Thoughts on Farm Design

A guest blog from Yestermorrow instructor Jesse Selman

Broad Context
A farm is a complex system that involves the movement of vast amounts of mass and energy. This warrants a certain degree of foresight. Most farmers make business plans that look years into the future. A key part of this is the articulation of goals and strategies to achieve those goals. A farm design is a spatial energetic plan that can be anything from a snapshot of the present to a multi-generational road map to a farm for the future. The key is to put goals and strategies into the context of the whole farm, watershed, foodshed, ecology, and community resilience.

Sense of Place
Understanding place begins with information gathering. It means walking the land. Watching the effects of the earth moving around the sun. Seeing wet and dry. Making lists, maps, and diagrams. Watching the animals including humans. (It can be very hard to step outside oneself, especially in the routines of agriculture. Yet it is useful to take time away from the routine in order to get the mental space needed to examine it.) Observation can lead to a deeper understanding of the system beyond what needs to get done. Cows prefer to walk up hill and towards light. People tend to not put things away if the storage place is hard to access. This roof is covered in moss, that one isn’t.

Design is a process
The challenge is applying big picture goals to the complex situation of a real farm. This is not just about a new barn or greenhouse. It is about hopes, dreams, and expectations mixed with budgets, phases, and coordinated steps towards a set of goals. A far-reaching design will create an infrastructure that is adaptable to changes in climate, economy, society, or the changing needs of the farmer and her family. The design process should be set up to mimic the dynamic reality of a farm. Make it flexible, adaptable, and useful when a set of plans gets pulled off the shelf in 10 years. The process itself can create its own benefits, such as the transfer of experience from one person’s mind to a group leading to a more stable system of shared knowledge. Tracking how decisions were made will provide useful information as ideas naturally get revisited.

Good design is the communication of ideas
At my most wonderfully inarticulate moments my wife kindly reminds me of the adage “if you can’t explain something then you don’t understand it.” I believe there are other ways to understand things that don’t involve words, but the concept is very important. The simple act of articulation brings about varied levels of understanding and points of view. It is a way to test ideas and show them to others. Perhaps one articulates the land by mapping it. That act of representing the sensory experience of a place is a powerful way for the designer to see a point of view and test ideas. The result is a sharable view that can be exchanged with apprentices, neighbors, contractors, or lenders. Simple diagrams that show a process or relationship can clarify leverage points and guide decisions of where the effort of time or money should be invested.

Innovation, beauty, and durability
At some point design becomes reality; whether that means a hedgerow or barbed wire fence. For all the practical reasons to take certain actions it can be easy to leave out the simple poetry of a clever, handsomely crafted, and rugged product. I would not consider it superfluous to take the extra time to make something special. A farmer I know recently put up some new paddocks and needed half a dozen gates. He bought some, but the ones he would pass through each day he made himself. They were composed of the left over arched tubular steel from an old greenhouse. He used the curved pieces to make an elegant series of gates that will be enjoyed for years and bring pleasure as he passes through them.

Be humble
Despite all the lofty goals we can throw at any endeavor, I will never forget the wise words once said to me as I fussed over an eighth of an inch while placing a new beam above a pig pen. The farmer watched me squint at my level and rolled her eyes. As she walked away, she called out, “Done is perfect.”

Jesse Selman will co-teach a course on Farm Design/Build this fall (October 25-November 6, 2009) at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, VT. He approaches green building and design with over a decade of experience growing food and creating and managing sustainable farmscapes. In 2003, he created Small Farm Builder offering sustainable agriculture infrastructure design and a pedagogical building experience to non-profits and small farms. He has worked with numerous farms on master plans, infrastructure implementation, housing, root cellars & farm structures. As a farmer and educator his experience ranges from animal husbandry to watershed stewardship. He currently works at Coldham & Hartman Architects - a firm committed to ecologically intelligent design – while pursuing his graduate studies in architecture.

A great quote from Vitruvius

Our Board Chair and Instructor Mac Rood recently sent along this great quote from the first century Roman architect Vitruvius in his introduction to The Ten Books of Architecture. I think it articulates well the importance of the design/build approach-- clearly something which is not new, but in fact reflects an ancient practice.

The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgment that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory. Practice is the continuous and regular exercise of employment where manual work is done with any necessary material according to the design of the drawing. Theory, on the other hand, is the ability to demonstrate and explain the productions of dexterity on the principles of proportion.

It follows, therefore, that architects who have aimed at acquiring manual skill without scholarship have never been able to reach a position of authority to correspond to their pains, while those who relied only upon theories and scholarship were obviously hunting the shadow, not the substance. But those who have a thorough knowledge of both, like men armed at all point, have the sooner attained their object and carried authority with them.

Courses for AIA Sustainable Design Credit

Yestermorrow Design/Build School offers architects an excellent opportunity to take classes to fulfill their AIA requirements. This is an opportune time to build on a firm’s strengths, add to employees’ areas of competence, or fill in gaps in skills. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) requires that all members participate in continuing education, and in 2009 introduced a new requirement of 4 units of Sustainable Design. Yestermorrow is a Registered Continuing Education Systems Provider through the AIA and has been offering courses on the topic of sustainable design for nearly 30 years.

Yestermorrow Design/Build School offers over fifty 1-day, 2-day, 1-week, and 2-week courses that fulfill AIA Continuing Education requirements. AIA members are required to take 18 units of continuing education per year, including 8 units of Health, Safety, and Welfare. Many states also require additional learning units to maintain registration of one’s architecture license.

Some Yestermorrow courses that meet the AIA’s Sustainable Design requirements include Green Development Best Practices, Constructed Wetlands, and Real Time Building Energy Analysis. A full listing of Yestermorrow’s AIA credit courses is available at www.yestermorrow.org/aia-ces.htm. The AIA Board instituted the requirement for Sustainable Design credits in response to the issue of climate change and the impact of buildings on carbon emissions. The requirement became effective at the beginning of 2009 and extends through 2012.

Founded in 1980, the mission of Yestermorrow is to inspire people to create a better more sustainable world by providing hands-on education that integrates design and craft as a creative interactive process. Yestermorrow is committed to providing educational opportunities for practicing professionals and students in the fields of architecture, environmental design, fine arts, landscape design, engineering, and planning. The School’s goal is to expand the horizons of those already in the design and construction field, and to deepen their understanding of the interrelationships between the design process and the construction process.

Yestermorrow Announces Advisory Board

Five nationally and internationally recognized leaders in architecture, green building, energy and the environment have agreed to serve on Yestermorrow's newly announced Advisory Board.

Bill McDonough - is an internationally renowned designer and one of the primary proponents and shapers of what he and his partners call 'The Next Industrial Revolution.' Mr. McDonough is the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, an internationally recognized design firm practicing ecologically, socially, and economically intelligent architecture and planning in the U.S. and abroad.

