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Norse Woodsmith will be going offline for possibly up to a week during the month of February to attempt a major site upgrade.  If it is successful it will return, however it may look wonky for a while while I dial it in.  If not successful, well.. then your guess is as good as mine!  Thanks in advance for your patience.

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The Barn on White Run

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Where modern craft meets the past.
Updated: 34 min 56 sec ago

Magnificent (maybe not woodworking…)

Mon, 02/10/2025 - 6:18am

Dr. Elderbarndottir has been a pipe organist since before she could drive, and some of the treasured times of my life were driving her back and forth to the church where she was employed to play.  We had precious time together alone talking in the car coming and going, and I got to sit and listen to her practice pieces for worship.   They had a small pipe organ and she loved playing it, and would frequently exclaim, “It comes alive!” when she turned on the blower.  For a time I thought she might actually go into the business of building and repairing pipe organs.  IIRC the pipe organ company offered her such a job even while she was in high school, troubleshooting is just in her veins.

Instead she went off to college, graduating with a Physics BS (summa cum laud; both daughters were HS valedictorians who went on to be summa cum laud in college, proving that Mrs. Barn fit the description when I was in the market for the smartest BabyMomma), although she did continue pipe organ studies her whole time there.  Then off to more college for her PhD.  She never lost her love for the organ even though she does not get to play much anymore.  I too have maintained a longstanding love for the instrument, and this performance and organ are both sublime.

Now that I think about it, pipe organs are about the most complex wood-and-metal things out there.  One of the most famous organ builders in the world is just over the mountain from here.

And this is just weirdly wonderful.  I think I first learned of this music form from reading Richard Feynman’s autobiographies.

Categories: Hand Tools

Tool Cabinet Parquetry – Circling Back, Or Maybe “Triangle-ing” Back

Fri, 02/07/2025 - 6:17pm

After a very long while of not working on it I have resurrected the (very showy) decorative parquetry aspect of my mondo tool cabinet.  I cannot recall exactly where I left it blog-wise and thus presume you don’t recall either.  So, let me go back to the start and endeavor to keep the thread going better than before.  Although with blizzards, greenhouses, and soon-to-be-three grandsons you never know.  My goal is to post every week or so, walking you through my process step-by-step.

The short and sweet re-introduction is that I’m going to use a fancy parquetry composition, one inspired by the works of the Roentgens.  Certainly not as fancy as theirs, and definitely not as well executed (they were perhaps the finest furniture-surface-decorators of their time, or maybe of all time [their pictorial marquetry is without parallel in my opinion]).

All of my base veneers were sawn from leftover chunks of white oak from the French Oak Roubo Project, so though the material is not literally contemporary with the Roentgens it does not miss it by much.

Depending on the piece and my mood (or weariness) I used both hand and machine sawing for the task.

The parquetry pattern is a cluster of four 30-60-90 triangles assembled into both swirl and sunburst patterns into diamond shapes, to be used alternately in the final composition.  An early sketch and proof of concept confirmed my vision for the cabinet.

Once the veneers were cut into their ~1/8″ sheets I began sawing out the hundreds and hundreds of smaller triangles.  These did not have to be particularly precise, and it was more efficient to deal with them ex poste and in the assembly process.  So my little Delta bandsaw was the perfect tool to saw a stack of the veneers into the requisite triangles.  Hundreds and hundreds of triangles.

At first I thought I would plane the edges of the triangles and created several jigs for that purpose.  It turned out to be way more trouble than that was worth, trying to hold on to little pieces of really dense white oak, planing the skew edges.  Did I mention that there were hundreds and hundreds of them to do?

I wound up taking a whole different approach, which will be the topic of the next post in this series.

Categories: Hand Tools

Latest Gabfest (not woodworking)

Sat, 02/01/2025 - 6:06am

My latest conversation with long-time friend Brian Wilson dropped yesterday on his Now For Something Completely Different podcast.  If pungent (but not vulgar) discussion of current events interests you, find it and give it a listen.  If not, don’t.

You have been forewarned.

Categories: Hand Tools

Scale

Thu, 01/30/2025 - 10:07am

Lately I’ve been contemplating the concept of “scale” in great part because I am now incorporating the making of smallish things for smallish people (for 2, soon to be 3 grandsons) into my shop time, building my huge tool cabinet, and touring the largest timber frame structure in the world.

When we visited Li’l T and his family for Thanksgiving I had in-hand a small step stool I’d made specifically for him.  I made nearly identical versions for his mom and her sister when they were little girls, and these little step stools not only served them well at the time but are still in regular service 35 years later.  I expect the same results for Li’l T’s step stool and the one I make for his brother MightyM next year and his new cousin in a couple years after that.  This one was made to fit exactly inside a 12″ x 12″ x 12″ cardboard shipping box in case I had to ship it to him.

