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Executive Chef Bill Lliff adding vegetable scraps to the power knot

We are all more aware of food waste these days and the need for composting rather than adding material to our landfills. When food scraps go to a landfill, the decomposition process produces methane which is much more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. This in turn contributes to global warming.

The usual practice of composting places food scraps in a container and saving them until you have a batch to put into your own composter or have it picked up by a trash service. While it’s waiting around, food has a nasty habit of decomposing on its own, creating unpleasant odors and attracting unwanted pests. Then, it has to be moved somewhere else to be used in your garden or hauled away.

At the level of a commercial kitchen, disposing of uneaten food is an ongoing challenge. Wake Robin’s daily meal preparation requires hundreds of pounds of food – fruit salad, green salad, soup, animal protein, plant protein, and more. Some food can be re-purposed, such as using bones and vegetable trim to make flavorful stock. In the end, all unusable food waste becomes compost.

The Power Knot screen

 

We started looking for an alternative almost two years ago. After much discussion and research by the Climate Action Committee (a group of dedicated Wake Robin residents) and approval from the Town of Shelburne, we committed to purchase a Power Knot biodigester.

A biodigester is an automatic composting machine that disposes of food continuously. Think of it as a stainless-steel stomach in which microorganisms digest organic material. Water is injected into the machine to maintain the correct balance of microorganisms while they rapidly decompose the food waste and send it out as wastewater. A rotating arm inside the biodigester slowly churns the food waste to constantly mix the food, oxygen, and microorganisms. New food can be added at any time and the process continues. The only byproducts are carbon dioxide and water from a natural process that is carbon neutral.

The Power Knot is such a welcome addition to our main kitchen that we also put one in the Linden Health Center. Together, the biodigesters process 400 pounds of compost each week. Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle…you can even do it in the kitchen!

When you do your household cleaning, you probably don’t have anyone following along behind you, checking your work, gathering information, and filing a report. That sounds extreme but if you need to have cleanliness with accountability, you need to have a plan to do that.

At Wake Robin, our practices are very thorough. We have a group of people who set the standards for our housekeeping staff, and they also monitor those activities to be sure we’re meeting them. If you combine a well-rounded cleaning program with a regular audit, you can ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. We call these Cleanliness Audits, and this is how we do them.

The purpose of a cleaning audit is to maintain a clean and hygienic work environment for
staff, residents, and visitors. It helps to guard against infection and reduce the spread of germs and viruses. At the start, Tammy Latreille, Support Services Manager for Environmental Services, and David Mitchell, Quality Assurance Nurse, assessed where we were with our audit practices and what were the expectations. Then they made a plan for improvement.

The team also includes Dawn St. George and Ava Hasani, Support Services Coordinators for Environmental Services. David says he is the support person for the team, collecting the data, while Tammy, Dawn, and Ava are the deciders who determine our standards.

In 2018, we swapped our old pencil and paper system for the digital world of CompuClean, a software suite developed by the Spartan Chemical Company, our supplier of cleaning products. CompuClean records our data on a tablet crunches the numbers, and generates reports that show what we are doing well and which areas need improvement. The program sends an email detailing action items where follow-up is needed. The program is customized for Wake Robin, creating different audits and different schedules.

CompuClean records our data on a tablet crunches the numbers, and we get reports that show what we are doing well and what areas need improvement. The program sends an email detailing action items where follow-up is needed. The program is customized for Wake Robin, creating different audits and different schedules.

We create a task list specific to each space. For example, we’ll start with a random selection of three residences in the Linden Health Center. Add in the chart room, hallway, living room, and shower room. Now we begin the audit: How do the floors look? Is the area dusty? Are the high-touch areas clean? – telephones, door handles, and faucets. The audit team checks surfaces with ultraviolet light which causes bacteria and other materials to fluoresce – they glow in the dark! The usefulness of the audit is in checking something that has recently been cleaned. Some areas are audited monthly, and others are on a quarterly schedule. Our cleaning experts describe this as a continuous cycle: perform the cleaning tasks, do the audit, gather the data, communicate the results, and circle back later.

