The tools of the trade.
What an awesome weekend of well-organised and well-attended community events we had last weekend.
Saturday was all about Castlecliff, and the driftwood/sand sculpture contest at the beach.
Ellen Waugh and Progress Castlecliff pulled off what appears to be the eco-thrifty event of the summer. With a little bit of prize money kindly donated by Mars, Jamie Waugh, and Castlecliff Four Square, and a minuscule entry fee, Ellen and P.C. were able to draw more people to the beach than I have ever seen.
The rest of the ingredients for a fabulous community day were free, abundant and non-toxic: driftwood, sand, shells, pumice, flax, sunshine, and heaps of human effort, imagination and enthusiasm.
I spent much of Saturday applying my head, heart and hands to an age-old craft that I acquired on my New England farm a decade ago: hand joinery. I know some terminology between New England and New Zealand may differ, so let me explain exactly what I mean in five words: bit, brace, chisel, mallet, saw.
Hand joinery was traditionally applied to cutting mortises and tenons into massive, squared timbers to build post and beam structures in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was a time when steel hardware was expensive, so wooden pegs were used to hold the building frames together. (Think of an Amish barn-raising if you can, and you'll get the picture.)
Because my post-and-beam farmhouse was built in 1782, and because I was young and foolish when I bought it in 2000, I decided to use a book to teach myself hand joinery and then to build a barn without power tools.
A long story short, the job started by felling pines with an axe, hewing them by hand, and then cutting the mortises and tenons before having my own barn-raising party with about 40 friends.
Now that I am old and foolish, and the rules of the sculpture contest allowed for hand tools, I dusted off my bits and chisels and headed for the beach. The first thing I learned was that New Zealand native timbers are much harder than New England pine.
The next thing I learned is that art and hand joinery should never be rushed.
Although I spent eight hours working on Saturday, the sculpture was barely finished by the four o'clock judging, and never during that time did I experience the focused but relaxed joy of "joining" that I recall while building my barn.
To make a short story even shorter, with the help of Dani, Verti, Maddy and Te Rina, our creation - Surf's Up! - impressed everyone except the judges. C'est la vie.
On Sunday morning, I managed to drag my limp and lifeless shoulders from bed, and load the car with bins, signs and my family to make the trip to Springvale Stadium for Children's Day.
Good on Lynette Archer and Liza Iliffe, SKIP co-ordinators, for committing again to waste minimisation at the event. With their commitment and my 25 years of experience in waste minimisation education/management, we were able to organise our strategy through five text messages, one of which was redundant!
By maximising good design and minimising physical effort, we were able to divert over 80 per cent of "waste" from landfill - an accomplishment rarely equalled anywhere in New Zealand.
Once again, win-win-win eco-design thinking succeeds at being good for people, good for the planet, and saving money.
I strongly believe that, as adults, it is our highest obligation to set good examples for children to follow. If we do not teach them that recycling and composting are important enough that we "do" them at community events, then what we are teaching them is rubbish.
Nelson Lebo consults with businesses, schools, and home-owners on all aspects of sustainability - email: theecoschool@gmail.com or phone 06 3445013 or 022 6350868.