Deer Isle Hostel - Latest Blog Entries

Last call

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:22:00 -0500

This is the last blog entry I’ll make for this year. The hostel year is coming to an end for now, the summer guests are long gone, the lobster traps hauled, the B&B’s closed and the island empty and quiet. I’m about to leave and go home to Sweden for a while, awaiting spring and a renewal of my visa. From my old writing desk in my parents’ house, I’ll do whatever I can to bring the hostel forward. Hand made and traditional and back to basic in all its glory, but Internet sure helps a great deal in times like this.

Dennis will keep working. Finish of the windows and the exterior. Work it out from there.

We’ll keep adding pictures on the photo-page, so do check in once sometime and see how Dennis is doing.

Til next spring, I wish you all a warm winter.

Anneli

Deer Isle Hostel October 2008

The window page

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:39:00 -0500

We’re on the window page, week after week. We’ll stay on that very page for a while now, putting the casement windows together piece by piece. 6 windows and 14 pieces per each window, in the frame alone. The lumber have been picked out, planed, the pieces cut and sanded. One by one. To this, we’ll add close to 150 panels of glass in the sashes, piece by piece.

It is a work of art, the building Dennis is building. We’ve heard it over and over again from all the visitors that has passed through this past summer. Even if we had the money we couldn’t buy windows like this. Handmade for scratch, with hand forged hardware. The time and energy and love that goes in to these windows can’t be bought and that right there I guess sums up so much of our work. That no money in the world could do it for us.

Bear with us through the window project and remember the hard work next year while enjoying the view from the 2^nd floor.

Anneli

Ice breaking

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:25:00 -0500

And so finally the ice around the windows broke and Dennis and I once again got back to carpentry. The six big windows are being built and assembled, using white pine from the area and hand tools to cut the joinery to hold them together. The smaller windows that are already installed get their last coat of paint this week.

We cleaned the hostel garden up last week, yanked the dead tomato plants and cucumber vines out of the ground and covered the beds with seaweed to let it rest until next spring.

Anneli

Year of 2009

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:24:00 -0500

As the island is getting more and more colorful by the minute, the hostel year 2008 slowly is coming to an end. My return ticket to Sweden is bought and paid for and Dennis is trying to clear the list of things that needs to get down that involves a helper.

Already we’re talking about next year, next year that will be for real. It dawns to us once a while that this mad summer that just passed was but a dress rehearsal for what will come.

Planned opening is in June, 2009 and looking back at the passed 7 months and forward on the coming 12, it’s easy to see some do’s and don’t’s. We need to bring the building to a point where it’s possible to host people in it. We need to bring the farm from a one/two peoples home to a home for many. We need to let people know we exist. We need to have helpers here.

It also begins to dawn on us that it has to be a compromised opening for next year. We’re talking about 6 guests for the first year. As a training session, before we leap for the whopping number of 8. We’re finding corners to cut, corners that won’t affect the hominess or the comfort of our hostel but corners that will save us the time we need for the bare essentials. We need beds for our guests to sleep in, a kitchen to cook food and toilet/bath facilities.

Most of all, it dawns to us that we’re about to open a hostel. The building that for so long has been a mere project, something we talk about as work and chores and walls and roof and windows will actually be somewhere for people to come to. Something that people will look for, find, enjoy and talk about. That right there, that someone out there soon will deliberately get into their car, on their bike or on the bus and COME TO US. That’s just as scary as thrilling.

Til next week,

Anneli

Kitchen mainia

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:23:00 -0500

The first of October and a vast majority of the work around the farm is being done in preparation of the coming winter, much of that happening in the kitchen. And as I wrote last week, are gardens have produced as much as we could possible ask for, especially since one of them is a first year garden. So we’re keeping busy in the kitchen, trying to keep up with the harvests. We canned beets some weeks ago, and saved some out in the ground to let them grow and store as they are. Beets and carrots will do good buried in a bucket of sand and kept in a cool place. Soon enough we’ll harvest the leeks and put them away in the same cool place.

On a trial and error bases, I’ve been fermenting cabbage to make that keep through the winter too. We have way more than we can eat right now and Sauer kraut is one way to preserve it. You just shred the cabbage, add salt and push it down real good in a glass or ceramic jug, keep it pushed down and covered and let it sit. Add garlic, red pepper, ginger and other veggies and you’ve made KimChi, a Korean variety of Sauer kraut.

