ramblings of an aging pilgrim

Wednesday morning was sunny but cold. Some of us made it up easier than others. Garret didn’t fully wake up until Cranford began using the saw. We all had our own responsibilities this morning. Cranford continued working on covering the fiberglass with plywood. Garret and Stephen moved onto a new job: demolition. They used crow bars to take out some old walls because eventually new walls will be put up. I worked on updating the blog as a follow-up to my role yesterday as group photographer. During lunch we worked through some of the leftovers that had accumulated the past few days. On a side note, today was the third day of an on-going competition between Stephen and Garret: whose beard is the longest? To go along with the “manly” job of barn-building, the guys decided that shaving would be off-limits for the week. As with the past few days, both were convinced of their victory in the competition and a winner is yet to be declared.

After lunch, Garret and Stephen worked a little more on demolition work before they started to put together a stove made out of a metal barrel. I’m not entirely sure how it will work, but they made a good start on it yesterday. After the work day ended around 5 when we had to get cleaned up for Presanctified Liturgy. We attended the service at St. Philip’s Antiochian Orthodox Church, which is a beautiful church, particularly the amazing icons everywhere. It was my first time in an Antiochian Church and the service was a little bit different from what I’m used to, but it was a very nice experience. After the service ended, we went to the great room for a potluck dinner, where we met up with Basil and his daughters Jacquelyn and Elizabeth, who will be with us until tomorrow. Dinner was great because we were able to talk to some of the members of St. Philips as well as spend some more time talking to Father Noah. We ended up staying at the church until almost ten o’clock, when we finally decided to head back. Basil joined Garret and Stephen in the barn, and Jacquelyn and Elizabeth were upstairs in the house with me.

Tuesday morning brought a pleasant surprise: warm weather! We began working in the morning with the ending goal of finishing the insulation. 2 walls were already done, so Garret finished the foam and we completely the 3rd wall was completed not too long after. At that point we stopped for lunch. After lunch Cranford showed us around Souderton as well as told us a little about the history. After our walk we were ready to finish the insulation. The fourth and final wall was a long one and it was made difficult by large gap created by the stairs. Garret worked on one end and was able to cross over the stairs by standing on a platform balanced over the opening. Stephen and I worked on the other and we met in the middle for a triumphant stapling of the last piece of fiberglass. While this was going on Cranford, with some help from the guys, was working on covering the fiberglass with sheets of plywood.

Around 4:30 or 5 we began the cleaning process again, being that the boys’ “bedroom” was covered by fiberglass and sawdust. We cleaned up in time for a spaghetti dinner. After dinner we relaxed around the kitchen table and played cards. The evening concluded with a discussion about the Orthodox Church where we got to learn more about everyone’s religious background.

Around 10 am Monday morning 4 members of the University of Delaware Orthodox Christian Fellowship arrived to spend the week working on the barn as well as to feed the homeless on Thursday night with King’s Jubilee. The OCF members consisted of myself, Stephen, Garret and Basil (one of our supervisors for OCF). The day was cold and rainy , which served as motivation to get the barn as warm and dry as possible. The first task of the day (a job that would last until Tuesday) was to get the second level of the barn insulated. Stephen worked with the fiberglass while Garret and I went around filling in cracks with foam. This was my first experience working with the foam and all I can say about my work is that was later (luckily) covered with fiberglass. We worked on insulating for a few hours in the morning before taking a break for lunch (homemade chili, which was delicious). After lunch, it was back to the salt mines for more insulation work. This lasted until mid-afternoon when we switched to the job of clearing out enough space for the boys to sleep that night. This was finished around 5:30. Sweaty and itchy from fiberglass, we went in to clean up.

Around 6:30 Father Noah arrived to lead us in Great Compline in the living room, given that the barn has quite a few more hours of work before it is ready to hold services. Compline was a wonderful way to end the work day (although Stephen and I both acknowledged that our Byzantine chant could use some work). After Compline, Fr. Noah joined us for our dinner of lentils and rice where Garret tried to teach us the correct pronunciation of Mujadrah. We also discussed Lent and the books we were in the middle of reading for Lent. Fr. Noah then read passages to us from several books that really captured the Lenten spirit. After this discussion Fr. Noah left, followed shortly after by Basil (who would return later in the week).

I made another change in our icon production today. I am starting to print the labels for the backs of the icons on adhesive sheet paper. This means not having to spray aerosol Super 77 adhesive. This will certainly improve our indoor air quality.

In January I switched to 1/2″ Microstrand Wheatboard for the icons. It is made by the same company in Minnesota. The Dakota Burl tended to chip and then scratch the surfaces of the icons. This meant a lot of waste and wasted time. Pittsburgh Paints has a no-VOC deep base paint. The tint adds a little bit of VOC, but it all dissipates during the two hour dry time. I had received a couple of complaints about the edges not being painted, so this answers that. Benjamin Moore’s “Stays Clear” varnish is lower in VOC than the much more expensive so-called Safecoat AFM varnish. So we are using the Stays Clear for now, Until we find something better.
The Microstrand Wheatboard works very nicely. It is made of wheat straw and no-VOC soy adhesives. It is about the same cost as the birch-clad MDF with shipping included.

I say that often when explaining to volunteers about cleaning up the park after we serve on Thursday nights. It is the most important thing that I learned in Girl Scouts. In Girl Scouts we learned to “always leave a place better than how you found it.” So, when we pick up trash, we don’t just pick up the litter that may have come from what we served; and we don’t just clean up the area around the benches where we served; we try to clean up the whole park.

Now, I am trying to bring that lesson home to our icon production at “Come and See” Icons, Books & Art; and the place is the world or ecosphere. We have been using 3/4″ birch-clad MDF (medium density fibreboard) for the icons. I thought this was environmentally OK as MDF uses wood pulp that is potentially renewable, which could be acquired from sustainably farmed poplar. It is a product of Canada so it is fairly local (from a shipping point of view). There were no assurances that it was sustainably farmed. MDF contains glues that offgas loads of formaldehyde, along with other VOCs (volatile oil content), which make it toxic to work with and a source of indoor air pollution. I think a holy icon should be a blessing in every way. As much as is possible, its physical form should not deplete natural resources or pollute. Once I learned of the formaldehyde issue, I ordered 3/4″ Lyptus Plywood. This is no-VOC plywood made from responsibly harvested hardwoods in South America. It is lighter than MDF, so shipping fuel use is reduced. It does not shape nicely, however and the edges need painting. So I kept looking.

I got samples of bamboo plywood, coconut palm plywood, wheatboard (made from wheat straw) and board made from sunflower hulls. The coconut palm wood is the most interesting and beautiful. It is also the most expensive and unreliably available. It is very low VOC, and does splinter slightly when routering. The bamboo plywood, especially the carmelized or amber variety is very good looking. It is also low VOC and is pretty pricey. Bamboo is readily and quickly renewable, but most of it is still grown in China, so a good bit of that price is probably for not very green diesel to ship it across the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes, it is not very easy being green! The wheatboard is cheap, no-VOC and from Minnesota. It’s in the running. It doesn’t shape as well as the MDF, but better than the Lyptus. It would need to be painted.

I’m going with 1/2″ Dakota Burl. That is the trade name for the no-VOC, low-energy input board made from sunflower seed hulls in Minnesota. It is more expensive than the MDF, the wheatboard or the Lyptus, but is about half the price of bamboo. It looks good varnished. Several people whom I surveyed thought it looked like stone. It’s one potential drawback is that it has sort of an olivey hue that does not readily complement many of the icons. I am looking into tinting the varnish red to overcome this.

I am trying to avoid paint, as that is another source of VOCs. Also, I am hoping to offset the increased material cost with a savings on labor. Even if I use a no-VOC paint (color choices limited to lighter shades), cleaning the stray paint off of the fronts of icons involves using a rather nasty solvent (even though it is water-based and claims to be low-VOC, this is relative).

To learn more about Dakota Burl, go to:
http://www.environbiocomposites.com/products.php

When I say I was a Girl Scout, I do not mean it officially. I had two older sisters and my mother was a Troop Leader, so I was at a lot of the meetings. The other two life lessons that I carried away from the experience are:
1) How to make S’mores.
2) How to sing “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt!

Today is Bethann and my 32nd anniversary. It is truly amazing that she has stuck with me this long. Many people have suggested that she qualifies for sainthood. Our lives certainly have not gone as planned, but it has been an interesting adventure in faith, thus far.
We met at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College and I was going to be a church-planting missionary in Germany. Now, I make Orthodox Christian icons and coordinate a homeless ministry on the streets of Philadelphia. We sing in the choir at St. Philip Antiochian Orthodox Church. I have had about 15 different jobs, including Mennonite Prison Chaplain for Philadelphia and roof inspector. I can’t wait to see what my next career will be!
We have four wonderful daughters, two acceptable sons-in-law, three grandchildren and two more on the way.

Nick Papas arrived in Souderton late Sunday night. He and I worked Monday and Tuesday to install two new mural icons on the upper walls of the South transept at St. Philip Antiochian Orthodox Church. Everything went smoothly. I only bumped my head once (but firmly) on the arch while climbing up the scaffolding.
We installed icons of “Elijah Hears the Voice of God” and “The Descent of the Holy Spirit”.





These icons are available at www.comeandseeicons.com

We had so much stuff to bring to the street tonite, that I had to use the car top carrier to transport it all. I bought 10 gallons of tea and fruit drinks and made a big kettle of turkey soup. I picked up a couple of loaves of sandwiches and a bag of clothes on the way to church. At church, there were two large boxes of baked goods, a whole refrigerator full of sandwiches, three big boxes of power packs, four cases of bottled water and three bags of toiletries. I already had two bags of toiletries in the car, so I left two bags behind for next week. The Vacation Church School kids had made sandwiches from the leftovers from the last two weeks coffee hours. They also made the power packs and colored the paper sacks for them; very nice!
Then Serge showed up with six more loaves of sandwiches from the Skippack crew. I had to leave room in the Scion for Ericka and for Gregory. As we were leaving St. Philip’s parking lot, I said to Ericka, “We are going to have a lot of people down there tonite!”
She said, “What if we have hardly anyone? We’ll have to bring a bunch of stuff home.”
I said, “I’m sure we will have a lot of people. That’s why God provided so much food.”
I stopped in Upper Dublin to pick up Gregory, and he had two more gallons of iced tea.

We arrived at our spot in Philadelphia at 8pm prompt. There were about 15 people waiting and lined up for us. We unloaded, prayed and started to serve. The people kept coming. Shortly, three McGraw’s came with a rice casserole and a large cooler full of sandwiches from Holy Ascension.
We gave everything away.
I was not surprised. I have noticed through the years that God provides what is appropriate. There are nights when we do not have very much at all. Those are the nights when either there aren’t very many people or another group shows up that normally is not out on Thursday nights. Then there are the nights like tonite.

Praise God! His grace is sufficient; just like the manna in the wilderness: nothing over, nothing lacking.