A little powder for the Kids

Big Sky . . . a Big Mistake

As I sit in this small efficiency condo about 400 ft.² in floor area, with heat and electricity included, I am happy being free of thinking daily about crazy fuel costs. Emily and I are cozy and snug while looking through the window at the Big Sky Mountain. But haunting my good feelings is my mind wondering in the background…. Why …Who… and How has this place become one of the biggest examples of environmental, economic, and cultural ethics decay, disrespect, and destruction I have witnessed?

Emily and I came to Big Sky not to ski the mountain proper but to Nordic ski the small trails, glades, riverbed areas in the area, and to enjoy the yearly West Yellowstone Nordic ski Festival. We had no idea we were renting a condo

‘on the mountain’. When we arrived in a snowstorm we realized that we were to drive up a 7-mile road resembling a mountain pass to reach our condo. This ‘ski area access road’ is the place of death of travelers marked by white crosses and ‘lil’ johnny’s snowboard and flower arrangement.

The car road access arrangement is just the ‘foot-road’ to further ridiculousness in its access. Once at the mountain base a striking view of the Big Sky Mountain reveals that it has no summit! Man has removed the mountain’s very symbolic apex, a ‘symbolic of those places that we humans have to be strong to reach’. All this is to accommodate a tram tower to allow skiers of any fitness level to attain its summit.

The tram is the ultimate symbol of Big Sky and it’s associated accommodations and accessories found here. With capital to burn in the form of dynamite this majestic mountain has had no chance. Nor it’s valley, nor it’s glade, nor it’s natural passes.

The development of this tram is supposed to represent a triumph of man’s technological ability to access anything, anywhere anytime. With such a success all else in the periphery lay in a similar path ….the co modification and quelling of even the symbolic mountain, the supposed prize of the natural world.

When I think of a mountain and the ascending of it I envision a long arduous endeavor with the summit only attained after a process of strenuous climbing and perseverance. When I think of mountain living I think of small cabins fitting where they can be reached not by car but by foot. These envisioned cabins have a wisp of smoke coming from their thin stovepipes exemplifying simple heating system. Skis line the perimeter of the decks. The cabins interior is cozy, but not crammed, still allowing views of the grand natural place in which they are built. I think of simple accommodations that bring one back to the essence of primitive life, exemplified by a hearth for warmth, a place for our friendships, and re-acquaintance with our family or loved ones to flourish.

The Big Sky resort and peripheral housing and lodging represent the destruction and abuse of my idealistic, naive, and maybe old-fashioned principles. I believe the direction that this resort has headed is wrong. Big Sky development exemplifies the deterioration of our cultures ethics and aspirations, and exemplifies greed, wanton destruction of natural places, and shortsightedness. Big sky has driven its cruel stake through the very heart of the Mountain that it reveres for its challenges. The corporate and safety culture have reduced this mountain into a Disney land like co-modified experience. Every Banker, realtor, engineer, architect, contractor/builder has lowered their eyes to the wreckage they assist to prosper.

Everyone bows to the moneyman to get a piece of the pie. In the end what do they have to show for it? A decapitated Mountain accessible to any doughy family with cash. These people who prosper from the destruction of symbolic environments (the mountains, rivers, high natural passes) are seemingly exempt from making appropriate decisions. Even the financial decisions they have made are corrupt, delusional, and lack foresight.

Yesterday Emily and I woke to clear skies. We went for a walk along a small creek heading up the mountain; it was beautiful as long as we ignored the power line running overhead up to Moonlight Basin ski area. We felt freedom in the hills as long as we didn’t approach the massive lodges to the right and left that corner the creek and its populace of small animals. The Elk have long considered this place a lost cause, much like we consider those concrete parking areas around passé malls in and around almost every town in America lost causes.

We tried to avoid a massive 10,000 ft.² uninhabited single family “cabin”, we didn’t want to trespass. We wandered through some beautiful forests then popped up onto yet another traversing access road, accessing higher ‘cabins’. At one point we looked out and yes the eyes found the horizon, a ridgeline of imposing peaks. However, the foreground was unforgivable. Every which way a traversing, blasted in access road, to a modern stylized ‘cabin’ mansion cleaved recklessly into the hillside. In places the clefts are so big that massive condo complexes abound teetering on the edge. The pure acreage that the parking lots and buildings occupy makes it seem as if we were looking down on any suburban place in America. Not a single soul moved. These buildings are unoccupied ‘the ski season’ is not yet.

This whole ecological disaster with its associated sewage problems, energy infrastructure, and run-off issues has been speculatively imposed on this hill, (I can’t call it a mountain, its just too beat up) someone’s idea of a good investment. We climb higher hoping to escape the horrible truths of mans floundering existence and imposed wreckage.

We pass a sign that says that we are not allowed higher. This is Big Sky property. So here it be that even the mountain is owned as a real-estate endeavor. We break the law. We move up a slope where snowmaking ‘turbines’ have been blowing ‘man made’ snow. Even the neve’ is fake. The ski resort must guarantee that winter comes….even if mother nature is slow to crank up her ‘snow gun’. There are many condos and upscale lodges that need to be filled for ski season…snow must be a certainty.

As we all know our economy is in a bad place. Could it be that these places that were built during times of excess will never be occupied? And what becomes of behemoths if never sold? This whole system is contingent on cheap oil, electricity, and affluence. Not one of the homes even attempts to be sustainable in scale, energy saving, or material modesty. The mountains snowmaking is a prime example of energy just blown into the sky.

A lone father and son with helmets and goggles come down the icy slope bouncing hard on the ice paved way. They drove their car to this point 8500 ft. to enjoy ‘early winter”.

