Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) June 19, 2023
Time to fill up the walls with cellulose!
We’re looking for about 4 volunteers per day, to help to blow cellulose into the long walls of the Grange Hall, filling up the stud cavities. We’re planning on doing this on June 26/27/28–Monday/Tuesday/
Some time has already been pledged by Patty & Kurt Giavara, me and Marisa Keller, plus Bill Hulstrunk, our expert leader. We’d love to have you join us for one of these work-days!
Here’s some history about insulating our Hall:
We’ve already got a lot of cellulose insulating our Grange Hall. Insulating the Grange started in earnest in 2006, when we added 12 inches of cellulose to the attic. That was a big improvement on the inch or two of vermiculite that was the original endowment!
We were able to do this, because we got a huge amount of help from a Grange community member and contra dancer, Bill Hulstrunk. Bill has spent his whole career in the business of improving the insulation of homes and buildings, specializing in cellulose. He was able to provide a cellulose blower and lots of hoses, and get us a great deal on 180 bags of cellulose, plus hole-saws, wood plugs, housewrap and other supplies. We assembled about 10 volunteers for this project, and got the whole project done in one Saturday…plus a couple of hours the next day to finish up. Besides the attic, we also filled up the stud cavities in the South gable end, from the attic.
Bill also came back several years ago to dense-pack the stud cavities in the North gable end. We wanted to reduce the moisture that could be coming through the walls and “helping” the paint to peel. It took a much smaller number of bags for that project!
Besides the cellulose in the attic and walls, of course, in 2020 we also had most of the concrete walls in the basement insulated with 2-1/2″ foam panels, and had all the joists ends foamed to seal them up.
Now that we’ve had all the walls of the Hall painted, we want to do everything we can to encourage the paint to stay on! We also want to make it as easy as possible to heat the Hall, especially on the coldest days. The pellet furnace we had installed in 2022 is smaller in capacity than the old oil-burner. We knew it would be running constantly on the coldest days–and it was. And it still had some problems keeping up with the demand. We are confident that insulating about 1200 sq. ft of stud walls will improve comfort levels, and also save us money on pellets.
So–can you help us out? We have a couple of people who are willing to pitch in–Kurt and Patty Giavara, and I will also help out–but I’m less capable than I was in 2006. We need a couple more people who can help us on these weekday workdays–please get in touch–and ask any questions!
Help us get our ashes hauled!
For a few years, I’ve been watching the ash trees which are around the parking lot, as the Emerald Ash Borer has spread and affected ash trees all around central Vermont. This invasive insect pest, as many of you know, lays its eggs in the bark of ash trees; their larvae bore into the trees, destroying nutrient flows in the wood under the bark, and eventually kill the entire tree.
As you can perhaps see in the photos below, we are not immune. The ash tree to the right of the pine in the left photo is completely dead now–no leaves coming out. The ash tree in the right photo still has a few leaves growing on it–but is clearly on its last legs. I’d really like to find someone local who’s looking for firewood, and has a chainsaw, and experience taking down good-sized trees like these. Ash is good firewood, and I’d like to keep the wood local to avoid spread
ing EAB to areas not already infested. Are there any takers?
One more “Help Wanted”: Webmaster needed
One of the tasks I have ended up with at the Grange is trying to figure out how to keep our website updated. Our “WordPress” website is a vital part of our operation, particularly the Calendar.
The Calendar is one of many “plugins” that make features of the website work. All of them need to be updated periodically, and I’ve been able to figure out how to do this sometimes–but recently I’ve had problems with the Calendar updates in particular. A major update that required “migration of the data” resulted in mixed up Calendar listings that took me several hours to resolve. Last week, a supposedly simple update failed to work; I spent 10-12 hours struggling with it, and finally had to submit a “Support Ticket”. I’m still waiting for the update to be able to be installed. And there are several more plugins that seem to need updates.
I’d really like to pass on this sort of maintenance to someone with more knowledge and expertise! If there’s someone out there among the very talented people who are involved with the Capital City Grange, who would be interested in helping out, I’d really appreciate it. I’ll be happy to pass on what I’ve figured out (which includes a Staging Site and a way to back up the website). I’m sure there are also many opportunities to improve the website, and its SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for example–but I don’t have the time, knowledge or inclination to learn this whole new field. Please get in touch to learn more! –Tim Swartz/swartztim15@gmail.com
Why do we need all this help?
Perhaps you’re wondering…how come Tim is asking for volunteers? The answer is simple: Keeping our Grange and its Hall going is a lot of work! The core group of Grange members who come regularly to meetings is small–typically less than 10. Many of us are getting on in years–at 72, I’m far from the oldest of the group. We’re really proud of our Hall and the great number of activities that take place there–but keeping up with maintenance increases with more use of the Hall. We really want to keep our rents affordable for families, non-profit organizations and cultural/charitable groups, so we want to do as much with volunteer help as we can, before we hire professionals. Also, we know it’s fun to be part of an organization that brings real benefits to Central Vermont, and we’d like to share the joy!
Grange Notes: In case you’re interested, these email newsletters go to a little over 300 recipients. We know that between 140 and 160 people open them, thanks to Mailchimp’s tracking software. We know a lot of you are interested in what goes on–hope you can change some of that interest into action!
–Tim Swartz, President (with everyone’s help)