Nature Center Stewardship Stew

Color plastering on inside of Stewardship Center

2009-06-30T12:27:00.003-04:00

We have the first layer of plaster on the benches in the pavillion. They are beginning to look inviting.

We have the color plaster applied to almost the entire inside of the Stewardship Center. Its nice to finally work with something which isn't grey.

Josh, Aaron, and Kim apllying the color plaster.

Bottle window is in!

2009-06-25T11:59:00.003-04:00

We completed the bottle window in the stewardship center!

It turns out to look really cool fom inside.

Stewardship Center: Cob benches in Front Porch and in Friend's Pavillion

2009-06-25T11:43:00.004-04:00

The cob benches have been started in the front porch area and the straw bale wall in the pavillion. The cob surfaces still need to be plastered.

Laying the stone face and filling the void with "chip"crete

Mixing the cob and covering the "chip"crete

Landscaping: Starting the stone wall at the entrance to the All People's Trail near the Stewardship Center

2009-06-25T11:30:00.005-04:00

Laying down the wall one stone at a time

Michael Geromino, Mike Kannard, Nate Beccue,Zakke Abdulah, working on stone wall

Nate Beccue and Mike Cannard working on the retaining wall

Two Great Links

2009-03-12T18:21:00.002-04:00

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com
this is a great source of information on all types of sustainable building

http://ilovecob.com/
this site is awesome for information and a great photo gallery of all kinds of cob projects

2009-03-12T17:56:00.003-04:00

Ready for round three?

It was great last summer to see the walls of the Stewardship Center completed and a door on the storage area (OK a temporary door but at least it's a lockable door. ) This spring and summer we hope to add cob and stone benches, final plastering inside and out, gutters, the bottle window, the geology wall and landscaping. Very ambitious but if we get the volunteers and in-kind donations like we have before it's going to be an exciting summer. Stay tuned for volunteer sign-up info.If you just can't wait and want to get on a list for hands-on natural construction experience send me an email. zorman@shakerlakes.org

Cob: How it's made

2008-04-22T13:35:00.008-04:00

A refresher of the basics: cob has nothing to do with corn

clay +sand +straw +water = cob

Time to Volunteer Again!

2008-04-21T12:56:00.004-04:00

Susan Clellen demonstrating cob technique

VOLUNTEER TO BUILD A COB BUILDING!

The Stewardship Center is a natural construction project using straw bale and cob. You can learn an art of homebuilding that dates back to the ancient communities of Mesopotamia and is found in contemporary buildings in Europe, Africa and the U.S. The project was started last summer and as an all volunteer crew project will continue this year and next.
We’re eager to get back to work. During the months of May and June we will be finishing up the cob walls. Once the cob walls are finished there will be a hiatus for several weeks while the cob dries thoroughly before the next steps which include a bond-beam, sealing the top of the “porch area”, electrical work, installing a door and doing the finish earth plaster on the cob. There are week-end shifts available for volunteers who want to help on the project and get some very hands-on training in natural construction. We are also looking for some week-day volunteers to assist Susan Clellen, our designer/builder, with prep work, mixing cob, carpentry, etc. For information call Jan Zorman, project manager, at 216 321-5935 x229, or email zorman@shakerlakes.org

Join the FUN, bring a FRIEND

Build and Craft the Cob Walls

Initial Target Dates: Saturdays and Sundays May 10th to July 12th 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. OR 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Volunteers Needed: Age, over 17; 4 per shift

Description: Volunteers will learn about preparing cob and will hand build Stewardship Center walls; prep and clean up projects as needed.

To sign up call Marissa Patsey at (216) 321-5935 x 225 or email patsey@shakerlakes.org

Wrapped up for the Winter But Looking Towards Spring

2008-02-18T13:29:00.003-05:00

Stewards' Stewardship Stew Saturday Nov. 3

2007-10-31T12:48:00.000-04:00

Jan Zorman and Tori Mills host a season-ending thank-you stew for anyone who volunteered on the Nancy King Smith Stewardship Center in 2007. (If you even thought about volunteering, you're invited!)

Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007, at the Nature Center, noon to 2.

Anyone interested in joining Jan, Tori and contractor Susan Clellan for great stew and good conversation is welcome. Or just stop by to see the latest. This is a low-key event to mark the end of this year's efforts: 650 hours of volunteer work from 144 volunteers. Work resumes next spring. Thanks to all who've made this a great project!

RSVP to Tori Mills, mills@shakerlakes.org, or 216 321-5935 x 234.