Bill McKibben - is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. He is the author of The End of Nature, and Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. He is a Scholar in Residence at Vermont's Middlebury College and is a leader in the movement to raise awareness about and combat climate change.

Dan Reicher - is the Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives for Google.org which works to advance policy in the areas of climate change and energy, global poverty, and global health. Dan has been a dedicated public servant, holding the post of Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from 1997 - 2001, among many other positions with the DOE.

Dave Sellers - is a practicing architect in Warren, VT (Sellers and Co.), and was named as one of the 100 foremost architects in the world by Architectural Digest. Mr. Sellers' body of work includes 46 years of continuous experiments and designs from architecture to industrial design, from town planning to research and teaching. In addition to former teaching positions at Yale and MIT, Dave has been an influential instructor at Yestermorrow for nearly 20 years.

Sylvia Smith - is a Senior Partner at FXFOWLE Architects and directs the firm's Cultural/Educational Studio which has won numerous awards for design excellence. She believes that every project, regardless of type or size, can make an architectural move that empowers it and enlivens the experiences of people who visit or pass by. Her current work includes the redesign of the Lincoln Center public spaces and the expansion of the Juilliard School (with Diller Scofidio + Renfro), the Lion House reconstruction and the Jose E. Serrano Center for Global Conservation, both at the Bronx Zoo.

It's an honor for the School to have such a high caliber of supporters and advisors. You can read their full biographies on our website.

When I'm not on the clock...

I've been working on a mobile drafting kit that I can take back and forth with me to the studio and the chalet. It started as our shop orientation project and found a life of its own. I entered it into the "Outside of the Box" contest on FineWoodworking.com. Check it out if you'd like.

Tim's mobile drafting kit

My next personal project is a rolling tool cart that I can stack all of my individual tool boxes on. I think I'd like to incorporate some beefed up shoji screens as well as some green wood and maybe some turnings. Stay tuned.

Vote for Sprawl Free Vermont

Dear friends of Yestermorrow,

We're partnering with Dave Sellers on a proposal to create a statewide design competition to create fossil fuel free communities. Over the past few years Dave has taught a Yestermorrow course on Sustainable Communities of the Future, and this proposal is a natural outgrowth of that work.

Sprawl Free Vermont is a collaborative organization seeking to unite the rail towns of Vermont under a cohesive design forum to fortify and enrich the ecosystem of environmental and human community. All Vermont public schools, colleges and community groups will be invited to participate in an annual design competition to develop strategies for designing and implementing revised and new configurations for communities that will last for 500 years plus with minimum to zero requirement for fossil fuels to support civic societies that can change and evolve over time. Emphasis will be focused on adjusting and generating new technologies, but maintaining important traditions, artistic integrity and respect for natural and civil interactions between residents, businesses, craft and manufacturing.

The overall goal of Sprawl Free Vermont is to generate interest and awareness of the opportunities and creativity available world wide, regionally, and locally for long-term human settlement that does not invade, damage, limit, exhaust resources, or pollute the planet. Ultimately, Sprawl Free Vermont seeks to recognize creative and inclusive configurations that challenge and inspire future change, yet recognize important, unique aspects of the Vermont cultural and environmental landscape.

You can support this proposal with your vote-- the proposals which receive the most public support will be considered for a $200,000 grant from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.Just click here- it's easy:http://www.justmeans.com/competitionidea/10222/promoteidea.html

What's going on?

The Yestermorrow interns have been busy with various projects and classes around the campus lately, so I thought I'd post what we're all up to.

Will, Tressa and Stephanie spent time in Architectural Woodcarving this past week with Bill Schnute. Bill is a great guy and an amazing wood carver. It was incredible to see people's progress in only one week's instruction. Tressa's fish is a great example of what was accomplished. Zach and Kendall were participating in the NESEA Building Energy Conference in Boston, so I spent the majority of my week fixing broken tools. I'm into that type of thing, so it was fun.

This week, Kendall and Tressa are taking Beginning Furnituremaking, so Stephanie wrangled the remaining three of us and put us to work on gardening preparation: building straw bale cold frames, garden siting and compost area clearing. Now that the snow has left the garden patch, she has a better idea of what she is working with (and up against). Herb planting boxes are next on the list, and we've found some barky slabs that we're planning on using for them.

Tomorrow, we'll head up to Randy Taplin's shop to continue working on the router table we've been redesigning and building with him. Randy has been great in teaching us traditional cabinetry methods and skiing with us on his property. The views up there are out of hand, and our new router table will be almost too nice to use (or abuse) when it's finished.

I'm signed up for Efficiency by Design this weekend and am really looking forward to it. I'm fairly new to building efficiency and this class is purported to be a knowledge bomb that I hope will help Stephanie and me out when we're looking to build our own home one day. I would love it if we could have a home one day that met all of it's own needs and ours without negatively affecting other people and the environment.

Yestermorrow Partners with Green Mountain College on Renewable Energy and EcoDesign program

Starting in the fall of 2009, Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT will offer a certificate program in Renewable Energy and EcoDesign (REED). Undergraduate students at GMC have the opportunity to explore the renewable energy and green building fields through the REED program. It reflects the same characteristics as GMC’s award-winning Environmental Liberal Arts curriculum: the program is field-based and interdisciplinary. GMC has partnered with Yestermorrow Design/Build School and Solar Energy International to provide an external 3-credit practicum to offer REED students real-world technical training in building and alternative energy systems. The program is open to GMC students in any major and is made up of 18 credits of coursework.

Timberframing Part 3: The Raising

In the past two parts of my timberframing primer, I wrote about theory, layout and some joinery. In this post, I'm going to talk a little bit about the raising of the 10 x 8 shed we built (mostly - we didn't get to the rafters). The first thing to know is that raising is a community event. It takes a bit of group strength and coordination to lift hundreds of pounds of hemlock into position safely - our instructors were extremely experienced in handling structures much larger than our shed.

Most all of our joints were too tight and had to be tweaked before they fit well. After one bent's joints were satisfactory, we tilted it into place. Major rules for lifting these beasts are:

1. One person is in charge and everyone listens to him/her.
2. Don't lift if you don't have to. (use crowbars and levers when possible)
   
3. Don't lift timbers alone. Ever.

I'll wrap up with some photos that tell the rest of the story.

Enjoy.

Permaculture Project Wanted

Interested in a permaculture design for your property, but don't have time to come take our 2-week Permaculture Design Certification course? Here's a great opportunity for you... one of the students in the upcoming class (who also happens to be a Yestermorrow stone masonry instructor) is looking for a project to focus on in our upcoming April Permaculture class.

