style of the Wawona area. With the help of instructors Emily Pilloton-Lam and Hallie Chen (plus the Yosemite trail crew, Volunteer Coordinator, and Park Ranger), our girls and gender-expansive youth immediately got to work. Through rain, sleet, and snow, our intrepid teens hauled new timbers to replace the base beams and horizontal spans. The work included cutting timbers to size, carefully stacking them in a split-rail zig zag pattern without hardware, and using hog wire only when necessary to secure the overlap joints and end posts. By the end of the weekend, our fearless teens had reconstructed over 200 feet of new fence.