We’ve canned tomatoes too, as much as we could before we ran out of jars. We dry a lot of them too, place them out on oven sheets and screens and let them sit in the sun or close to the stove. They are as best when not fully dried, and I’ve put them in jars with oil, rosemary and garlic. Yum!

Food processing

Then we have the apples. The whole island is like one big apple orchard, and there’s so much more out there than we could ever deal with. We taste the different kinds to see what they might suit for, and we bake, store, dry and eat.

We’re grateful not only to live on Deer Isle, but also to live off Deer Isle and meal after meal we can prepare with produce and fruit solely from the island.

Til next week,

Anneli

At the end

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:28:00 -0500

So we made it to the Common Ground Fair and back again. It was a huge event, just as anticipated. We spent some time wandering around looking at the different tents where we might apply for a table for next year, to spread the word in even wider circles.

Back at the farm, most action is taking place in the garden. An early sum up of the garden year 2008; it has been doing well. Twice as much space after the extension back in May and even the new lot has done fantastic. Dennis dug the potatoes today and picked the tomatoes and we’re slightly overwhelmed by the amount of food. We process; canning and pickling and storing for the winter. Still we realize how little we have for feeding all the guests next year. One major project for the spring of 2009 will be to, once again, double the size of the garden.

Other then that, we’ve definitely seen the summer off for this year. Most of the summer guests and all the tourists have returned home to warmer places,Stonington and Deer Isle will soon wrap up and go back to hibernation. After showing close to 250 visitors around this summer, I think there won’t see so many more coming up our driveway. I think we’ve received the last donation and the last supportive mail for this year. As a last little encouraging push on our backs for now; Kellen from Portland offered to make bowls for the kitchen. Soup bowls and mixing ditto. Thanks to Kellen and thanks to the rest of you who’ve made this summer what it has been!

Anneli

Moving along

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:03:00 -0500

About 2 hours from here the Maine Organic Farmer and Gardner Association is raising its tents and herding their sheep so that the Common Ground Fair can open its gate on Friday. Dennis and I are alternating our time this past weekend/week/coming weekend between setting up composting toilets there and shingling the eastern wall here.

For the longest time, for years actually, the plan has been to finish the eastern and southern wall with clapboards, clapboards that Dennis got for free when he torn down a barn once. On our house those are the approaching walls, those you see when walking up towards the building .That’s the way it used to be done, that the walls you saw when walking to the house was the wall they spend money on – which ment, and still means, clapboarding.

Well, after we broke the pile open and dragged them out on the lawn we quickly realized that it wasn’t enough, not even close to. So off we went to the lumber yard and bought some really pretty, clear cedar shingles instead – just as nice but a lot cheaper. Course by course we’re finishing of this end wall too, and we’re enjoying, truly enjoying the great visual pay off…

Field Trip to MA

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:37:00 -0500

This past weekend Ian and Diane Walker took us with on a fieldtrip to Massachusetts to take a closer look at the houses that Dennis has borrowed the lines for the hostel from. We rarely leave the island, nor go beyond the nearest town for going almost all the way down to Boston is of course an kinda´ awkward reminder of what it looks like out there. I mean, in ten minutes of walking along this highway, not even the interstate, we saw more cars than we do in the whole summer here, tourist peak or not. What do they all do, driving their cars back and forth like that?

Anyway, we went Topswich and Saugusand saw four different houses, among them the Parson Capen House and the Boardman House. The Boardman House in Saugus was built in the late 17^th century and is one of few that has never been restored or renovated. Instead have they taken real good care of it and preserved it through the centuries so folks´ like us can get a really good and authentic idea of what houses looked like back then. For example is the hardware still the original as well as the clapboards on the back which got covered when the addition was added on not long after the house was built.

The Ironworks House, Sagus MA

Back home we´ve said good bye to MikeJoe who moved over the bridge into the mainland to a friend of ours to help him get ready for the Common Ground Fair. Dennis and I started this week with installing the smaller windows and putting on the shingles on the western wall. A fast and easy deal, but a tremendous difference visually. We’ve been waiting for this day for so long, and it was an almost surreal moment when we finally got to peek into the common room through the window glass.

The summer has definitely reached the end, and the streets of Deer Isle is slowly returning to slow again. We’re still open for visits, every Sat and Mon for all of you who haven’t yet seen first hand what we’re up to. We still accept donations, something very much needed in order to complete the building and get that last puff of air under our wings. Maybe you share our vision; that the world needs something else than Hwy 1 through MA, or whichever highway through this country, something else than concrete, shopping malls, fast food and gas stations? We’re building that vision, it opens in June next summer and if you’d like to contribute and be a part of it, we’d be grateful beyond words.

