Friday

YELLOW MEANS GO!

Knock on Hemlock

Meet Dave.



This is where Dave works, and has been working for a long time.



He, like many Vermont saw mills, is only busy in the summer, hasn't raised his prices in ten years, and worries deeply about future of his profession.

We just spent two hours chatting in Hardwick where he and his son operate Dave's Saw Mill.



Despite a tight budget he donated the two largest, single pieces of wood. They are eight inches square on the ends and sixteen feet long. If we can find no other lumber donations, it would be great to buy the rest of out material from DSM. He's been keeping it local before you were born.

Many Hands

Last week a group of teenagers from the Burlington area started their summer vacation by getting dirty. The church-organized peace collective Ripple officially started the pre-building stage of our project. We not only laid out the building's foot print with lines and stakes, but saw to one of the most important responsibilities of the project.



The Ethan Allen Homestead and much of the Intervale was once the site of a Native American community where, not surprisingly, they were farming and building. Because the land is protected by the Historic Conservation Act we needed to find a consultant who could provide evidence that the project would not be in violation of the recommendations made in the HCA.



Vermont State Archeologist Scott Dillon volunteered his time and expertise to our undertaking. He screened and cataloged two test pits - each hand dug with a square shovel twenty-centimeters deep, and concluded that we would not disturb any historically-significant previously occupied lands.




His time and sweat was a significant gift - a service which would have doubled the cost of our project had a consultant been compensated for the same analysis.



Why haven't you helped?