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We are happy and proud that Shop People Member Shannon Guirl and her company, Caravan Pacific, have launched a Kickstarter campaign for their New Century Modern Lamp with a great start! See the lamp at caravan-pacific.com. They have a link to the Kickstarter page on their home page.

Member Highlight: Dan Pence and His Bees

 Shop People is a diverse group made up of many personality types, but its members share one attribute: they are CREATIVE! Recently one of our members, Dan Pence, got creative with an unusual bee hive project.

 “I make mead and need 6-9 pounds of honey for each batch; it gets expensive,” Dan explains. “So, I figured honeybees could make it for me in my own yard - for free. Bees are easy to raise: they exercise themselves, feed and water themselves, take out their own trash, are house-trained from birth and give their owners’ free honey! They are the perfect pet.”

 This type of hive is a version of a Kenyan-style, Top-Bar Bee Box developed by Benjamin Clark, another Portland carpenter and rower, like Dan. The last week of April 2011, at Shop People, using leftover lumber from his fence-building projects, the bee box and its stand came together. It looked like a crude cedar and tin version of the Arc of the Covenant.

 The Top-Bar design has recently become popular with amateur bee keepers. The more earthy amateur bee keepers embrace an ethic that allows the bees to work, build comb, raise brood, make honey, interrupting the harmony and safety of their hive just twice a year to collect surplus honey. Top-Bar boxes allow bee keepers to collect surplus honey, up to 60 lbs per year, without too much trauma to the bee colony.

  When Dan’s bee box was almost finished, fellow SP member and beekeeper, Jeff Woodyard, was invited to find a site in Dan’s yard where the bees would have a good chance to thrive. After surveying the front and back yards, Jeff asserted the NW corner near the raspberries to be the best site. The NW area was far enough away from the house to avoid morning shade, and a nearby apple tree in the neighbor’s yard provided afternoon shade. Bees need to keep their hive around 95 degrees year-round. In the winter they perform isometric exercises to create heat, or pack themselves together in an insulated space like a tree cavity or a thick-sided bee box. They must eat honey to keep their strength up when other sources of food are unavailable, and if it’s too cold or too wet for foraging. The less energy expended to stay warm, the more surplus honey is leftover in spring.

 Now, Dan just needed bees. He put himself on two “swarm lists.” Local beekeepers set up swarm lists to help establish new colonies. Ultimately, Dan got his new bee colony from a post on Craigslist. The poster was yet another carpenter, named Devon, who is a kindly beekeeper who didn’t have the heart to steal honey from his lovely bees. The bees were delivered less than 24 hours later and Devon helped get them moved into their new house. These bees now fly exuberantly in and out of Dan’s bee box in the NW corner near the raspberries. They seemed very happy.

About six weeks after getting bees from Devon, Dan noticed a decline in activity and fewer numbers of bees. An expert beekeeper stopped by and inspected the colony by pulling combs. He determined that the queen was not present and “laying workers” had taken over the job of creating eggs for the colony. Because worker bees lack a complete reproductive system, a laying worker produces only drones (males). The colony was doomed.

            So it was back on the swarm lists. Dan found a very small swarm posted on Craigslist. He found and captured it, dropped it into a box, but wasn’t sure if it had a queen or was viable. It was only the size of an eggplant, just a couple hundred bees.

            Then Dan remembered reading about a “bait box” in Thomas Seeley’s book. It was a small rudimentary box with a removable bottom that Seeley determined is typical of what a colony would choose as an appropriate home. Dan built one in a couple hours down at Shop People, complete with a sky blue paint job. He followed placement guidelines: 20’ off the ground, facing south, in a shady but visible spot. The old maple tree in his front yard was ideal. A few drops of lemon grass oil for scent and the bait box was ready for its open house.

            In two days, a fresh colony of bees had moved in voluntarily! Introducing them into the bee box required getting rid of the laying workers so they wouldn’t attack the new queen. So Dan pulled each comb, walked across the yard, brushed off the bees, and then replaced them in the box. The new bees would use the combs and the old bees that could fly home would. Laying workers typically are unable to fly. The bait box was lowered out of the maple tree, carried around to the back yard, bottom removed, and the new colony dumped into the old box.

            A week later, an inspection confirmed newly laid eggs and worker bee larvae. So a laying queen was in there somewhere. Dan and his bees are back on track.

