home design/build gets an A+

two fabulous weeks have culminated in the creation of the basis of an attendent booth destined for the barre, vt recycling center. staying true to the theme, we used salvaged wood, leftover paint, empty aluminum cans, and metal roofing turned siding to build a structure that will one day help enable others to properly dispose of their accumulated trash to treasure goodies. for the home design portion of the class, we had a broad range of projects and issues: an addition in alaska, a renovation for the dominican republic, new construction in chile, and a strawbale in the hills of kentucky~ a microcosm of diversity congealing in one, small design studio in the mountains of vermont. who'da thunk it?!? where else in the world can you get such a plethora of people and projects besides yestermorrow? nowhere, that's where. and the only way to experience this amazing conjunction of fabulosity is to come here and try it for yourself!

Cabinets Unlimited

Ken Burton's Cabinets Unlimited course finished upat the end of June, having built a beautiful red oak gun cabinet.

Architectural Woodcarving

Last week's Architectural Woodcarving class was led by instructor William Schnute. Each student completed a carved panel of their own design based on natural scenes.

Plaster Extravaganza Class Gets Plastered

Here instructor Buzz Ferver and student Chris Grifo mix lime plaster as part of the 10-day Plaster Extravaganza course in June.

Treehouse Railing Nears Completion

After many hours of hard work on the part of spring and summer interns, the railing to our treehouse's handicapped-accessible ramp is nearly done! Here Jason installs metal fencing recycled from the old Alpen Inn tennis courts on our property.

interns caught clowning around

after witnessing the high flying acrobatics at circus smirkus this past thursday evening, a group of local interns returned to their yester-chalet and proceeded to perform (badly) their own aerial show utilizing the rafters, rope, and hammock located therein. lucky for them, no one managed to land themself in the hospital, but bruises are sure to hang around for at least a few days. the shenanigans carried over into the next day when the seven rolled out of their mini clown car for morning meeting, with red noses appropriately adorned amusing their (non-paying) audience of three.

saving the world one step to the mouldering toilet at a time!

these sustainable stairs are of solely salvaged stuff. we sawed and sanded simultaneously for simple strength. surely these stompin' steps sit securely should you [s]need to shit. show up and see their sassy stringers and sexy slats sometime soon.

Little Cabin, Big Plans!

Progress is slowly being made on the sheathing of the timberframe cabin. We hope to be the group of interns to snag the "completing cabin 3" distinction. Interior and exterior siding and a set of stairs to replace the ramp are the main requirements, but given the site's tricky topography, the project might prove somewhat more time-consuming than expected -- just check out the setup on that scaffolding...


Other (completed!) projects include the local foods bulletin board, an orderly marriage of wood scraps (amongst them rosewood and ipe) scavenged from the pit and of flyers keeping yesterstudents posted on the various foods produced around the Valley.

The mouldering toilet has also gotten a mighty solid damn goodlooking spankin' new set of stairs; grand opening ceremony is yet to be scheduled -- we'll keep you posted.

Looking to ward off the chilling effects of weeks of diluvian Vermont rains, Orion takes a break from the Ark design/build project (tailored to accomodate a crew of 7 interns and one kitten) and warms up his audience with some fire-dancing action, drawing out dragons with his cotton-kevlar wicks.

When not planning biblical escapes on the Mad River, the interns also find time to do some work, once in a while... when they aren't in class, that is.

They picked up the basics of the Yestermorrow shop during their one-sheet-of-plywood training, rippin' through european birch ply and firing nailguns to bring their very own furniture designs to fruition.

Instructors Andy and Eyrich kicked ass as they stayed up later then their students to work through our knotty design problems...


And popcorn from Bisbee's provided nutritious sustenance throughout the week.


With new Yester-skills under their toolbelts, they were ready to demolish the strawbale cube (lovingly built by the strawbale class in the Quonset hut) when the sun came out last week...

New intern crew exhausts all funds on first outing!

The new intern crew of seven minus one carried the friday beer-thirty rituals into the night by splurging for pizza at American Flatbread...

... down to the very last crumb

Staff Fun Day

On April 28 we took the staff and interns on a field trip day to visit Shelburne Farms and the Intervale. At SF we took a tour of the Beeken Parsons woodworking shop, and toured the grounds (pictured at right in front of the Inn at Shelburne Farms in the gardens), saw the beautiful barns, and had a picnic. Then we headed to the Intervale in Burlington where YM instructor and Board Member Buzz Ferver gave us a tour of Intervale Compost and the farms there. Fun was had by all!

Yestermorrow Mixes it up at the Mixer

More than 100 members of the Mad River Valley business community converged on Yestermorrow last Thursday for a Chamber of Commerce Mixer. Here's part of the Yestermorrow crew mixing it up with the crowd.

Treehouse Railing Takes Shape

The treehouse railing is really coming together...

