South Mountain Company

A Bright Investment (& Stop ‘n Shop Update)

June 13, 2014 by John Abrams Leave a Comment

The postscript to my last blog entry about Stop and Shop is that they withdrew their application! They heard the concerns, saw the writing on the wall, and pulled back. Our hope is that they will come back with a new plan that more addresses the wishes of Vineyarders and works for them too.

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The following is a re-print of a piece Nis Kildegaard wrote for his Sounding column after a long chat with Rob Meyers, our Energy Services Manager. It appeared in the Martha’s Vineyard Times on June 5^th. I thought he did a fine job with it.

A BRIGHT INVESTMENT

Maybe you never heard the news about solar power, or it was drowned out by the noise of the 13-year controversy over the Cape Wind project on Horseshoe Shoal.

But if you still think that putting solar electric panels on your roof is a prohibitively costly way to declare your environmentalist bona fides, it’s time to think again.

I sat down for an eye-opening tutorial last week with Rob Meyers at South Mountain Company (SMC) in West Tisbury. Meyers is manager of the company’s fastest-growing department, energy services. Here’s some of what I learned.

Read More about A Bright Investment (& Stop ‘n Shop Update)

The Carpenters will Endure

March 25, 2014 by John Abrams Leave a Comment

This has been one long, cold winter with very few breaks.

There was a day in January when we had the coldest temperature (5 below) since I’ve lived here (nearly 40 years). Many of the New England snowstorms dropped more in the southerly regions than in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The snow stayed on the ground. Turned to ice from time to time. The cold kept on coming.

It’s not over yet. A blizzard’s on the way, or so they say.

Through it all, our carpenters and solar installers are out there in it, day in and day out. Sixteen of our 35 employees do carpentry or solar installations – almost half our workforce.

Sometimes they’re working inside, but mostly not, especially this winter when I really wish they could have been.

But no such luck.

It does help to have a heat source to go to. Here’s a beauty, on one of our jobs, with the crew gathered at “camp” for coffee break.

During one deep cold snap in January Billy Dillon, one of our project leads, came into the office and announced, “Tomorrow is architects’ day on the job.”

Only one, Ryan Bushey, showed up. He may be smiling, but you can bet he’s hurtin’ and shivering too.

How long do you think he lasted at 10 blustery degrees?

Unlike Ryan, they dress for it. Phil Forest, our solar project lead, who’s out there every day that he possibly can be, says it’s all about layering, and wool is the best for minimizing bulk. Here’s what he wears on cold days:

• 2 pairs wool felt boot inserts

• 2 pairs thin wool socks

• 3 pairs wool long johns

• 2 turtle necks

• 2 wool sweaters

• 2 sweatshirts (one a hoodie)

• wool hat

• warm, comfortable knee pads

• 2 cups of coffee

A beard helps too, he says. He listed fifteen different articles of clothing (!) and the list doesn’t even include pants and boots and gloves. Wonder how long it takes him to get dressed, huh?

Here’s a series of photos that shows the dedication of the solar crew (Phil, Hunter, and Dario) to getting the job done.

7:30 AM – snow on roof

About 9 AM -shoveled snow

About 10 AM – remaining snow melted

4 PM – modules installed

Job well done, in tough conditions.

These guys, all 16 of them – that’s Billy, Phil, Hunter, Dario, Rocco, Jon, Jean, DonE, Pete, PeteD, Bob, Curtis, Ryan (not the one in shorts), Ian, Chris, and Aaron to name them each – work in sometimes punishing conditions, doing what they do with warm clothes, great determination, tremendous endurance, big hearts, and good humor. And remarkable skill.

They might just say Aw Shucks but I don’t think it’s a stretch to call it heroic.

Aaron’s Hand Forged Summer

November 19, 2013 by John Abrams 2 Comments

Our youngest project lead and Owner, Aaron Beck, is a very good carpenter (and manager too). He carves duck decoys with great skill. But his passion – these days – is metal. Aaron loves blacksmithing. Last year he spent a week in Mississippi living in a backwoods trailer and learning from an accomplished blacksmith there.

This spring he came to us and said he had a great opportunity: a well-known blacksmith in Montana, Jeffrey Funk, had agreed to take him on for a three month internship. He asked if he could take a sabbatical. We said yes. He needed to finish a house he was working on by the end of June; then he could take off for three months.

Part of Aaron’s interest – and part of our interest in his interest – is the idea of setting up a blacksmith shop at SMCo to complement our woodwork and enhance our architecture. Might this happen? We don’t know, but it’s a topic of some consideration these days.

Tower Down

October 25, 2013 by John Abrams 2 Comments

For several years our 100’ steel tower stood here without a wind turbine on top. We took the machine down for repairs and never put it back up. We decided to save it for parts, for the several other similar turbines we installed years ago in other locations.

Meanwhile, we have covered the roofs of our building here with enough solar panels to take care of all the energy needs for our shop and offices. Having just switched our heating and cooling to all-electric air source heat pumps, we’re pretty much at Net Zero for the entire facility (we’ll find out for sure after a year of monitoring).