Dan Bermingham owns a small landscaping company in Huntington, VT focused on organic landcare, stonework, and permaculture design and installation. If you would be interested in working with Dan to design a permaculture landcape for your land at a steep discounted rate, please email Dan at smallaxelandcare@hotmail.com -- the sooner the better! Small Axe Landcare website: http://www.smallaxellc.com/

Highway 2.0

Check out this great video produced by Yestermorrow instructor and board member Ben Falk and his team at Whole Systems Design in Moretown, VT.
Vacant land along Americas interstate highway system is renewed through the growing of quick-cycling biomass crops and the installation of wind turbines and solar photovoltaics. This represents an entirely new economy: Interstate Energy Farming. A redeveloped interstate corridor would be the backbone of an adaptive landscape reuse strategy on a national level.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP80j_mz4Jo

Yestermorrow Instructor Thea Alvin Featured in Vermont Magazine

Check out the great article and photos of stonemason Thea Alvin in the current issue of Vermont Magazine! Thea will be offering two Yestermorrow courses this summer as part of her busy schedule-- The Art of Stone, July 5-10th and Art in the English Garden, July 19-27 (a travel study trip to England building stone walls and arches).

Quite the world traveller, "..she was recently in Arizona, leading a seminar of executives in the intricate skill of building a stone arch (the lesson— out of hard work comes balance and harmony). She was recently in England,finishing a grotto at a country estate. She spent a month in China, where she built ten arches from bricks, tiles, slate and marble. She also has built stone sculpture in Canada, France and Italy; in fact, Thea wants to travel the world, leaving works of stone art behind."-- Vermont Magazine, March/April 2009

Economic Stimulus Bill Initiatives for Home Energy Efficiency

A quick update on new initiatives available through the 2009 Economic Recovery Bill recently signed by President Obama (thanks to Enterprise Community Partners for sharing this summary). "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides unprecedented funding for building energy retrofits...The bill extends the current law tax credit for improvements to energy-efficient existing homes through 2010. For 2009 and 2010, the bill will increase the amount of tax credit to thirty percent of the amount paid or incurred by the taxpayer for qualified energy efficiency improvements during the taxable year. The bill will also eliminate the property-by-property dollar caps on this tax credit and provide an aggregate $1,500 cap on all property qualifying for the credit." An additional $300 million is available through DOE for states to provide rebates to consumers who replace appliances with Energy Star models. For more information, visit http://www.enterprisecommunity.org/public_policy/documents/economic_recovery_bill.pdf

A note from a former student and intern

"I quit my job and moved to the Yestermorrow School as an intern in the fall of 2006. Unsure of where I wanted to put my engineering degree to use, I started hitting things with a hammer and drawing without a straight edge. Somewhere in between studying the tools of the past and the technological possibilities of the future I began to find my way, and a vision of creativity and sustainability blossomed. I took a timber framing class for the fun of it, and soon found the missing link between engineering and artistic construction. Since leaving the Mad River Valley I have pursued timber framing education and employment and am more excited about my future then I have ever been. I have traveled throughout the country and worked side-by-side with some of the brightest minds in the field. This week I am working with a team to install the final rafters of a barn from the 1860’s that we have completely restored. My plan for the future is to start my own design/build timber frame company and to keep true to the principles that began to take root at the Yestermorrow School. I am confident that built world of tomorrow will be a better place thanks in-part to the instructors and students from this special school in the heart of the Green Mountains." –Brian Malone

Slideshow from Rigging, Rolling and Raising

Mooooose!

I found this in the snow behind the chalet (or "Dojo" as we've begun to call it since installing the chin-up bar) a few mornings ago.

Timberframing Part 2: Laying Out/Cutting a Tenon

In my last post, I wrote about using the square rule to make my timber a uniform dimension at the joint locations. This week, I'll show briefly how to lay out and cut one tenon on a specific post using the square rule. The tenon is made to fit into a mortise in the plate which will eventually support the rafters and roof of the shed, so these joints must be nearly perfect. A good square and sharp pencil are crucial to getting these joints to work well.

In this picture, you can see the reference face of my post designated by the dark triangle pointing to the reference edge. The reference faces are the most square to each other, so we'll base all of our measurements from those faces. The photo also shows how I laid out my pencil lines for the tenon. The tenon is 1.5 inches from the reference face and 1.5 inches in thickness. One leg of my framing square is 1.5 inches, so it makes things a lot easier.

There's more to layout than what's shown and you'll want to do all of that before cutting, but for simplicity, I'll move on. The first cut is with a carpenter's crosscut saw. It's pretty hard to do well and I have a lot to improve technique-wise.

Once the majority of the meat is cut away from both sides of the tenon, the tenon's "cheeks" are cleaned up and flattened with a chisel and rabbet plane.

After planing, I removed the parts of the tenon that will make it 4.5 inches across as well as the housing that will help the tenon slide right into it's mortise. A slight taper on the tenon's faces, chamfers on it's edges and ends, and a peg hole and it's all done.

I'll post some photos from our shed raising in the next and last edition of my timberframing overview - probably next week.

Living Big in a Small World

Yestermorrow instructor Moneca Kaiser was recently profiled in the Ottawa Citizen (2/7/09).

"When Moneca Kaiser talks about smart home storage ideas, she has the voice of authority. Hardly surprising. The owner of Moneca Kaiser Design Build (www.mkdesignbuild.ca) lives in a 325-square foot apartment. What’s more, she works from her east-end home and is so efficient at keeping things tucked away that, last Sunday, she hosted a Chinese New Year’s party for 25 friends.

For Kaiser, a committed environmentalist, good storage starts with minimizing possessions. That said, she does have stuff. Office supplies, for example. To keep her home looking mostly like a home, she stores business items in a repurposed chest of drawers, using dividers to separate pens and pencils from sticky notes. Other supplies, including paper and envelopes, are easy to find in see-through plastic bins stacked on closet shelves. Paper clips sit in a magnetized cup on the side of her work table. “If you have limited space,” she says, “you have to be very thoughtful about what you need to have, not what you want to have, at your fingertips.” Files and other items sit in wicker chests that she bought at Pier 1. Like many other items in Kaiser’s apartment, the chests do double duty as end tables or night tables when needed. While she did once own a standard bed with all sorts of things stashed below in pull-out storage containers, Kaiser now uses a futon on the floor, complemented by a Persian rug with plenty of cushions. “I love that Asian feeling. It makes everything feel so much bigger.” She also found an inexpensive pine wardrobe at IKEA with sliding, glass-panelled doors. She can put her futon up against the wardrobe and still have easy access to the contents."

To read the full article, visit: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

From Brooklyn to Blogosphere...

Check out this fantastic blog post about Yestermorrow on casaCARA, a great blogger from Brooklyn who writes about finding and renovating old houses:

Hey, old-house renovators from Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley: wouldn’t it be great if there was, like, a school you could go to for anywhere from 2 to 12 days to get some hands-on, experiential learning in building design and construction?

And what if it was located in central Vermont’s Mad River Valley, and wasn’t too expensive, and the food was good?

