Volunteers for Peace, Part 1 - Hand Hewing and Building a Foundation

This summer, Lifecycling hosted two groups of Volunteers for Peace at our site in East Montpelier, Vermont. Volunteers came from Taiwan, Singapore, China, Spain, Bolivia, Japan, Russia, Korea, and the United States to build an outside kitchen and gathering space, and, as with other building projects, we would follow the principles of low throughput and low cost.  The foundation for the building would be made of scrap marble placed on top of the ground.  The marble is quarried and cut in our area for monuments and grave stones and the pieces left over are deemed scrap and are usually used as fill. A truckload can be obtained for only the trucking fee, which in our case was 90 dollars.  The pile of marble we bought was enough for the foundation of our house, a retaining wall, steps into our house, and now the foundation for the outside kitchen.   Before the volunteers arrived we cut down maple and hemlock trees to clear an area to plant fruit trees and to open our garden to more sunlight.  The fallen trees were left on the ground and logs were cut to specific lengths according to the lengths needed for the outside kitchen.

The Volunteers Arrive
One by one the first group of volunteers arrived in Montpelier, some by bus and others by train.  It was a busy time and the first arrivals helped set up the tents and infrastructure needed for the camp.  Finally, all had made it to their destination except Dasha, from Russia, and there was no word where she was and when she was coming. We took the group through the orientation process, which for more than half of them ended in cultural shock induced by introducing them to the composting toilet, an outside shower heated by wood, cooking in an outside kitchen and living in tents.  Most of the participants had never slept in a tent before.

Our first night together we introduced the concept of throughput and at the end of the talk everyone nodded that they understood this difficult concept.  With all of the challenges in multilanguage communication it was very satisfying to know the volunteers could understand what was said and very soon we were all getting to know each other and find our comfort zones.  The project had two parts that the group was to work on during their two weeks stay.  First was the hand hewing of the logs that had been cut to length earlier and the second part was to build a marble foundation for the outside kitchen and gathering space.  It took about a day for the group to find their strengths and figure out what group to join.  By this time Dasha had arrived, she was totally worn out from her long journey and headed to her tent to rest.

The group hewing logs consisted of:

Jenna from New Jersey.

Anna from New York.

Samuel from Bolivia.

Martin from Spain.

The hewing process started with observing the log and deciding how the log sits on the ground.

Using an adz the chunks of wood are removed eventually leaving a flattened side.

Dasha, from Russia, removing limbs from the rafter logs.

Angel and Fury sharing stories.

Chalk lines are snapped on the log and with an electric chain saw cuts are made down to these lines along the entire length of the log.

These beams would be used in the post and beam construction of the outside kitchen and gathering space.  While beams were being hewed others prepared the rafters which only needed to be flattened on the top side for the roofing.  

Jin (Angel), from China, and Dasha peeling bark from the rafter logs.

While the logs were being turned into usable timbers, the foundation for the kitchen was being built.  The foundation for this space was built in the same way as the house, with the marble stones laid on top of the ground with wood (2 X 8) boards between the foundation and the plate timbers.  These boards are important because they allow for adjustment in case the foundation settles.  The young women learned to move the heavy marble stones using leverage and various tools.  

Chloe, (on the left) from Singapore, and Wen Jie, from Taiwan, each weigh about 100 pounds are learning how to lift and carry the heavy stones needed for the foundation.

Chloe, Wen Jie, and Bi work on laying out the corner stones.

Jenna shovels dirt around the foundation.

Bi, from China, makes use of the wagon to move a stone.

The corner is done. These stones must be square at the corners and level.

As stated, the groups that come in the summer live in tents which are located in and around the gardens surrounding our house. The participants can see where some of the food they eat comes from and hopefully, in the future most of the food needed will be coming from our gardens.  

The garden.

Echinacea

Green tomatoes

Chard

Sunflower

Since we intentionally run Lifecycling on a shoestring budget, the tents we used were either borrowed or purchased at yard sales, and at best most of these tents were on their last legs.  Three variables were at work to change our direction in the summertime housing. 

First, although we are not sure if it is climate change, the summer storms have increased in intensity and we found ourselves constantly fixing broken tent poles and ripped tents because of high winds.  Secondly, the land next to ours has been clearcut to grow corn which again can lead to high winds (see Holistic Gardening and Landscaping).  Lastly, we cannot keep buying cheap, worn out tents that just end up in the landfill.  We decided to build huts at the campsites after David saw a hut built out of pallets. Together we developed our own version and once again, since the pallets are free and businesses need to get rid of them, we now consider pallets a valuble resource that our culture throws away.

