Spring community week

Summary:

Hi everyfaerie this is Pingouin aka Boyfailure Deluxe aka Boysuccess Deluxe and this is the first entry in what I hope is a long and neverending love letter to the other facilitators and everybody in the community!

Spring community week happened. Lots of things got done! Maybe too many things got done, one could argue. After 3~4 days of rain and overall a slow but comfy landing the sun started shining and the faeries started working. Here is an attempt at putting down everything, so that it might be helpful for other facilitators.

What we did

Started building a stone path in the bath area
Adding stone slab in front of the breakfast barn, expanding terrace.
Cleared out the old sauna
Move tiles behind breakfast barn to between the French Ambassy and the old Sauna, they are triaged and ready to be put on their roofs.
Trash run to get rid of a lot of the wood from the old circus room floor which was blocking access to the good wood on the right of the house. Also getting rid of some of the broken tiles.
Moved pine wood to the sissy opera (circular area with a fire)
There is some more signalisation to show the path to the lake.
A rope has been installed to make climbing up to the platform easier.
Smoke detectors have been installed in the breakfast barn.
Tarp has been put back up (also in the smoking zone btw). The previous station dismantled (it was very damaged by the rain) and the area below the stairs cleaned up so the artwork can be appreciated fully . A new dish station is now built under the tarp.
Clearing and cleaning of the buisness lounge. Strengthening the retaining walls to the wood and towards the meadow. (they’re still not that great, be careful when walking on the edges)
The lawnmower was saved from the motoculture de la goulotte by FOMO and Béate after the gathering ended!!

Things to keep in mind for the following gatherings

WATER: the process to install the new system is still going on. We are still using the old broken pump which is finicky. When it works, the recommended procedure is to first make sure tanks have water (switch in tje toilet area, make sure to turn off once tanks are filled as there is no automatic shut down) then turn on the switch of the pump in the toolbarn, let it run for 15 minutes (design a faerie and set a timer) to fill up the pipes in the house, then fill bidons at the dish dance sink. That's where the water flows easiest due to gravity. It goes through the uv filter and is safe to drink.
We cleared the wall behind the breakfast barn / friendship room where a lot of tiles used to be. That's where the new water system is going to be installed. Please keep it clear!
At some point the bassin near the bath area stopped flowing. We managed to get it running again and wrote a guide on how to do that in case it happens again.
TOILETS: the brushes are in a bucket with water, ideally to keep them clean some white vinegar should be added. Something like 1 cup of white vinegar for 5 cups of water should be enough.
TOILETS: also to make sure the lids stay closed, a piece of wood should be screwed to the wall where the lid would rest, so that the lid never stays up if not against a faerie's back.
Some strings have been hidden and will be used to make curtains at archiffoning.
More ropes for drying laundry have been bought. They are in the circus room.
Tarps: The one over the buisness lounge wasn’t installed because a few fairies thought it made that space ugly + whenever a fire is going, all of the smoke goes under it and it becomes an unusable space.

Things we learned

We rented a van at Leclerc. Last time we used Perney location. Leclerc seems both cheaper and easier (and there are no ramps to throw away).
The new toilets need someone to open the black box and use a tool to make sure it's flat and even (no pyramids of sawdust / poop) every 5 days or so. The next ladies caca need to know about this, it's a very simple process. Just unscrew the butterfly screws on the box, remove the metal rings at the base of each screw, open the box and make sure it's even by using the shovel next to the poop area. Flatten the pile on the right and left side of it (and not front or back)
- When the first flattened poop pile reaches the poop chute, rake the contents to the middle of the container.
- When the second poop pile reaches the chute, rake contents from middle to front of container, and second pile to the middle.
- When 3rd pile reaches the chute, hopefully this is at the end of the season, and we can leave the contents over Winter and empty the rich compost material in the Spring ready for the new season. This compost should get spread in the forest.
Compared to other spring community weeks, this one started with an agenda that seemed more loaded than before, which led to some pressure to get everything done without necessarily having the knowledge to do so. This among other things led to one particular day with a lot of tension and frustration which fortunately got mostly resolved by slowing down and taking care of each other. This is a good reminder that maybe the current system of lowkey relying on community weeks to do most of the heavy lifting while other gatherings have no steward agenda to follow might be putting a lot of strain on the practical faeries, and that establishing 2 or 3 days of community work for each gathering might help even things out.