I wonder if this economy further fails who will be able to afford the $78/day plus accommodations, and food? Not many from what Emily and I see today, on opening day so few skiers are here, how can this place stay alive? As with most corporations there must be guarantees that some many trails, lifts, and acreage are open even if there are not the skiers to occupy them.

As we walk down the yet to open, rock covered ski trail we feel like we should not be there, Emily reminded me that we are trespassing. We wonder if we will get in trouble with a ski patrol. I tell Emily, if asked why we are there to just say “nanu, nanu” and raise the hand split fingered like Mork, Mindys friend.

We walk down under the lift which transports helmeted skiers with very wide skis upwards. Some look down at us wondering, I suppose, why we are walking there? Why are they not taking the lift? One guy looks like actually he is upset that we are on ‘their’ mountain….only made by god for the skiers.

Whatever has become of our world? Whatever became of us? Mechanized, safety clad humans hiding behind helmets, seemingly sexless, without self identity or critical thinking. We have become robots marching/skiing/driving towards a cliff that no amount of blasting will make safe. When, if ever, will we realize that the legacy we have are leaving the next generations is a mess, natural wonders of the world desecrated, scars that wont go away anytime too soon. Could we put behind our ego and greed to ensure these special natural features remain unaltered, and maybe difficult to get to without hard work? Or to run the current path, one leading to ghost towns of condos, uninhabited, or crumbling paved ways leading to phantom mansions. Our future generations have one thing to learn from Big Sky, what a disaster, what short sightedness, what greedy minded individuals prospered here.

The west (Part 1)

The West….

a place I have tried to avoid thinking about since leaving it. For to think about the West, states like Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah would just make my time back East harder, so one just tries to forget those lost loves..and Move on.

But once Emily’s suggestion hinted that maybe just going back there would be a good thing… that maybe staying in Maine ... and ‘Caahhmden’, Maine at that…burning oil in an in-efficient in-law apartment all 6 months long might just not be the thing for us. So she hatched a plan…the Nordic ski festival at West Yellowstone the destination, and got on Craig’s list and found us a condo in Big Sky Montana, just a mere 50 miles down the road to save money (more on this later).

So we packed up, found a cheap storage unit just a convenient couple of blocks away, packed and stowed our domestic lives, for the promises of the open road, and Westward to where snows are reliable!

Well sounds easy as pie right? We had to do so many things to get this ‘Dream’ underway. The jobs that had to be finished were many-fold indeed. We had to get a car that was not a Pig! We had to sell the Pig (Subaru Forester)! Then the customary walk down car sales lane is no picnic… it is long and arduous. But we came out the end with a pretty nice car (VW Jetta wagon), although Phil, my Brother, needed to point out the snow tires that would be needed out on the mountain passes. But Emily kept her head down and she even, in the end, sold her Pig car for a nice Penny!

I got my jobs done too…I had to keep my head down right to the day we left, for we couldn’t leave until they were done…design, permits, find the right metal worker to assist in the project, get materials, do insane on the water metal fabrication, and in the end get paid my old friend Mike Morrill….and brother Jon, longtime high school friend and conspirator.

Then we said goodbye to everyone, the nieces, the geeses, the parents, the siblings, the aunts, and friends…saying all these byes is hard for it gets one to wonder how they will deal when these people are all thousands of miles in the past.

Our final hurrahs were with Jon and Kate… always a party. I mean, these two paarrty! And Jon’s Brother Mike was coming in. Steven too~! So, Emily and I left my folks Place in Liberty, Maine… and I must mention it was a pleasure staying there (even if the turkeys were roosting on the railing that we toiled so hard on and crapped on the deck, clawed around on the roof). But the architecture…! Just kidding… it was nice to finally ‘test drive’ the product that I designed and built for my folks.

The drive to Portland gave the car a shake down…initially it was packed to the gills, but we pruned ‘her’ down, stowed some more in my sister, Danielle’s attic. The second-hand Thule ski box that we put on the roof was covered with stickers of places only a ski playboy could go. No problem, “We have the whole trip across this miserable country to peel them off,” I said to Emily. But back to the blowout that occurred on our way out of Portland… Let’s put it this way: Emily, Jon’s doctor neighbor Sarah, and Kate wore black electrician’s tape over their nipples that night! And the dirty dancing…. I did not approve of it, much like an old man would not have. So the few days’ laughs were had and many more beers downed… the timing to leave was good everyone went back to work… except Emily and I… we drove away… away to our new lives for at least a winter.

We woke early and got on the road by 7 am… not easy to do in November… it was Nov. 11 and the wide-open road was waiting. All of our toll money in a row, we drove off. By the time we got to Connecticut, we had made a mistake. Missed an exit. ”Oh, well” Emily said. “We will catch the next road and reconnect.” But not so fast, we hit a slow in the road…. And time goes by sitting in traffic…my goal for that day was to miss the NY turnpike and go by the way of the good ole Pennsylvania turnpike- cheap and dangerous….plagued with mini deer I told Emily. And we did get to see a whole bunch of them. I told Emily, wait ‘till she sees an Elk!

We almost made it out of Pennsylvania that night, but we decided to call it quits and pulled into a lack luster Motel 8. “And not necessarily cheap either,” Emily confided to me. So, we watched a few crappy reality shows and called it a day. Oh, I forgot to mention….It was a dry town… No beer for Greeno!

We were up and a frost was on the car. The car next to us had two smashed out windows. We were thankful ours were not. We drove off checking our fuel gauge and mileage, for we wanted to verify that we were not driving another Pig. So far we’re averaging 28-29 mpg.

Well, the tolls of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois suck! We paid like 30 bucks to go through those miserable states. And all they had to show for it were a couple of Starbucks coffee joints housed in what I told Emily was the equivalent of a first year architect’s portfolio. We toiled on the road that day and drove through some of the most frightening places: suburban sprawl, electrical lines, choked highways, trash clinging to wasteland pedestrians’ legs. We achieved for a day’s labor: Iowa… the land of the truly lost. We pulled off the road when every trucker and his brother blew by in the early night hours….