There is such a place: it’s called Yestermorrow Design/Build School, and since 1980, it’s been offering courses in all aspects of the building arts and trades to students, homeowners, architects, and builders on its 38-acre campus. The instructors are all pros in their fields, and the teacher-to-student ratio is high.

Read the whole post at http://casacara.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/renovation-education/

Visits

Last week, we interns trekked down the road a piece to Carol Thompson's house: a fantastically high-tech, site-specific, super-efficient creation of Robert Riversong. Her house is a model of elegant design that smartly stacks functions and utilizes innovative technologies, materials and building methods to slash both energy and cost inputs. It was truly impressive to visit her home and both see and feel how so many of the ecological design principles Yestermorrow teaches and preaches can be manifested in a wonderfully comfortable and low-cost structure. Here are some of the special features of Carol's home:
* Frost protected, insulated slab foundation is “greener” than a full foundation
* Radiant heat floors in upstairs and downstairs zones
* Solar orientation – large windows on south allow sun in to heat thermal mass of concrete floor/slab in winter; overhangs provide shade in summer
* Airlets in each room and bathroom fans with timers for full-house ventilation
* Larsen truss framing system with rough sawn local hemlock
* Upstairs space is independent of downstairs (gasket on door, separate heat, ventilation)
* No plastic vapor barrier – used special primer on all inside walls for vapor barrier
* No window trim on outside or inside of house cuts costs but looks great
* Structural "novelty" siding thicker means sheathing underneath not needed
* Continuous insulation envelope – blown cellulose insulation is also treated with borate for fire retardation and critter-proofing
* Tile work acts as a heat shield for wood stove, tub surround, shower walls, window sills
* Chimney blocks dry stacked with mortar on outside
* Cost of house was approximately $100 per square foot!!

This weekend, I hosted my sister, Anna, at Yestermorrow. She came up to ski and stayed with me on campus for a few days. Much as I was inspired by Carol Thompson's home, my sister oohed and ahhed her way around the Yestermorrow campus. She wanted her picture taken in the treehouse, she exclaimed that the wooden pegs and cob bench in the timberframe cabin were "really cool," and she was duly impressed by the lack of any offensive odor issuing from the [very full] humanure toilet in my living quarters in the chalet. When she left, she commented on how refreshingly different everything and everyone was here compared to "back home" in suburban Philadelphia. If only we can get more urban and suburbanites thinking about how their built environment and communities can better relate to and work within the balance of nature...

Which brings me to the owl I encountered today. I was walking at dusk, when I saw a large, fluffy, gray bird wing across a field and alight on an electric wire. When I recognized the bird as an owl, and I felt overwhelmed with good fortune and awe. "You're beautiful!," I exclaimed aloud to the bird. In response, the creature cocked its head and peered at me with its piercing eyes. Beauty, grace and elegance collided in the timeless gaze of this animal, which seemed to say both, "I know," and "What are you doing here?" My answer: I am yet striving to learn how to achieve the natural harmony and balance that you, owl, so perfectly embody.

Spring?

In the morning, instead of shooting straight over to the main building, I often take what I like to call "the scenic route" to breakfast. This entails a walk up an old logging road behind the intern chalet, across the top of the hill near the old Bundy Center for the Arts and back down next to a stream and the wickedest sledding hill on campus. I pop out of the woods somewhere around the solar shower and the composting privy. Since we've had some warmer temperatures this past weekend, the woods are beginning to look very spring-like. The air seems heavier but my vision is clearer, especially when the sun is out.

The recent rain has turned our snowshoe trails into rock hard roads and our old boot prints into potholes, so I was taking it kind of slowly today. Halfway through my descent, I detected movement below me. At first, I thought it was another intern poking around the trails, but it was a whitetail deer foraging the places where the snow has worn away to brown and green again. Upon watching her for a moment, I noticed more deer. There were actually five in a line working their way across the slope below me. They hadn't seen me yet, so I was able to observe their activities unnoticed. Once I continued down, they saw me and bounded off to the south, their white tails bobbing up and down like flags behind them. I stopped to watch them go, and the crunch of our fading footfalls gave way to the soft burbling of springs converging just down the trail.

Timberframing Intro : Part 1

I am so excited about what I learned in my timberframing course that I thought I'd offer a newbie's overview of timberframing for anyone out there who has ever seen a beautiful frame and wondered a little bit about how it's done. I had no idea before I took this amazing class. Even raw beginners can be making tight-fitting (usually too tight) joints in a short amount of time.

Timberframing is basically the joining of timbers (cut logs) to form a framework for the creation of a structure like a house, shed or barn. I like to think of it as furniture quality joinery for the purposes of making a beautiful, hearty and safe building.

There are two basic methods of working through laying out and performing the joinery in a timber frame building: scribe rule and square rule. Jack Sobon's works are great resources for learning more about these techniques. Scribing means that timbers are mated by placing them near each other and marking the timbers to follow the natural contours of the each. This means that each timber will only fit well in one particular place in the building and all members must be marked so that the puzzle can be put together properly at raising time.

We used the "square rule" technique for laying out the joinery for the 8' x 10' garden shed we were building for one of my classmates. The square rule operates on the premise that inside each raw timber is a smaller perfect timber to which we'll mark and cut the joints. This is advantageous because it makes some of the members interchangeable (to a degree). For example, our posts were all approximately 7" x 7" hemlock timbers and we square ruled them down to use the perfect 6.5" x 6.5" timber within wherever there was a joint. To illustrate it further, you can see in the picture how I reduced the top edge of the post I was working on to 6.5" in order to mate with the adjoining timber.

To use the square rule on a timber, you must first make a thorough inspection of the sides to try to determine which two adjacent sides are closest to being square with each other. Your sawyer should be able to cut the logs well enough for this to be possible on at least two sides. We used framing squares for this as well as for nearly all of our layout tasks. Once you've determined the two squared sides, make black triangles on those sides pointing to their common corner along the timber. These sides of the timber are your reference edges from which all joinery will based.

Our joinery was specifically designed to take advantage of the framing square as it uses many 1.5" and 2" dimensions which match the widths of the two legs of the framing square (as well as the 1.5" and 2" chisels we used). As a side note: If you're using a newer framing square, make sure your legs actually match this dimension instead of taking it for granted. One of my classmates had a brand new square that was slightly bigger than these standard dimensions.

Next time, I'll talk about crucial dimensions and laying out some joints.

Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency Improvements

Have you been planning energy efficiency upgrades on your home for the coming year? You should know that on October 3, 2008, President Bush signed into law the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.” This bill extended tax credits for energy efficient home improvements (windows, doors, roofs, insulation, HVAC, and non-solar water heaters). Tax credits for these residential products, which had expired at the end of 2007, will now be available for improvements made during 2009. However, improvements made during 2008 are not eligible for a tax credit. The bill also extended tax credits for solar energy systems and fuel cells to 2016. New tax credits were established for small wind energy systems and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Tax credits for builders of new energy efficient homes and tax deductions for owners and designers of energy efficient commercial buildings were also extended. For more details on specific upgrades which are eligible for tax credits, see http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits.