Story time! : The Drama ™️

- Tensions where building up through the gathering without really showing themselves. It blew up on the last big day which was started by a tiny morning circle, many faeries where in town for drop offs/renting van/sleeping after the no talent show. The faeries at the circle didn’t really take note of the amount of people missing, but tried to share all of the tasks of the day between them + pushed many things to the evening circle. This was a bad idea because it let many many many faeries who weren’t there confused about the plans of the day or what was to be done. If the morning circle is missing too many faeries, make a clear plan of the day and of what was agreed to notify missing faeries. ( Use the big chalk boards)
- The early faeries present at the circle ended up tired from lifting up the house and all of the tasks. The earlier faeries, who were in town, came back ready to start the projects which needed the van that was rented ( and also had a horrible day in town with a car breakdown, so they were also tired but determined to finish the task for which the van was rented). This led to not enough people participating to projects that were on everyones mind, but were not planned in the circle. It was also the spark of confusion and the drama! scary! Make sure the plan of the day is known by everyone and no big project is done without a clear team. Please present the timeline of your project so everyone knows who is doing what and why or when, so no task is left unfaeried.
- A confused fairy arrived to the van to help after 45 min of yoohoos ( she was busy doing another task, but the faeries who rented the van didn’t know that because there was no transmission of information). She was bamboozeled to discover that the van was rented mostly to throw out things that could still be used! This was not a community decision, and everyone was too tired to discuss what or how to do anything… Nerves sparked, drama happened, tensions went up! A tiny solution was found to save a little bit of the materials through another faerie who agreed to help. But the main issue remained, faeries ignored each other, gossiped, turned their backs, and were very frustrated! This was caused by the concentration of responsibilities and project leads into too little hands. Make sure community decisions are made, don’t start a project needing many hands without discussing it beforehand.
- This whole story ends well thanks to a faery who pushed for a emotional sharing circle to see if anyone required mediation, during the evening circle. The fact that it happened so late and made all the starving, frustrated faeries wait for their food was horrible. It was however the best way to make sure everyone’s version of the day was heard. It started to alleviate tensions when mistakes were recognized, confusion was seen as generalized, and someone made us joke and dance about it at the end of the circle to throw out all the frustration from our bodies (which worked really well!). If problems arise, ( they will if we keep filling the community weeks with too many responsibilities), make sure to mediate them. A simple sharing circle could help, but it is important to center the objective of the rounds of speaking to make it as short as possible while being as clear as possible.

The main frustrated faeries by this issue ended up sitting side by side accidentally during their meal. They looked at each other and started laughing. Because they recognize that they both just want the best for all of us. We all recognized that and held hands, hugged, danced ect ect about it.

THE END

yayy everyone was happy again at the end (well, I was)

Things that got postponed

Setting the bell tents.
Cutting trees along desire path. The chainsaw needed sharpening and there wasn't a faerie that felt knowledgeable enough to do it at the gathering.
Putting up the disco balls

== ALL PROJECTS ARE REAL PROJECT ==

Below are unsorted notes, you might or might not learn from them!!

stone path:

Currently only one wheeled wheelbarrow can go over it Some stones are not fully sealed and could use some more work. Keep expanding it

sauna

Sauna was cleaned out to prepare it for a lifting. Tarp was put to protect the beams.

Todo: do wall again arasée to put down the chevron manquant Replace the lattes à tuile. Secure the other chevrons. Put down the tiles Get a new poêle Needs community decision on how ut's going to be laid out, what we buy etc.

water

We dug out a flat area behind the tool barn to store the two tanks of water that were in the bath area. Todo: connect the 2 newly moved tanks to the others that are on the up right. Change the pump that was broken. We removed all the tiles near the wall to make room for the new water system, don't put anything else here. Put all the tanks on the platform. We're still using the old system and Beate is going to try to install it. UV filter will be in the cellar. We can turn on the pump and it fills up the pipe and through gravitation it flows the best at the dish dance tap.

wood

We had a trash run to take away a lot of the old wood stored on the right of the toolbarn. It is the old circus room floor and it was preventing access to the good construction wood behind, Leclerc is the easiest for location. Last time we used perney location. There's a pile of wood from the bit that was saved near the bath area that needs to be cut down for water heating fires.

We didn't find anyone that felt comfortable sharpening the chainsaw. We moved the pine wood near the toilets in the sissy opera.

Toilets

Toilets are connected to septic tank. Second toilets will be put down and ventilated. Needs education on flattening the poop pile. The brush has been put in a bucket with water, it should be filled with a solution of white vinegar. Just screw something against the wall of the toilet so that the toilet seat will always fall if there isn't a faerie pooping.

Smoke and Gaz detectors:

Smoke detectors have been installed in the breakfast barn. The salesman at E Lecrec Lure misled us into believing that monoxide carbon detectors will detect gaz leaks, which is not true but we bought one that can be found in the battery drawer. Gaz detector still seems like a good idea but a reliable product need to be bought elsewhere.

Dish Dance Area

Tarp has been put back up (also in the smoking zone btw). The previous station dismantled (it was very damaged by the rain) and the area below the stairs cleaned up so the artwork can be appreciated fully . A new dish station is now built under the tarp.

Laundry: more ropes have ben bought. They are in the circus room.

Washing machine: needs a discussion where to put it. We would like to reuse the small pump to have a second water system only for the washing machine so that it doesn't use drinkable water Weeding the brambles, needs more weeding. Storing the food.

Suggestions that came up:

Deity for keeping things clean

Reflection on not bringing shoes inside : proposition to have a pulley system to take up the dish dance stuff to avoid walking in and out.

Switching the dish dance tarp by polycarbonate ( comme le toit des serres), wouldn’t need yearly installation and stronger, could actually be a great idea instead of buying tarps every year!

Something needs to be done with the (sex) swing, on top of the hill. It is retaining rain and could start to rot!