The EconoLodge sign loomed and we suckered into it. I sat in the car thinking that I needed a beer, but all I had was smoke-ables… so I indulged. Emily came out. “We are room 215.”

We walk into the hall and its already a scene out of a bad horror movie. Our room is to the right… on entry an awful smell of pesticide hits my nose… I look for a window to open… its not operable, I say to Em “ look for bugs in the corner of the room” she looks at me oddly… In the meantime I see a brown thing on the floor, I examine….”looks like a husk”. “Lets look at the bed”… I say… On approaching the bed I see what appears to be a huge bedbug on the center of the mealy looking brown bedspread…. On closer examination…”Emily look at this huge bedbug” she runs over and the bug feels her horror and on queue runs across the bed and jump off into the dark….

We quickly gathered our bags before the word was out in the bed bug community and practically jogged out of there down the hall and Emily was getting her money back.

Now I had to drive again… and where? So we see this sign over the interstate pass… ‘Newton Inn’ …. “ well hopefully there are no bed bugs in the Inn” I think we both said at the same time. I am now in my ‘Nth hour’ and just want to be done with driving. “Emily… Where do we go? … you’re my co-pilot tell me where…”

Emily takes control, “take a left”. We arrive at the weird entry of the Newton Inn… a blue canvas awning … into what looked like a swimming pool? But alas to the left a high portico marking the true Hotel entry…or so we thought…Emily finds her way through the maze of entry doors and is met by a very tired drywaller at day hotel custodian at night Black man. I am sorry I am from Maine… its customary to mention when men are black.

Again I am waiting in the car…. She comes out… and triumphantly announces room 154 … so we go in under the glowing blue awning, down a hall wide like on entering a football stadium… covered with exterior grade blue carpet…? Walking into the stadium we find the smell of Chlorine and a giant swimming pool roped off. We go into the room… close the door… immediately inspect the bed… rip the covers off, flip the mattress up and no bugs! We celebrate…oh and forgot to mention I did have a beer this night but up to this moment had not been able to open it….I hesitate to open it… the room is damp from the nearby pool so I turn on a air exchange unit… instantly the air has the smell of burnt wiring…acrid… and I open the door … the smoke alarm goes off… Emily comes back in… I try some lights and the TV and all wiring is poached…. Blown breaker… The hotel manager comes down in his last hour stand…smells the wiring and sends us to another room.

The second room in the Newton Inn … more isolated… away from the noisy room, but what about bugs? We go through the whole bed, mattress thing again… No bugs… I conclude that it’s the chlorine in the pool that keeps the bed bugs away… and most bugs really I suppose. I finally get to drink my beer.. A Fat Tire… ahhhh! A flavor I have not had since last out west… beautiful… my first beer since we left Portland too. We watch a few reality shows and retire in a haze.

The night was long in the inner catacombs of the Newton inn… no windows saw day break, the only window looked dumbly out onto the pool which had crappy lighting…we came out of our catacomb actually early for we had no idea of daybreak… The continental breakfast was great! If you like captain crunch, and toasties… luckily we made our own coffee in our room…. Not risking that one. I had seconds on no one item, Emily didn’t like her breakfast so much. On leaving we got to reflect once again on the overall Parti of this hotel convention design… bring the kids too, they can make friends in the pool that will hopefully drown them.

We marked time against another Newton Inn customer wearily leaving a just dawn… his eyes blood shot and blurry…The Newton Inn a place for

Iowa sucks…. Once on the road… Iowa sucks… the drivers hated our Maine state license plate… they knew we were on the other side…the McCain side and they were soar about the recent lost to Obama. We knew we were in their territory! So I drove fast, and Emily hung on to the convenient handle over the passenger door. At some point I noticed that I was having a deja-vu experience …I had been through Iowa before…The middle of this sad country is frightful, it seems as if its become one power grid like tinsel on a tree strewn all about. The road scape is bleak, apocalyptic in its industrial usage of land. The farms that once embodied this region have sold out to the big box stores. As far as the eye can see corporate chains, fast food courts, and industrial parks own the landscape. No one smiles, and if they do I wonder what they are on. At this point I yearn to see a semi load of shitting cattle over the industrialness of this land. Our dreams were answered when we saw the windmill of yore all over the hills …Brand new shining windmill…huge in scale…going up all over the hills….Emily and I feel that now we are getting somewhere…. As the land opened up to the west….heading into the never ending Nebraska…

Nebraska is boring, but in a calming way, I-80 starts to thin out, and commuters…where are they commuting? We see a sign that tells us that we are half way through the state, only another 200 miles till Good old Colorado.

We stay in touch with Billy Bentley who is going to receive us on the other side of Colorado, over the passes of I-70. We realize that we will be hitting Denver just as darkness fully sets in. As we approach Denver its maddeningly crazy, the lanes come in and everyone is driving straight out….tumble weeds roll as the winds off the Front range of the Rockies begin to roar. As the grade steepens up the first foothill, which are quit steep snow begins to fly….I could see it all coming, that we would have to pay our dues getting over Loveland pass, and then Vail Pass, the semi trucks were trying to beat the weather before it got worse… and we started to wonder about the Jetta Wagon with all season radials. It was a white knuckled ride, and through the Eisenhower tunnel we raced with the big trucks western folk love to drive. When we popped out of the tunnel the snow was blinding, and greasy and building up quick… this descent was crazy, and I was pushed from behind by every asshole and his brother….I would like to say that it got better, but Vail pass proved to be a white out, and even more snow….the climax was when a semi loaded with cattle flew by on a steep snow slickened downhill, he must have been going 85 mph! We just stayed as far right as we dared. By the time we got to Beaver Creek, the snow had died and we had a relatively easy time through the Glenwood canyon, winding this way and that with the huge talus slopes above towering in a menacing way. I remembered Glenwood well enough and before we knew it we sat with Billy, Pattie, and their 2.5 year old kid Charlie, and the two dogs. Whew!

