The Leaves of Twin Oaks Spring 2001 - Page 2

And speaking of new machines, the grommeter is slowly coming into more regular use. Dianne is the veteran operator who coordinates a number of new trainees . The grommeter now shares space with God.

The grommeter has had an endless array of problems since we got it, seemingly spending more weeks out of operation than in. Luckily, a number of new members are mechanically inclined; Tim and Jay have fixed most of the problems.

Don, the East Wind grommeting manager has passed along a lot of useful information as we fine-tune our shop. At the moment, crafty Hans is constructing a bigger, better bed feed surface, a work table, and shelves. Work flow will be streamlined and become more efficient. Eventually we expect grommeting to be the first work area to rival rope-making in profitability.

In other dramatic hammocks business news, we now use a different color of white rope to make our polypro rope hammocks. This may seem trivial to many readers but is doubtless big news for ex-members from the 70's and 80's who wove the hundreds of thousands of shiny white polypro hammocks that sustained the early Twin Oaks.

Exciting changes are also in store for the Tofu business. We are moving toward installing a new gas boiler, located in a little shed outside the Tofu Hut. Steam will be injected into a new 130 gallon kettle. (Our current kettle is a measly 80 gallons.) Then the curds will be formed by a new pneumatic press, replacing the four-tray trailer jack table and presses. There is a new pump which we hope will suck hot whey from the curds and pour it over the cold beans waiting to be ground; there are still a few bugs in the system. The Tofu Hut already has a spiffy new stereo cassette tape deck and speakers, but these days we cannot seem to keep a clock alive and you still have to use a flashlight to see what station the radio is tuned to.

Here's another argument against child labor. Left alone briefly in the Tofu Hut, four year old Adrian turned on the auger which dispenses soybeans into barrels. (He regularly helps Craig with the bean soak job.) But there was no barrel in place to catch the beans and by the time Craig returned, over 500 pounds of beans filled the floor up to 30 inches deep. Most were salvaged.

Another new associate community is Blue House, in Savannah GA. Blue House is a regular hammock producer for Twin Oaks Hammocks. Susan reports, "All is well here in the Deep South. In one year we turned an abandoned crack house into a thriving intentional community, built a flourishing community garden for our local homeless shelter, and began hosting a vegetarian meal night in our inner city neighborhood. 40-50 people a week come to eat wholesome food (mostly grown in our inner city gardens), listen to music and share stories. And best of all the fire department has been kind enough to ignore our bar-b-q, fire pit, and drum circle in the back yard. Life is good."