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Diary for the TEEN BUILD  Program

Homeschooling teens coming weekly to do natural building & other natural projects on the land. 

Potential Future Projects with the teens & rainy day activities !

2/26/08 Letter to the Teens and adult sponsors. 

Hey there Friends,

We will catch up with you again when health and weather permits.

Joan has gone on to her next adventure, and Amber and I are continuing to cut reed.  With all of us cutting, we have gotten a total of 250 bundles ! and need 150 more. So that is 15 days yet of Amber and I each getting 5 bundles. That is doable, weather and health permitting.

Amber and I ave been making preliminary natural building designs for a day care center that may get built on a reservation in Minnesota called White Earth.  Friday we will give the sketches to Mike Neumann who will take them to the reservation board. 

I will be meeting with the Kensington Metropark Farm staff on Friday to design some educational signs describing the natural building process for Kids Cottage that was built at the Farm over the last 2 years.  It has a thatched roof, strawbale and compressed earth block walls covered with earthen plaster, and a wonderful two step sitting bench that wraps around 3 sides of the interior.  It was built by many volunteers and will be a classroom for programing, and a destination for visitors, with lots of natural, interesting things to explore around the building: grape arbor, climbing fences, petting animals, a pump and tracker to play with/on. The Kids Cottage was built by many volunteers in 2006-7. See the pictures at

http://www.glgi.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Kensington_Children%27s_Cottage.

Would one or more of you Teens be interested in making a website about the spiral chamber, and the projects you are working on, so others can learn and be inspired?  Cutting trees, de-barking, collecting reed, putting in posts, lashing, thatching....other? 

Today I am looking at the deer skin and researching how to restring my Jimbe (sp?) drum and put on a new drum head. 

We made yogurt yesterday and flat bread (chapti, wrap) out of whole wheat. The sauer kraut I made is awesome, we both agree. 

Teva the dog is here, and the squirrels are running up the birdfeeder and chasing each other around the roof. 

Spring is getting closer. Can you feel it?

I hope you got to see the eclipse of the full moon last Wednesday.  That was the first time for me.  It was covered with a deep orange/brown from the shadow of the earth.

Amber and I have been discussing a number of possibilities of things that you all might want to be involved with: 

• Doing a video of reed collecting and putting it up on YouTube. 

• Making a website ( with a journal, poetry, music ?) about our projects (and YouTubes on different activities?)

• Do you want to collect more reed? Since you have collected the reed needed for the Sprial Chamber, we can let further reed collection be an "option" for those individuals who want to, or as an occasional activity for the whole group. We appreciate help getting the reed needed for the Kids Cottage, but only if you want to.

• Put together something for the April 19 Earth Day Expo: Some ideas below . . .

• Earth Day Expo: Slides that could be showing with some narration and maybe music in the background, showing what we are doing with natural building.  Maybe a video of things we are doing, the Strawbale Studio, etc.  We could make our own screen for showing pics (see below)
• Earth Day Expo: Make a display stand about 5 feet by 5 feet, that would give us a chance to practice "round pole framing". It could have a white sheet stretched for a screen AND in the future, I could take it to exhibits as a backdrop to display pictures and educational material.
• Earth Day Expo: A skit, or readers theater (you read the parts instead of memorizing)  like Nancy mentioned?  You could use an existing script, or write the skit about what you are learning here...or?

  Add music and poetry?

• There will be a hands-on activity...to give folks a chance to "play with the clay", make things out of the cob mix.  We could use some responsible folks to help with supervising the activity for several hours !  This would be really useful.

• In the spring we will do thatching on the Spiral Chamber, and finish the wattle and daub, and get it going!  (Get it so we can "go" there. ha.ha.)                                                      
• In the warm weather we could create a cool special space in the woods using stone and wood, maybe making a low tree house or platform between some trees. 

• Watch more videos about sustainability. Global Ecovillages, underground homes, and more. 

• "Map" sustainability. What is it?  Why is it important?  How do we do it?

