What a Nice Day for an Outing!

Yesterday was a glorious day. The Interns, David, Robert Riversong (a local and teacher at Yestermorrow) and I drove out to Vergennes, on Lake Champlain to pick up two large logs (red oak, I believe) from a kind older woman named Mary. The plan is to cut these logs into boards, store them for a few years, and have about $1000 worth of wood.

But, first, we had to get the logs out of Mary's yard.

We used a pee-vee to roll the logs up to the trailor.

We wrapped a chain around the log and used a come-along to pull it up. It needed some help on the ramp (we had rollers underneath it, but after a while, the log was being lifted off of them and scraping on the ramp.) We used bars to lift and scooch the logs along.

Once both logs were on the trailer, we stuck shimmies underneath them so we could pull them over the mountain back to campus without them rolling.

After picking up our logs, we went to the Lake Champlain Merritime Museum. The museum had everything lake-related, with many buildings to walk between - each having its own focus.

Some of my favorite exhibits were items that were excavated from Lake Champlain's bottom.

The picture in the bottom right corner is the drawer right after excavation, before being cleaned. The items are what came out of the drawer.

Kendall and I spoke to one of the fellows in the lab who was in charge of cleaning found items. I was impressed by the ability to revert items back to their original stage. The picture above shows two pieces of wood, both waterlogged, one before treatment and the other after. The difference is amazing.

They also pulled up giant anchors. Taller than Karie.

Kendal and I wished we were scuba divers.
Karie is a way better at pretending to be a scuba diver.

There was a very large, very cool tent full of different boats that were donated to the museum. Each one had a label and description, some describing awesome details. I've never been a boat enthusiast before, but I really loved some of these paddle-boats.

And the bigger boats. I got to go on both of these boats.

The boat in the front is a replica of a war ship from the revolutionary war. Forty men, plus war supplies would go on the boat. The boat is small. It must have been hellish.

The one in the back, a replica of a shipping boat, travels around Lake Champlain (see map below to see how big the lake is) giving tours. The fellow who led me around lives on the boat all year.

The boats are no longer used for commerce on this lake, although it's a perfect opportunity.

Some boats used horses to paddle. Karie, ignoring the "wait for museum staff to operate" sign, pushed the floor in front of her, which made several gears turn and spun the paddle in front of Kendal. Interesting mechanics, cool exhibit.
I learned a bit about pulleys.
The more times the rope went through the pulley, the easier it was to lift the blocks.

This replicated how cargo could be lifted onto ships. By pulling one of the ropes to the side, the post would lift and move to that side. The middle rope would raise and lower the cargo. Simple, but fun to see in action.

The blacksmithing room was impressive. There was a strong Revolutionary war focus to the museum. At the time, blacksmiths would have been incredibly valuable for making tools.

If they had to make their own iron, they went through a LOT of material.

Karie tried out the pump, with success. This pump makes me want to research pumps that are used in very dry countries for irrigation. I'm wondering how similar the mechanisms are.

Today was less fun. There's a board meeting this morning, so all interns were doing grunt duty to clean up the campus. I was back on mowing and weed-whacking. It was very warm (ha! Really, only in the 70's) and pretty humid (nothing compared to all my friends in the south, I'm sure) and overcast. The weed-whacker was not working appropriately. I was feeling pretty negatively about the day, but then Stephanie asked me to help her plant some fruit trees. After getting my hands dirty and planting and apricot tree, I felt much better. I am amazed at the power of gardening to make people feel better - relaxed and rejuvinated.

Kitchenette and kBtu's.

Today was a rainy day, with no chicken coop to keep me entertained. Instead, I tackled the kitchenette, where students who opt to skip the meal plan store and prepare their food.

(Jessa, my boss from last summer, is on the "Intern wall of fame" above the cabinets.)

(This room was originally designed to be a men's restroom. Hence, tile-art.)

There are several design issues: not enough room for everyone's junk in the fridge, lack of storage space for dry goods, and poor dish-washing system and storage for clean dishes/cookware.

Before I could deal with any of this, the kitchen needed to be cleaned and organized, so I could see what we had to work with.

The fridge was the biggest issue. When the kitchen has a lot of leftovers, they will often put them in containers and send them to the kitchenette as freebies. But since they don't belong to any one person, nobody knows to look for them and they are forgotten. I filled a five-gallon bucket with rancid, rotting, smelly, moldy food. I sorted the rest of the food and gave each person their section of the fridge, with cute labels and everything. (People should label every food item they stick in the fridge. I left a section for unlabeled food, which will be marked as "free" if they aren't claimed by Thursday.)
Now, while the fridge still looks crowded, it is a much looser pack, with obvious room to stick new items in. People have been thanking me all day for taking on this task.

After sorting dishes, tupperware, pots and pans, I came up with a list of things that needed improvement and a few suggestions. I browsed the library for some helpful kitchen/storage design books and got some great ideas for cabinetry and dish storage.

One thing I decided would help the flow of the kitchen would be drying racks that were the final storage destination for dishes.
Pretend this rack is metal and has a gutter-system for drainage. This would be an appropriate way to dry and store plates, as opposed to the artfully (and dangerously) stacked drying racks we use now. Cups can be hung on pegs (as the majority are mugs with handles) and pans, strainers and skillets can be hung. This takes out the middle step of the drying rack that needs to be unloaded. It also provides better storage for dishes than what is currently available - underneath the counter. There's no real solution for bowls at the moment...

I'm also hoping to retrofit a couple of the cabinets under the counter to be pull-out drawers, for better storage of tupperware and any cookware that isn't hung. I would like to build a few more cabinets to go above the counter for extra food-storage space.