How has Yestermorrow impacted YOU?

We’re looking for stories and testimonials from students, instructors, staff and interns on how the Yestermorrow experience has changed your life—examples of projects you’ve gone on to design or build, career transformations you’ve undergone, or changes you’ve made in your personal life as a result of your time here.

We hope to profile members of the Yestermorrow community in our upcoming newsletters and on our website. If you can offer a testimonial, please email Kate Stephenson (kate@yestermorrow.org) and if possible, include pictures of you and/or your project(s).

Thanks!
Kate

Thinking about the Yester-garden...

It's barely February and already plans are hatching for Yestermorrow's garden this season. Our new kitchen/garden intern, Stephanie Pierce, has hit the ground running, making plans, seed lists, and more. There's even talk about getting laying chickens and building a mobile coop! We're thrilled to be making progress towards our goal of growing more food on campus.

We are looking for a few tools and materials to help round out our garden program-- if you have something extra that you'd be willing to donate, please drop me an email (kate@yestermorrow.org) or drop it by the school.

On our "wish list" for the garden:
Handheld snips/pruners (2)
Broadfork
Soil thermometer
More coldframes
Hula/Stirrup hoe
Hori Hori Garden Knife
Vermiculture supplies (worms!)
Twine tape and twine
Soil Test Kits
Compost
Potting soil
Germinating Mix
Misc Seed Trays and Transplant pots
Black plastic
Concrete reinforcing mesh
Watering can
Garden gloves
Aerator for compost tea

We're also looking for donations of seeds, starts, transplants, etc. Do you have any perennial herbs, berries, flowers or vegetables that need dividing (asparagus, rhubarb, chives, mint, thyme, raspberries)?

Playing with Garbage

The kitchen/garden and design/build interns recently revamped the compost system at Yestermorrow with the help of board member and instructor Buzz Ferver and Dave Warren, our facilities manager.

The current bin system that was in use was far away from the garden and difficult to turn. The new pile system (or as Buzz calls it, the Compost Happens System) is an improvement in the following ways:
1) Less manual labor is needed; no one needs to turn the pile and since the compost is sited in the garden, there will be no need to haul finished compost to the garden; and
2) The compost is sited in the garden, which means that the soil underneath the compost pile will be extremely fertile and loose when the pile is ready to be spread.

It can be a bit of a bummer when it's 20 degrees below zero outside since the new compost pile is so far away from the kitchen. However, everyone still has all of their fingers.

How it Works
Clear the ground and lay straw or woodchips down in a thin layer. Start layering the compost in, lasagnaing kitchen waste with sprinklings of dirt, hay, or woodchips. Wet as necessary. Since so many people come and go, we're going to try to be really on the ball about record keeping by naming the pile something like “Your Name 1.”

When the compost gets to be about a 3X3’ or 4X4’ pile, which should take 3 to 4 months, we'll cover it with sawdust and then label the pile so that the following group of interns know when the compost will be ready. It will be ready a year from when it is done being built. When that pile is done, we'll start a new pile. Throughout the year, 3 to 4 compost piles will be sitting at any one time.

Timberframing

Here are a few pictures that happened to be snapped during the first day of the Timber Framing class. Everyone hard at work, making sure that the reference edge leads the way to a plumb, level, square and tight fitting frame. I am not actually in the class and have only a laypersons understanding of the process but it was fascinating to watch the progressions throughout the day. I eagerly await the day when I too can call myself a crafter of mortis and tenon.

First Class

Today was my first day as a timberframer (apprentice). It's also my first full class as an intern. It feels a little strange to be out of the loop with the other interns who are still on facilities and project duties while I'm in class.

The day flew by incredibly quickly. Seth Kelley and Skip Dewhirst took us from bringing in the timbers to laying out our first joints to cutting or boring them by the end of the day. It's amazing to see a bunch of newbies working fastidiously to mark perfect lines and cut at the right spots. I'll try to include some pictures later this week that capture the intensity of our labors.

But the day is not finished yet. After dinner, we'll gather again and begin talking about the theory behind timberframing and see some pictures of projects that Seth and Skip have worked on.

I also have dish duty tonight, so I have to get back to the kitchen!

Yestermorrow Hosts Energy Efficiency Training February 9th

Mad River Valley residents have an opportunity to reach out and help their neighbors make their homes more energy efficient through a pilot project from Efficiency Vermont. Efficiency VT will train local volunteers to conduct free home visits designed to help homeowners learn about energy-saving opportunities.

Volunteers will assist in identifying inefficient use of energy in the home, provide information about additional ways to reduce energy costs and help residents find area professionals trained to make further energy-efficiency improvements. Volunteers also will install free ENERGY STAR® compact fluorescent light bulbs, water-saving devices and, if applicable, programmable thermostats. Efficiency Vermont will fund the cost of installed energy-saving products and the volunteer training. Locally, the project is being spearheaded by the Valley Futures Network, the Carbon Shredders and the Mad River Valley Planning District.

Volunteers should try to attend the training session on Monday, February 9, which will be held at Yestermorrow Design/Build School. The training session will begin with a light meal starting at 5:30 and is expected to run until 9:00 PM. To RSVP for the training session or for more information on the project, call Dennis Derryberry at 496.7662.

As we look forward in a new age of hope

What an exciting time all around the country as we face the world with a renewed sense of optimism and hope. Yesterday a crowd of students, staff and faculty gathered together around the big screen in Yestermorrow's Main Studio to witness the inauguration of our new President. As we all come together to design and build our common future, Yestermorrow is about more than just our classes, our buildings or our mission statement. It's a dynamic community of people coming together who want to make the world a better place.

As you visit our blog and contemplate your own dreams, we hope that you will also consider making a tax-deductible contribution to support Yestermorrow's non-profit work to:

• Forward the cause of good design and sustainability though education, research and advocacy;
• Design and build more projects that benefit other organizations and non-profits, as well as communities across the U.S. and abroad;
• Provide more frequent and better public education programs and events on diverse topics such as affordable housing, alternative energy, and relocalization;
• Reach new audiences and make our classes available to those of lesser means and greater need; and
• Continue to offer our facilities for the use of allied groups working in the region and beyond.

Yestermorrow is not alone among non-profits struggling to make ends meet in this time of economic challenges. Please consider a gift today to support our work.

Kate Stephenson
Interim Executive Director

This Old Recyclable House

Yestermorrow instructor Brad Guy was profiled in the NY Times magazine a few months ago for his work deconstructing houses. His next YM class - Deconstruction and Material Re-Use- is coming up June 19-24, 2009. Check out the article here.

This Old Recyclable House
By JON MOOALLEM
Published: September 28, 2008
Every year, we demolish 250,000 homes and bury the debris. What if all those floors and joists and beams were reused?