• Begin to develop a board game about sustainability that can be used at the Kensington Kids Cottage?
• Plan for how the group can meet and do other things if the weather is bad around here. (sled at a place that is close to were you live.  find places to meet as a group if you can't get here...a library, coffee house, or?)
• Field trip to the Kensington Metropark Farm to see the Kids Cottage, farm animals, etc.  This could be done with or without us. 

Amber will be around until the end of March, then will go on an adventure, camping in the woods up north on family land. She is looking forward to fishing and swimming and learning about nature.  Then she hopes to go to the reservation in Minnesota and help build the day care center.  She is thinking about coming back here to the Strawbale Studio in the summer or winter of 2008.  Exciting, and we will miss her! 

Other interns are scheduled to arrive in April, so we will get to know some new people who are traveling and learning about sustainability! 

Take care,

Deanne

April 2, after our Teen Build Wednesday:

Wow,

I really enjoyed the day! 

Set up our own wiki website?

I have a wiki website: www.strawbale.pbwiki.com

At the very, very bottom of my main page there is a live link to "create your own educational wiki"

This is the link. http://pbwiki.com/education.wiki

How about we create our own wiki?  You could go to this link, and learn more about it. It is very easy.  I would be glad to set it up, but it might be cool if one of you would like to set it up.

We would make it so everyone could post on it (responsibly).  Check it out and see if it "calls to you" to set it up for all of us.

Then we can put things up on it...like a log/journal of what we do each week, poetry, photos, etc. 

It is free but doesn't have a lot of photo space.  So on mine, I put the photos on Flickr, then connect them to the website.

The wiki is very easy to use.  Believe me, I am no rocket scientist. 

Write up today's activities?

Would anyone enjoy, or be willing to  write up a little summary of what we did today, as our second entry into our "Journal"?

If more than one person did it, that would be great, too, since we would see the different perspectives on the same day!

Got the reed tipi standing up

After ya'll left, Jared and I set up our reed tipi by the Spiral Chamber.  I pulled on the attached long rope (I had it wraped !/2 way around a tree about 10 feet away, and Jared would lift the bundle about a foot at a time, and I would tighten, pull the rope, until it was standing.!

I think it will hold until next week.  It was pretty wet underneath from the snow and rain, so this will let it dry out, and we can do something more stable next week. 

Next week!

How about more of the greenhouse set up? It went really well today, and we essentially got the first 1/2 done. 

Plant a few seeds, so we can watch them grow during the season in our greenhouse!

Earth Day Expo.screen with poles and lashing.  We could probably make it  that back in the woods at our current "favorite spot".

   If it is a good day, that would be fun.  If rainy, we can make the screen in the house. 

Expo video & slide show. Ivan, maybe you, and possibly someone else could do the video. 

        I haven't heard any sound from the footage yet. Does it have sound. 

Does anyone have digital pictures so we could put together a slideshow?  We could do the same slideshow in both Flikr and also in

        powerpoint that way we could post them on YouTube if we want, and I could also show them in a presentation if I wanted. 

Please ask your folks to write a note as to whether they are ok with using photos and digital video of our sustainability projects to share publicly.  I am imagining YouTube, my website, and to inspired people when I do presentations. Thanks.

It is perfectly alright if they don't want to. That is up to you as a family.

Ivan, put your book where you will remember it next week!  I want to SEE it!

It was great being together, and having the Callis's with us again! 

What a wonderful day.

Deanne

April  9, 16, 23, 30.   Nice weather basically. Going back to the swamp, making poles and lashing for a screen for the Earth Day Festival, demonstration on making Challah, Ethopian Sponge Bread, some writing with Brook. 

May 7, 2008  Rocks? 

May 14, 2008  Rock line.  Preping for filling the "rubble trench".  Handing rocks out of the nearby rock pile, to the wheelbarrow, and bringing them close to the foundation trench.  Flat rocks were selected out for the dry-laid knee wall.  Some helped with digging the trench. 