I worked with Dave a bit in the afternoon to brainstorm and evaluate some of the ideas I had come up with during the day. He gave me some helpful hints and liked what I had to offer. Soon, I will have to post an entry describing our morning meetings, which will include a better overview of Dave.

Cool thing: There's a youth design/build class coming up, so I'm going to pitch the idea that they design and build some sort of storage system for the kitchen, whether it be the drying racks with proper drainage or cabinetry for more dry storage for students.

I sat in on the core class's evening lecture after dinner - it was on energy usage within a building, with a particular focus on natural lighting (although still a broad overview.) Some key points, but certainly not all-encompassing:

• I have a better understanding and appreciation for the energy measurement kBtu. A kBtu (a thousand Btu's) is a standard energy measurement. 1 KWh of electricity is 3.14 kBtu's and 1 therm of gas is 100 kBtu's.
  
• A group called Architecture 2030 is setting targets for building construction. Everybody on the planet should build to at least these standards to offset/reduce greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global climate change. Right now, the average house uses 44.7 kBtu's per year. The average multi-family housing with more than 5 families (think apartments) use 48.5 kBtu's. The average mobile home uses 72 kBtu's. Architecture 2030 says that all new buildings should be designed to use half the energy, which is entirely possible. Each year, the standard number should drop 10% (so the average house would be limited at 22kBtu's starting this year, fall to 19.8- 10% of 22 - the next year, 17.8 the year after that.) By the year 2030, buildings would be using a tenth of what they use now.
• I'm in the north. Foundations for houses require basements. Insullation is far more crucial.
• The speaker suggested that people choose between passive solar heating and radient floor heating for the wintertime. The reason is this: radient flooring can take anywhere between 12 hours and 2 days. In Vermont, it's pretty warm/mild during the day and chilly at night. If someone were counting on passive solar to heat during the day, they would want to turn off their floor heating (or be overheated,) but then the floor would not be ready to heat during the night-time. In order to have the best control, it is best to rely on one way or the other. (Again, in Vermont more than Kentucky or North Carolina, because there is a more extreme difference in temperature.)
• A girl from Hungary thought that electronics were creating "vampire loads," which made their electricity usage go up.
• I have a better understanding and an interest to learn more about heating converters and ventalation systems.
• I should look up the book "The Ecological Engineer."
• Even with light shelves, light can only travel about 30 feet from a side window into a building. Good thing to keep in mind, for large buildings.
  

Lawnmowing, Maple Creamie and Stupid Bugs.

Today was dedicated to grass and weed cutting, but involved a few other fun tidbits.

I woke up really early and served breakfast to the students. (It was cold breakfast, so not a big deal at all, but somebody had to make the coffee and unlock the building.)

I weed-whacked all around the building and gardens and trails. This took the majority of the day.

Around lunchtime, Heidi called me into the kitchen to help finish preparing lunch. We have a lot of students around now so she needed an extra set of hands - the core class has 19, the NBI has 10 and there's a weeklong Carpentry for Women class of 3 (these numbers might not be accurate.)

Dave, who is in charge of the interns and hasn't been introduced in this blog yet, received a complaint from the last person who drove the van for a field trip - said it was shaky when stopping. Dave wanted to check out the problem for himself, but needed a full van, so all the interns (except Kendall - she was already working on a roof) hopped in and went for a ride.

There was nothing wrong with the van.

I worked late today mowing the lawn. I used a riding lawn mower, which I've never done before. I was really jerky on it at first and left a few patches of tall grass behind, but I got used to it and now the lawn looks so much nicer. As we were playing hacky-sack after dinner, a few people commented on how much nicer it was to play in short grass. Makes my work feel appreciated.

Stephanie went on a town run and brought back maple creamies for some of us. (We ordered them in advance.) I've never heard of creamies before, but it's the same as softserve ice cream. Maple flavored though! It's from a local place that I always sit next to when I go into Waitsfield to use the phone - I've eyed it before but just have never acted. I have spent very little money up here. This creamie was totally worth the money, and may have to become a weekly occurance.

Tim (1) and I were talking at dinner today about how the weeks are better than the weekends here. Granted, weekends allow sleeping in and staying up late, but the sun wakes me up in my tent early every morning anyway, so sleeping in doesn't really happen. This weekend went by really slowly - lots of sitting around, reading and talking to people, but nothing compared to a busy day of good work. It just feels better to have something productive to do, which isn't always how I feel. I think the atmosphere here just encourages and inspires people to do something. Days go by so fast during the week. I was just antsy all weekend.

There are tiny bugs that bite here. My arms and legs are covered in bugbites. I haven't been this bitten since my childhood, for sure. I am incredibly itchy, but trying very hard not to scratch.

I'm not carrying my camera around as much as I used to. I need to fix this.

Lazy Weekend Update

Yesterday, I spent my morning helping to deconstruct "The Cube." The Cube is a demonstration/example tool for classes trying to play with different natural building techniques. The most recent class was working with different plaster applications.


We took down all the straw bales and the pins holding them in place. Then we took the walls apart, but in a way where they were still whole and could be stacked. Now, the quansit hut is empty and ready for the timberframing class next week.

I was also on kitchen duty in the evening - cooked dinner for about 30 people. (The core class came back from their field trip and there's a weekend class, in addition to the Natural Building Intensive.) Delicious eggplant wraps.

I am being trained in every area of the school, which I really like. I feel like it makes me a more knowledgeable, valuable player at Yestermorrow. And I'm enjoying myself.

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.