Stewardship in a Word

2007-09-26T14:27:00.000-04:00

mixing cob

We've recently asked artists, volunteers, board members, students and friends of all flavors to give us one word that symbolizes "stewardship" to them. Here are some of the responses:

Purple, care-taker, connection, religion, care, husbandry, long-term, tree, gratitude, resourceful, dream, helping, responsibility, nurture, healthy, personal time, misunderstood, conserving, guardian, collective ownership, sanctuary, treehouse, forest, hand, leaves, pine needles, nuts and seeds, tools, community, water.

Post your word and it may just end up in the Stewardship Center design. Oh and check it out, more progress, last weekend...................building friendships while building walls.

Malloy building cob walls

Tree Post, Straw Wall & Volunteers! Oh My....

2007-09-18T15:17:00.000-04:00

Less talk and more action! We're excited that most of our Stew postings are less words and more photos of people actually building this building! The framing, temporary roof and strawbale wall have now been completed entirely with volunteer help. Visit the homepage and click on the link to our volunteer sign up. The clay and sand arrive on Friday. Co-ed, barefoot cob mixing starts Saturday. Stomp on by.....

With resounding volunteer help last Saturday, the straw-bale wall went up in a flash.

Securing the Red Oak post in the center of the building with help from Mark Hoenigman, of Busy Bee Tree Services, and the three Muds-kateers in their little brown building hoods.

More Pictures

2007-08-29T11:24:00.001-04:00

Ring beam finished

First truss in place

What's Happening

2007-08-28T13:27:00.000-04:00

Design Charettes

We held three meetings to involve the community in contributing their ideas of what images and design elements could be represented in the Stewardship Center. These meetings produced a lot of great ideas! The last Design Charette is tonight August 28th 7pm at the Nature Center.

Framing!

We started framing on Saturday, August 25th with the help of several volunteer carpenters. On Saturday we got prepping done, posts up and put up part of the ring beam. Sunday most of the crew returned and finished putting up the ring bing and the trusses.

This week, Susan Clellen, working with her dad Jack, is putting in the purlins, the support for the rafters. Next will be the plywood sheeting for the roof, and at that point we will need an inspection by the City of Shaker for framing. After that the magnificent oak trunk that was donated by Morningstar Tree Service will be raised into place as the center post for the gathering area. Then, the radial end of the roof will be framed.

Once the entire roof is up, we can begin putting up the strawbale wall. We estimate the start date for the strawbale wall to be September 15th.

Please contact Jan Zorman at 216-321-5935 x229 for volunteer opportunities. Also, we welcome any skilled carpenters that would like to volunteer with framing!

Start on Sunday (Pictured: Susan Clellan, Jim Meyer and Kathe Meyer)

Setting Posts (Pictured: Kathe Meyer, Jeff Silcox, John Payne, Ryan McCafferty, Hap Ground and Jim Meyer)

Starting on Ring Beam (The heat was getting to Jeff at this point!)

Susan and Hap Calculating The Radius

Hay Now! Straw Bales Rock As Green Home Material

2007-07-18T13:30:00.001-04:00

Want a strawbale 101? Check out this video from Youtube, then get ready to put your knowledge into action at the Nature Center, JUST A FEW SHORT WEEKS FROM NOW!

Our Designer/Builder, Susan Clellen

2007-06-18T12:02:00.000-04:00

Susan overseeing installation of stem wall

Susan E. Clellen, B.F.A., M.F.A.

Presently I am working as a general contractor and as an advocate for natural, sustainable building systems. The exploration of what is environmentally appropriate in building designs and materials will be an ongoing task for the human race. My contribution as an artist/builder is to challenge and explore the myths of what a “natural” structure is, can be and historically ...was. The renewed interest in adobe, rammed earth, cob and straw-bale construction that started in the 70’s and 80’s proved to be quite a progressive movement. Building codes now include most of these and the internet provides an international network of technical support.

In 1991 I was totally immersed in historic restoration work in North Carolina. It was at this time that I became aware of sustainable construction. Recycled, reclaimed and salvaged building materials were required for much of my restoration work and were readily available from condemned older buildings in the rural South. Historic millwork profiles that I needed could also be replicated locally from indigenous and local lumber. Small family- owned sawmills were plentiful and a great source for rough-sawn, milled and untreated lumber.
As a preservationist I had to use all the resources around me. Essentially I was a sustainable preservationist. I also had friends and clients who were living off the land and in intentional communities. It was through these contacts that I began doing alternative construction. Rammed tires, straw-bale, cord-wood, earth- berm, passive solar, and envelope houses were among the many projects.