Here's a link to an awesome blog post from student Alex Wetmore about the Brian Shulz kayak building class we had at the shop a few weeks ago. The class was a success and we'll be having Brian back here in the future.

http://alexwetmore.org/?p=1075

Shop People Newsletter #1

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Building Community – March 2011

Welcome to our monthly (or so) newsletter – our intention is to keep everyone informed on a regular basis about what’s going on at Shop People, as well as encourage active communication among the membership and build community together.

Shop Matters

If you break something in the shop, find something broken, empty a gas tank, or find something else empty, please call or email Craig right away so that it can be taken care of as soon as possible. Since we are a community shop, it’s important that communication and group help flows in order to keep things operating well for all members.

What is the Shop’s value to you? Is there anything we can change to make it better? We want to hear from our members about things like safety, cleanliness, consumables, tool maintenance, and how to use the power of the shop for group discounts.

Shoppeople.org

We’ve created a resource for our community within Shop People, as well as for others outside our community to access information about the shop. As a member, you can access your account to pay monthly membership dues and storage fees, as well as contribute to member forum discussions. In addition, we want to post photos of our members work, as well as include bio information and individual member’s websites. If you are interested in showing images of your work, please contact Craig.

Membership Dues

As you may or may not know, Shop People has been here for 5 ½ years, that’s right 5 ½ years, and there has never been an increase in monthly dues or space rental fees, even though the operating costs (e.g. rent, utilities, cost of consumables) have continued to rise over the years.

Currently there are 45 members at Shop People, and at this current level the Shop is barely covering its costs to run the business, which means that monthly membership dues will need to go up.

In looking at the options, we’ve decided the following:

Work space and storage will remain $1.00 per sq ft.

As of April 1^st, membership dues for new members will be $175 per month for full shop access, and $90 for the jewelry studio only membership. New members will be required to pay first and last month membership dues at the time of sign-up.

For current members: Dues will be increased to $175 on June 1^st, however we can delay this increase until January 1, 2012 if we can sign up 9 new members by June 1^st of this year.

How can you help? Let your friends and co-workers know about the Shop. We’ve got brochures you can take with you to your favorite coffee shop or hang out. Mention the Shop to your suppliers when you’re purchasing from them. Our biggest power in advertising and getting new members is word of mouth.

The more members we have, the more we can keep membership costs down – If you refer a friend who signs up for at least one month, you will receive a one-time referral bonus of $25 - for each friend you refer - off your next month’s dues! More friends = more referral bonuses!!

What do you get as a member of Shop People?

Ø       The same great 24/7 access and use of tools in the shop as usual.

Ø       A cleaner shop and stronger shop community.

Ø       Upgrades in shop equipment such as:

Ø       Increased communication between the members and management for the direction of the shop.

Ø       Stronger web presence.

Ø       Tool budget to add tools where needed.

Ø       Opportunity to showcase your craft in a demonstration session, should you be interested.

New Late Payment Rules

To encourage on-time payment, there will be a late fee of $25 if membership dues (and work/storage space rental fees, if applicable) are not received 10 days past the due date. If dues are late 30 days or more, membership will be cancelled. Any personal items left behind will be disposed of as the Shop sees fit.

Jeff Woodyard

We’ve been exploring running the shop with some extra help, have asked Jeff to take an active role in helping move the shop forward, keeping tools in shape, and getting things organized. Feel free to talk with Jeff about Shop matters – and, of course, you can always contact Craig with your questions or concerns about Shop People.

Monthly Clean-up

Special thanks to Cy Kratzer, Tomasz Misztal, Dan Pence and Jeff Woodyard for helping in the first official monthly clean-up in February. We were able to clean up the ramp landing, which was much needed.

Our goal is to make the Shop a clean and well-maintained workshop, and to build community within the membership. All members are encouraged, but not required to attend – we’ll be working on the first Monday of every month at 1 pm. No need to sign up, just show up.

Home and Garden show, Expo Center. February 23 – 27.

Thanks to Shop members - Jason Brinckman, Kimberli Matin, Cy Kratzer, Tomasz Misztal, Dave Hacker, and Jim Garrick.  They’ve done a fantastic job of demonstrating their craft and representing the Shop. Shop People is invited to participate in the Home & Garden Show in the fall and spring each year, and it’s a great opportunity to show and sell your work. Please contact Craig if you would like to participate in the next show.

Wireless Internet

Thanks to new member David Kane for greatly boosting the wireless internet signal in the main shop/basement. The password is the same as before: shoppeople416

SHOP PEOPLE: BUILDING COMMUNITY TOGETHER