Design on hold, westward bound

When life gives you time off from career, work, professional pursuits....take it and enjoy. Lately with the collapse of the economy there has been little coming my way as to new home design/construction, or anything resembling stable work ....so instead of worring and fretting Emily and I are going to West Yellowstone, Montana to do some early season nordic skiing. Maybe by spring things will warm-up.
It has been slow, slow, slow, I have waited for someone to call me about designing or building a sustainable, energy efficient, small home.... the time is good to get out of the old oil consumptive farm house and into a new home outfit with passive energy strategies, but no one can sell there old farm house so...we are in a catch 22 situation.
Rocky mountains here we come!

Acadia 100 mile ride....a great group

In between design time... Emily and I got a ride in, did the Acadia National park Century ride, it was a hoot, got to see a whole bunch of folks I have not seen in a while. Many folks I used to ride with in Portland. The day was spectacular, glistening sun on the ocean, and lakes, lots of happy cyclists parading around the park, taking the place over. I rode with some new folks from Belfast cycling team that had fast and large legs... hung on and enjoyed some punishment... rode with some folks from back bay cycle who are always fun to ride with.
The only down was not enough hydration, legs cramped a bit, but did make the climb up Cadillac with reasonable work. I was happy to see Emily on the way up as I sailed down the auto road. All in all we had a blast... if you get a chance do this non entry fee ride....many people having a grand day.