Over the next six years I was involved in six different straw-bale projects which included the first (experimental permit) house in North Carolina as well as the first official code approved house. I started research on alternative building materials being used all over the country. Straw-bales are great for insulation, are a recycled material, are very labor intensive and require special maintenance. Adobe is good for thermal mass, is easy to build with, requires less maintenance and must be insulated in cold climates. Pumice-crete which is the best of all worlds, has insulation and thermal properties but is only available in volcanic regions. Rastra block is an expensive product, uses recycled materials and has limited availability. Rammed tires are very labor intensive. “Super adobe” is still a work in progress. As I learned more about alternative construction, I felt the need to be in an environment where all these materials were available. I chose Taos, New Mexico.

Upon arriving in Taos I was immediately introduced to adobe and rastra block construction and a short time later pumice-crete. The mix of traditional building materials and modern alternatives is embraced and nurtured in this community. Northern New Mexico is a wealth of historic buildings. The early Spanish churches and Native American pueblo buildings are proof of the longevity of simple indigenous materials. Stone, puddled adobe and traditional adobe buildings are still standing, still occupied. Traditional materials were and are mined regionally. Traditions were handed down through families for hundreds of years. There is something to be said for the survival of those communities in the harsh high desert
environment; what was sustainable then can still be today. Over the course of six years in Taos, I designed and built three homes and helped build two others. What I learned in that time is that there are so many solutions and so few reasons to not pursue them. We need to look for local alternative building resources. We need to build things that last. We need to rethink what was traditional and how it can still be. We need to re-empower people to build and think for themselves.

Hiatus

2007-06-14T13:33:00.000-04:00

We've got the foundation and stem wall up. We're in a holding pattern until late July for the next phase. But we're still busy planning and looking for all kinds of help from the community - from input from other green builders and architects on design and materials issues to artistic input and participation. Two exciting additions to the list of contributors to the project are Mike Kannard, landscape architect with Schmidt,Copeland, Parker, Stevens and David Saja, Curator and Head of the Dept of Minerology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History who will be helping us to design a geology wall.

The current list of contributors:

Susan Clellen, Designer, General Contractor

Paul Hummer, Hummer Paving Co.
Robert Belden, Belden Brick Co.
Mike Carr, Carr Bros
Mike Bruder, Bruder Materials
Mike Kennard, Schmidt, Copeland, Parker, Stevens
Lauren Lanphear, Forest City Tree Protection Co.
David Mast, NTH Consultantants, Ltd.
Greg Alber, Alber & Rice Inc.
Steve Manka, Manka Design Studio
Mark Ciccarelli, Studio Techne Architects
Osborne Stone
Leppo Rents
David Saja, Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Gund Foundation
Nancy King Smith Fund

A reminder and an update

2007-06-01T13:22:00.000-04:00

We've had a reminder the last four days at the Nature Center why we started thinking about a Stewardship Center in the first place. The kids in the picture are from Ruffing Montessori School doing their annual service to the Nature Center by pulling invasive yellow flag iris out of the mini-marsh. The kids look forward to the opportunity to "get down and dirty" and in the process they learn about native habitats and invasive plants .

Sometimes they get very dirty.

When they are finished they get hosed down and add a layer of mud to the equipment room in the building and the service area. How wonderful it will be when they can start out by gathering at the Stewardship Center to talk about what they will be doing , get their equipment then return to the storage/mud room to clean up - using water from the rain barrels.

What is the progress on the project? We've got the foundation and the stem wall. From now through the end of June we're lining up materials for the framing and roofing. We need lumber, we need hardware, we need roofing material and we will need some skilled labor for construction. Any and all donations are appreciated. Any and all suggestions are considered.

Once the framing is up then the fun can begin. We will be hand building the straw-bale and cob walls. Hopefully this will be starting in August.

Stay tuned.

Pestival Pix

2007-06-01T10:57:00.000-04:00

Sergio Abramof's creative cuisine from the May 19 Pestival.

Pleasing pesto plate.

Roast beast sliders.

The Evil weed

Have your say about the Shaker Community Rose Garden

2007-05-24T17:36:00.000-04:00

The current volunteers who maintain the Shaker Heights Community Rose Garden are considering plans to transform the historic garden into something a bit more sustainable and a bit less resource intensive. You can help them sort it out and offer suggestions here. While you're at it, what should the Nature Center's role be, if anything?

The picture above is from the cover of Bruce Marshall's Shaker Heights (Arcadia Press). It's the familiar Rose Garden, from a different time, probably the 1920s or early 30s.

A New Vision

2007-05-23T15:56:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the generosity of Marc Ciccarelli from Studio Techne Architects we now have a computer generated image of the future Stewardship Center. This image gives us the sense of how the building will integrate with the existing pavilion. We are still putting the call out to artists who would like to participate in the artistic/educational aspects of the Center.There are some ideas for relief motifs and a design using glass bottles in the wall (you can see an example on the rendering). We're looking for artists to provide designs for these and other ideas and be able to work with students and volunteers.