We’re not in the wind business any more (as important as we think it is), and our experiment had not been particularly successful, so it was time to take the tower down, pack it up, and prepare it for its next home. Pete D’Angelo and Phil Forest orchestrated the project.

But before it came down, Phil, who was always responsible for servicing the machine, felt the need to experience the top of the tower one more time.

Here’s what Phil had to say, and what he saw, and what we saw:

“While I sat comfortably on top of the wind turbine tower, waiting for the crane to arrive, I took in the fall foliage of the oak forest and I saw water in Lake Tashmoo brought in from the last tide. I thought about the impermanent, ever- changing nature of things.

From Landfill to Power Plant

March 20, 2013 by John Abrams Leave a Comment

Mostly, capped landfills remind me of the mausoleums of a consumer society. For most of a century we dumped our solid waste onto these Mt Trashmores and mixed up a brew of concentrated toxins which seeped into the surrounding areas and often polluted (and still do) our water. So we learned to treat our waste as a resource, close the landfills, cap them, and leave them idle. We’re still very primitive about this, but progress is steady.

There’s not much you can do on a capped landfill because it’s essential that we not disturb the protective rubber liner that is usually only 12-18” below the grass that covers it.

But there are some uses. Most are relatively passive: cultivation of hay, green space, wildlife habitat, and biking/walking/running trails. Some are more active: golf courses, baseball fields, and soccer fields.

For Better Or Worse

June 21, 2010 by John Abrams Leave a Comment

Several weeks ago my old friend Marc Rosenbaum arrived on Martha’s Vineyard. He often arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. For 20 years this distinguished, nationally recognized building performance engineer has been arriving here to consult with us – to help us make better buildings. For 30 years he has been responsible for some of the most advanced buildings in New England.

When he arrived here last Tuesday, it was different than most times.

Co-ops in the Rise

December 7, 2009 by John Abrams Leave a Comment

I’m still excited about the budding alliance between the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Mondragon Cooperatives – and the general awakening consciousness about worker co-operatives and co-operative business in general that I wrote about last month.

And there’s more.

An Historic Alliance

November 10, 2009 by John Abrams 7 Comments

My friend David Smathers of the TeamWorks Cooperative Network in California writes:

“The Mondragon cooperatives and the United Steelworkers have announced an historic partnership through which they will buy or start manufacturing businesses in the U.S. and Canada that will combine Mondragon’s democratic structure of ownership and governance with collective bargaining.

It will take many years to implement. But particularly in the face of the economic crisis that has exposed Wall Street’s failure to provide responsible stewardship of the economy, this is a very heartening development. Together, these two institutions have the resources, technical expertise, and vision to demonstrate to the public that it is possible to structure and run large corporations in entirely different ways than what we have become accustomed to.”

Living Local & The Next Generation

October 4, 2009 by John Abrams 2 Comments

The third annual Martha’s Vineyard Living Local and Harvest Festival just ended. It began with a Friday night forum called Opportunities and Challenges – a Panel Discussion with Next Generation Island Leaders.

It was about youth.

Having just turned 60, I am acutely aware of the role of young people (in their 20’s and 30’s) in my work life and civic life. At work they are a constant theme and a growing force. There is a great transition in process at South Mountain Company – from first generation leadership to the next. It’s a long, gradual journey, sometimes a bit frightening but mostly thrilling, and it’s gathering steam.

Values and Principles

September 14, 2009 by John Abrams 1 Comment

A group of friends was here for a post-Labor Day vacation, enjoying the last harmonies of Vineyard summer – warm water, cool breezes, and empty roads. Devon Hartman runs a design/build company in L.A. and Jamie Wolfe is a design/builder from Connecticut. Dennis Allen runs a building company in Santa Barbara, CA. Sal Alfano is the editor of both the Journal of Light Construction and Remodeling Magazine. Each is remarkable in his own way. Each has much to teach. All agreed to do a panel discussion for an SMCo company meeting.

The following questions were put to the four of them: what happened to your business (and you) between last September and this September, what lasting effects has the economic crisis had, and what’s next for you and your enterprise?

They spoke about the troubles of these times, but they also spoke – compellingly – about the possibilities, and new doors that are opening.

Sharing Ownership of the Future

August 21, 2009 by John Abrams 3 Comments

One more post (which might become two) about employee ownership and workplace democracy before I veer off toward some related topics. . . .

Despite the Obama administration’s recent shift in emphasis from homeownership to rental housing (which I will discuss in detail in a future post), homeownership is at the very heart of the American dream. Owning our work, and finding meaning there, seems as essential to a good life as owning our homes. But although many of us own homes, far fewer own our work.

Are We Different Enough??

August 12, 2009 by John Abrams 4 Comments

At the recent conference of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC) in Burlington, VEOC board president Paul Millman asked an important question to the attendees, who represented some of the many remarkably progressive companies in the Green Mountain State. “Are we different enough?” he wondered.

Good question. I wonder about that often when I think about South Mountain. Are we promoting a system that would, if widespread, create fundamental change in our broken economic system? Or are we just avoiding one avalanche chute by traversing to another with a slightly more gradual incline?

Hard to say.