Random Notes

I have a list forming on the top of my page of morning meeting notes of things to blog about. It's getting longer than I'd like for it to be, so here, I will take care of that list.

Chicken Meeting
On the 11th, the interns had an official meeting to discuss chicken duties. We had all been so psyched about getting the hens that we never really designated who was responsible for them. They are pretty easy to tend to, but the meeting helped to clarify who specifically was in charge. We decided that most tasks can be completed by the first person to notice they need doing (like letting the chickens out in the morning, giving them fresh food and water, etc.) Whoever is in charge of morning meetings gets to make sure that the chickens are let into their tractor in the morning and whoever is on dish duty gets to make sure they are tucked away at night with food and water. Whoever has office duty on the weekend is in charge, and gets to clean the coop. Every Monday, after our morning meeting, we will move the coop/tractor. (We actually forgot yesterday - not habit yet. We moved it today.)

Class Switching
There have been quite a few weekend and non-NBI classes coming in. It's odd to see the unfamiliar faces. There are still some core class members sticking around to finish up their requirements for their certificates in sustainable building and design. It's a truly unique social situation - developing great friendships with all the NBI kids, but also trying to be as friendly and open as possible with people that are only staying for a weekend or so.

Also, interns do quite a bit to prepare for classes. There was a major class switch after the core class ended, with some extremely rushed cleaning of the studio. We have to pay close attention to which classes are starting soon, find out the needs of the instructors and get everything ready.

Mower Vs. Weed-whacker
When given the option, use the mower. The weed-whacker is two-cycle, which means that the oil and gas are mixed, and both are being burnt in the process. The mower is four-cycle, which means that the oil and gas are in separate tanks, the oil being cycled and reused. Not as much pollution from burning oil.

Chickens at Yestermorrow!

This morning was the most exciting morning we've had during my time at Yestermorrow. We got chickens!

We worked on the coop up until the 11:00 deadline, then loaded it onto the truck and moved it out to it's spot. Around 11:15, the chickens arrived.

Everyone came outside to great them. Students, office staff, interns, teachers. Everyone came to watch the chickens figure out their new home.

It took them an hour or so, but they started to explore their coop and tractor. The chickens are all young, but different ages and breeds. The older, bigger chickens hung out inside the coop for most of the day, and the younger babies stayed outside. They scratched, tweeted, and ate cantaloupe scraps. Several of them have been named, including Rogue, Betty Davis, Pat and Heidi. Several of us crawled in the tractor with the babies to give them love. Probably scared them a bit.

The afternoon was dedicated to prepping for two classes that are happening this weekend. This involved all interns cleaning the woodshop. It's amazing how much dust can get on everything. We were very thorough in our preparation - changing blades, waxing and oiling everything, cleaning every surface possible. It really was amazing to see the shop go from an active, busy workspace to a classroom-type workspace, ready for guests. Wasn't the most exciting thing I've done while I've been here, to say the least, but important for the operation of the school. And a good lesson in tool care.

After we managed to get out of the woodshop, all the interns gathered back up at the chicken coop. Wasn't organized. Just happened.

I picked up another breakfast shift on Sunday morning.

Kitchen/Garden Intern Today

There are two types of interns here. The Tims, Kendall and Karie are design/build interns. Stephanie is a kitchen/garden intern. I float between the two, which is why I've been in the gardens and the woodshop. I really like it this way - I feel like I get the best of both worlds. I get to understand everything that's happening among the interns.

I spent the majority of the day in the herb garden beside the kitchen. I weeded, which took many hours, and planted lots of new herbs.
This is the main portion of the herb garden. The before.
And the after. This picture (and the next couple) were taken right before the sun set, so sorry about the darkness.

I labeled a lot of the herbs on the nearby rocks. This is Stephanie's method.

But in some instances, it made more sense to label with sticks.

I talked to Heidi, the kitchen manager, a bit today. As part of the kitchen/garden duties, I will start doing kitchen duty occasionally. (Most of the time, there is a full staff that takes care of kitchen duty, but sometimes they need another person.) On Friday, I'll be serving dinner. Saturday and Sunday, I am in charge of lunch cleanup. Monday, I serve breakfast. I'm somewhat thrilled by this. The kitchen here is wonderful- most of the food is local and/or organic. There's normally 20-30 people eating, and the food is normally prepared by one or two people, with someone on dish duty. The food is excellent quality. Heidi likes to make sure that everyone is taken care of, so I have eaten the food a couple times. (If you help in the kitchen, you get to eat the food. Good rule.)

