For those strange folks that might be interested in reading the stuff I post on the Opinions & Ideas Board at Twin Oaks, I am posting them here for your reading pleasure.
So after a little break and a short vacation I came back with renewed vigor on a project that was not getting the attention it deserved. The Nut house expansion was virtually left behind in a wake of other things that needed doing this happens when you don't have people employed to do one job sometimes. I was floundering a little on what I wanted to do when I got back from my break and I realized this is my chance. As I have written about before how I have helped others build many things at East Wind and elsewhere I have always been the go to guy for lifting heavy things but I have never had the guts to take on this kind of project. Ok, a couple of decks and stages where cool but this is a food industry with standards to think about electricity, plumbing, boilers, for the radiant floor heating A place for a vent fan, lights, giant things that well to be honest all intimidate me. So I spoke with a few people and they believed in me or at least my ability to get these things done, so I went to a meeting with Nut butter management and it so happened that same meeting they wanted put in play a final day for putting the jar bander online and 100% of all east wind jars will be banded for your safety! This was it! We barely have enough room for another machine on the lines we are going to have to get the expansion done, so I with honest and justifiable fear said Ill get it done. Ok hold on I just want to say I knew I couldn't do this but East winders can! We have such a plethora of talent on this farm, I know we can accomplish anything with nothing and I felt I could at least organize this, and we have at this time the walls which laid in state covered with leaves are now on the building the windows are in! the doors are going on! I am inside now getting ready to order the doors for between line one and two and the future line 3 the reality of this project as well as the depth of it is my new life. I am maybe a little obsessed with my punch list for nice days and cloudy cold days with my constant harassing I mean asking of people on when they can work again (this is a real issue that in community needs to be handled with kit gloves one wrong word and you loose those talented folks that make things go forward so rapidly) At the same time I still have to get my HTA (Hard to assign ((dishes pots etc.))I have some morning primaries and I still have a roast to help with a life to lead It seems all so simple right now just keep plugging away at things one at a time and soon more things will be done. Hopefully I don't know the feeling of completing this kind of project like I said I am the guy who helps lift things not complete them, but with the amazing support of a community and some amazing talented members and of course those guys brought on now to lift heavy things when I cant anymore I see the progress we all see the progress the nut house expansion is moving forward and could be online as early as spring equinox but most likely may 1st our 35th anniversary would be a wonderful time to finish by. Ill be happy to order some wood to start framing in the inside today and make the move to the inside official. All in all I am so grateful for this chance to take on a project like this to learn so much in one project to become intimate with every nuance of a building. It is an amazing thing Ill dare say magical. So in the coming months as you purchase your jar of East Wind nut butter and see the band on the jar you can think about a few hippies discussing where the windows should go for the optimum lighting and how to frame in a wall over corrugation! Well maybe you can just think how good the peanut butter is and we'll take care of the rest of it for ya'