June is Red Hammocks
Regular readers of this blog know that for some number of months of the year, i rename the month names for things that i think are important. Sometimes i make predictions like Trump Indicted or Mubarak Falls where i am forecasting something – often something i am hoping will happen.
This slightly odd tradition, which i encourage , was developed in the time i was in the Czech Republic which uses month names which are inspired by the season or month. Turns out the English translation of the Czech month name for June is Red. Turns out this month we are making lots of red hammocks. So i am calling this June Red Hammocks.
50 Red Hammocks going to Governors Island, NY
You are perhaps saying right now, “Wait a minute, Pax, didn’t you say the hammocks business burned down in the March Fire and that you were closing up shop?”
Almost. The fire has dealt an almost certainly fatal blow to the hammocks business (though we might be rebuilding a wood shop infrastructure, which could again make hammock chairs and wooden seed rack cases). What is important to remember is we had all the ingredients (rope, beds, spreader bars, rings) which survived the fire, and while it is not our former full product line, there are both rope and fabric hammocks to be had, about 600 of them. If you want to order a hammock go to our retail website
We are still able to serve some of our wholesale hammocks customers like the city park on Governors Island, NYC. Every other year they order 30 to 65 red hammocks. This year when they heard about the fire they asked us where they could purchase 30 red hammocks instead but as fortune has it, red is one of two rope colors we currently have 1,000 or more pounds of. They upped their order to 50 (to ship before the end of the month) and the hammock shop is awash in them currently. (See the photo above of a red hammock hanging in an inspection position.)
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If you are interested in coming to the build camp at Twin Oaks over the June 22 and 23 weekend, or frankly any time after that if you are game to camp, please write to buildcamp@twinoaks.org We will feed and direct folk in all manner of clean up, demo, salvage and light construction. More info on the build camp. We will also have guests from East Wind and Dancing Rabbit coming at that time to help with the recovery efforts.
One of the glories of community is working together, continually building and, in this case, literally rebuilding, community together. Write to us and tell us a bit about yourself. And you can chill in a hammock!
Fire Update #1
Twin Oaks Fire Update #1:
March 31, 2024 – With some updates from April 12 posting. Background on the fire
Damage Report:
Survived/Safe:
- All people, pets and livestock are safe.
- Oz, which is the spray varnishing building, survived the blaze and protected dozens of hanging chair frames and hundreds of hammock stretchers. (The original Oz burned down in 2008 after a lightning strike and was replaced by a concrete and steel building, which survived this fire.)
- No residential buildings were seriously damaged (despite the fireline being only feet from Tupelo)
- All other buildings & most critical infrastructure such as ZK, the tofu hut, aurora, the STP, the majority of TO’s vehicle fleet, and most of the other barns, garages, and outbuildings
- The Forest School site
- Grain bin site
Damaged or Destroyed:
- Emerald City warehouse, sawmill, woodworking shops and wood storage burned nearly to the ground. This includes the forklift and its shed
- Two kilns were destroyed, but the hoop house beside them largely survived
- Most of the conference site structures were destroyed, including showers, outhouses, plus pavilion, and outdoor kitchen with all equipment in them
- Gathering & Conference gear & other resources stored at the conf site, including tarps, pop ups, and other coverings for workshop spaces
- The retreat cabin
Smolder Patrol: There were hot spots on the property for several days after the fire, especially inside the burn frame of the warehouse. In the days after the fire, people kept checking the area around the warehouse and the neighboring woods to ensure nothing restarted. There was significant rain over the weekend and now we are pretty confident that all the small fires have been extinguished.
Planner Action/Quota: The planners have been pretty generous with relaxing quota obligations after the fire, before the fire quota was 42 hours a week . Quota was dropped immediately after the fire and for the entire labor week after the fire (March 22-28) to zero hours, giving members time to reorient and recover from the shock of this loss. This coming Friday’s labor week (March 29) will also have a reduced quota of 21 hours. As of April 8 Quota is at 36 hours per week.
