Painting the Hive

We call our common house the Hive.  This dates from a visioning meeting before the common house was built, when one person said that she envisioned our common house as a bee hive of activity.  Well, it is! 

We built the Hive ourselves. It is a 22-sided, energy efficient, 2800 square foot pre-fab building (like a yurt) and it was delivered in pieces on two semi trucks.  Before we had any homes here, we started building it.  We hired a foreman, and with 6-8 friends and neighbors helping out every day for 9 days, we got it dried in.  Then we took the next year and a half to finish the interior (doing most of the work ourselves). 

The Hive was due for a new paint job this year, so we decided to do that ourselves too.  Mike was our amazing planner and crew chief, and in the space of about 8 hours, with 13 community members helping, we got it repainted (including the soffits and all of the doors).  It is truly amazing what you can do with a group of friends!  It was a perfect day for painting - it threatened rain, but ended up being cool and cloudy.  We had a great time together, and in our conversations while painting we learned a lot of interesting histories (especially, for some reason, anniversary stories!).

September Workday - A Lot Happening!

We had a very busy workday on Sept first.  Is it really September already?  We had targeted this month to paint our common house (which we call the Hive), so one of the workday chores was to wash the Hive and do some touch-up caulking.  On September 16th we will have our painting day, weather permitting!

Karen and Alan caulked the soffit all the way around our 2800ft2 common house, which is round (like a yurt). Well, actually it is 22-sided, but it looks round!

Meg, Joyce and Cheryl work in the kitchen.  Every so often we have to go through drawers and cupboards to see what we want to keep or get rid or, and what we need to buy or replace.

Diana often does cleaning in the Hive.  This time it's windows!

Stuart and Jon are taking a much-needed break on the deck.

We are in the middle of restoring an old log house on the property.  We are adding porches front and back, and have begun working on restoring the logs.  Stuart and Jon are reading how to use a product specifically for washing the logs.  After that we will be sealing and chinking them.  Watch this space!

Meg and Janet weeding in the landscape circle by the parking area.  No lack of weeds!

Anne and Jeff collecting the recycling.

One of our painters working on a few of the homes in the north quad.  Although our homes are town houses (home and lot are owned by the member), Elderberry does the exterior maintenance on the homes.  A few of them were due for a little refreshing!

Michael and Margery got married at Elderberry several weeks ago.  We brought the (very heavy) picnic tables from the pond over to the central grove for guests to use.  Today was the first day we could find enough strong bodies to get them moved back!  Michael, Jon, John and Stuart were the bodies!

John and Stuart on their way to drop off the tables at the pond.  There were 3 tables to move, but the little trailer was only big enough to move one at a time.

Unloading one of the tables at the pond.  Some people swim in the pond (if they don't mind fish nibbling at their toes), but it is also just a lovely place to sit and enjoy the day or have a picnic.  Behind Jon you can just make out the gazebo and in the background is a small orchard.  This property is on Potluck Farm, our adjacent sister community.  Potluck Farm residents use the Elderberry common house, and Elderberry uses Potluck Farm trails (130+acres and several miles of trails), equipment (including tractor and bush hog), and pond (with bass and bream for fishing)