Anneli

New season

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:53:00 -0500

August has passed and it seems like the summer is slipping through our fingers as well. Some of the summer guests we have gotten to know this year has moved on toChicago, New York or San Fransisco, others are in the process of wrapping up and summarize this summer of 2008.

Picking up lumber for the windows

September brought us, so far, a steady breeze and tons of blackberries. The smaller windows are now completed, painted and ready to be installed. The bigger once are still in process, and will be for awhile. Looking kind of defeated the other day, standing among window sills and pieces for the frame, Dennis scratched his head and said “you know, I’ve never even seen one of these windows in reality. All I have is pictures.”

So for now, we’ll leave it at that.

Anneli

The Walkers

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:02:00 -0500

Oh, how I wish that someone made a movie or wrote a novel about this wonderful summer (Why not me myself? someone might ask, well, I’m busy to the brim already, in case you hadn’t noticed), a story that could capture not only the insane beauty here on Deer Isle, but even more so, all the characters. Our neighbors, supporters, the Yard Sale folks, the post office guy and the ice cream man. One pair of characters that definitely plays a role not only in this summer, but in the hostel creation are Ian and Diane Walker, by far some of our biggest supporters and most generous and devoted contributors. Over and over again have they blown us away with their eagerness and will to help, ranging from everything to use of their truck for seaweed pickup, to editing the Letter of appeal to field trips to MA to an enormous effort to spread the word about what we're doing. How on earth can we ever thank them enough?

We met Ian way back in March and he and Dennis hit it off immediately with their common interest for traditional building and hand craft. Ian has a blacksmith shop in his basement, so he signed up to custom make the hardware for our hostel, voluntarily, that is. We could never afford to pay anyone for what he’s doing, and yes, even the most fabricated hinges would have eaten a good chunk of our budget away. A famous Ian quote; “I looked at the foundation and the frame and thought; this is a Class A building. It shouldn’t have anything but Class A hardware”. So Ian has been banging away through the spring and summer and while Dennis now moves on to the next step, the 6 bigger windows, Ian has strapped himself to his forge to keep the pace and line the work up with Dennis.

Custom made hardware by Ian Walker

The crab waste idea might have been bright on the paper, but in reality, plainly put, it stunk our farm out for days. Even though covered with leaves and seaweed the animals got to it and dragged the shells out for a good baking in the sun and a lingering stink all over our farm, our house, the garden and the driveway. What could we do but laugh and hope for a good payback in terms of a big and generous garden harvest next year….

// Anneli

2009 preparation

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:54:00 -0500

This past week we’ve completed all 9 smaller window units and put the first coat of paint on. We’re keeping pace here folks’ and we’re doing it good. Dennis and MikeJoe have been jamming out the hand tools and the table saw, adding one piece to another and if the sun just keeps shining a little longer, we’ll have them painted and up in no time.

The crazy rain last week turned our new flower bed into a ditch, so a new one had to be dug right across our driveway. The gardens have done great with the rain and the sun taking turns the last week, and they will do even better next year, cause of all the compost we’re preparing. We got three 55 gallon drums of crab waste delivered, a new sustainability project here on the island, to put the crab shells in use as fertilizer as opposed to just getting rid of it.

We mixed it with seaweed we harvested and leafs we gathered. That will get our garden going next spring, even with the expansion we’re planning. The lesson is; use what you got. For us it’s just around the corner, it’s free and abundant. Crab waste, sea weed and leafs, all what will feed the hostel guests next year.

Til next week,

// Deer Isle Hostel Crew

The Yard sale spies

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:50:00 -0500

Oh, all the bitching over the stinking hot July, only to see August bring in rain and rain and nothing but rain. Since midnight last night, Deer Isle has received close to a feet of rain, judging by the content of the rubber tub on our porch. I’ve snucked over to our neighbor Mary, to not having to watch our garden get flooded. Which it might, cause the rain will keep falling they say. Relentlessly keep falling.

This past week we’ve pecked away on the windows. Nice work, it’s indoors and easy labor. After doing a prototype model we simply started a window factory, jamming out all nine frames at once. Friday gave us a two hour relief from the rain, just enough for me to go to the Farmers Market in Stonington to promote the hostel and in the wake we’ve shown group after group of visitors around the building and the gardens.