Presidential Mountain madness

Just wanted to tell about our (Emily and I) bike ride around the Presidential mountains this last Tuesday. It was a plan conceived of after we read about it last year; a 100+ miler that rides over some of the big notches in Maine and NH. We decided last week to head to Portland to see some friends, then to proceed on to Fryeburg, Maine to start out. Well, the weather report made it look in our advantage to wait Monday out....hot and humid... but with a cold front coming to bring this wonderful fall like air we have today.
On Monday night we didn't bother to check the weather report because all indications throughout the week had shown that Tuesday would be very sunny, plus we had already postponed a day. Tuesday....we wake at 6 am.....dark and cloudy...hum... well lets go... the weather will clear...
After driving towards what looked like doomsday to the N west...the rain started...hum?
We kept eating our snacks, drinking fluids, and preparing mentally for what was looking like a wet start. Arriving in Fryeburg at 9 am, the rain and clouds were very present. We drove to our starting point just across the Saco River and parked. The clouds and rain were socked in good. I said to Emily that we should just commit and get wet for a bit...it would clear soon and we would dry out. Well, Emily was not so sure....so we pumped up the tires and filled our jersey pockets with goo, and snack...and headed off into the rain. Emily luckily had brought a long sleeve jersey and I had packed a wind breaker....which seemed unnecessary when we departed Camden just a few days before.
We rode in the rain North towards Evans notch.... it was cold and windy, too. I kept thinking how it seemed kind of fun in a masochistic sort of way....knowing we would dry out quickly when the sun showed. Well, an hour into it Emily gave me the look from beneath her soggy helmet "this sucks". I said, "oh, its just blowing over the last of it...sun's coming". Well, no sooner had I said this than torrential down pouring rain, squalling winds. We kept a riding....
30 min. more and I pull over for a natural break...Emily rides up , she looks cold, slightly blue-lipped, and miserable...complaining that she can't eat her snacks because her hands are too cold to open them. I think, "oh great, this ride is already going hypothermic." I get frustrated and shoot back "you have to try harder to get the food into you or you'll never make it." Emily's look was of an angry, cornered Fischer cat. I then gave her the two choices...1. we could ride back which would mean a hour and a half of more rain going back in the direction that the storm was heading ...or 2. keep heading North...knowing clear skies are ahead, Canadian high filling in, envisioning a sunny afternoon riding about Mount Washington. She looked like she wanted to bite my head off...and rode off ahead towards Evans notch.
There is a kind of beauty to the rain-soaked world when you are suffering in it. The clouds look so low and spooky. The rain squalls so sheet like on the river like pavement. The river beside us showed how wet it has been this summer: over-flowing the banks like in the spring...everything too green for August. At a point on the ride I recognized a spot where last year we had seen deer in the woods. Emily ahead pointed to the woods... I looked in and spotted a soggy deer looking like how I felt. What ever dry clothes I had were no longer. The cycling shorts felt like wet diapers, and everyone knows how wet shoes feel. We passed a soggy hiking group of youngsters...I asked them as we whistled by, "who's more miserable?" one boy looked up with a smile, the rest looked beat, and the guide laughed.
We rode on and the day ahead began to look very long indeed... I was even feeling a bit chilled....I ate a cliff bar choosing the food as diversion strategy. We rode by a farmer's garage, all farm tractors in a muddy yard out front...rotting potato crops in the foreground... the farmer and helper look out of the garage in dismay and see us riding by soaked to the bone....I think somehow it made them feel just a little bit more fortunate to at least not be us.
The last stretch before Evans notch has some down hills before the big climb. They were not the fun down hills today as a rooster tail of spray off my rear wheel gave me a very cold enema. But, hey, the clouds did seem to be breaking up with a patch of blue sky intermingling with swirling dark clouds, and blowing rain. The fields and woods had a rainy greenness to them. We head up the notch...heart rate rising and sweat of the brow...climbing felt good as warmth came back. At the outlook at the top I pulled over...time to get out of these wet socks and wring out. Emily pulled up, looking a bit better..." will that help?" she asked. "Well not for awhile, the wind and descent should dry them out eventually" I said and then made up some bullshit story about having had to dry socks on the handlebars on some other past misery ride...hoping to ease the tension. So, Emily wrung out her socks ...ate a cliff bar and we rode off, down the notch...the wind blew into us we gripped our bars with slimy cold hands in slimy cold gloves, and descended, down, down, down, no real sun, just clouds and wind.
We popped out on rt 2, crossed the Androscoggin river, and had a drying windy ride toward Gorham. The North road is really very nice cycling, slightly rolling, no real traffic, farms, camps, and views of the Presidentials to the south west, of course through the clouds. As we rode on, I felt the socks on the handlebars...still wet.
The stretch coming into Gorham the wind blew hard into us, the logging trucks whistled by and we both looked forward to getting off the bikes for a needed break. Cumby's- what a wonderful place, out of the wind and in the patches of sun that fell, the air pump and payphone against the building, a few dumpsters around....a place to take off soggy shoes, shoe liners, and the pavement felt warm on the bare feet. Emily went in to do a diaper change....she was day two of "that time of the month" to add to the already many difficulties of the day. We fueled up, got some gatorade, and put on the almost dry socks and shoes....
"So what do you want to do, Emily? Stay with the plan and head north for the Jefferson Notch road into the wind and a dreaded huge hill right out of Gorham. Or should we run with a tail wind and blow back over Pinkham notch...and fail our Century ride plan?" Just after I said that the flag before us snapped even harder in the wind. Emily said lets keep going as planed. Are you sure....? Yes.....Now there is a girl who likes a punishment.
Heading out of Gorham the traffic was thick, tourists and hikers drying out from the night and early morning soaking were everywhere. It felt cold, fall was already in the air, the break was good, yet, I needed to warm up, the legs felt the cold and the 45 miles behind us. Well, we got what we wanted: a warm up...that hill out of Gorham on rt 2 goes on and on....with a head wind...the next 10 miles into a wind, and the clouds didn't seem to want to go away. I could see Jefferson notch ahead, the clouds whisking over. I slowed to let Emily get a draft in. We got to the frontage road that the dirt Jefferson notch road starts from. It was nice to be on a country road again. Mile 52
The Jefferson notch road is a piece of work. It climbs for 7 miles all dirt, up and up. Well constructed with a beautiful crown to it, the road was in great shape, not too lose, thanks to the recent rains. I stopped to see how Emily was faring...she seemed more up now ...her "stump leg" was gone, or the wooden feeling of cold feet in a cold shoe. I said "We are doing it ...we are getting there." Emily looked almost happy....all was good...until I banked the next corner...yikes...the dirt road went straight up for as far as you could see, some early red leaves falling in between, and around the next corner more of the same, and the next. I was doing well, my heart rate was getting gradually higher every turn, my bike had just enough of a low 1st gear that I could make the grades without falling over. The road had just the right grade to allow the "roadie" passage. I stopped at the base of one steep grade to let Emily catch up...or truth be told, to avoid a heart attack. Emily rode up to me. "Have you had to get off yet?" I asked. "No," she said ...her bike has a third chain ring or "granny gear"...lucky her. My bike had a chain that is a bit stretched, so if I let the rear wheel spin out just a bit, the gearing skipped. So, I had to keep in the "sweet spot" over the handlebars to be able to pull with the arms....but not too far forward...hard on the back. The last few switch backs are text book, I thanked my history of mountain biking. And finally ahead I could see sky, the summit, and the sun threw a few rays through the hardwood reddened leaves...Ahh
Emily came into view, she actually smiled....Yeay! and we did the cliche Borat "high five". We were now on the way to heading home, the worst behind...or so we thought. Once over the notch heading south down into the Washington mountain bowl, where the cog railway starts, the weather got cold and wintry....the clouds allowed no sunlight through. Ahead as the road dropped steeply off and I could see the other side of the valley or Crawford notch in the distance through the swirling clouds. I began racing down the mountain dirt road. Instantly the brake levers were cold and almost sticking to the fingertips... I got down on the drops to get better leverage on the brakes. I pulled over....I wanted to give Emily this advice. When Emily came around the corner she had a disgruntled look and pulled up along side and said ..."I have stump foot again." I got a bit pissy again and retorted in a smeerish sneerish snide way "I have been waiting 5 minutes....what's taking you so long? Do you want to hang around here and freeze....Let's get on with it. Hanging around isn't going to make it any better." She gave me that look like "what a dink". I felt bad. I rode off. I said to myself as descending...she is doing really well, be easier on her, she is on her way to completing her first 100 mile ride. Keep things "up," Greeno. And then I started seeing how incredible this Notch is, the road runs parallel to a river for a long time, waterfalls, and pools, it would be so nice on a hot day.
So, the notch road pops out and crosses the cog railway access road and becomes the Clinton road, a tarmac road, bumpy, but consistent, which works its way to Crawford notch. As a matter of fact, it ends at the top of Crawford notch....no further climbing needed to begin the long decent back down towards Attitash, Jackson, and eventually N. Conway. We could see the valley ahead in complete sun...as we zoomed down the Crawford notch I hit sick speeds, and locked out the arms for the cross winds ...I had fear that Emily might forget this technique ...like a worried boyfriend....I looked back and she was whipping right along behind me. I hit the big chain ring and the wind now blowing down the notch at 25 to 35 mph gave a massive boost to the tiring legs. I was thankful to be descending with this tail wind rather than ascending into it as I had done on a ride in the past with a Jeffery Boulet character, where it took us 2 hours to ride 25 miles up this windy notch.
The oak trees caressed by afternoon light, blowing about in the wind as a foreground to the valley was so beautiful, I was so happy. As we approached the turn for Bear notch ...our original plan, I almost entertained the thought of climbing this notch. Then, I quickly remembered that my chain skip would make it suck, and also reminded myself that once I turned out of this tail wind, up the grade, I would have some suffering legs. Best to take mother nature's gift of this awesome tailwind and blow back home to the car and get off this aching ass. I pulled over at the turn off, and Emily agreed quickly. She had a natural break behind a semi rig that advertised a west coast chopper or something mundane....I broke out a goo and prepped myself for the long haul back...must have still had over 20 miles to go.
Well, the rest of the ride was a lot of traffic, luckily a good shoulder, and running out of liquids. Stopped at the scenic vista coming into N. Conway...took a natural break, got some water...I remembered it feeling like a long way from here back to Fryeburg....and it didn't feel any shorter this day. The drivers were lunatics, always being selfish, and with no courtesy of understanding of the bicyclists' dilemmas: pot holes, broken glass, getting cut off, etc...
Once on the east road back to Fryeburg, that feeling of being about done... the euphoria, the certain feeling of victory started to set in giving the legs that boost. Rounding the last corner on the home stretch, the corn in the western sunlight was very romantic... Emily and I pulled up to the car, dismounted and hugged and kissed... took an after-ride picture and reminisced about our ride......103 miles- not all fun, but certainly the adventure we had needed for a while. At this point, the goals and objectives were: buckets of spaghetti and meatballs, beer, and a bed at Bondo's in Portland.