Another benefit of doing the audits is that besides the cleanliness checks, they also reveal other areas that need attention. Tammy says, “It makes you slow down and look at all the details.” The cleaning staff generate work orders for general maintenance needs they might notice. It might be a paint touch-up or tightening a handle.

David sums it up: “There’s a lot that’s good here. People should feel comfortable that there’s a lot of effort that goes into keeping this place clean. Overall, we do a really good job.”

We often hear visitors to Wake Robin remark on how clean it is. It’s nice to know our cleaning standards, practices, and audits contribute to a safe, welcoming environment.

Last month we told you about a new tradition at Wake Robin called the Trillium Trail. Named after our logo, the red trillium wildflower, it is a variation on the Honor Walk. When a resident is making the final journey out of Wake Robin, a specially designed quilt drapes the person as they leave the building. An announcement is made that a Trillium Trail is about to take place and anyone who wishes to take part gathers near the doorway of the Linden Health Center and forms a line in the hallway to pay their respects, bearing witness to a life and memories.

The newly designed custom quilt was created and constructed in-house by a number of volunteers, both staff and residents. The idea originated with our nursing staff with Morgan Dexter, R.N., and her mother, both accomplished quilters, leading the way. They were joined by Diane T., another quilter and Wake Robin resident, who became the point person for the project, and Jo H., quilter and resident, who donated materials.

The prep work was done in the Fiber Arts room where the experts first selected a color scheme from existing fabric, and then proceeded to the cutting, sewing, and pressing of the initial blocks. Once they had the process nailed down, Diane wrote up the directions, made kits, and put out a call for volunteers under the announcement “Would you like to make a block?” About 35 people came out to take part, some with no sewing experience, but all with a desire to contribute to this project. The final assembly and quilting were completed by Morgan and her mother on a longarm quilting machine.

A lot of hands and minds were involved with the Trillium Trail quilt. It is a nod to our shared human experience, a piece created out of love and respect. It is one more tradition that shapes community life at Wake Robin.

After Hours at Wake Robin

Wake Robin is an active, vibrant community offering many activities to suit the interests of our residents. After a busy day of living life on their own schedule, many people do a reset over dinner and decide how to spend the evening. Here is a sample of what was offered over the past few weeks.

Presentations

Laz Scangas – Grand Central Station

John Abele – The Collaboration Paradox

Wolfgang Mieder – The Government Of, By and For the People

Music offerings

Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival

Youth Opera Company of Vermont

The Stragglers Americana/Bluegrass String Band

Craftsbury Chamber Players Season Preview

Saturday Night Movies

In the Meeting Room on the big screen.

July titles included:

Driving Miss Daisy

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Brigadoon

80 for Brady

Cool Hand Luke 

When the day is done, and you’ve done the shopping, finished the appointments, and put the canoe away, Wake Robin after hours has plenty to offer.

It feels like life is an endless series of screens. It is difficult to break away from the digital world. On the other hand, it offers amazing opportunities for special connections. We asked a few Wake Robin residents how they use their internet pipelines to engage the world.

Geri A. gives talks to healthcare organizations on the various human aspects of healthcare such as disclosure of unanticipated outcomes, apology, communicating with angry people, informed consent, and the like. She regularly hosts virtual classes for UVM’s Olli program, and, for personal growth, Geri participates as a student in a series of classes in Buddhism being taught by a lama in Nepal.

Also pursuing peace of mind is Lucy B. who has been practicing daily meditation for 50 years! For the last 5 years, she has led a weekly international group of 25 regulars, half US/Canada, half UK, and one from Latvia. As a member of her international Christian meditation community, she also creates and runs its US national website, and manages its national Zoom platform.

Some professions have an international scope and digital communications are the key to making that possible. Bernie R. is a conductor who has worked with orchestras all over the world. He has a strong connection with classical musicians in Cuba and recently mentored a conducting student, living in Sweden, who is working to be accepted into a graduate program at the Royal Academy in London. From his home at Wake Robin, Bernie can help with the analysis of the score and critique technique, from Shelburne to Malmö!

We sometimes get asked, “How robust is the Wake Robin internet service?” It seems to be good enough to connect to the world!

