 |
| Friends & Founders of ReTreeU |
After spending a few days at home in Connecticut celebrating a belated Mothers day with the fam, it was off to ReTreeUS in Durham, ME to visit Richard and Moriah. ReTreeUS is their budding non-profit, started only about a year ago, that aims to educate their community on the possibility of self-sufficiency and sustainability through permaculture. Their mission statement (from retreeus.org):
Our mission is to promote an environmentally sustainable, socially just food system by providing education, practical resources, and mentorship.
We plant educational orchards in schools, where we lead hands-on programming for students, teachers, families and community members. We inspire a new generation of children to take care of the earth, and we mentor families who want to grow and cook their own nutritious produce at home. We foster healthy ecosystems and make healthy, organic food more accessible to everyone.
They've had quite a successful year, and have planted four orchards in schools this spring and are working on a nursery, orchard, and vegetable garden on their home base, a delightful and fertile 11 acres near the coast of Maine. My goal for the week was to build some benches out of waste-wood from shipping pallets that I had harvested from the construction site of the two new dorms at Haverford (my college). Although I did get quite distracted in the process, I did end up making three benches to complement the one I had made last week. The process went something like this:
1. Repurpose Wood from Pallets
2. Cut wood & construction frames, legs and tops for easy assembly
3. Sand the living hell out of the benches; pallet wood is mostly pine that has been ravaged by pine beetles, a real problem in the United States and sat untreated in nasty weather for sometime. I really wanted a nice finish on them...
And here is the finished product! I did make that sign for ReTreeUs and attached it to the bench. I used a router to do the job. All the benches came out pretty well!
Behind the benches, you can see the newly-planted orchard (containing plum, peach, and apple trees) and the nursery (with post for a future deer fence) on the far left.
In addition to the benches, I constructed a few signs for ReTreeUS. The one I am most proud of is above, and will be placed on the ReTreeUS 'Fruit Shack' which will sell fruit from the orchard on a sliding scale! Social Justice for realz! Lastly, I made two bridges to span the wetlands that sit between Richard and Moriah's pleasant colonial home and the orchard. Used the most knotted and poorest quality pallet wood and logs from the property to construct them!
Twas a great couple of days and I really enjoyed my time with Richard and Moriah, as well as Chamomile, their puppy! Looking forward to going back soon and building some more swag!
*Check out their blog post about the productive week here:ReTreeUS: Growing a Non-Profit: Recipe for Success:
