March 18-24

morning sun

It was a busy after taking a short break and returning from the previous week’s town meetings on Tuesday. On Wednesday we greeted the arrival of Spring and enjoyed an afternoon visit with Michael and Sally Blumenthal-McGannon, who were visiting from their home in Aptos, CA. 

Sally & Michael

The Indralaya Board was in camp on Saturday for a day long meeting. In addition to allocating funds to purchase new chairs for the dining hall, the Board also reviewed the various Spring projects that are underway and reviewed the year end financial results for 2012. 

Following up on a question that had arisen during the Vancouver town meeting, the Board also set a date for the 2013 Friends of Indralaya annual meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, May 25, which coincides with the Memorial Day work party. All are welcome to attend and we hope to see you then!

afternoon sun

March 11-17

Let Us Pray

There are now over 500 people registered for upcoming 2013 programs and work parties. At this point, there is still room to register for all programs, but there are several for which we will soon begin wait lists if registration continues at its current pace: Family Week Two, Deep Singing, Yoga, Pat Moffit-Cook’s Sound weekend and the Rose, Hawthorn and Apple retreat.

On Saturday we left Orcas Island and made our way to Bellingham for the first of two ‘Indralaya town meetings’ that had been scheduled for the weekend. The idea of these town meetings grows out of a recognition that while Indralaya is a place with a specific physical setting and geographic location, it is also a place that resides in the hearts of those who come here. And that as the camp has expanded its activities over the years, it is more difficult to meet and interact with everyone else who feels a connection with the place. So a central idea behind the town meetings is that there is a benefit in bringing people together to meet each other while also learning about some of the projects and activities that are currently underway at camp.

On our way to the meetings, we stopped for a visit with Phyllis Roberts at the assisted living center where she lives in Burlington. Phyllis is the mother of Wendy Roberts and camp treasurer Kelly Bachman. She is a remarkably talented artist who has contributed to Indralaya in many ways over the years. During our visit she gave us a notebook containing transcriptions that she and her mother had done of talks that Fritz Kunz gave during the summer of 1957.  This week she is celebrating her 92nd birthday - 

Happy Birthday Phyllis!

Kelly & Phyllis

From there it was on to Bellingham for the first town meeting, which was held in the Commons Room at Bellingham Co-housing and attended by about 20 people. The next day we continued on to Vancouver, and the home of Michael and Geri Barnes, where about 15 people gathered on Sunday afternoon. There was opportunity for dialogue and interaction at both meetings. Many of those attending expressed the hope that these outreach efforts would continue in future years.

Bellingham town meeting participants

March 3-10

This week we had the annual inspection of the Indralaya septic system. Everything checked out in good shape. The system is actually composed of six different sub-systems that serve different areas of the camp.

The largest of the sub-systems is also the newest. This project was a significant change from the old gravity-based systems that it replaced. All of the water is pumped to holding tanks and eventually ends up in a large drainfield that is located in the eastern half of the meadow.

meadow drainfield

 waste water distribution box near the teepee

It was installed in 2002 at a cost of $62,000, and processes waste water from the dining hall, the waterfront cabins, the library, roundhouse, Spruce, Apple and Wisteria cabins. It also includes a 1,000 gallon grease trap that is dedicated solely to water that comes from the kitchen sinks. 

kitchen grease trap lids

holding tanks near the roundhouse & library

waterfront septic tank lids and pump control panel near Ocean Spray

The other five sub-systems serve individual buildings: the Upper Nessie, the Solarium, the RMC, Juniper cabin, and Moss cabin.

upper nessie

Before any septic was installed, there were several outhouses in various locations around the camp. The last of these old outhouses, which had not been in service for many years, was located just above Madrona cabin. It was finally demolished 8 or 9 years ago during one of the family weeks.

There are any number of stories about the trials and tribulations of the septic system over the years. For many years, the septic system was tended by the legendary Ray family, including Wilma Ray and her son Wesley.

There is one well known story about the time the septic tanks in front of what was then the new dining hall failed just at the peak of the summer season. Wilma advised camp manager John Abbenhouse that the quickest way to resolve the problem would be to pump the tanks and deposit the waste somewhere in the forest (the times were clearly different than they are now!). John is said to have had a gleam in his eye as he envisioned the beautiful compost that would one day be available for the garden from this once in a lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately the exact location of the deposit was forgotten over the years and to the best of our knowledge, this particular treasure still lies somewhere out in the forest unused and neglected.

outside the dining hall

Many of today’s campers are familiar with the odor that arises near the solarium. Sometimes it is the food waste in the worm beds that we smell, sometimes it is something else. This is probably the oldest of the current sub-systems and is the only one for which the tank lids are still the old-style concrete blocks. Lifting these lids out is some true heavy lifting.

the solarium 

The septic tank at Moss cabin is an egg-shaped plastic tank that was installed during a work party. Trent Blackburn spent many hours hand digging the new hole for the tank and eventually reached the bedrock underlying the soil. As a result, the top of the tank sticks out of the ground about 1 or 2 feet and the soil has been built up around it.

plastic tank at Moss Cabin

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief tour of this critical component of the Indralaya infrastructure. Coming next week, a report on the Indralaya town meetings that are being held in Bellingham and Vancouver this coming weekend.

February 25 - March 3

Buddha Field 9

A Day Late
This week, “this week” is being posted on Tuesday as I was away attending a weekend workshop led by R.J. Stewart and Anastacia Nutt. It was great to get back to Orcas after a week away, and to see the crocuses beginning to come up through the soil. Leonie was here at Indralaya and spent a fair amount of time getting things started in the garden. More pictures next week.

Adjö Sverige? (Goodbye Sweden?)
On the inner planes of the blogorealms, last week’s shout out to the person(s) in Sweden who had been so avidly visiting this site seems to have resulted in scaring them off - sorry about that, it wasn't the intention! Or maybe you’ve just moved to some other country, as Germany seems to be picking up where Sweden left off. In any case, anyone, please feel welcome to visit this blog, the Indralaya website, and, of course, Indralaya itself...