Deconstruction and Materials Re-Use Trainings Underway

This Monday we kicked off the first of two training sessions on Deconstruction and Materials Re-Use co-sponsored with ReCycle North of Burlington and funded by a generous grant from the EPA. The 5-day session brings together 20 participants from non-profits across the country (including Hawaii, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Jersey, and a few closer to home), as well as a slew of trainers who are experts in the fields of deconstruction. The goal is to build capacity in these non-profit organizations to expand their operations, deconstruction crews, as well as open materials re-use stores, which takes valuable materials out of the waste stream. The group will spend two full days in the classroom here at Yestermorrow, and three days out in the field on a variety of deconstruction jobsites, and visiting other materials reuse and salvage stores in the area.

A wonderful find today down in the shop: one petrified little frog. Someone gave it to me as a gift and now I've passed it on-- who will be next? Off to more work on the mailbox...

Treehouse railing in progress

Finally, the dangerous ramp to the treehouse will be no more!


Posts going up


Lauren working hard, while work-trader Nate checks to see if posts are sturdy


Uh oh, the SUPERVISOR!


Extension cord consultant Keyda

Natural Building in Costa Rica

Returning to Vermont after spending a couple weeks in Costa Rica has been quite a change. After hanging out in hammocks, swimming in beautiful swimming holes with waterfalls, and eating tropical fruits off of trees, it was tough to come home to a cold and snowy April. To give a bit of background, I went down to Rancho Mastatal to participate in Yestermorrow's Natural Building in Costa Rica course. I traveled to Costa Rica a couple days before the course to meet up with fellow Yestermorrow intern Emily, so that we could check out the Pacific Coast for a couple days [awesome].


Sunset at Manuel Antonio, Pacific Coast

The ranch is just too amazing to put into words. If I was forced to describe it with one adjective, I would probably choose "magical". Rancho Mastatal is an environmental learning and sustainable living center located on approximately 300 acres of protected land in the Costa Rican rainforest. Tim and Robin, who started this community, are the most incredible, selfless, best examples of human beings that I have ever met in my life. Can you tell that I loved it there? The quality of life that exists on the ranch is unparalleled anywhere. So, let me correct myself... there are two words to describe life at Mastatal: Pura Vida.

The class itself was an excellent adventure, although I missed a couple days due to an intimate encounter with a poisonous fruit [I'll have to save this story for a later date]. I have experience with designing and building, but no experience with natural building. I was pretty excited to work with my hands (and feet), using all local and natural building materials.


Mixing cob

Skip and Lizabeth, the two teachers of the course, are both skilled and dedicated craftspeople who have a great wealth of knowledge that they are enthusiastic about sharing. As a group, we democratically decided to work on a new classroom space, since the ranch has a growing need to accommodate students. We came up with a very organic looking building that everyone had a hand in designing. Important elements of the design were having lots of curves, a smooth and flowing transition from exterior to interior, a meshing with the natural environment, and a cool, calming place to relax. Although we did use a poured concrete foundation (not-so-natural), the base of the building was all cob (a mixture of dirt, clay, gravel, and straw) all harvested fairly locally and mixed with all off-the-grid power (humans). We also incorporated wattle and daub into our walls.


Wattle and daub wall in construction phase, with cob bench

The wattle was made of woven local bamboo, and the daub was a similar mixture as the daub, only with a little bit of manure added in for flavor. The remainder of our building is constructed using a bamboo frame. Some highlights of out design inclue a cob bench, the first ever cob sink in the entrance way, built in shelving for shoes, and a floor that transitions from gravel to bamboo to cob with lime-plaster finish. Below are a few pictures of the space. Enjoy!


View from outside during construction


The sink, made from cob


Built-in shelves, clay mixing area


The crew.

I miss you Costa Rica!

Mud Season

The last bits of snow are melting away in the corners of the Yestermorrow campus... and mud season has arrived! All kinds of interesting things are re-appearing after being covered by a blanket of white, and compact cars are disappearing into the ruts in our driveway. A few shoots fo green are daring to emerge, but winter may not be over yet!

The Great West Wall: Week Two

We are continuing our work on the west wall of the Yestermorrow workshop this week....

A little background about this project:

In the mid-to-late nineties, the former Alpen Inn was gutted and renovated to become the new home of the Yestermorrow Design/Build School. This included deepening the exterior walls on the interior to allow for super-insulating the building, and replacing the old single pane windows with new triple paned high efficiency windows. This work was done in phases throughout the building, and the last phase has remained the workshop wall--hence the work we are doing now. Completing this project will conclude the insulation work for our main building.

In addition to switching out the old Alpen-era window and door openings, and building in the thicker wall, we are also installing a beam header for a large door that will allow us to move large projects and materials in and out of the shop.

Yay Yestermorrow!

Hello Everyone! Happy Spring -- it has arrived with bells on here in the valley today!