Progress at the gazebo

The first work party to clean up and reinstall the windows went very well: it didn't rain! The turnout was good, and we got a lot done.

The old, broken windows were removed:

They looked very sad in the garbage can. Connie Huffman decided to see if she could salvage a couple of them.

Eric Glos and Hans Mölders did the carpentry and removal work.

With all the rain and sun we've had this season, the shrubs and weeds had grown profusely (as have the flowers), so we did quite a bit of weeding, pruning, and stump removing. Carla Helfferich donated a whole wheelbarrow full of flowers to the cause, both perennials and annuals.

Included in the mix are: lobelia (white, lavender, magenta, blue), geraniums (red and pink), a purple trailing petunia, two yellow nasturtiums, a Maltese Cross, a Scarlett, a six-pack of marigolds donated by Anne's Greenhouse, dianthus (red, magenta, white, pink-flecked), two columbines, and a brilliant white Asiatic lily. We also transplanted several columbines and delphiniums from Ansgar's cabin (escapees from the flower beds up there).

Mike Musick created a new access path to the gazebo around the southern end of the large flower bed, closer to the path to the park and more directly opposite the path from the post office. (He referred to it as the "Ester Post Office Loop Trail.") The large rocks from it will become a fire ring at some point in the future.

Ritchie Musick clearing the leaf litter between the gazebo and the outhouse. Weeds and leaf mulch were piled into the compost bins, almost filling one up. All that's needed now is horse manure!

July at the library

Fourth of July was HOT! We gave away loads of t-shirts and membership forms (not to mention pink lemonade) and talked with lots of people about the plans for the new library, the Clausen Cabin, and the gardens.

This month, our work party schedule includes repairing and re-installing the stained glass windows at the Ida Lane Clausen Gazebo on July 19 & 20th, 11 am to 5 pm. You recall these five lovely windows, created by Denise Akert-Mohr:

 The windows were destroyed, shot out by a .22, in winter or spring 2012-13. A sixth window, showing a robin, was left untouched. We promptly covered it with plexiglass to help protect it (at least from flying rocks or BB guns). Denise was crushed, and the community was, justifiably, outraged.

However, we rallied, and the library set aside monies through the Community Revenue Sharing fund program to recreate the broken windows. Denise provided original drawings to Expressions in Glass, where Debbie Matthews matched the glass and designs as closely as possible from the photos we took, doing a beautiful job.

At the annual meeting in 2013, the JTEL announced a fund drive to pay for Lexan to cover the new windows. The drive earned $1,020 by the middle of December.

So now it's time to put our plan in action, come together, and make beautiful construction music at the gazebo!

Come on down on Saturday & Sunday, July 19th & 20th, any time between 11 am and 5 pm. We'll feed the volunteers, fix up the gazebo, tidy up the gardens, and make our public art available to the public again.

And, as a bonus, Denise made another window! (We'll install it at the work party.)

See you there!

Roadside construction!

Folks coming to pick up their mail at the Ester Post Office have noticed the flurry of recent construction and gardening activity across the street at the Ida Lane gazebo this last month. Many have come ambling across the street to enquire about the bustle or compliment the volunteers on the flowers and garden, and sometimes even to join in. The volunteers sweating away in the sun and rain appreciate it—it makes a difference to know that what we are doing is making a difference and is noticed. If you can help out, so much the better.

Next week we will be working to complete the outhouse near the gazebo in time for the Fourth of July; no guarantees, but we're doing what we can. One item we will need before the outhouse can be used is about 12 full bags of sawdust, or a large pickup bed full.

Sun and rain at the Ida Lane Clausen gazebo

Wow! Starting on Friday, June 1, and stretching out through Sunday, June 3, close to twenty volunteers helped transform the area around the gazebo to a little flower-filled park. College Peat delivered garden soil during the middle of the day on Friday, and Hans Moelders and a crew of teenagers (Oliver & Stanley Rogers, Chantz Turner, and Taylor) moved it from the edge of the road back behind the ridge of old clay and out of the ditch. It was HOT. Clutch Lounsbury delivered a load of well-composted horse manure, too, so everything was ready for Saturday.