Window frame factory

I’d like to add a little line about some of the characters involved in this hostel history making summer; the Texas crew. Bill, Bob and Peggy are spending their summer in Stonington and stumbled across the hostel one day. They immediately caught on to the idea of contributing with furniture and household necessities, a win-win situation in this case when the trio loves Yard Sales and has now found and outlet for their digging desire. So back and forth they go, our yard sale spies. Come up our drive way with the truck bed loaded with silver ware, towels, bed linens and table games. Ask what we want and go off to find it. We haul box after box after bag up on the attic, filling it to the brim. We fill the hostel building as well, they have contributed with both a couch and an antique armoire which both will be enjoyed by many over the years to come. This past weekend we were given two Maple wood twin beds by our newest neighbor Judie, two old sturdy pieces of furniture which in a year from now will occupy the bedrooms. Thank you all so much. Our good neighbors, our spies and all others, for creating this community effort and helping us along the way.

// Deer Isle Hostel Crew

Turning page

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:59:00 -0500

This past week we turned one heavy page in the hostel history book. Dennis finished off the roof Friday afternoon (YYYYEEESSSS!!!!!!) and on Monday, the work with the windows began. It’s like the whole hostel; the building, the farm, the crew and even the rooster let out a big sigh of relief when the last shingle was put up there and the staging taken down.

Dennis will build the windows himself. For the nine smaller once we’ve bought the sashes and the first step is to build the frames for them. For the six bigger once he’ll do the whole thing; both sashes and frames.

Dennis made window

We picked out the lumber for the smaller windows Sunday afternoon, white pine that we plained with the good ol´ plainer and will now serve as massive frames and sills for the hostel windows. Yes, we’re relieved and happy and filled with new energy to progress forward towards next June and the opening.

Something that will help us along the now 10 months long path we have to go is the $5000 check that came yesterday in the wake of our Open House. If you who sent it read this; thank you. We’ll put the money in good use and many future hostel guests will enjoy the outcome of your generosity.

// Deer Isle Hostel Crew

Open House!

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:37:00 -0500

The Open House came and went in a swirl of popcorn, visitors, friends and family, chilli, cookies, tools and music. The first visitor showed up right after8 am, even though the posters said 10, and the last one didn’t leave til 12 hours later. I lost my counting somewhere around the fifth guest, then the greetings got overwhelming and our yard sale friends (a long story) showed up with a couch and our neighbors with even more dessert and after that the day just flew by, but it’s fair to say that we had at least 70 guests here, some claim the number is even closer to 100. Some we knew since before, some we’d never met. Some came because they’d heard about us from others, some cause they’d read the news paper or seen the posters. And to say the least; we had our egos boosted. Everyone were so amazed and impressed, they liked the work, the building, the frame, the gardens. Some wanted to make a reservation on the spot, some couldn’t wait to tell their friends. MikeJoe kept the kitchen in line and whipped out chilli and pastries and potato salad to feed our visitors, and throughout the day, Okum Bay String Band, Phil Allen with his blues and Russ and his jazz trio filled the building with music. Thanks also to Andrew Donaldson, who co-dreamt about the hostel up until some years ago, and now came out with his hand tools to show interested guests how to cut joints the old fashion way.

Our visitors were very generous with monetary donations. It all adds up and it seemed like most pitched in with what they could spare and we are deeply grateful for every little dollar bill that turns this into the communal project we want to create, were everyone participates in line with their own ability. And we are of course just as grateful for other contributions, like the furniture, kitchen items and building materials that has been offered to us.

We got the taste for parties though, and I'm already in my head laying out the lines for the Grand Opening. It's less then a year now and after so much time, energy and strength put into this hostel project, that ought to be a party to remember...

Sunday was our big day off. We went to Stonington and ate ice cream and walked in the jazz parade and on Monday we went back to business again. No time to loose, now when August is closing in on us. We’ll be at the Farmers Market in Stonington on Fridays for all of you who wants to meet us, and Saturday and Mondays we’ll keep our house open for daytime visits. Come and see what we’re doing!

Rained out Farmers Market

Getting ready!

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:36:00 -0500

We’re hauling and logging, digging and carrying, weeding and whacking, moving and storing, pushing and pulling and slowly closing in on the Open House day on Saturday. The roof is being laid. Notice the difference? Going from will be to is being. That’s like a whole English grammar lesson right there…. The reason why it’s not in past tense yet is the heat. The blazing heat that used to be a two day affair up here on the 44^th degree, has now lingered for weeks, leaving Dennis on the ground watching the asphalt roof shingles almost melting away up there. The roof is not the place to be on days like the last weeks, when even the southern boy MikeJoe starts looking bothered.

