A West Texas “Barn-Raising”
Local residents joined staff and students from the School of Constructive Arts this weekend to lay the foundations for the new French Co. Grocer in Marathon.
Welcome to another installment of Life Its Ownself. I offer insight, analysis and context on Texas and national politics, as well as entertaining stories of life its ownself in the Lone Star State. If you like what you read, please 1) smash the Like button at the bottom of this installment, 2) subscribe to this newsletter, and 3) tell your 1,000 best friends to read and subscribe. Also, feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
But first, your moment of Zen … A thunderstorm sweeps toward Marathon on Sunday evening, November 17, 2024. Image by Jason Taylor.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Last month, a crew from the School for Constructive Arts in Terlingua Ranch began assembling compressed earth blocks, each about 14” by 10” by 3 3/4” and weighing 38 pounds. Over the course of a couple weeks, they manufactured over 14,000 of them.
And then they left them alone, stacked on pallets and wrapped in plastic tarps so that the Trans-Pecos sun and desert air could “cure” them.
This past weekend, a diverse group of people began the West Texas version of a barn-raising. There was a team from Constructive Arts; a dozen or so students who were studying at the school; and a group of locals from Marathon. They were all working to build a new home for the fabled French Co. Grocer in Marathon.
The backstory: The French Grocer opened in the late 1800s as one of several businesses in the tiny town of Marathon aimed at supplying locals with all the things necessary to sustain their families;. From 1900 to 1972, it was managed by Lucille French, from whom it got its name. It opened at its present location in 1980.
Five years ago, Sam Stavinoha bought the business (but not the buildings and land, which is relevant to our story) from its owner and set about to transform the sleepy grocery into a lively community center. In short order, he expanded the prepared food and fresh produce options at the store. Then, he repurposed the dirt lot in back of the store, installing picnic tables, sail shades to ameliorate the West Texas sun, and a music stage. Soon, the store was offering Burger Nights on Fridays, gospel brunches on Sundays and other community events to bring both residents and visitors together.
Having made the business a success, Sam offered to buy the buildings and land itself from the previous owner. They were unable to come to terms, and this summer Sam announced that he was moving the French Co. Grocery from its current location.
With a little help from a GoFundMe campaign, Sam purchased a property a block away from the current location. It once housed a diner serving breakfast and lunch daily. Sam decided that the grocer needed to be built from the ground up, and so only the façade of the old diner remains.
The School of Constructive Arts was founded five years ago in the desert outside Terlingua Ranch in southern Brewster County. Its mission is “to empower people and communities to build and live in healthy relation with the land and all its life.” They are both re-learning old, sometimes ancient wisdom on how to build structures that are more earth-friendly and sustainable, and teaching those skills to people so they can apply them to their own building projects.
Take one participant, whom I will call Jane. She and her husband are raising five kids in the Dallas suburbs. They are getting by, but not well, and the tempos and tribulations of modern suburbia are not for them. They dream of finding a piece of land out in the country and building a more sustainable life for their family. Jane has been researching “regenerative” construction – building materials, septic sites, rainwater catchments, solar panels, and the like – to prepare for the time they might build their own place.
But what struck Jane as she did her research was the necessity for some community that shared knowledge, skills, equipment, materials and all the other prerequisites for building their future. Many hands make light work, and this seemed especially true as she learned about the challenges of building their own home.
Jane enrolled in a volunteer residency at the school, a three-week course where participants learn many of the skills and techniques of regenerative building while working on projects there on the SCA campus; they call it “teach through building and build through teaching.” SCA had also taken on a project that would demonstrate the full range of their skills: building the new French Co. Grocer.
The SCA crew began filtering into Marathon Thursday evening. Sam Stavinoha had wrangled Marathon locals to provide a bed, a bunk or a sleeping space on the floor at houses around town.
Friday was devoted to orienting the SCA volunteers on the project and prepping the site for the weekend’s labors. This included erecting tall columns of angle iron at the corners of the building-to-be. These would guide the placement of the compressed earth blocks as they were laid.
Saturday morning, the SCA team was joined by about 20 Marathon residents, there to assist in the “barn-raising.” SCA founder and president Bob Estrin explained the process we were about to use: the angle iron corners would be scored with lines indicating where each course of compressed earth blocks would lie. Laser levels and string lines would be used to set the blocks at exactly the right level, particularly in the lower courses. Concrete mortar would separate the courses and the blocks from each other.
(CSA president Bob Estrin explains the use of compressed earth blocks to the assembly.)
(Marathon residents Joe Lorenz, Cole Altom, Yours truly, Mary Beth Schaefer and Guilford Jones at the website.)
Late that morning, Sam Stavinoha laid the cornerstone of the new French Co. Grocer:
To celebrate the “barn-raising,” last week’s Burger Night was moved from Friday to Saturday night and included music by the Moonshiners, featuring Butch Hancock.
(The Moonshiners, including Butch Hancock on harmonica at right, play at Saturday night’s Burger Night fandango.)
The work continued Sunday, until threatening skies forced a halt to activity. You can see the progress made over the weekend, with the crucial first courses of blocks laid.
(The worksite on Monday morning, after a weekend of work and a Sunday night downpour.)
There is still much to do, of course. Work on the new building will continue. Then comes moving the equipment of a modern grocery store – shelving, food prep equipment, coolers, deep freezes – into the store and then stocking new inventory. The grand opening of the new French Co. Grocer is scheduled for next spring.
For Sam and the SCA folks, the effort is constructing more than a building: they are creating a community united by a common goal and a sustainable approach to achieving it. Collaboration, community, sustainability — in these uncertain times, these may be the most important products of this whole undertaking.
Ahhhhh....what a palate cleanser. I can't wait to hear more about this.