David and I built the framework for two huts and decided to put a tent in one and have the volunteers finish the other hut.

Bi and Wen-Jie.

Dasha connecting the cross-pieces.

Dasha proudly stands in front of the hut. The hut isn’t quite done but it is finished enough to house some of the volunteers during the next session.

Chloe and Angel making sure the cross pieces are level.

Wen-Jie.

The volunteers not only learned carpentry skills, but they also learned that they have the ability to try new things and not only to laugh at their mistakes, but to learn from them.  If one does not make mistakes it is because they are not trying anything new.

Education was the main focus during the two weeks the volunteers were with us.  Our international guests not only needed working skills and sound reasons for doing the work, but also to experience American culture, one that can be quite different than their own.  We are lucky here in Vermont because they get to visit our quaint little city, Montpelier, the capitol of our state.  On our way to town for an evening out we stopped off at Vermont Compost where Carl Hammer gave us a tour.

Carl explained that compost (food scraps) gathered from all over the local area, places such as the hospital, schools and some local restaurants, is dumped at the top of the hill where Carl’s free range chickens forage for their food.

The compost is then moved down the hill in several stages until it is a high grade sellable product.

While in town we went to the laundromat, which is a time when everyone can connect to the internet to keep in touch with friends and family.

Bi and Wen-Jie.

Having chickens predigest the scraps is not only an important step in the composting prosess, but also provides an income through egg sales to local residents.

In spite of language barriers all the volunteers were engaged in trying to understand the vast amount of information.  Mary, David, and I paid close attention so the next group would be more prepared for the tour.

The big event in town was the Farmer’s Market. Everyone blended in with the crowd. Dasha and Jenna.

Martin and Samuel.

We hiked to the top of Wheeler Mountain, a challenging hike, and an awesome group experience. 

Angel scrambling.

Heading down.

The whole group on top of Wheeler Mountain.

During the time at camp, cooking most meals over an open fire for a large group was challenging and so  David decided to build a small cooking stove.  I myself was sceptical thinking we already had enough to do but I couldn’t stop David.  As I began telling him all the reasons he shouldn’t build the stove, he kept right on laying the bricks down cementing them together with clay.

David starts the stove.

Mary and David at the stove building site discussing the day, or maybe agreeing that they shouldn’t be listening to me about building stove!

Almost done.

This stove proved to be so valuable to preparing meals. What? David, did you say you want to build another stove? Oh well, how can I help?

A huge part of camp life is taking showers.  Water is heated by a wood stove, made from a discarded propane tank, which is plumbed with pipes.  The hot water rises into a tank located above the heat source which is connected to the outdoor shower room. To insure plenty of hot water for a group of fifteen it is necessary to keep the fire going, one of the daily chores we shared. The wood we use for heating comes from our neighbor’s sawmill as cutoffs from the manufacturing process. We use it for kindling, cooking, and heating our water for showers and dishes.  There are many conversations around the stove and the shower and interest on how it works.

Dasha loads the stove.

Anna checks out the hot water system.

Our last outing was a visit to Littlewood Farm, owned and operated by Joey Kline and Betsy Ziegler.  Joey was generous with his time and knowledge and he gave us an overview of organic agriculture and the farm before we spent time in the fields.  

Samuel and Joey.

Samuel

Everyone working in the field.

Martin

Here at Lifecycling we have limited electricity and limited water so as a group we need to share these resourses.  In a culture where electricity and water seem to run forever this can be a hard adjustment.  One day I was walking around the house when I saw Bi sobbing.  “Whats wrong Bi?”  Bi replied, “There was enough hot water for the last three people and I went next to last.  I took a long shower and there was not enough water for the last person.  I am so sorry, I want to be someone who shares.”  While she continued crying I told her she should be smiling as she was given the opportunity to experience sharing first hand.  Most people are not given that chance and unconsciously act as if these resources are unending. (Bi was so generous to let me share this story!) Reducing throughput frees up resources for others to use.  Isn’t this a form of sharing?

What a wonderful and enriching time we had.  Laughing, telling stories and enjoying each other’s culture.

Martin and Samuel.

Cloe and Anna.

Bi and Fury.

Dasha.

At the end of the two week session I had a last minute conversation with one of the volunteers about something we had done in the past two weeks and I said, “That it is an example of “throughput”, our main theme.”  He replied, “What is throughput?”  I recalled back to my first talk with the group when everyone was nodding their head and I thought I had done such a great job in explaining the throughput concept! Communication is hard enough among people with the same culture and language, and I knew that in the next session clear communication had to be a priority!