The gardens are being weeded, and eaten from and replanted. We’ve had a beet/carrot/peas/greens feast here the whole week.

Two major things has been going on apart from the roofing and the gardening. We had a stand on the Farmers Market in Stonington last Friday. The rumour holds that’s the biggest market in the state of Maine and MikeJoe and I came loaded with flyers, cookies and photos and put our stand up among the flower ladies and bread bakers. A lot of people showed interest in the hostel, ate my cookies and looked through the photo album. And, contributed with money; we had a pitcher standing on the table for anyone with spare change and we rounded up quite a bit of monetary support.

And then the chicken house. The old chicken house that got dismantled last week now sits on the back of the hostel house, waiting to fill a new purpose as a wood shed. It has been moved before, four guys carried it across the yard many years back but we never came around to find any helpers and a vehicle seemed silly and at the end, all it took was two guys and a Swede, a bar and some long poles to slide the floor piece on and also, the feeling; we really, really wanted to get it done. And at the end of the day that’s just all it takes. To really want to get it done.

Hope to see you on Saturday!

Back to business

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:05:00 -0500

So we’re back at it, finally. After a long and much needed vacation, the hostel work began again in full speed last Monday. We’re laying the roof. Can you believe that? After weeks of hold up and months of wrestling the tar paper to keep the rain out Dennis is up there right now banging away on valley flashings and asphalt shingles. For you who has followed the roof sequences for some months now know that we seriously contemplated a slate roof. Someone out there might like the idea of a “natural” roofing material on a building like ours and wonder why in the world we could choose something like asphalt to cover a green building with. Well, the asphalt shingles came to us a long time ago, in the same mysterious ways a lot of material has landed in our laps. They were basically given to us and have been sitting around the yard for years now. The slate might come from the ground and therefore be seen as “greener”, but really, when talking about green or natural building one must look at so much more then just if the material itself is natural. To quarry slate requires a massive amount of fuel and then with the gas needed to haul it from Vermont to Maine I find it hard to talk about green or natural building anymore, when using material that inevitably contributes in a negative way to global warming. Sure, the asphalt shingles aren’t at all any better, they are in fact made out of oil, but if we have them on hand already, why create more pollution and more waste by trading one roofing material for an other?

Lesson to be learned; green might not be as green as it seems .

The chicken house might not be what it seems either, the old worn and sad looking chicken pen got dismantled this past week in order to move it and use it as a wood shed instead.

What else? We’re preparing for the big day, The Open House on the 26^th of July. We’re rounding up musicians, helpers, food and plates. There will be a great mix of sting band music and blues and Dennis will show off all his skills with the hand tools that have been used in the process of building the Hostel. The paper will be there and so will you, I hope. For all of you living on the island or nearby, we’ll also appear at the Farmers Market in Stonington the coming weeks. As usual, we’re open for daytime visits every Mon and Sat.

No frills lodging

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:13:00 -0500

Even in the busiest of Hostel building times, life won’t get better then what you make it. Last week the Hostel crew took a well deserved vacation so that we can get back to business loaded with inspiration and creativity.

Last week was also the final week for Nikki and Jeremy on their Maine-stay on route to the west coast. They spent their week off roaming the Blue Hill Peninsulaby foot and by bike, Mike Joe followed in tow, exploring all the hidden treasures til then yet unseen.

Dennis and I took the tent and the canoe and paddled our way around the marvelous archipelago that surrounds Deer Isle. Some say that this exact area is by far the best water for canoeing/kayaking along the whole North America east coast. Out there in the fog we found island that seems like no one had set foot on before, islands that suddenly appeared from the fog or seemed to rise through the sea surface and then, after us leaving, sink peacefully back down again.

We paddled all the way to Blue Hill village, followed by the flapping sound of sail boats, zigzagging between lobster buoys and watching seals bask in the sunlight perched on rocks and boulders. Each evening we gathered some dry sticks and made a fire, cooked potatoes and beans and saw the tide leave shore like a deep ocean breath only to next morning exhale and let the tide back in for us to launch our canoe Shadowfax again, striding on for new shores.