So to elaborate on yesterday's post, here are the drawers for the router table:
I drilled all the holes using a drill press. The ones on the left are quarter inch. Those on the right are half inch. I also cut a hole and hooked the dust sucking hose (apparently, I don't know the technical name) to the back. (Tim built this cabinet. There will be a router mounted underneath so people can move the wood on the stationary bit. I've only used a handheld router in the past.)

The tractor for the coop is almost done. It has all kinds of cutouts that represent chicken parts. A little odd, and a little awesome.

You can see Tim 2 standing next to the ramp. The door there connects to a door cut out on the side of the coop.

The side door is on the right of the building, in this picture. There's a panel that can be taken out.

The door is beautiful. It has two windows on it. One is large, held by the egg-latch. The other is much smaller, for winter ventilation. I'm a little worried, because these chickens aren't going to have much sunlight unless they are in the tractor. They will be horribly depressed during the winter, but warm.

The NBI class is getting to be more friendly. Today, all the interns and the class played hacky-sack for about an hour and a half after dinner. The teachers of the class pushed back their lecture time so that we could all play longer. (Everyone from the class was out there. An impressively large group of people.)

It's been a good day. A long day, but a good one.

More of a Reminder than a Post

I'm tired today. I don't even have pictures for you guys. What an un-fun post this will be!

I worked on the chicken coop some more today, primarily painting and fine-tuning the roof. I also used a drill press to make storage for router bits. I also vacuumed the van so it's ready for the current class (Natural Building Intensive)'s field trip tomorrow. I also had kitchen duty, which earned me the right to eat Heidi's cooking. Good stuff.

I think I'm going to promise to offer details on all this tomorrow and head towards bed. It's been another long, tiring day.

Cooped Up on a Sunny Day

A lot of progress has been made on the chicken coop over the weekend (without my help.) Today, however, was entirely devoted to cooping.

When I went to the studio today, this is what I came to. Please note the awesome egg-latch on the nest box door. And the immense amount of angled, individually measured battens. Looking good though.

The door was constructed today, but I didn't get a picture. It's not attached yet anyway. All I can say is that it is beautiful. Without the door, however, you can see more details of the inside. The floor-panels are in place (they weren't in the last post - they are meant to be removable though.) The boards facing the chickens are planed smooth, so clean-up should be easier. The outside is still rough though, to keep that traditional, rustic feel.

My first assignment for the day was filling in the gap above the doorway.

Yestermorrowians are the most precise people I have encountered in chicken-coop building. Or, at least, Tim (1) is. So, each of these boards had to have the rafters cut out. And they are on an angle, of course. I used a bandsaw, a chisel, a Japanese hand saw, and a miter saw. And I created a near-perfect fit. I'm pretty proud. I like seeing the problem and knowing how to create the solution. I'm pretty glad that I'm getting to the point where I can be left loose in the wood-shop without much instruction.

After dinner, Tim and I decided to pull a really long day and get the first coat of paint on the roof. Well, it's not technically paint. It's a latex-type solution that is used in paint production. You paint a layer, place a layer of fabric, paint another layer and let it dry. Theoretically, it will harden to something similar to fiberglass. Tim and I worked until 9 getting the first coat up.

We wrapped up the coop so we wouldn't get any of this really thick paint-stuff on the walls.

The core class left for a week-long trip to a building site. I'm not sure on the details of what they are doing there, but another class has come in, so it's a totally different group of people. This is my first class switch-over, and it's a little odd. I got to be such good friends with members of the core class, but now they are away with a new group to replace them. The new group is friendly enough though, and I already know a lot of their names. After this week, both groups will be here at the same time. I think this summer is going to be full of meeting tons of great students.

Today was an excellent day for my confidence as the mystic seventh. (Have I mentioned that there are only 5 interns, so I'm really just the mystic sixth?) I was told that I could use the laundry fund jar in the office (coins emptied from the laundry machines) so I wouldn't have to pay to wash my clothes (intern priviledge.) I facebook friended Stephanie and Karie (I've been spelling her name wrong.) I was introduced as an intern. The office duty, morning duty and kitchen duty calendars were redone so I am included. And Tim (1) gave me my very own set of keys to the building, which so boldly declare that I am an intern.

It's been a good, long, productive day. I'm been going constantly since 7:30 this morning. And it's 7:30 again tomorrow. I have no idea how to record hours for Berea, but I will soon.

Solo

I worked by myself for most of the day today. It's not as fun as working with others, and I missed the chicken coop greatly, but it was nice to have a little alone time where I wasn't extremely tired, listen to music and dance a little as I was being productive.

I finished prepping all of the beds in the garden. They went from this:

To this:


It might not look like much, but it was. Some of those beds were in terrible condition - rocks, wet straw clumps, tons of weeds... The bed photographed was the last bed of the garden, and not the hardest at all, although biggest.