What to say???

Facilities Manager Dave Warren hard at work (as always)

Candy Shows off New Door

Fall 2008 intern Candy Vanderhoff demonstrates the smooth movement of the pivot door which she designed and built as part of her fall internship at Yestermorrow for our new and improved lawnmower shed.

Yestermorrow welcomes winter intern crew

We're excited to welcome our new winter session interns, who started their internships today with a rousing round of introductions, campus tours, chores, and more. Our orientation week will include time in the shop going over tool safety, a tour of the Mad River Valley, picking classes, starting renovations in the Chalet, and getting ready for next week's classes.

Meet our 6 new interns:
Zachary Hunter- Though periodically departing to live in and experience other regions of the world, Zachary was born in and continues to call Vermont home. With an educational background in forestry, Zach felt a growing necessity for independence and building experience. This desire has gained momentum in the past several years as he acclimated to working as a carpenter. Currently three years deep in his "education", Zach looks forward to expanding his skillset as a tradesman, and meeting with individuals who are committed to more progressive and size-appropriate building strategies.

Kendall Barbery-- Most recently from Olympia, Washington where she's imbibed the water from the artesian well (and vowed to return), Kendall has spent the past several years fishing in the pristine waters of Bristol Bay, gardening/farming in Alaska, Washington and Hawaii, and taking things apart (primarily houses) with her friends at Olympia Salvage. Originally from Virginia, she carried her art degree west and north (to the future) at the prompting of a very smart and considerate friend. Now that she's spent so much time deconstructing homes and ogling salvaged materials, she's looking to figure out how to put them together again, responsibly. Kendall loves scraps of paper people leave between the pages of books, attics, old photographs, bikes and bike rides, knots, birds, boats, potlucks, friends and, increasingly, snow.

W.L. Schebaum-- Hailing from the flood plains of Richmond Vermont, W.L. Schebaum is a philosopher/farmer/carpenter/musician currently enthralled by the endless possibilities of the human experience. Spending his early years in the fields and forests of Gravesend New Hampshire instilled a sense of unity with the natural world which was later solidified by philosophical studies at the University of Vermont. Will has worked as a historical restorationist, organic farmer, deck hand, touring musician, and most recently carpenter. He hopes to spend his time at Yestermorrow fusing the principles of creative and balanced living in order to achieve a higher state of awareness and build a few things along the way. He spends his free time riding bicycles, exploring rivers, uphill skiing, entertaining cosmological paradoxes, and of course breathing.

Tressa Gibbard-- Tressa comes to Yestermorrow most recently from Lake Tahoe, California and the wide world of watershed management. Previously, as an undergrad in environmental studies at Penn State, she was involved in alternative, community-based building projects in Montana, Mexico and North Carolina. After college, however, wanderlust got the better of her and led her to pursue field-based watershed research in the West as well as Mongolia and Russia. Fine wooden crafts in Siberia and a desire to work with her hands to build something other than databases of numbers and picutres about the natural world inspired her to come to Yestermorrow to further her building and design skills.

Tim Pierce-- Although Tim has lived most of his life in Michigan, he has traveled and lived all over the U.S. while pursuing assorted dreams. Tim has spent excessive amounts of time as a computer engineer, and just enough time as an Appalacian Trail thru-hiker, boat builder, social worker, and pig-shelter architect/builder. All of these experiences have led to a desire to make a sustainable life that combines work and pleasure in one place at one time. He and his wife Stephanie are passionate about good food and hope to eventually own a farm in efforts to spread the joy of eating well.

Stephanie Pierce-- Raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Stephanie migrated south to attend Albion College where she studied communication and philosophy. Her first job out of college found her at a large foundation doing communications support work for sustainable agriculture grantmaking. She partnered with a good friend to create the working structure for a small communications consulting firm where she did writing, analysis, and odds 'n ends after leaving the foundation. Along the way, the light dawned that she needed to balance mental work with physical work in order to remain sane. While doing a work-for-trade at a rotational grazing farm in Michigan she began to figure out with her husband Tim how to pursue their burgeoning dreams of 21st century homesteading and small scale vegetable farming. The kitchen/garden internship at Yestermorrow is one of her first major steps toward that dream.

Happy Snow from the Yestermorrow crew!

Building Energy 2009

Yestermorrow is heading to the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)'s Building Energy conference again this year in Boston March 10-12, 2009. This is a great event which we are excited to attend every year, bringing together nearly 200 of the country's best presenters to define the leading edge of smart building, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Yestermorrow will have a booth at this year's conference, and we're looking for a like-minded organization or business who might want to split the booth with us in order to lower costs. If you might be interested, please email Kate at kate@yestermorrow.org for more details on logistics and expenses.

Instructor Mark Chalom's project named Green Home of the Year

Albuouquerque Journal
Sunday, November 23, 2008

Santa Fe Residence Named Green Home of the Year

Santa Fe architect Mark Chalom has won the 2009 Su Casa Magazine/Build Green New Mexico award for Green Home of the Year by pushing sustainable building to a new level of overall excellence. Chalom won for the Santa Fe area Bechtold residence, which had earned the top-level Gold certification under Build Green New Mexico. It showed excellence in sustainable building practices by its placement on the land, its use of solar energy for heating, widespread use of nontoxic materials and its innovative approach to combining super insulation with interior adobe walls, according to a news release from Su Casa editor Charles Poling. The magazine is a publication of the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico. The house also has a system for harvesting rainwater and reclaiming household water. The home was built by Custom Homes by John DiJanni.

The Green Home of the Year Awards program is in its second year, honoring builders, designers, architects, homeowners and companies that reach the highest levels of green building. Awards were presented Thursday at the Homebuilders Association's annual dinner. Homes this year competed in two broad divisions: those certified under Build Green New Mexico or U.S. Green Building Council LEED for Homes certification programs and those that were not certified. Winning the Innovative Green Home award for projects not certified was the EcoHouse Santa Fe, designed and built by Klaus Meyer of EcoHouse Santa Fe, with architectural designer Andreas Frick and energy consultant Joaquin Karcher of One Earth Design in Taos. The home adheres to the "passive house" concept, which means it consumes 20 percent to 30 percent of the energy of a conventional home, the news release said. The builder relied on locally available natural materials such as adobe, locally harvested lumber and recycled newspaper insulation. Interior finishes are toxin- and solvent-free clay plaster. "We saw an impressive array of entries in this year's competition," Poling said in the release. "Green builders in New Mexico are exploring all kinds of new and innovative solutions to problems like how to reduce energy use, conserve water, and create a healthy indoor environment. It's a time of amazing creativity."

