The newsletter of The Bishop's Ranch, Coming Home, is a bi-annual newsletter about life at the Ranch, a retreat and conference center for all ages. To be added to the newsletter mailing list send your name(s) and address to info@bishopsranch.org
From the Executive Director of the Ranch How They Spent Their Summer Vacations
Like most of the volunteers, my hat was pulled low
over my eyes against the bright sun, my face was
sweating under the paper dust mask and gritty dirt
had fallen inside my leather work gloves as I shoveled the
rocks, clods and soil. Here at the building site
of the new Swing Pavilion, an occasional breeze
was heavenly, cooling us off and pushing the
dust cloud away. We piled the characteristic
red clay soil of the Ranch onto frames, sifting
it through two sizes of screens to produce fine,
uniform particles. It was satisfying to turn the
rocky, cloddy soil into an evenly sifted powder.
This product from the very soil of the Ranch
makes a naturally good plaster
to coat the interior of the
Pavilion’s rice-straw bale walls.
For several weeks in July
and August, teen, adult and even a few child
campers gave up some of their free time to
literally raise something out of the ground.
The soil we sifted was then mixed with
water by the skilled plastering crew, led by
Tracy Vogel and Mary Golden, to create an ancient, but updated, wall plaster. The Ranch earth became
a beautiful terra cotta colored skin on the sunbleached
straw bale walls. For subsequent coats it is mixed with other
substances such as sand, chopped straw and cellulose in
order to create the outer coats of earth plaster.
The final coat will be adjusted for the desired
texture and color.
As I worked with the others to sift the soil, I
thought about how we undertook the Pavilion
project. In the eighteen years I’ve been at the
Ranch, we have worked steadily to enhance
the Ranch’s ability to be a sacred place of
renewal. During all that time the idea of an
indoor gathering place--one with room for
the many activities
that enrich Ranch
experiences--has
been part of the planning. As I
helped sift soil through the quarter
and eighth-inch screens, I thought
of the long road that has led from
the onception of the Pavilion
to the actual construction we are experiencing now. The process, over years, of working out where to site the building, how it
would best address Ranch needs, what construction materials to use, who would help us build it,
was also a sifting process.
Architects Jerry Wagner, Bob Theis and the design committee, using the guiding themes of sustainability, hospitality and the timely honoring of Bill and Mary Swing, sifted overwhelming
amounts of information into a coherent building plan. As the building takes shape under the
expert builders of GCCI and the craftspeople they have assembled, it is apparent the space will
accommodate a wide range of meeting needs--space that is comfortable for intimate gatherings
while also serving larger group activities that have been difficult to host heretofore. It is thrilling
to see construction moving forward as gifts and pledges are being received and though much is
yet to be done in both areas, a lot has been accomplished.
With one pile of rough soil sifted out, we put the shovels away, covered the precious piles of
raw material we had produced and tried to dust ourselves off. This work helps you feel gratitude
for the simple, important things in your life--like water, clean clothes, a joke, rest. As the Pavilion
walls gather shape and beauty from the earth, I feel even more gratitude to the generous donors
and volunteers who are reaching out beyond
themselves and into the future to support
an idea that grows from humble but fertile
soil. Many thanks--you are creating an
inspirational place where, for generations,
people will lovingly gather and be renewed.
