I am from long ago with the promise
Of tomorrow.
I am from the beard of Old Man
Mountain.
I am from a family of millions.
I am from day and night.
(student collaborative poem burned into communal table in the new Girls Dorm lounge)
Born in the late 1500s and towering on the north flank of Old Man Mountain, the Big Cone Douglas fir had stood its ground for centuries, living on the Old Man’s beard since before American civilization.
But one fateful December night, a fire screamed through the valley, burning the tree and all the life surrounding it, loosening the soil that held its roots. Later, a large rainstorm cleansed the ashy surface, washing the tree into the Matilija Canyon below.
That’s how one January morning in 2018, once the Thomas Fire settled and the mudslides stopped, the old Douglas fir washed up on the doorstep of Ryan Lang, the OVS Lower Campus woodshop teacher, at his home in Matilija Canyon.
Mr. Lang plucked it from the debris and immediately went to work.
Using a mill he had set up at the Lower Campus, Mr. Lang cut the log into slabs and created a frame for a table. With the help of his woodshop class, he created the beautiful table that now sits in the newly opened girls dorm lounge at the OVS Upper Campus, with a view of its home on Old Man Mountain.
On the bottom right corner of the table, Mr. Lang burned a poem into the grain, combining lines submitted by Lower Campus English students who had been tasked with immortalizing the fir tree’s past life.
I am from where the clouds cover and
the stars shine.
I am from rocks older than dust.
I am me… a tree… strong and bold.
I am from the traumatizing days to the
mesmerizing nights.
Much like the old Douglas fir, the Upper girls dorm was a victim of the Thomas Fire.
In December, 2017, the fire tore through the Upper Campus, destroying several key buildings, including the Science and Technology center and the Grace Hobson Smith House girls dormitory.
However, both the fir and the girls dorm are now re-born, out of the fire like a Phoenix, serving a new purpose.
Many OVS supporters have donated money, materials and work to help the school recover, and Mr. Lang has been among the school’s many benefactors over the years.
Every year for the OVS Gala, Mr. Lang has produced a table or bench that has been auctioned at the event, with proceeds going to support Ojai Valley School initiatives.
For the 2019 Gala, Mr. Lang donated the table now in the girls dorm. Jack DeNault, chairman of the OVS Board of Trustees, outbid everyone else, and then donated it to be placed in the girls dorm.
OVS Upper Campus Head of School Craig Floyd has also bought many of Mr. Lang’s pieces over the years — two tables, a buffet and teacher’s desk that grace the Lower Campus classroom of his wife, fifth grade teacher Michele Floyd.
Clearly a fan of the work, Mr. Floyd said he’s incredibly pleased to see some of Mr. Lang’s other work at the Upper Campus.
“To have something from that destruction, and for it to be turned around and used for good, is fantastic,” Mr. Floyd said.
I am from 440 years of battles in the
empty mountains
I am from the faintest hint of sweet yet
salty ocean air.
Mr. Lang has had a passion for working with wood since a young age when he would split firewood, only to find fascinating and complex grain patterns. He began to make projects out of logs when he got his first chainsaw mill.
These projects were the spark to a lifetime passion for woodworking.
“I have a lot of respect for trees,” Mr. Lang said. “In my personal opinion,
they’re the enlightened ones of the planet because they don’t even have to move.”
Mr. Lang has also made numerous other projects around the valley. Through a friend at the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Mr. Lang has made a number of benches for the River Trail Preserve, embracing sustainable practices along the way that he has also worked to instill in his students.
To that end, the Lower Campus Student Council purchased a mill for the school last year that now allows all OVS woodshop projects to be locally milled.
“It just opens up a whole new world,” Mr. Lang. “All these [projects] can be used all over the valley, and something that’s just laying on the ground, all the sudden it’s worth a lot and it’s beautiful.”
I am from floods and fires.
I am from the explorations of
Sir Francis Drake.
I am from the meals had upon me, and the
experiences had before me.
I am happy to serve once again
And serve it does.
Once again the Big Cone Douglas Fir roots itself, not on a mountain but on a hill. A burned tree, now the centerpiece of new buildings sitting on the ash of old buildings.
Junior Hope Henderson, granddaughter of Mr. DeNault, is a resident student of the girls dorm and was a part of the making of the table.
A line from her poem, which she wrote in 8th grade, is a part of the collaborative poem that was put together by Mr. Lang and emblazoned on the girls dorm table.
“It’s really nice to have around and it’s really nice to use,” she said. “It’s a really great accent piece for the new girls dorm.”