4^th of July came and went in a cascade of parade participants, fire work, ice cream and dancing. The Hostel made its first real official appearance in the local newspaper around the peninsula, an article that has already shown effective, the next day our friends from Texas showed up on their way from one garage sale to an other leaving glasses and plates for the hostel, inquiring what else we needed, in case they’d come across some.

And surely was the article very articulate and well written. Lucky me, I thought when reading it, who’s already involved in this. Otherwise I might have to move over there. How about this headline; “No frills lodging aims to teach self sustainability”. Says it all, right?

A hole in the wall

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:36:00 -0500

No, I won’t say it again, that we’ll lay the roof the coming week. Not cause we have already, but cause the hostel is taking turns and swings I can’t follow. We’re working, alright, but the flow just want reach the roof right now.

The flow last week did take us through a lot of small steps towards the opening in a year from now. The northern wall is now all done and it can even boost a door frame, hand plained out of the best wood around. After many hours of plaining, cutting, nailing and fitting the hostel could, for now at least, be regarded as a “see-through-hole-in-the-wall” joint, with the exception of the artistic top notch wood work that was put into the frame, making it better and more styling than money could by.

A grassy area in front of the garden has been turned and tilted into a flowerbed, greeting the future visitors with irises and daylilies. Speaking of visitors, the home made posters are now paying off big time with a steady flow of hostel-intrigued islanders and vacationers coming for a tour around the gardens and the building, admire the top floor view and the granite stones.

Late afternoon in the beginning of the week one of the frame raiser from last fall and good friend of ours much anticipated stepped up on the porch. As risen from nowhere MikeJoe came with his backpack and juggling cones to settle in Maine and bust out around the farm.

Saturday night was the night of the all time high Swedish holiday; Midsummer Eve. Somewhere in the back of our heads that will be the big ol’ opening date 2009. A year from now, 361 days, to be exact. Will we make it? Would you bet your bottom dollar or do you rather give it to us as a donation, giving us a little bit of that proverbial shoestring we need to tie the hostel together? If you have a dollar to spare, see the “Ways to help page” to find out more. Are you on Deer Isle or close by? Please come by for a tour! We’d love to show you around!

Welcome!

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:26:00 -0500

We are indeed building a hostel, just as the numerous posters promise. The northern wall is soon singled and done and the roof, yeah, I know I’ve said this before and wouldn’t bet my bottom dollar that I won’t say this again; we’ll lay the roof this week.

A hostel is but a project after all, and no matter our high set goals and great intentions, some would call it an indulgence. Alongside with the walls and roofs, the monster plainer and the windows runs our lives, and at the end of the day those can’t be put aside no matter the ideals we’re striving for. How can we teach people to live sanely in such a trouble world, if we’re not happy ourselves? So the promises I might have made of great progression and speed with the building, have been put aside this last week in benefit of curing us from the cold that came and went, meeting with some seldom seen relatives and paying our great neighbors “Nervous Nellis Jams and Jellis” a much too late visit.

We’re back on it, banging away on doors and flashings, tending our gardens and up dressing the web page in summer suit. The monster machine, or the Plainer, is now back in the hostel. Tamed perhaps, but still a kick in the face since our solar power won’t provide enough currency to get what we need out of it. Perhaps can we once again rely on our generous neighbors to help us with this?

So yes, we’re progressing with the hostel and we’re taking care of ourselves and those around us. Saturdays and Mondays we brush off and stay alert for the occasional drop ins, we keep the stove warm and the tea brewing, the door open and the floor swept.

Please come and visit us!

Anneli

Progress

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:50:00 -0500

We’ve set it as our goal to complete the exterior of the building this summer, and this past week the cedar shingles have started to go up on the west and northern walls. One nail at the time Nikki and Jeremy work their way along side and up, picking up a whole new skill. On the other walls we’ll put clay boards, and we’ll paint the hostel red.

Meanwhile Dennis is climbing a big hurdle, also referred to as The Plainer. This monster machine that was given to him a year ago that now has cost a broken foot, a new motor, a trip to Bangor for a spare part, several hours of labor and still refused to plain the pieces needed for the windows. The monster is now moved to Bill Turners´ shop, where it will be fixed up and dealt with, tamed perhaps, so that the building can progress further on.

An other thing this last week is the mushrooms plugs that was hammered into 20 hardwood logs. Thanks again to Nikki and Jeremy pulling it through out there in the mosquito swamp. The 1000 shiitake plugs will give an uncountable number of mushrooms, a great pleasure for all our future hostel guests.