Other winners were for best green remodeling project — Earth and Straw, an Albuquerque-based building and remodeling company; for energy efficiency — Kreger Design Build; for water efficiency — Mark Chalom, architect; for lot design, preparation, development and environmental responsibility — Verde Design Group and Sam Sterling Architecture; for use of materials and resource efficiency — EcoHouse Santa Fe; for indoor environmental quality — Artistic Homes and EcoHouse Santa Fe; for operation, maintenance and homeowner education — Panorama Homes; and for environmental impact — The Dream Home, a house in Santa Fe owned and designed by the husband and wife design/build team of Jody Fayas and Cara Leig.

Yestermorrow at GreenBuild

Yestermorrow has hit GreenBuild by storm-- this year's annual US Green Building Council conference is in Boston this week and Yestermorrow is well represented. We have a booth (#463- come say hi!) which we're sharing with our friends from the VT chapter of the Congress of Residential Architecture (including YM faculty John Connell, Daniel Johnson, and John McLeod). We also wandered around the (huge) expo hall and ran into instructors Bill Hulstrunk (National Fiber), Jim Newman (Building Green), Buzz Ferver (Filtrexx), Gunnar Hubbard (Fore Solutions) and Brad Guy (Building Materials Reuse Association). Not to mention all the other instructors and students who are attending the conference and stopped by to say hello. It's exciting to see how big this green building movement has become and what a diverse group of people are attracted to it. Today I went to two education sessions-- one on greening high school trades programs, and another on the future of sustainable design education in architecture schools. Tomorrow the focus will be on residential green building, then things wrap up on Friday with closing speakers and sessions.

Thinking about going solar next year?

NEW SOLAR INCENTIVES
Beginning in 2009, the $2,000 cap on photovoltaic systems will be lifted and the 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC) will apply to the entire system cost. The $2,000 ITC cap on solar hot water systems remains. Detailed information on federal and state rebates, incentives and tax credits for all solar technologies and energy efficiency is available at the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy website - www.dsireusa.org.

Check out new photos from Welding and Cutting

We've posted a new album of images from our recent Welding and Cutting class. Thanks to instructor Ben Cheney for the photos!

Whole Systems Design Completes New Studio

Our friends and colleagues at Whole Systems Design in Moretown, VT have recently completed a beautiful new studio and shop. The WSD team includes many Yestermorrow faculty and alumni, including Ben Falk, Michael Blazewicz, Buzz Ferver, Keith Morris and Micah Whitman. The WSD team now operates out of a dual purpose studio-workshop that models principles in passive solar design, site-building integration, site-based materials use, optimized indoor air quality and more. View Photo Gallery

Yestermorrow Public Lectures

Interested in finding out more about Yestermorrow but can't make it to Vermont? We'll be doing public presentations at a variety of schools this fall and winter:

October 22
School of Architecture Media Classroom, 6 - 6:45 p.m.
Philadelphia University
Kyle Bergman

November 7
Ecosa Institute
Steve Badanes

November 19
Berea College
Steve Badanes

December 12
Rural Studio
Steve Badanes

March 27 or 28
BAC
Steve Badanes

June 3
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (Newport VT)
Kate Stephenson

Music at the 'Morrow

Who knew the acoustics in the shop were so good when you turn off the dust collector??? Regular jam sessions have been happening all over campus-- on this occasion it was the last intern morning meeting with both the summer crew and the incoming fall interns, led by Dave Warren, facilities manager on standup bass.

Kate Stephenson to serve as interim director of Yestermorrow

The search for Yestermorrow’s next Executive Director is underway. The Search Committee is made up of current and former members of the Board of Directors and will conduct a nationwide search for the individual to succeed Bob Ferris as executive director of Yestermorrow. Director of Operations Kate Stephenson has agreed to serve as interim director beginning October 1, and to remain in that role until a new director is employed. She will then remain as Director of Operations for the new director’s orientation period. Stephenson, who early on alerted the Yestermorrow Board of Directors that she had decided not to be a candidate for the executive director’s role, has been at Yestermorrow since 2002. Her commitment to continue to manage Yestermorrow’s exceptional 9 member staff—and the full scope of Yestermorrow operations in general—provides the School with extraordinarily valuable administrative leadership and continuity and provides the Search Committee and the board of directors with the opportunity to engage in a thorough search for the next director without any deadline constraints.

More information on the executive director search will be published at www.yestermorrow.org in the coming weeks.

Mac Rood
President, Board of Directors

$25,000 in Scholarship Funds Available

A generous anonymous donor has created a $25,000.00 scholarship fund at Yestermorrow Design/Build School. The donor has urged the School’s staff and Board of Directors to spend these monies before the end of the School’s fiscal year in March of 2009.

This fund will be used for potential students who want and need to take a Yestermorrow course, but do not have the resources for tuition, travel expenses or child care. Those interested in applying should do so as soon as possible, either by visiting the School’s website at www.yestermorrow.org, or calling the School at 888.496.5541. Email questions about the scholarship application should be directed to designbuild@yestermorrow.org.

“I don’t think that I have to tell anyone that times are tough out there,” stated Bob Ferris, Yestermorrow’s Executive Director. “As a hands-on school we obviously believe that thinking and doing go hand-in-hand — teaching and action. And the action in this instance is to see what we can do to help those that need a little extra help.”

“We value diversity here at Yestermorrow and want to spread what we teach and how we teach it to the widest possible audience. We owe a lot of thanks to our donor for helping us to open our doors wider to the very students who will benefit most from a Yestermorrow experience,” added Yestermorrow’s Board President Mac Rood.

Potential students interested in the scholarship program will be asked to complete an application that includes financial information and personal life-long learning goals. Decisions about disbursement of the funds will be made by a committee comprised of Yestermorrow staff and Board members. Scholarships will be awarded on a rolling and timely basis.

A Note from Bob

Dear friends,

It is with a mixed sense of accomplishment and the regret associated with moving from one challenge to looking for the next, that I announce that I'm leaving Yestermorrow Design/Build School. (Now, I have said the difficult part.)

During my tenure we accomplished great things in terms of building needed infrastructure, increasing the visibility of the school, and managing our often extraordinary growth. I firmly believe that the school's reputation, overall visibility, and staff strength have never been better or higher than at this point in time. But they need to and will improve.

The bottom-line is that as Yestermorrow enters this next and important phase of its growth, the organization needs an Executive Director to be someone with well-developed skills in architecture and design rather than my wider experience in natural systems, advocacy, and sustainability. I believe this is the right decision for the school and for me, but I will miss working with this dedicated staff, the instructors, students, and board.

I have grown so close to many of you and thank you all for you loyalty, cooperation and friendship. I sincerely hope to retain these relationships long after I leave my current position at Yestermorrow.

Here is looking forward to our next encounter,

Bob Ferris
Executive Director

WCAX Story on History of the Design/Build Movement in VT

This story on the history of design/build in Vermont originally aired on Burlington, VT's WCAX station on September 23rd and features the work of a variety of Yestermorrow faculty members, as well as a few shots of our campus, students and interns. Check it out!

