Oysterville Greenhouse

     For the first time in more than a dozen years, we have a new properties owner in Oysterville.  Yes, properties.  Our newcomer has purchased a house on Territory Road that will eventually become his primary residence and, also, the old Andrews Garage property for which he has great plans.
     Adjacent to the Oysterville Store, that old Andrews acreage not only includes a large, commercial-sized garage and a small Depression-era house, but also several sheds and a gigantic greenhouse. It is the greenhouse that is this summer’s first project and all of the residents of Oysterville have been invited to participate in its restoration.  The eventual goal is a community greenhouse where we can raise vegetables year round.
     Yesterday and the day before, Oysterville residents pitched in.  For some, it was an hour here and another hour there – whatever they could fit into already busy schedules.  A few were able to work for five or six hours at a stretch.  In the course of the two days, twelve worker-bees showed up, representative of ten households – most full-time residents; a few part-timers who came to town specifically to help.  It was the first such gathering I can remember in the three-quarters of a century that I have been associated with Oysterville, and it felt good.
     Our tasks were to get rid of the grass and weeds that had grown up inside the structure after thirty years of neglect; to remove all of the glass panes from the roof, separating the broken panes from those that will be reused; to clean both sides of the salvaged panes and of those that remain in the walls.  The plan is to restore the roof structure, then replace the panes, adding new glass to fill in where needed.
     As new people arrived, they worked at whatever seemed to need doing.  Though most of us had never worked on a common project before, the work went smoothly.  We chatted and took breaks now and then for icy cold bottled water or for coffee and cookies provided by the caretakers who live in what was once the Carl Andrews house.  There was a spirit of camaraderie and cooperativeness that felt just right (and long overdue) for our little community – Oysterville’s own, personal greenhouse effect!