Pestival postmortem

2007-05-20T07:59:00.000-04:00

Perfect pesto. Wonderful wine. Great guests. Casual conversation. Superior service from NCSL staff & volunteers. Sorry to the many guests who were so kind as to park out and walk in, at our request. We wanted to reserve "a few" spaces close in for those who needed the convenience. Guess we overdid it as evidenced by the near-empty lot at the end of the party! We'll add a low-tech mechanical counter to gauge our parking availability and do better next time. Thanks for your understanding. Comments about the Pestival? Add them here.

Garlic Mustard: if you can't beat it, eat it!

2007-05-18T15:58:00.000-04:00

NCSL's 2nd annual Garlic Mustard Pestival is May 19. Sold out. Like last year.

This month Lara Roketenetz led a volunteer battalion to harvest the invasive weed, garlic mustard. Lara is NCSL's natural resources specialist. Sergio Abramof came up with an unbelievable menu. Staff and volunteers transformed the Center into an Italian bistro. Wine will be served, which always seems to enhance attendance. The 120 guests will enjoy:

Peppered picanha beef sliders with horseradish garlic mustard pesto sauce
Grilled summer vegetable platter marinated with garlic mustard and drizzled with balsamic glaze
Grilled and chilled salmon with garlic mustard pesto, kalamata tapenade
Chilled farfale tri-color pasta with sweet peppers, garlic mustard, virgin olive oil & sea salt
Stuffed pasta shells, mascarpone, spinach and garlic mustard stuffing, fresh marinara sauce
Trevisana salad: baby greens, strawberries, pistachio, garlic mustard-balsamic vinaigrette

This event's not a money maker, just a Friend Raiser and a good way to sneak in some education to a willing group. (Lara created an award-worthy slide show that runs throughout the event.) It's all mission. Tickets were $25 and $35 for non-members.

Sergio (above, right) rocks for donating his talent and time! We look forward to doing lots of creative events partnering with the restaurateur, who runs Sergio's in University Circle and Sarava in Shaker Square.

Lara (at right) rocks for creating and spearheading the concept. Lara's Stewardship Saturdays attract anywhere from a half dozen to 40 volunteers each week. These are the folks who pull invasive weeds and plant natives, among other valuable tasks.

Does garlic mustard really taste good? I love pesto, and garlic mustard with a little olive oil, some Romano or Parmigiana cheese, roasted pine nuts and salt isn't bad at all. It's no sweet basil pesto, but it's more than palatable. Having chef Sergio helps. A lot. And consuming it with wine doesn't hurt either. Garlic mustard, true to it's name, tastes a lot like garlic. It's important to use only the first-year growth of this biennial. Around here, that means you're pulling (root and all!) in March and April. By now, there's nothing left but the second year stuff, which flowers and goes to seed and is just too bitter to enjoy. Of course you also want to pull only in areas that have not been sprayed by pesticides or herbicides.

Want to get a taste of your own? Unless you have some in the freezer or live in Alaska, you won't find any first-year growth now. Kalamazoo (Michigan) Nature Center has an excellent garlic mustard cookbook, From Pest to Pesto. Local chefs each came up with their own versions of how to use garlic mustard. The book's available online from their store. Tell them I sent you!

The good news: the battle against garlic mustard is spreading. It's even becoming popular. Last week I was in Owosso, Mich., home of Devries Nature Conservancy, to see Executive Director Ken Algozin. Ken had just led his center's first ever garlic mustard pull with dozens of volunteers and scores of garbage bags of the stuff -- roots and all -- to show for the trouble. Ken's pullathon is a typical example of what has become a spring rite in recent years throughout the Midwest, Northeast and a few Western states. (I Googled "garlic mustard pull" and came up with 574 hits, offers to get volunteers' hands dirty pulling weeds!)

In case you want to jump on the bandwagon and help stop the evil mustard's spread, here's a hint: When you pull it you have to get to it early in the year. Any one plant has up to 15,000 seeds, which if dispersed can stay viable in the seed bank up to five years (some say up to 11 years!).

And a final note: this year we had a tough time finding garlic mustard on our property. Seriously. We were amazed. Apparently, our staff and volunteers put a major dent in the spread of this nasty weed. (A few funny characters suggested planting more so we don't run out! Not a good idea.) Unfortunately, there's more than plenty to go around, and it's doing serious damage, to wildflowers and all sorts of native plants and even to deciduous trees, such as maples. It's very probable that next year and in succeeding years, literally tons of the stuff will grow again from the millions of seeds released here in the last five or more years. The settlers who in 1868 brought this medicinal, edible, erosion-controlling plant from Europe meant well but had no idea what they were unleashing on the New World.