May 20, 2008.  Teens log collection with Amber, rock collection with Martha, creating drain systems about 2 feet out from the foundation trench to divert water away from the trench and drywell!

May 28, 2008  The teens can't come today.  Deanne writes to them:

Oh, we will miss you! 

The posts are up, the drain pipe all in, some small rock over that, and now we are adding in the big stones to fill up the rest of the trench.  It looks really cool with the posts up.  That certainly changes things.  The trench has dried up all the walls are holding and finished shaping, and the stones on the bottom look like a "river of rocks". 

Hope to see you all next week.

Warmly, Amber & Deanne.

and Martha says hi, and best wishes to all of you.  She is leaving this weekend to go back to her life near Chicago and be an actor in a cool play there.  She will stop on the way back at some land she owns outside South Haven by Lake Michigan, where she will do some natural building one day.

June 11, 2008

Collected a gazllion poles for the roof!  They will lay across the rafters, one foot apart, and the thatching will attach to them!

We went out around the house and down the land, cut down dying trees, pulled dead limbs out the woods, and brought them all to the Kid's Cottage area.  What a pile!  Jared was there.   Great fun. 

June 21, 2008 - a note to the teens.

Missed you all on Wednesday June 18!

We are taking the earth oven for its first baking adventure to the Summer Solstice gathering at Tall Trees on Saturday.  It looks great.

The greenhouse is planted with seed and little plants, and covered with deer netting to hopefully keep out the critters. 

We skinned two of the large poles ya'll collected last time and are using them for the roof rafters of the Kid's Cottage.  The smaller 1 1/2 inch in diameter ones will be used later on the roof. 

 July 9, 2008

Pre-Email:

Last week was cancelled since many of the teens were on a camping trip!  Upcoming expectations for July 9:

Hey there all,

We will see those of you who can make it Wednesday! 

If anyone needs to stay later in order for a pickup to work out, that would be ok with us.

I found a surprising thing in the woods I am excited to show you, and we expect to put up the roof rafters (whoopee) and do some fun wattle and daub.

Deanne

Actual activities: 

Teens and Jared notch, drill and put up the two cross tie poles that hold up the loft. We also raise the first rafter truss into place by standing on the new loft platform!  Yes, it IS possible to put up roof trusses with a few ordinary-sized novices! 

Amber takes a gang into the woods to collect poles that had been cut. 

Jared oversees putting clay around the greenhouse so animals will be discouraged from crawling under the deer netting! 

Present: Tina, Deanne, Amber, Lena, Olena, Vlady, Jared, Adrian. 

July 16, 2008

Hi there Teens and parents!

Q. Anyone have one or more philips head screwdriver bits?

We could use them for putting up the roof battons tomorrow.   Otherwise we will use nails and hammer them in. 

Looking forward to seeing you! 

The roof trusses are up and tomorrow we will be putting up the battons, which are the 2" poles we collected.  They will go across the rafters, parallel to the ground, about every 12 inches. 

We will also make the loft platform by cutting and attaching round poles. 

We will put the Zebra muscles (which will be used for insulation in the cavity of the stone knee wall) through a 1/2" screen to take out the larger stones,  will be which can be saved as "gravel" for under the floor(to separate the earth from the floor). 

We can take a look at the bog or backwoods if we want to. 

Update on the Chicken of the Woods mushroom.

See you soon,

Amber and Deanne

What we actually did!

Vlady, Olena, Lena, Brooke, Ivan, Adrian, Corinna, Jody, (adults: Linda, Amber and Deanne)

We looked at photos of the mushroom we harvested last week, and then walked back to see it.  Well, it was actually all gone, eaten by little worms and whatnot!  Amazing.  Then going toward the back of the property we harvested maple saplings for the Kids Cottage battons.  Before our walk, the teens decided that they would be interested in helping to "skin" the poles instead of leaving them with the grey bark on, as we were planning to do. 