A summer away from the blog

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog entry, I have been not on the computer much....out building and doing in the world. I spent the better part of the spring and summer finishing details on my folks home. Put together some of the exterior details that I couldn't get to in the dead of winter. I took apart the garage that was on site and recycled much of it in form of a new garage minus the normativeness of the old. So I will work to get some updates online on my website as soon as I can.

Prefab=globalization....not good

Everywhere I look, every single design website/magazine , all of them are pushing prefabricated homes.....why? Why do we continue to outsource everything...even our own homes. Why do we insist on factory made even when we know what it all means...china.china.china...increased transportation of objects, the devaluation and demise of local craftsman,local material use, and and the associated lack of appropriateness to site, region, local weather and spirit.
What is wrong with local, homemade, in our back yard? Is it that local equals boring? It doesn't have to be.
In this time prefabrication of whole homes not just the windows is the wrong direction for our planet. We need to put the reins on. The more we give up on our local resource base, talent, and know-how the more we admit that we are lost, that we can't even create the world we want to live in with our own hands, with help from our friends family and community. Its these close ties that need to be nurtured; not devalued.
When we chose to order from catalogues we are admitting that our local resources are inadequate or are exhausted. The more often we give up on providing for ourselves the more needy we become.

SoPo and codes galore

A rendering of proposed dwelling in S.Portland, Maine

Working in South Portland Maine on a project for a client I am again confronted with the codification of the residential sector. The modernist zoning sublime, a system like a dinosaur of sorts already passe'. 250 unweldy pages of codes stacked like cord wood all telling the land owner what to he can do with his chunk of land.

and here it comes, globalized architecture

Maine falls victim to believing that globalization of building codes is a good thing. The following link shows a general acceptance that simplifying the building codes of Maine's varying regions to a monolithic 'one code fits all' system .
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=177484&ac=PHnws

Building codes are all good right?

Portland Maine, a town trying to be a city, has recently adopted the International Residential Code. The IRC is a rather globalist style code system that breaks down the country into different zones, it is really quite generalized when you consider it tries to handle the whole country. It is an engineers sublime in a sense, everything is turned into a number, a force, a zone. It is a system that insures the dumbing down of architecture, the loss of regional common sense and it creates a need for revision and amendment according to local town environments and needs. However, once again Maine is sheepishly following the times and allowing this sort of modernist coded agenda eclipse local knowledge and practicality.
In the long run this IRC system is flawed much like the globalized NAFTA economy.
Who is going to implement it? Who is going to check up on the contractors and insure that they are complying....Portland has so few residential building code enforcement officials, they are going to be hard pressed to make it to many of the job sites. Would it not be better to spend the time and money on programs that assist builders to making correct decisions rather than hiring more "police officers".

The modern code system creates such redundancies that it is very difficult to be creative or to be able to afford much more than a codified box. Between modernization of electrical systems, insulation, heating systems, radon venting, fire suppression systems etc. the home owner, designer and builder is left with a spent budget. In other words there is no budget for creative and inspirational design. This explains the modern-day boringness found in most homes. In order for your remodeled or new home to meet modern codes for insulative values it must be able to re-enter the earths atmosphere without burning up. A remodeled home goes from a R value of 5 to R-48 in roof systems. Of course in this day of a looming energy crises we need to tighten up the building but to what point is it overly tightened?

Those praising the IRC are architects, builders, and code enforcement personnel who argue that it simplifies the system. Those professionals argue that by adopting one code system in all towns it reduces the examination of the varieties of code systems that are in place i.e. BOCA, IBC, IRC, and a long list of other building code acronyms. This is a myth....there will always need to be amendment by each town and there will be the latest year code book, IRC 2004, IRC 2008, etc., etc.. As an example lets look at Radon gas....In the IRC Maine is lumped into a high risk radon zone....this means all new construction has to include radon venting systems below grade. If you know anything about radon gas it precipitates from ledge rock, it rises up through the ground and can become trapped under your basement concrete slab, then seep in and cause the occupants cancer ....that is if you build over ledge....what if you build where there is no ledge immediately below? According to the IRC your builder will have to install radon gas venting systems because it dumbs down critical thinking. Even more what if your designer is smart and keeps everyone above ground, or there is no basement dwelling, which is really the best sense, the building still has to have this radon venting....these redundancies are expensive, and unnecessary.