Investigation: It appears that the fire spread from a burn pile on our neighbor’s property. The local fire department and the Virginia Department of Forestry are conducting an investigation to determine the cause and circumstances of the fire. At the same time, we are exploring our options for recouping damages.
Cleanup: In order to give ourselves the greatest chance of being compensated for those losses, we must give ample time for professionals to assess the burn site. This means we can not really start cleaning, let alone rebuilding, until this process is allowed to play out, which could take a couple of months. In anticipation of later clean up efforts, we are currently doing “pre-clean” work. This has been emptying and cleaning the recycling barn in preparation for accepting ongoing shipments. It is unclear if any professional cleaning support will be needed, for example if there are things that burned in the fire that need protective gear and/or skills to safely touch & move.
Rebuilding: The planners have made an exception to start rebuilding the Seeds hoop house because the growing season is about to start. The frame is in good shape and needs to be covered with plastic so this season’s seeds can sprout. We are still determining our needs around tools & equipment for rebuilding- if you have items you are interested in giving away and/or loaning to the rebuilding efforts please get in touch with keenan@twinoaks.org or phone 541-505-0803 to discuss possibilities and needs.
Onsite cleanup & repair work: We have already started a number of pre-cleaning tasks and have reached out to our neighboring communities to secure housing for folks who want to visit and pitch in. From early May on, we are looking for volunteers who can work a week or more. If you are interested in volunteering write to Keenan@twinoaks.org or call 541-505-0803
The Future of the Hammocks Business: The business by far hardest hit by the fire was hammocks and chairs. Especially the wood working equipment lost makes it unlikely we can restart the business. The general managers are recommending to the community that we close the business, but we will have a community wide process before making this decision. Here is the hammocks general management paper to the community on Phasing Out the Hammocks Business. There are still supplies for hundreds of hammocks and dozens of chairs in inventory, including hammock beds and yarn for rope that had been ordered and made for us but not yet shipped.
The return of Chairs? McCune disagreed with hammocks management and is conducting an analysis of whether we can return to the hanging chair business. McCune is working with Ex-member Philip on a proposal for rebuilding this business, which may be aided by the machines we will replace to make wooden seed racks. It is also possible that the new proposed chair business will be less vertically integrated, specifically purchasing rope and finished wood. Rather than spinning our own yarn and running our own sawmills and kilns as we did before the fire.
Reconnecting: As of this writing, Internet services have been restored by a borrowed Starlink system, which is about 1/4 our previous capacity. Mo Karnage of Cuckoo Compound has lent us their transceiver until our old service provider can replace our service which they estimate will take another month. At this posting (April 12) full internet connectivity has been restored.
Moving Forward: In 2008 after we lost the Pier 1 hammocks contract we did a “new business” initiative. That process resulted in the community agreeing to fund, develop and market Pam’s Book, wholesale organic seeds working with Acorn’s SESE and seeds growing, These are all on-going income areas today. We agreed on 3/27 that with the likely loss of the hammocks business we will restart this type of process of looking for ways to increase income. Currently, all the conference site events are planning on hosting their events, though possibly adapting the nature or location is still being discussed. Site clean up and modifications are likely necessary.
Fundraising: We have raised over $82K in donations for fire reconstruction (as of April 12). This money will go into the community’s general fund and be spent/allocated using TO’s normal spending policies. There is some discomfort in the community about asking for external support, but this fire comes on the back of a serious significant expenditure on mold remediation. While we generally do not want to be asking for support externally, this is an extraordinary situation.
Recovery Wish List: Here is our wish list. This list is broken into smaller (which you might find around your house) and larger items needed for rebuilding. Ideally, we are looking to get high functioning used items. Ideally, for these heavier items we are looking for donors who are relatively nearby. If you have something to offer but are unsure if it’s useful or needed, please write us at gifts@twinoaks.org.
Feel free to share this update. www.tinyurl.com/Fire24Update1
Thanks so much to all the folks who have already shown their support.
your passport to complaining 