Sellers at the Fleming

Our own Dave Sellers will talk about the origins of the Vermont Design/Build movement at the Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont. Dave's talk with take place at 6:30 on October 2nd. It should be an interesting talk and all are encouraged to attend.

Bob Ferris

Carbon Shredders Do Radio

Gregor Barnum from Seventh Generation and I found an open door at the radio station and took advantage of the situation. We hope you enjoy and get on the carbon shredders bandwagon. Enjoy. Good news radio.
http://tiny.cc/LRbM5

Fleming Museum Exhibit on Vermont's Design/Build Movement

Architectural Improvisation: A History of Vermont's Design/Build Movement 1964-1977

September 24 - December 19, 2008, East Gallery, Fleming Museum, Burlington, Vermont

Architectural Improvisation: A History of Vermont's Design/Build Movement 1964-1977 documents a radical, Vermont-based architectural movement characterized by organic forms, improvisational processes, hands-on methods, and natural materials. Predating the back-to-the-land movement but motivated by similar values and principles, the Design/Build movement focused on a new mediatory role for architecture both in creating community and in the then-newly charged relationship between humans and the environment. A number of the documented projects from the mid-1960s pioneered technological and social experimentation such as solar heating, wind power, and co-housing.

Guest-curated by Norwich University architecture professor Danny Sagan, the exhibition traces the development of the Design/Build movement from its roots in Bauhaus theory at Yale School of Architecture in the early 1960s to its radical social, technological, and aesthetic experimentation. It examines the work of a group of young architects who moved to Vermont from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania Architecture program in the mid-1960s, among them, David Sellers, Bill Reineke, Jim Sanford, Bill Maclay, Ellen Strauss, Charles Hosford, John Mallary, and Barry Simpson. The exhibition documents for the first time the exemplary Vermont projects created by these architects, including Sibley/Pyramid House, Tack House, and Dimetrodon on "Prickly Mountain" in Warren, Vermont; Goddard College in Plainfield; and the Anthos housing project in Waitsfield; as well as Skidompha House in Maine. It presents previously unpublished photographs and drawings, contemporary photographs, artifacts from the houses, and other documentary materials that reflect both the process and the resulting structures. An accompanying catalogue will be published by the University of Vermont Press.

On Sunday, November 2 the Fleming Museum will host a panel discussion with several of the original architects and residents of an early, experimental, solar co-housing complex in Warren, Vermont, as they discuss and debate the genesis and legacy of the Design/Build tradition in Vermont. For more information, visit http://www.uvm.edu/~fleming/

'The lunch lady with love' Yestermorrow's chef crafts meals from what's at hand

From today's Times Argus newspaper (Tuesday, September 9, 2008):
By Sylvia Fagin, Correspondent

Like a sprite, Heidi Benjamin is everywhere at once – physically and conversationally.

One moment she's explaining the spiral design of the kitchen garden at Yestermorrow, the design/build school in Warren where she's the whole foods chef. The next, she's striding across the field to show off spiky purple plumes of amaranth while explaining how she got the moniker "lunch lady with love."

For almost 30 years, Yestermorrow has provided inspiration and skills in sustainable design and building methods, teaching classes like "green home design," "ecological water systems," and "woodworking for women." The faculty boasts MIT grads, as well as lifelong craftspeople, and although students may not come for the food, they certainly learn from it.

Three times a day, all year long, Benjamin and her crew of cooks provide a tasty, healthy meal, almost entirely from local ingredients, demonstrating that eating locally can be delicious and affordable. A tangible feeling of community is created as students from diverse backgrounds dine and chat together.

"Students want to chill and feel the essence of this place, of sustainability," Benjamin explains in the dining room that's naturally lit by two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the spiral garden — and nearly eliminate the need for artificial lighting. Students learn that "it is possible to serve really good, local food for a pretty OK price. A lot of people are worried about that." Describing herself as a "frugal localvore," Benjamin rattles off some of the meals she creates from seasonal produce and local ingredients: Breakfasts of homemade granola, local eggs and oatmeal, Manghi's cinnamon raisin toast. Lunch buffets featuring cole slaw bursting with green beans, crunchy cabbage and sweet carrots, cold cuts of local turkey and ham, garlicky dill pickles, and Madhouse Munchies chips.

Dinners follow a theme, like Mexican night with fajitas of seitan and local beef; Benjamin devotes an entire chest freezer to the summer's bounty, ensuring local salsa all year long. Indian meals are almost entirely vegan, featuring kale saag, curried cauliflower, and homemade vegetable chutneys.

Benjamin invites student input — it keeps her creating.

"I ask vegans, 'What do you miss? Scalloped potatoes?' I can do that with soy milk. Instead of spanikopita, I do 'kale-kopita,' with tofu."

"I'm learning as I go," she says. "They call me a whole foods chef. I joke and say I'm three-quarters, because every so often a can of Pringles is just so fine. I don't sit and study books to find out what I'm supposed to do. I think, what do I want to eat? Sometimes I really want to eat comfort food — so how can I make that comfort food more healthy?" Benjamin substitutes honey and maple syrup for white sugar, strips of zucchini for lasagna noodles.

The fields and woods of the bucolic campus provide fiddleheads, ramps, a bevy of wild mushrooms, not to mention the foundation of a variety of hot and cold drinks.

"We have 10 different drinks we make for the cost of running the hot water." She lists a few: Sumac, dandelion, cinnamon basil mixed with lemon balm — none more mysterious than the process of letting leaves or roots seep for a while. "Students ask, 'Is that all there is to it?'" she recalls. "It makes it more approachable for people. They say, 'I can do that.'"

By example, Benjamin shows students that they can eat sustainably with ease; in return, she gets accolades, hugs and a dream kitchen where every cabinet, shelf and spice rack is custom-built.

"It's like a mix of camp, college and home here," she enthuses, offering up gifts of funky misshapen tomatoes, homemade jam, an offer to cater a student's wedding. "We feel the love. It's such a yummy feeling."

Heidi Benjamin's yummy meals are available to students of Yestermorrow Design/Build School courses, which range from one day to two weeks.

Sylvia Fagin writes about local foods and food producers. Contact her at sylviafagin@yahoo.com.

Community Design/Build

What a pair--timberframing instructors Josh Jackson and Skip Dewhirst

AIA Continuing Education programs at Yestermorrow

This year Yestermorrow has expanded its Continuing Education offerings through the American Institute of Architects and in 2008 we have 63 courses and workshops available. Our AIA/CES courses are specifically designed for current and future design professionals. For 2009 the AIA will launch a new continuing education requirement for Sustainable Design credits and a number of Yestermorrow's courses will fill this new requirement. Courses available for AIA/CES credits are indicated on our website and in our catalog in the course descriptions with the AIA symbol and a full listing is available on our website at www.yestermorrow.org/aia-ces.htm. Architecture students are also eligible for 0.15 IDP units per LU.