My point is yes there need to be codes as guidelines but lets not dumb down the issue. There is no replacement for local knowledge. Codes are meant to be guidelines not the end all decision. The IRC is just another code, it will not solve all of our building dilemmas ....thoughtful designers, and builders with local understanding will...there is no replacement.

Contractor licensing in Maine = more useless laws

A word or two today about a somewhat mundane topic yet a necessary one, contractor licensing.
Recently Jon Hinck a local politician in my town of Portland has chosen to create a bill that was reported in The West End News
"...would create the Maine Home Contractor Licensing Board, which would oversee the licensing and collection of fees. Under the legislation, any contractors and people who perform residential framing, roofing, siding, insulating, window work or chimney work would require licenses. It would also require the adoption of a model building code.
The bill would also help make sure that contractors who take money in advance can be found and their customers reimbursed when a job is not completed in a workmanlike and reasonably skilled manner."
Sounds good right? Sounds like these thieving darn contractors will finally be controlled right? Well lets just take a look into what State Licensing will do to the contractor. First it will require more money to do contracting work, more money up front to pay for the license, then the bonding, then the contractor liability insurance, then the lawyer fees, on top of the contractors piles of bills for tools, permits, and transportation. Licensing narrows the players down to who has the money, the ability to deal with regulation and bureaucracy. Why is it that politicians think that more laws are going to insure our safety and security? James Fenn a student at Brigham Young University attempted in his thesis dissertation to examine the subject and found that: visit his thesis at http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd708.pdf
"Contractor licensing is a form of occupational regulation whose purpose it is to protect the consumer, the contractor and the industry. This is accomplished by minimum guidelines and standards for obtaining a license. It is still difficult, however, to measure the overall effect of licensing on the construction industry because of intangible benefits such as increased confidence and improved reputation. Yet, in order to have a regulatory system that benefits all of society, states must be able to measure how well licensing is serving the intended purpose for licensing."

As a builder with a masters degree in Architecture I have built homes in states with and without contractor licensing. My opinion is it is more bureaucracy and without affect. From my experience going through the licensing to be a contractor in the state of Montana it amounts to money...paperwork... and more money to the builder ...(Oh but they do give you a sticker and a badge to show you are a good scout). I did not see a more diligent building code enforcement, but what I did see were more builders with licensing as a credential, and its not like these builders were doing a whole lot differently except charging more for their services.
Perhaps one of the more abstract and less discussed topics concerning licensure is how it filters those who do the work in a negative way. Much like the licensing to become an "Architect" it exasperates many of those with the more creative talents, many of those types and I am one of them are sick and tired of "the System" of false credentials. What I have found is the types that put up with these bureaucratic hurdles are the types that are good at, studying and doing what they are told to do. They are usually not the creative types. This is why so much of the "designed?" and built world today lacks imagination. The designer and builder become rule followers, they get good at complying. This might be fine if it is routine maintenance work but what if the project involves creative thinking, or original thought?
Please keep in mind a license doesn't make someone more compliant, it just makes them have to charge more. I wouldn't support the creation of this law when there is not proof that it will even work. With building code enforcement offices already maxed out and undermanned it seems unlikely they will be able to assist in enforcing the new contractor license rules. "those unreliable contractors" I for one am tired of hearing it....if you want a decent builder....research the field of building, know what you are looking for, it is like going to an auto repairman, show that you know the difference between a spark plug and a radiator hose....thats empowerment! Good old fashion knowledge.

Some ski time for me

A day off from working before the storm soaks our snow

Green Buildings?

...... Architects are
idea people.
We have concepts and
make designs that embody or implement them. We present them as clearly and openly as possible, and can only hope that others will find them useful to their ends, and build them. LEBBEUS WOODS

Green buildings ...do they exist or are we playing with words and trends again? It seems since William McDonough & Michael Braungart book Cradle to Cradle hit the book shelves there has been a wide range of mis-information about "green building". I am not saying that McDonoughs book was off the track....actually it is dead on, what I am saying is that it started a trend of marketing the idea of "green building". Today one can look on the web and find a bizillion sites claiming to be green builders, architects, designers....it is a catchword now for expensive construction.
To give an example of the dilemas that Green construction faces one only need to look as far as their own bathroom. The bathroom is a perfect example of a green place that only gets greener and greener without non green products. Mold and mildew are the enemies builders face as a consequences of climate on buildings. If you need varification that all mold is not always our friend see
http://www.inspect-ny.com/mold/moldsymptoms.htm
or: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis

Legionnaires' disease Philadelphia, 1976

The first recognized outbreak occurred on July 27, 1976 at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where members of the American Legion, a United States military veterans association, had gathered for the American Bicentennial. Within two days of the event’s start, veterans began falling ill with a then-unidentified pneumonia. Numbers differ, but perhaps as many as 221 people were given medical treatment and 34 deaths occurred. At the time, the U.S. was debating the risk of a possible swine fluvaccinationCenters for Disease Control and Prevention mounted an unprecedented investigation and by September, the focus had shifted from outside causes, such as a disease carrier, to the hotel environment itself. In January 1977, the Legionellosis bacterium was finally identified and isolated, and found to be breeding in the cooling tower of the hotel’s air conditioning system, which then spread it through the entire building. This finding prompted new regulations worldwide for climate control systems.

