Communal Camp Construction

by Raven Glomus

Theresa decided to hold a mycology camp this summer here at Glomus for Binghamton University students. The first step has been to build platforms for tents to house the students. Glomus members and visitors have helped Theresa build these platforms.

Here is a large tent that someone here had used last year that we just moved (piece by piece) to one of the new platforms. It will be used as a meeting space. Jules, who will be running the camp with Theresa, decided that the name of the new tent is “Calvatia” after the giant white puffball mushroom.

Here is a picture of the space where the tent had been before we moved it.

More additions to Calvatia include a kitchen space that Theresa and her main helper, Leo, built.

Here’s Theresa and Leo working on a foundation for stairs going into the back of Calvatia.

And here’s the stairs built.

Finally, here’s Theresa and Leo working on constructing an outhouse for the camp at Glomus.

Here they are again, with Dylan, a visitor, observing.

And, the final outhouse (with some Egg signs that were found around the farm we are on, tacked on).

There’s still more construction to go, but the camp isn’t until July.

East Wind Interview: Jim Adams

East Wind is now publishing weekly video interviews with current and former members. I will republish them on Wednesdays, the day we have often posted videos. You can see the first interview, with ex-member Zan, here.

Jim Adams is also an ex-member, who lived at East Wind from 1977 to 1987 and this interview is a deep history of East Wind, including the history of East Wind Nut Butters and the building of Rock Bottom, East Wind’s dining hall. Jim Adams also lived at Twin Oaks and talks about differences and similarities between the two communities.

BUILDING PROJECT AT CAMBIA, PART THREE

Cambia continues working on their strawbale house. Here are some scenes from a work party with folks from Twin Oaks and Acorn participating, taken from Cambia’s Instagram account. If you are interested in the whole story, here are scenes from Part One and Part Two.

BUILDING PROJECT AT CAMBIA, PART TWO

Cambia has been documenting their strawbale construction project on Instagram. Here is the step by step process of putting in the central beam for the roof. Part One of this story is here, documenting the beginning of the project.

I will post Part Three (a work party) on Friday, but first, a new video.

Building Project at Cambia, Part One

Cambia is this lovely, quirky little commune in Louisa, VA, very near Twin Oaks. Recently they started a strawbale building project which they are documenting on Instagram. Here’s the first set of pictures. I will have more on Monday.

LEF goes to AZ, Part Two

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post chronicling Living Energy Farm’s adventures as they went out to Arizona to install their solar systems on Navajo and Hopi reservations. Yesterday focused on the trip there–which was trickier than they expected. Today’s post focuses on the actual installations, which went very well.

On the Commune Life Facebook page, I wrote: “LEF finally is able to get to work. Here’s the first report with pictures:”

And here it is:

“In between installations, the LEF crew has time to post a Navajo joke:”

“And on to the second installation:”

“LEF goes on an installation binge–five installations in one day. Here’s some pictures and a story:”

“And here’s the story behind installation number five:”

“And here is the final post in Living Energy Farm’s saga of their road trip to Arizona to bring solar power to native folks there:”

Tomorrow, another question: “Art in Community–Is it a luxury or a necessity?”

Twin Oaks Wastewater

Meanwhile, at Twin Oaks, the treatment of the wastewater from their tofu factory was (and to some degree, even now, is) an ongoing saga.

All I wrote on our Facebook page was: ‘Here’s the latest on the Twin Oaks wastewater system:’

Here’s what they put on the Twin Oaks Facebook page: ‘TOFU WASTEWATER PROJECT. In this development there are 3 ponds, 2 big tanks, a storage building made from a shipping container, etc. Work on the project is nearing completion.

‘Tofu whey and wastewater will be processed here before land application. The whey is mostly liquid. Treatment here will involve raising the pH and reducing the organic content using aeration. The treated end-product will then be land applied when conditions are right for that or will be dispersed in an underground high-performance leach field when land conditions require.’

Twin Oaks Roof Repair

Meanwhile, moving over to Twin Oaks.

Here’s what I wrote on the Commune Life Facebook page:  ‘At Twin Oaks, the work is repairing the roofs. Here’s three Oakers doing the work:’

And here’s what Twin Oaks put on the original Facebook post:

East Wind Installs a Grey Water System

This is another post from back in February (in a sense, it is a repost of a repost). While there has been a lot of focus on Twin Oaks problems with waste water, East Wind has been dealing with waste water as well.

When I posted it on Facebook in February, here is what I wrote:  ‘Big communities like East Wind and Twin Oaks are like little towns. Important things like grey water systems need to be overhauled from time to time. Here’s a picture from the new leech field that East Wind just put in:’

And here is their original Facebook post:

The Twin Oaks Wastewater Project

by Raven East Brook

When I was down at Twin Oaks for the Social Technology Conference and the FEC Assembly, I couldn’t help but be aware of the work that was going on creating a drainfield for the tofu wastewater.

This is hopefully the ending phase of a five year upgrade to Twin Oaks’ tofu factory.  This post contains some pictures that I snapped while I was at the community as well as some that are taken from the Twin Oaks Facebook page.

The overall plans

Plans for stabilization ponds

Creating specially engineered drainfield lines

The ponds under construction

Another view of the tarped ponds

Storage tanks

The pretreatment tanks going in

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Thanks!