Back in the woods the teens harvested, clipped off branches and skinned the young maple trees, then carried them back to the house for finishing.  (Teens were hungry and wanted to come back to the house to eat!) The rest of the afternoon was spent in the shade, skinning the poles while Deanne and Ivan attached the lift board to the north side of the roof.  The poles that were harvested today were easy to skin, while those harvested weeks ago were very slow.  The bark tightens around the wood as it shrinks. 

During lunch teens shared some of their summer camping and hiking experiences!  Nice.

Deanne

July, last week. 2008 

We worked on the thatched roof and preped more maple saplings. 

Aug 5, 2008.  Teen Build cancelled due to many families being unavailable

Brooke Turner, one of the Teen Builders wrote this poem that was published: 

The Color of Hunger

What is the color of hunger? To pick just one would be impossible. I believe there are many.

The color of hunger is Red. Red for the blood that slowly discontinues, and dries up for lack of nutrients. Red for fights over food, and scratches from vainly searching. For children’s mouths, like baby bird’s, open and crying.

The color of hunger is Orange. For the flame of hunger. The fires of rage and starvation.

The color of hunger is Yellow. Like the eyes that look, searching for something. Something to satiate the body connected. Yellow for broken dreams, for drought.

The color of hunger is Green. Green of envy, a want for something just out of reach. Something we can not have.

The color of hunger is Blue. For the unfeeling sky. The loneliness. Blue for needing something, someone more.

The color of hunger is Indigo. Indigo like stained fabric; for Kings. Indigo for lust of power, and the willingness to destroy in search of fulfillment.

The color of hunger is Violet. Violet for hope. Like butterfly wings, painting the sky after a hard day. The need, the hope, of new beginnings.

August 13, 2008.

Together we thatched row three and start row 4 on the north side. This was helped along by putting up scaffolding so we could reach the work! Jordon brought the 4 thatching needles he whittled!  Teens took the bark off the maple pole harvested yesterday which can be used as a batton.  Many hands cut the reed tops off, so that we don't have so much bulk where the fluffy tops are, and also so that water cannot be held in the fluff, should they get wet.   Supervising parents: Nancy Rossi, Ron Rossi.  Teens: Adrian, Brooke, Ivan, Vladie, Jordon, Lena.  Jordon's dad and Ivan's mom and sister visited and witnessed our progress!  Amber, Emilie, Cameron and Nancy helped make apple sauce from the apples collected on the land by Amber and Emilie yesterday!  Teens got a chance to have a bowl of it.  Yum!  Thanks, Amber for the inspiration and effort! 

Deanne

August 20, 2008

The wattle and daub base coat was the focus of our activities this week, and we finished it up (with the help of Emilie who did the last few applications the next day).  Ivan, Dyland and Adrian worked some on thatching the Kid's Cottage!  We spent some time doing an evaluation process, which is described below.

September 3, 2008

Hey there all,

Emilie and I will be here tomorrow, and if need be we can cover for the attending parent this week. 

It sounds like a transitional time for many of you.  Dylan, we have enjoyed getting to know you!  You have been fun to have around, good humored, and an asset to the projects here! 

Should you ever want, or need to create a shelter, you will know some general ideas and specific strategies!  You are always welcome to return to the program.  We will miss you!

Jody & Corinna, Ivan and Vlady, we look forward to seeing you now and then.  Maybe a fall camping experience.

Kevin, we look forward to seeing you again! 

Did I miss acknowledging anyone? 

This week we are putting in an earthen floor in the Strawbale Studio and will be mixing with an electric cement mixer!  Or those of you who wish can mix by foot of course!!!  Remember the other week when you did a stomp dance on the "insulation layer" made of you-know-what?  Well last weekend pipes which will carry hot water from the woodstove were installed on top of the insulation layer, and we are about 3/4 through with the "poured adobe" or "cob" layer, made of clay, sand and straw.  We are planning to FINISH it tomorrow.  Another good goal. 

