An outdoor book nook: a community garden from the library

The John Trigg Ester Library called for volunteers on Planting Day, and boy, howdy, did it get them. Almost twenty people showed up to help beautify their community. Here's some photos of the resulting garden, taken by JTEL board member Molly Rettig a week or two later.

Rhubarb bed in honor of Pat Garner.

Wild rose on the roadside with the gazebo in the background and delphiniums between. Ansgar Clausen was famed for his delphiniums.

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.

Your library needs you! or, Compost Happens

Poster for the upcoming trio of work parties to build composting outhouses on the library properties.  See the post below, "A walk in the sun," for more information on the library's plans this summer. Karen Jensen, librarian and Collection Development Officer at UAF's Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, did a little research and found a couple of scholarly works of reputable provenance that may be of use to those wishing to look into this in more depth:
"Guidelines for the safe use of excreta and wastewater in agriculture and aquaculture: Measures for public health protection," (PDF) by Duncan Mara and Sandy Cairncross; and "Health Aspects of Dry Sanitation with Waste Reuse," (PDF) by Anne Peasey. Both of these reports are available at the John Trigg Ester Library, along with The Humanure Handbook. The library will use the compost that results from the outhouses for landscaping.

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. 

May lecture: cultivating biodiversity

Ester Library Lecture: Cultivating Biodiversity in a Farm Ecosystem 

Susan Willsrud, co-founder of Calypso Farm & Ecology Center, is the next speaker featured in the 2012 John Trigg Ester Library Lecture Series, on Wednesday evening, May 16, 7 pm at Hartung Hall.

Christmas lima beans, Phaeseolus lunatus, Wikimedia file, CC Share Alike. Beans are among the many examples of agricultural biodiversity.

She will talk about biodiversity from the soil up, how Calypso and like-minded farmers work on cultivating agrobiodiversity, and how it informs her farming practices.

The lectures are held monthly. Upcoming speakers this year include plant ecologist Trish Wurtz (June); sociologist Sine Anahita (July); organic farmer Mike Emers (August); seed librarian Deirdre Helfferich (September); and glaciologist Matt Nolan (October). For more information on the library, its lecture series, volunteering or donations, or events, please e-mail info@esterlibrary.org or see the website at www.esterlibrary.org.