It used to be that one of the major signs of spring in Vermont was the running of maple tree sap signaling the start of the sugaring season. Mother Nature has changed up her game in recent years and now the sap runs almost anytime from December through March.

John B. reports that the sugaring team at Wake Robin began collecting sap last December and they seem to be looking at a bumper-crop year. The sugar house at Wake Robin has a 300-gallon holding tank that has been full to the brim for the past several weeks. Resident volunteers take shifts to boil the sap transforming it into the glorious amber liquid we all love – Vermont-made maple syrup. The crew had a record day on March 3 when they drew off seven and a half gallons of Amber Rich. At a ratio of 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup, that’s a lot of boiling! Last week, total production crossed the 50-gallon mark.

Wake Robin maple syrup is allotted to the workers who make it, and some is designated for Dining Services where it is the main attraction at the annual Pancake Breakfast and Maple Ice Cream Social. The syrup is part of the welcome basket for new residents and is sometimes given as an honorarium to guest speakers.

We all see the picturesque, bright, and steamy sugarhouse with sap at full boil, but once the sap stops running and the syrup is bottled, there is plenty more to do. The task list for the off-season is extensive. There is the major cleanup of buckets and evaporating equipment, shifting wood to fill the woodshed for next season, doing maintenance and repair on the sap lines damaged by squirrels and wind, rinsing the lines twice during the year, and taking care of the numerous little things that show up during the season. According to John, “I’m happy to say that we do have a large and faithful group of Sugar Makers.”

Maple sugaring at Wake Robin is a rite of spring, a labor of love, and the rewards are very sweet!

Residents of Wake Robin know that the Woodshop has a work order system. They will do repairs to furniture and assorted odd jobs. How odd? We asked Jim W. to tell us about some of the projects brought to them. Yes, they get the usual wobbly chair legs or a refinishing request but then it goes well beyond wood. “We’ve fixed a toaster, a pedometer, a bicycle, clocks, porcelain, and assembled plastic shelving. We cut down the handle of a toilet brush to make it the right size…actually that was wood,” Jim told us.

In addition to personal pursuits such as bowl turning, shelves, cabinets, and even a boat, the woodshop gang has also taken on commissions. Their work is in use at Sneakers restaurant, the UVM Book Nook, and Shelburne’s Pierson Library. Several of their pieces are on display around Wake Robin, too: the table outside the Meeting Room, the Humanities Committee cabinet next to the stairs, and the iconic icosahedron hanging over the main desk in the lobby…a 20-sided figure created to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Wake Robin.

The Woodshop has a binder of their projects, a fun photo history of people and the work they have done. There are several photos documenting the journey of a particular tree that fell during Hurricane Irene in 2011. It was a large maple that Bob W. sawed into logs, and a flatbed carried it to Shelburne Farms where it was dried and milled into lumber. Those planks came to be stored at 35 Crabapple, and they are now in the shop as stock for new projects. The circle of life of one Wake Robin tree.

The Wood Shop at Wake Robin is here to do a repair, help you learn a new skill, or just make some new friends.

If you think the idea of making a New Year’s Resolution has been around for a while, you’re right! We can trace it back to the Babylonians over 4,000 years ago. A common resolution then was to return borrowed farm equipment. The ancient romans ran with the idea as did medieval knights with the “peacock vow.” Americans in the early 1900s took a spiritual tack on self-improvement resolutions such as “build a stronger moral character,” or “develop more restraint in the face of earthly pleasures.”  Today, we have our own take on making positive changes in our lives.

Not surprisingly, the majority of responses were “I don’t make resolutions!” but some people still make the effort. Jo-Ann B. offered this: “My resolutions EVERY year are to be kind, stay healthy, be physically active, and engaged with life as a Vermonter, American, and world citizen.  The pleasure and privilege of another year to me are indeed a blessing and a gift.  As for sticking with these broad resolutions, I persevere and persist and remember that humor and a good laugh every day always help.”

Another realistic approach came from Candace P. “Hah! Every year I fail to get my Christmas letter to friends and family written and sent before Christmas. So, my New Year’s resolution is often to send a New Year’s letter in January. I fail more often than I succeed. If I’m lucky, my friends receive a Valentine’s letter instead!”