This summer at the Home Orchard Society Arboretum in Oregon City, a new installation has been given the go-ahead by our host, Clackamas Community College (CCC). A long-dreamed of walk-in cooler is ready to be installed, but first we need to prepare its new home. With the help of the HOS board of directors, the Arboretum manager, CCC, and HOS volunteers (like you!!!), we will be laying a pad and foundation of permeable pavers for the cooler to sit on, and building an extension of the existing shed to cover and protect the new cooler.
The new cooler will serve HOS well - storing fruit and propagation materials during the lead up to our annual events, and fruit harvested from the Arboretum (finally, properly chilled pears!) in preparation for sale and distribution. We may even be able to finally run some storability trials on different varieties of popular fruits.
As the Arboretum manager in charge of this project, I'd like to take this moment to ask for your help. Can you donate a few dollars toward building materials? Do you have a stack of unused pavers or plywood sheets to offer? Are you an experienced builder/electrician/handy-type that can lend your strength to this endeavor?
We are estimating a construction/installation budget of approximately $3000.00 (the cooler is already purchased). If just 50 people each donate $30 to this project, we will have met half our goal! Please consider how you can help move this project to completion this summer, whether it be financially, materially, or with some sweat equity.
Contact Karen Tillou, the HOS Arboretum manager, at arboretum@homeorchardsociety.org if you have materials to donate, or would like to be added to the volunteer list we are developing.
If you would like to make a donation, please send checks made out to Home Orchard Society, with "cooler donation" in the memo line, to:
Home Orchard Society
Attn: Cooler Donation
PO Box 230192
Tigard, OR 97219-0192
With good luck, generous friends, and some hard work, we will have a cooler in place and full of fruit in time for this year's All About Fruit Show.
Following is a rough list of the materials needed to construct the shelter and pad for the cooler. Let us know if you have any of these to donate! (or lend in the case of the machines...)
(450 sq. feet) pavers - 3 7/8" x 7 7/8" x 2 3/8" type
(11 yards) 1/2" minus gravel
(3 yards) fill sand
(9) 4 x 4 x 10' pressure treated posts
(9) pier blocks with anchors
(5 sheets) T11 plywood 4 x 8'
(9 sheets) roofing plywood 4 x 8' x 3/8"
(28 feet) metal gutter [brown preferably]
(16) 2 x 6 x 10'
(8) 2 x 6 x 16'
backhoe rental (a small one)
vibrator compactor rental
dumping pickup truck (for dirt removal)
It would be nice if the HOS had a PayPal account for purposes like this. I wouldn't hesitate to donate $20 if there was a PayPal button on this website dedicated to this project. I would have done it in less time than it took to type this message. $20 isn't much but I imagine that alot of people would be much more agreeable to a donation like that than writing a check, addressing an envelope, and taking it to a mailbox. That's just soooo 20th century.
I appreciate the time Karen took to show me the arboretum last summer....
and the time Shaun Shephard took at Sauvie Island.....
To be one of the 50 by snail mail is quite do-able for me....(email me in 10 days if not seen)
Suggestion: I haven't been following this forum for too long, so maybe this is already done....but it seems to me an ocassional report from the arboretum could be interesting.....what varieties are doing well this year? Were foot sox applied on many apples? Was CydX used this year? Was there evidence of Drosophilia flies? Or just a short paragraph every now and again about what seems interesting or fun that is going on there.
The arboretum is just one more demonstration of how "advanced" the HOS is.
[quote="tstoehr":2yyl43n1]It would be nice if the HOS had a PayPal account for purposes like this. I wouldn't hesitate to donate $20 if there was a PayPal button on this website dedicated to this project. I would have done it in less time than it took to type this message. $20 isn't much but I imagine that alot of people would be much more agreeable to a donation like that than writing a check, addressing an envelope, and taking it to a mailbox. That's just soooo 20th century.[/quote:2yyl43n1]
Great idea. I wonder how easy it would be to manage, I've always been on the payer end. But I agree with you.
I think donating sounds like a great idea and I've noted in the back of my mind that I intend to do so. If there were a paypal account I would have already done it.
As it is I worry that I'll flake out before actually doing it. I write a check and/or send a letter via mail maybe once or twice per quarter (year).
[quote="jafarj":112xnocj]Reading this again gave me the inspiration to use "bill payer" from my online checking account.
That saved me from having to actually get up from the computer and/or find anything and/or go out to the mailbox.[/quote:112xnocj]
Good idea! I just set up my $30 donation.
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