The base coat of wattle and daub is completed on the Spiral Chamber !  Thanks for your energetic and focused participation on that!  Soon the roof will be thatched with the reed collected last winter by you teens.  Two new interns will be coming next week.  Denise is trained with HORSES, and Corey does carpentry, so it will be great to see what they have to offer.  They will bring their TWO dogs when they come next week. 

Emilie has been working toward completing stage one of the "Mandalla Garden": putting down the mulch using the Permaculture method of "Sheet Mulching".  It smothers unwanted plants and builds rich, new soil. 

Deanne and Emilie

Nancy writes:

September 26, 2008

October 1, 2008 

"We are the mirror, as well as the face in it.

We are tasting the taste, this minute, of eternity.

We are pain, and what cures pain.

We are the sweet cold water, and the jar that pours." -Rumi

Kevin and Brooke arrive at 1:15pm after their videotaping project.  They teach each other some music on the guitar, we have lunch, then go over what we might do for the day.  Hmmmmm  Lash the Spiral Chamber, Cut apples, dry them or make vinegar.... Make a stone carrins as a guide to the swap for new folks (or those of us who forget!).  Yes, that's it.  We can walk back in the woods (with new intern, Scott, who arrived around 2pm), make the carrins, harvest sways and gather apples in the process.  It was a great walk.  The weather is changing, getting colder and grayer, but nice.  We were comfortable.  We went back down the lane, over to the big oak by the swamp and explored out on the fallen tree limbs that go over the swamp. What we actually accomplished is to make several carrins, harvest some apples, go back to the far woods, and

In preparation for November 13, 2008.  Teen Building

Hi there, folks,

I am back from Boston, and checking out the scene here.

By the way, Jared had planned to come 2 wednesdays ago, but couldn't because he got called in for his new job (Rochester natural resturant: Mind, Body, Spirits).  He misses ya'll.

If it is warm enough, I would like to see the rest of the first row of thatched roof put on the Spiral Chamber.

It would be great to transfer the bags of leaves I picked up in town...to the Mandala Garden.  That is the top layer of the Lasangna Garden as the often call this type of sheet mulching.

If the weather is poor, we have the video that Ivan brought way back, about building in the woods. All that have seen it said it is good.

I think we have greatly improved in our lashing, and could try again on our screens that we were making last summer.  I still have the wood.  We could do that in the main house.  I bought a book on knots while in Boston.

Any other ideas?

I have been thinking about making some holiday presents....dipping some candles, making a holder out of our "cob" mix.  Might be of interest if we are indoors.

I also know how to make a dream catcher.

I would have to prep materials for this.  I wonder if this might be something good to offer to the home schooling group at large ~ here or at another gathering place?  Might there be an opportunity for me to make income while providing the training to make an art project such as that.

Future indoor ideas: sculpt a model EcoVillage, using sustainable concepts.

December 3, 2008 

We thatched around the north side of the Spiral Chamber, then played in the snow, including the making of a snow person !   We had a good conversation about our relationship to progress on thatching. We felt that snow and winter were calling us, and that also each person could take responsibility to figure out what needs to be done, asking questions when they weren't sure.  vKevin, Dallas, Brook, Nicholas, Adrian, Jordan, Bethany Intern. 

December 10, 2008 

Teen Build Canceled due to bad road conditions. 

Teen Build Preparation for Dec 17, 2008

Hi there!

I notice that the next two Wednesdays are on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve.

Wanna skip those two and resume in January ?  That would be best for me. 

As to THIS Wednesday, Dec 17, Bethany and I are here, ready to go !