In the climate of East Coastal Maine where I live there is a serious war we wage with Mold because of moisture associated with condensation. Much like the bathroom example our homes and buildings are similar, they fill with moisture. The hidden moisture that causes so many mold and mildew problems occurs in the walls and roof systems of our buildings. This is because of the temperature difference that occurs between the outside and the inside of the home. The outside in the winter is cold, the inside is warm, and vice versa in the summer. This temperature difference causes condensation much like the steam filling the bathroom during a shower. So how does a builder handle the difference in temperature....insulation.... the more the better in order to keep the condensation zone towards the outside of the building. The best way I have found to stop mold growth in the wall cavity is to use a blown closed cell foam , is this an example of a green product?
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/ask/poly a link to find out about PolyUrethane foams like Corbond pretty much gives you the idea...its not too green....but it really works in keeping the moisture out because it is closed cell foam meaning like a plastic bag it keeps moisture out. The added flame retardents are at issue as well and cause horribly caustic vapors when burned. So there you have it try to stop mold and you are up against a fence. How to do this without toxic materials has been an issue that the building world has struggled with.

I am not suggesting that it is impossible to build without toxins, what I am suggesting is that to build with longevity and human health in mind becomes very difficult. The toxins that off-gas during the curing or burning of foams and urethane sealants, VS mold, rot, mildew.....
As a builder and designer I struggle with these issues....and I can tell you in order to make a non toxic home we might have to go back to deer skin teepees. Longevity is to defy rot....to defy rot is to be toxic or expensive; a paradox of sorts.
I strive to make healthy buildings, I strive to make them affordable and lasting. I strive to not be a hypocrite and a liar.....

Sustainable design?

Just some musing this morning about sustainability....there are some fads out there right now in the design world, one is called prefabrication. The other is affordable design and build. Dwell magazine is filled with these two notions. I have thought about these notions over the years of building and designing of homes. I would like to just note some of my findings and thoughts.
The building and architectural professions have often viewed prefabrication as a way to bring innovative design to any location and in theory with economy. Most notably Ikea has exploited this notion and with huge results world wide.

"The IKEA Concept is based on offering a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. Rather than selling expensive home furnishings that only a few can buy, the IKEA Concept makes it possible to serve the many by providing low-priced products that contribute to helping more people live a better life at home.

The IKEA Concept guides the way IKEA products are designed, manufactured, transported, sold and assembled. All of these factors contribute to transforming the IKEA Concept into a reality." -IKEA Catalogue

Ikea has instilled this idea of design for the masses ( a modernist notion); however, one must look further than the glossy images in Ikea's catalogs. One must cut through the veneer of an Ikea cabinet to begin to understand the full implication of their core material and I am not just talking about toxic, cheap, glue based particle board. The idea of affordable prefabrication is based on industrial method or factory work. I must propose a few questions as to factory work to get to the heart of the issue.
What are the implications of factory work in the modern day? What does factory work do to local economies, and do the products made in these factories fulfill sustainable standard. Lets keep with Ikea as an example to answer these questions. Ikea is able to create an affordable cabinet through using factory mass produced production method. The product is constructed not where we live but elsewhere. We never meet those who assemble these cabinets or see how they live. We never see what they use for materials, what the composite of the cabinet is made of or where any of materials come from. It probably just as well because it is not pretty process, nor are these products really happily made. China ,as we know, is primarily where most mass produced products come from. If the product does not directly come from China some part of it does like say the door hinges or the knobs or the glue. By fabricating cabinets elsewhere, the product may initially be cheaper , but they must still be transported, and transportation requires fuel. As we know, the burning of fossil fuel contributes to global warming.
The issue that the consumer is not addressing is what happens in our home town when we buy "cheap " products from afar. Every time we buy an Ikea cabinet we are saying no to a local cabinetmaker. Every-time we say no to a local crafts-person we debase local craft and we insure that local craft dies off. Not only do we chose to lose this local craft, we are also saying no to local materials that would make this cabinet. In Maine we have woods, we have mills, and we have lumber yards, but not for long if we keep purchasing objects from afar. Our local economies depend on us to continue purchasing. When we harvest and use local materials, we are aware of two things: we see the woods being cut down and we see what the oblject is made of. In other words, we are 'in touch' with our resources or the diminishing of them. The problem with prefabrication is that we lose touch with the resources being consumed and the production of them.
When we use local resources we are in check with consumption, we are in check with over consumption, we are buying local or keeping our valuable economies alive, our local skill base alive. Furthermore, often these materials blend in to the surroundings, they are less likely to be alien to 'place' and often make sense environmentally. As an example when I built a home in Liberty Maine I had choices all along the way as to choosing local materials or materials from away.
For the beams I could have chosen para-lams which are essentially beams made out of glue and wood chip, or I could chose locally harvested and milled Hemlock. Through out the process of choosing I had to look at a variety of parameters....Strength, availability, cost, and sustainability. What I found is that Para-lam, because it is a corporally made material, has the ups and downs . Its ups are that it is engineered....or that it is rated and is consistent. It is easy for an engineer a structure or to plug numbers of loads values and get a final figure to know if the building will stand. The down side is that it is not local, the product has to be transported, and the company has a lot of overhead because of environmental standards it has to uphold....i.e. glues,glues, glues,...OSHA ,OSHA,OSHA (occupational safety and health administration), ceo's also need to make buck too. This made this product expensive! And do I want building filled with more glue? So back to the local hemlock, I found a mill close by, and the owner would delivered the beams himself, plus it was two thirds the cost compared to the para-lam. In the end I used the Para-lam sparingly where I knew main carrying beams needed to be consistent (dimensionally,straight, without knots) and used the hemlock everywhere else. It is this sort of decision making that a designer/builder must embark on. There are products that are technological ones like thermal control units, windows, insulation which most likely are not made in ones home town and these must be ordered but there are also products that are local should be used if possible.


I think I will continue at another time with the affordable design build topic....I need to take a break
Oh yeah check out. a 20 minute video about choices .... consumer and factory http://www.storyofstuff.com/

and compare this to
http://franchisor.ikea.com/showContent.asp?swfId=concept0