Planting Day, June 2, started out cloudy, with a big noisy downpour during the night giving way to sun and blue sky by the time the work party got started. Joe Grill did some serious shoveling, and Mike Musick, Jimmy, and Hans entertained the rest of the volunteers with lots of grunts and sound effects from lifting Old Mining Stuff and big rocks and hauling them via the wheelbarrow to the new rhubarb/flower beds being created. Board members Greta Burkart, Nancy Burnham, Jan Omstede, Molly Rettig (and her beau Josh), and Trey Simmons fitted rocks, planted rhubarb, chives, delphiniums, raspberries, strawberries, daisies, nasturtiums, portulaca, and lobelia. Jennifer Jolis, Barbara Stone, Greta & Trey, Nancy, Jan, and Hans and I donated plants. Hanging baskets were planted, too, and several pieces of old mining stuff incorporated into the walls of the garden beds.

The grounds got a good stump-clearing and raking, too. Rebekah Gormish, Shannan Turner and her children Callista and Skyler, and myself worked on leaf-raking, wall-building, manure-shoveling, planting, watering, and brush-clearing. It was a good solid work party, and we got a lot done. THANK YOU to everyone who donated food and drink, plants, supplies, and especially those who came and helped!

On Sunday (today), June 3, Hans and Jimmy had decided to meet and start work on the concrete forms for the first outhouse. I decided to come along, and did a little tidying while they found a spot for the outhouse and built the form for the floor. Later, Margaret, Oliver, and Stanley Rogers and I went to Anne's Greenhouse and got some johnny-jump-ups and pansies, which I added to the garden beds.

The gazebo grounds are looking wonderful. Jimmy will continue working on them; wave as you go by, or feel free to stop and help!

Delphiniums and compost

In just a few days, it will be Planting Day in Ester, and time for the gardening work party at the Ida Lane Gazebo! Plants are starting to show up in buckets and pots and trays, placed under the drip line to take advantage of any water available there right now: rhubarb, delphiniums (some wild, from the library property up the road, and some from Ester residents' gardens), columbines, strawberries, chives, and daisies. Lorna Lounsbury will be donating some composted horse manure to the cause, and a walk through the woods on Monday identified some prime rocks nearby that can be used.

The flower beds to be constructed include: a rhubarb bed in honor of Pat Garner, infamous for his rhubarb wine and a friend to local kids; another rhubarb bed for Rollie Hartung, local miner and after whom the community hall is named; and a delphinium bed for Ansgar Clausen, miner, engineer, and husband of Ida Lane. Pat and Ansgar, who were both gardeners of note, also took many photographs of Ester during the forties and fifties, preserving for future generations the character of the village and the huge machinery that moved and shaped its geography.

The Planting Day work party is the first work party in the Growing Ester's Biodiversity summer roll-your-sleeves-up series of events at the Ida Lane Clausen Gazebo. More to come!

A walk in the sun

On Saturday afternoon, May 19, a few members of the Construction Committee and the board president went for a stroll on the library property to check out possible sites for the library caretaker's cabin and outhouse, and for an outhouse near the Ida Lane Clausen Gazebo. With stakes and flagging tape, the crew located the property lines and appropriate spots for various library outbuildings.

Several small projects are planned for this summer in preparation for next year's major construction:

• Cabin siting and design: the library will have a part-time caretaker/librarian to look after it in exchange for reduced rent on a cozy cabin in a prime location in the heart of the village of Ester. The site has been chosen, but will need to be prepared and the design determined. Local materials will be an important component of the cabin and its outhouse.
• Composting outhouses: the composting toilet was a concept popularized and defended by Joseph Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook. He was definitely not the originator of the idea, however (Henry Moule of England, for example, patented the dry earth closet in 1873). Variations on the theme have existed for millennia. The advantage of a composting outhouse is that it actually breaks down the nitrogen/phosphorus component (feces and urine) and the carbon component (sawdust, toilet paper, forest duff, leaf litter, or other source) into true compost (NOT night soil) which may then be used for landscaping purposes and gardening. As Jenkins goes to great lengths to explain, the composted material from these outhouses will be perfectly sanitary after three years of alternately composting and freezing, depending on the season. And they will save the library money on topsoil, and pumping and hauling waste. Here's an example of an ADA accessible outhouse, but a search online will reveal many more. Books on the topic include:
• The Composting Toilet System Book: A Practical Guide to Choosing, Planning and Maintaining Composting Toilet Systems, an Alternative to Sewer and Septic Systems, revised edition, by David del Porto and Carol Steinfeld
• Holy Sh*t: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, by Gene Logsdon (JTEL collection)
• The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure, 3rd edition, by Joseph Jenkins (JTEL collection)
• Gazebo repairs and finish work: the Ida Lane gazebo, while mostly complete, still needs gutters and a downspout with water collection, an ADA accessible ramp, window repair and shields (plus the last two stained glass windows put in place), the Ida's Clip Joint sign put up, and the dedication plaque (already designed) created and installed. The gazebo is across from the Ester Post Office, at 501 Village Road (see Google map). Some of this work will happen on Planting Day, June 2.
• Planting Day gardening & work party: this work party is scheduled for Saturday, June 2, from 11 am to 4 pm (library members will be arriving probably starting around 10 am, so if earlier is better for you, please don't hesitate to come a little early!). This landscaping event will happen in conjunction with gazebo repairs. (Parking is available at the Golden Eagle Saloon up the street.) See also our Facebook event invitation. We are creating a large rhubarb bed in honor of Pat Garner, famed in the village for his rhubarb wine, and a delphinium bed in honor of Ansgar Clausen. Other flower beds and pots will be planted in memory of Ester's denizens and, of course, to beautify the village. If you would like to help with this gardening party, we can use:
• food and drink for the volunteers
• flowers and other bedding plants (strawberries, rhubarb, columbine, etc.)
• horse manure or compost
• bedding soil
• gardening tools (don't forget to put your name on them!)
• Signage and lighting installation: the library and gazebo need lighting and signs so it's clear to library members where the library is! Thomas Hart of Iron Amenities will be creating a roadsign for the library; motion detection lights will be installed in the library and on the porch. 

Pies, people, and music

The music festival was fabulous, and made about $500-$600 more than last year (final count over the next couple of days may increase the tally of day's take, which was in the realm of $3,150). We again had 17 pies entered in the contest, and TWO of the three judges' favorites went for $100 each! The funds raised will got to our site preparation, happening in September. We'll keep you posted on the details.

The information table is still up at the gazebo, so if you are passing by and would like to find out a bit more about the library, please stop in and rest awhile.

Photos from the event are on Facebook and a few will be posted here soon. Thank you to everyone who helped out, and to all who came to enjoy the great music and the yummy pies.

Dedication party at the gazebo

The dedication of the library gazebo took place on a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon. Here's a few photos of the event, by Monique Musick of PhotoSynthesis Alaska.

Deirdre Helfferich started off the event and introduced Bobby Lounsbury, a good friend of Ida and Ansgar Clausen.

Bobby read a biography of Ida Lane and told a few anecdotes about her.

Margaret Rogers and Sarie Brainerd looking at Ida's cookbook, which was passed around for the guests to peruse.

The stained glass windows in the gazebo were created by Denise Akert-Mohr. Hans Mölders did most of the construction on the gazebo, but many people helped with the grounds, the pad, and the final finish work.

After people spoke, it was time for food! A recording of Ida playing honky tonk at the Malemute made for some lively background music.

Joe Geiss of Harmony Logworks, left, made two beautiful benches for the gazebo. He, his wife Amy Cameron, right, Hans Mölders, and Deirdre Helfferich installed them at the work party.

Ida's Clip Joint sign and dedication on the bulletin board.

Dedication for the Ida Lane Clausen Gazebo

Wow. An out-of-this-world work party!

The two-day work party (with work done off and on during the week and a half before) was a resounding success! And then there was the party on Sunday!

Many, many thanks to all the volunteers who helped us get our beautiful gazebo ready for the dedication, with special thanks to Hans Mölders and Joe Geiss. The main tasks before the volunteers were: finishing the ceiling, preparing and putting paneling/siding on the window panels both inside and out, building and installing benches, building and installing the bulletin board, sanding and varnishing the gazebo posts and interior paneling, setting the pavers in the path, cleaning up the trash and rotted lumber and logs, and clearing out the shrubbery and invasive weeds that had grown up between the gazebo and the post office. The plan also included creating a trail through the woods up to the library site, but that was shelved for later. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm (actually perhaps a bit too warm) and slightly breezy.