The concern is the last stretch of backroads, as usual. Between the house and Burdick/Lakeville Rd which is 2 1/2 miles away, the back roads are hard packed snow and sometimes icy, as they have been for a while.   4 wheel drive, no problem.  Those of you who don't have 4 wheel drive, you know how your particular vehicle handles.  The main roads were good yesterday, and at this point that hasn't changed to my knowledge.  So it would just be the last 2 1/2 miles to be concerned about right now.  The predicted weather for tonight and tomorrow at my zip code 48370:

	Tonight Snow likely through 7 PM...then periods of snow through 4 am...then areas of freezing drizzle with a chance of light snow. Snow accumulations 2 to 4 inches. Otherwise cloudy. Temperatures remaining nearly steady around 19. Variable winds 10 mph or less. Chance of precipitation 100 percent.
	Wednesday Cloudy during the morning. Partly sunny during the afternoon. A chance of flurries. Highs 24 to 28. West winds 5 to 10 mph...turning to southwest late.

Our idea was to teach "cording" (making string or rope from natural materials) by harvesting the dog bane plant (in the milkweed family) which grows by the front door, and also using the corn husks I saved from the summer.  Cording is fun and easy. The cording can be made into bracelets as gifts, or made into longer pieces for lashing and various purposes. We can finish that cool ladder that was started last summer.  It is outside the kitchen door, and was a very good beginning of a ladder that would be very useful for natural building exhibits to hold display boards with photos, etc.  We could also go out on the land, checking out tracks and trees, using the identification books I have.  If we have time, or want to, we can watch the Alone in the Wilderness video.

What do you all think about tomorrow Dec 17, and also the following 2 Wednesday which fall on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve?  

Deanne and Bethany

February 4, 2009

Some weeks have gone by this winter and week after week we have had to cancel, mostly due to the weather conditions and the back roads being so dangerous.  But today we are together again, joyfully!

Adrian, Brooke and Jordon come rollling in. Adrian grabs the guitar and starts playing.  He is very involved with his learning!  We all catch up with each other, discuss the days potential, and decide to work on the new Log Loft, then have lunch, back to the loft, then watch a movie called "Alone in the Wilderness" about a 51 year old man, Richard Pruenneke who found a place in Alaska, built a cabin and stayed to become part of the country.  The movie was filmed and narrated by him, and showed the natural building skills he used, as well as the animal life there.  We loved it. 

On the Log Loft we worked collaboratively, with a sense of purpose and a goal to accomplish what we could.  We discussed the construction of the project, what was needed next, then Adrian worked with re-fitting the first loft support a little lower in the post with the 'Y" at the top, Brooke cut off the top of one of the posts so it is on level with the others (no easy feat since it was against a wall and up about 8 feet!)  Brooke valiantly and proudly accomplished the task by herself.  Jordon helped others, and fitted one of the lower shelf supports, using chisel and hammer, then drilled the holes for the bolts.  We are not as speedy as Richard Proenneke from the movie, but we did recognize a lot of the skills he preformed, having done them ourselves here in Teen Build. 

Wednesday, June 17th 2009  (Jody, Jordon, Brooke, Deanne)

After a rich discussion, about green buildings and stores in Chicago, native plants, and a new book, Lawn Wars, by local resident, Lois Robbins, we learned how to tie the Japanese Square Knot (Lashing). We used the technique for splitting a bale of straw in half, to make to half bales. Brooke made a loom out of phragmite, and tied the corners with Dog Bane. She made a two ply rope out of Dog Bane to weave with. We headed into the East Wing and checked out the Loft/Shelving Unit. We decided to add a couple logs onto the left side to make a back rest, with logs we found by the "Red Shed". Jordan has been whittling support posts for the straw bales.We had a pretty rainy day, but got to check out the progress on the kids cottage (getting slightly wet in the process). jp

Wednesday, August 20, 2009

Jordon comes with Adrian and his mom, and first we tour the Earth Oven, Zandala Garden and Oxford Kid's Cottage to show them what has been done since they were last here.  J & A moved a mattress up to the log loft they helped build, then we worked together with Sam and did the insulating layer of the new Earth Oven.  Sawdust and slip applied 4 " deep over the oven mud.  Fun!  We almost got it done.  4 good hours of work, with a watermellon break!   db

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