2005: the first building season
Work at Drake Landing began in April 2005 with cleared ground and finished in December with the first garage rows fitted with solar collectors. This summary comes from captions of about 329 photos.
Source note
The galleries are no longer online. What follows rebuilds the season from surviving captions, taken on roughly 34 visit dates, and says nothing beyond them.
April to June
On 20 April the area for the borehole storage field was cleared, with show homes and the Energy Centre going up beside it. Foundations followed, then tank footings in May and utility connections for the homes. District heating pipe was unloaded from a shipping container on 19 May, and June brought trenching for the loop and garage footings. The borehole area was noted holding a lot of rainwater.
July and August
The two short-term storage tanks were lifted into the Energy Centre by crane on 15 July, one after the other, and fabric was laid over the borehole field. Pipe went into trenches for the district heating loop through July and August, backup boilers and tanks were installed indoors, and the garages began behind the show homes.
September: the first borehole
The first borehole was drilled on 6 September. Its U-shaped pipe was carried over, lowered in and grouted. More drilling followed that month, along with the first garage row, shingles and the first collector piping.
October to December
Pipework was welded and pressure-tested in October, and the first solar collector was installed on a garage on 28 October. In November the borehole field was backfilled and the first garage row received its collectors, 184 according to the 25 November caption. December showed the second garage row taking shape. The story continues in 2006, and solar collection explains what the collectors do.
Quick answers
How many photos did the 2005 galleries have?
About 329 photos across roughly 34 visit dates, none of them online now.
When was the first borehole drilled?
The captions record it on 6 September 2005.