A tremendous amount of work was done this weekend, and the people involved deserve recognition:

Hans Mölders and Deirdre Helfferich were the work party organizers; Deirdre glued hundreds of corks onto the bulletin board; Hans and Don Cameron worked on the gazebo ceiling panels (which Kathy Birch varnished); Nancy Burnham and Maggie Billington tackled invasive weeds and shrubbery; Nancy made a few runs to the store for needed supplies; Eric Glos, Margaret & Stanley Rogers, Amy Cameron, and Maggie were responsible for a large part of the cleanup (Eric did his cleanup of the grounds on Wednesday); Mel Birch worked on cutting cedar siding and preparing it for placement around the windows and Don cut the window arches with a jigsaw and put up siding for two of the window panels; Kathy, Nancy, and Deirdre sanded the cedar shiplap for the inside of the window panels; Joe Geiss made two long and extremely comfortable log benches and Hans, Deirdre, Amy, and Joe installed them (that involved digging four holes in difficult ground!); Sarie Brainerd varnished the posts on one bench and was dogsbody; Jill Cameron and Charlie Gallagher dug holes along the path from the road to the gazebo and installed the pavers (with help from Deirdre, Joe, & Hans); Kathy, Sarie, and Nancy sanded the gazebo posts to smooth them out for the last coat of varnish; Hans and Deirdre installed the bulletin board. Amy also took photos during the work party (soon to be posted).

Nancy Therrell, Nancy Burnham & Don Cameron, Deirdre, and Margaret Rogers brought food and drink for the volunteers, which was definitely appreciated. Unfortunately, the wasps in the vicinity also liked the food, and the volunteers had to compete with them for the hoagie. During the weekend a couple of people got stung, but, considering the amount of activity, the wasps were actually pretty calm.

Everybody knocked off at about 3:30 on Sunday, sitting around for a while recovering from the frenzy of work and cleanup, and got to admire their handiwork. The gazebo is not completely done: the siding and paneling, varnishing, and three ceiling panels need be finished. The gazebo also still needs two more stained glass windows. However, it was ready for the party on Sunday and made a lovely and intimate setting for the people who came to that. More on the gazebo dedication in the next posts.

Eleanor Loback Clausen: gazebo dedication for Ida

Gazebo work party & dedication

The Ester library gazebo, across from the Ester Post Office, has been under construction since 2007. After a big work party that summer to pour the foundation, the gazebo was erected and roofed and stained glass windows installed. This summer, we will have the final work parties to complete the gazebo and make it ready for use at the fifth annual Li-Berry Music Festival. The gazebo has excellent acoustics and makes a good site for outdoor acoustic jams on warm days. It is also used as the staging site for Readers on the Run.

We'll be creating the bulletin board, a giant 4x8 foot cork board, during the weeks before these work parties, to give the glue plenty of time to dry. Anyone who wants to help put in corks, please come by the gazebo from the 21st-25th (we'll do one side, then give it a few days to dry and flip it over on the 26th to do the next side). There will be glue and, of course, plenty of corks. Please use the wooden ones only for this bulletin board.

(Materials and tasks lists will be amended on this post over the next couple of days as the librarians get more information.)

July 31, Saturday, noon
(come earlier if you like)

Tasks: building benches from the aspen logs, completing the ceiling of the gazebo, painting, installing flashing and the corkboard

Materials & Tools Needed: screws & screw guns or screw drivers, stepladders (6'), sandpaper, paint brushes (paint for gazebo supplied), varnish for benches, cordless drills, chain saw, beverages & snacks to feed the volunteers

August 1, Sunday, noon to 5 pm
(again, come earlier if you like; there will be somebody there from about 10 am on)

Tasks: removal of center post, finishing up Saturday's tasks, cleanup

Materials & Tools Needed: hacksaw with blade suitable for cutting metal, garbage bags

Gazebo dedication & party
Sunday afternoon, 5 pm

After the cleanup, the gazebo will be dedicated to the memory of Ida Lane Clausen. A short dedication event will be held, followed by a party and music! Please come to this event even if you can't make it to the work parties, and help us dedicate our library gazebo in honor of a talented, intelligent, and beautiful musician, cook, actress, singer, gardener, painter, writer, and dog groomer who for many years graced Ester with her lively presence. Bring your musical instruments and potluck dishes!