Our garden has some good soil though. Check out those worms. (Might not be the clearest picture. Look hard. It's about a foot long.)


Gardens took up my morning. After lunch, I organized books for the library - there had been several donations, so I had to look up call numbers, create filing cards, enter the books into the database, put pockets and numbers on the books, stamp and shelve them. It took far longer than I thought it would, but now I feel more at ease in the library. There's a ton of information available.

The chicken coop will probably be finished this weekend, even though nobody is technically scheduled to work (except Carrie in the office.) I may head down and help. I like the wood-shop a lot. (There's also a pile of things that need to be fixed on a bench in "the pit" - a room off of the shop that holds tools, primarily. I'm not sure if I'm a good fixer, but I might be up for the challenge.) At our next intern meeting (which happens every morning. I'll offer more details on that in a future post) I will bring up the fact that a lot of the plastering around campus needs re-done. This might become a project.

It's still rainy. I had a puddle in my tent this morning. I think I have solved the problem now, but, just in case, I know where the tarps are kept and have permission to borrow them if needed. It is getting warmer though - I wore short sleeves for a while today. Hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow so I can borrow a bike and ride into town.

Another Rainy Day

No pictures for you all today.

I spent the beginning and end of my day in the wood-shop working on the chicken coop. I learned how to use a planer, which can make boards thinner by shaving off small amounts at a time. Tim 1 and I were planing one side of each board for the siding - smooth on inside, rough on outside. We made a significant start on the roof.

I spent my early afternoon in the gardens preparing beds. It's odd - Vermont is definitely behind Kentucky as far as seasons go. I was taking straw off the beds so that they could warm up some - right now it's far too cold in the dirt and the straw is just insulating it. There were some tough beds today; they weren't as cared for as some of the others, full of weeds and rocks.

After dinner (sauteed chickpeas, kale, onion, garlic, potatoes and braggs. Yum) I sat in on the 3-week core class's evening lecture. David Sellers, who worked on many of the buildings on Prickly Mountain as well as structures around Warren, including the Pitcher Inn (see this entry if you don't know what I'm talking about.) He was hilarious, had random slides and spoke very quickly. It wasn't the best lecture in the world - very disconnected- but it was a good way to spend an evening. His ultimate point was one of design: build something so beautiful, nobody will ever want to take it down. Don't build for trends, no matter how excellent they may be. (At one point, he seemed to be implying that aesthetics took precidence over efficiency, which is not an idea I subscribe to. He did say, however, that the best option would be to combine the aesthetics and efficiency - I agree.)

I experienced my first "beer-thirty."

Cooped Up on a Rainy Day

Today was a rain-filled day, so instead of going back out to the gardens, I got to help the design/build interns with one of their projects: the chicken coop. Someone is going to donate 10 chickens to the school, so the interns are building a coop to accommodate them. Tim 1 was leading this project. (I think I will call him Tim 1 and the other Tim 2. This is the order that I met them. Tim 1 is married to Stephanie.)

An old version of the plan, but gives the complete picture. The butt of the chicken is where a human-sized door is (with windows.) The front of the chicken is where the nesting boxes will go. On the sides, there will be doors (not shown in this drawing) that open into tractors (run-ways) where the chickens can run. The entire thing will be mobile, and the tractors will be removable when not in use.

The head will be 2-dimensional, painted on something like plywood. It will only look like a chicken in profile.

This is the floor. There are pieces that fit over the screen to keep the chickens warm in the winter-time, but can be removed during the summer for more ventilation, letting the chicken waste fall to the ground.

The siding will be board and batten. (The picture above was us trying to figure out what size batten to use.) I spent a significant portion of my day preparing for this step. Tim 1 and I went out to the boneyard and picked up lumber and ripped it to size. Tim planed some of it - I will learn that step tomorrow, possibly. We are planing the side that faces inwards so that there is a smooth, easily cleanable surface, and we're leaving the outside rough, for aesthetics and ease.

The boards change size. They are 7 inches at the front of the chicken, are 6 inches for the majority of the side, and switches to 5 and 4 inches right at the end, which will give the illusion of curving. Awesome.


I did get to use a table saw for the first time in my life. After a couple minutes of practice, I was pretty good at it. The hardest part is keeping the wood level/not accidentally lifting the wood above the blade. I loved ripping the wood though - I've never used stationary power-tools, with the exception of a chop saw.

I also waxed a lot of the tools. The wood we were using was fairly green, so sap was collecting and needed to be cleaned off. And waxing just keeps the wood running smoothly.

I like that everything I do here is for a reason.