On our way home from Thanksgiving we made a couple of memorable stops in Kentucky, again emphasizing scale.  First stop was Mammoth Cave, of which we got to see about 1%, but what we saw was still monumental.  Then on to The Ark Encounter outside of Cincinnati, where an interpretation of Noah’s Ark was presented at full scale.  “Big” does not begin to describe the structure, and if you have any interest in monumental timber framing it is worth the visit.

It is over 500 feet from end to end, and although it has a modern steel frame skeleton the interior structures are built almost entirely of timbers including whole tree trunks.  I believe they employed Amish barn framers for the work.  I spent hours just looking at the structure itself.

Back home I have resumed work on the parquetry for the tool cabinet, probably the largest piece of furniture I will ever make.  Ironically the presentation surface will be a parquetry surface assembled by combining hundreds of small triangles approximately 1″ x 2″ into scores of parallelograms roughly 2″ x 4″, further enhanced in the final composition with hundreds of mother-of-pearl dots and ivory diamonds.  There will be much blogging about this as the project resumes more fully.

This is a pattern for a half-scale version, I decided this was too small.

In addition I am delving once again into the world of Gragg, where I am still working out the details of a 3/4-scale elastic chair for Li’l T’s upcoming birthday (hope I get it made in time).  Again, at least two additional iterations will be manifest in the coming couple of years.

One of the issues with “scale” is the question, “Can something be scaled-up (enlarged) or scaled-down (miniaturized) and still be successful?”

I think I am about to find out.

 

PS – Warmer and sunny with an inch of rain tomorrow, so the snow should be all gone.

Categories: Hand Tools

A Brilliant, But Lesser Known, Designer

Mon, 01/27/2025 - 6:12am

I’ve been a Norman Carver fan-boy ever since the Fine Homebuilding profile of him decades ago.  This video reminds me to dig out that back issue and reread it for inspiration.  At the time I also bought the Carver book on Japanese folk houses.  My fascination with Japanese carpentry and design almost got me in trouble at work when I did an online search for “Minka” vernacular architecture.  (“Minka” architecture is characterized by massive steep thatched roofs on Japanese farmhouses.  Minka is also the stage name of a, uh, “model.”  I still remember the heat on my face when a gallery of her “performances” popped up on my screen.)

A colleague of mine at SI knew a lot about Carver and his houses, and if I recall correctly had some relatives who owned a Carver house.  I should probably plan a trip to Kalamazoo some time to see any that are open to the public.

Categories: Hand Tools

Dark and Light

Wed, 01/22/2025 - 12:29pm

This is a bit of an explanation as to why the blog has gone dark for three weeks or so.

Three and a half weeks ago the weather forecasters shocked the snot out of us by getting the “what, when, and how much” guesses right on the mark.  I mean dead in the bulls-eye.  We got the “eight to fourteen inches of snow” exactly when they predicted.

The next morning I fired up my monster snow blower and got to work.  I was thinking it would take me two or three hours to get the driveway and parking spaces cleared.  At the end of my first trip to the cattle gate at the entrance to the driveway down by the road, the blower snapped both of its auger/blower drive belts.  Okay, I’ll just go into town and get a couple more.

Mrs. Barn and I did just enough shoveling to get my truck off the property and into town.  Unfortunately, my experience was replicated many times in the county as this was the first time in four years we needed to get out our snow blowers, and a lot of them broke their belts on the same day.   As a result there were none in town.  Anywhere.

Okay, I’ll find some close by on the interwebz so it can be here the next day or two.  Alas, my phenomenon was apparently replicated thousands of times across the mid-Atlantic and none were close by.  Eventually I found a place in Milwaukee that had them “in stock.”  It’s been three weeks and they have yet to arrive.

Meanwhile, we spent dozens of hours shoveling the driveway and parking area by had so that life could proceed with little further disruption.

This was not the worst snowfall we’ve seen since buying here 25 years ago.  I remember planning to come for a long weekend in maybe 2009(?) or thereabouts to work on the barn, and when I checked with my pal Tony he told me not to bother.  “The snow is as deep as the top of the cattle gate.  You aren’t getting in.”  Two weeks later I got in, no problem.

You see, our normal weather pattern is for a storm front to come through and dump some snow, followed by a couple very cold days, followed by a couple weeks of mild (above freezing in the daytime) weather.

Not so this year.  Yes, we had a storm front with the snow, exactly how much is unknown because the howling winds moved it a bunch even after it fell.  Yes, I saw and shoveled snow that was 8-inches deep.  But, I also saw and shoveled snow that was more than a foot deep.

Patiently we waited for the mild weather to return and take care of the snow cover on the driveways.

It never came.  It still hasn’t

Once we started getting the long range forecasts for last week and this week I knew we were in trouble.  If it got as cold as predicted we would be using a week’s worth of firewood every day.  Every day.

Fortunately I had about half of next winter’s firewood already cut, split and stacked.  Unfortunately, it was up next to the barn.  This meant I had to get a truck up to the barn to retrieve it.  And for that to happen, the whole driveway to the barn and much of the parking area next to the barn had to be shoveled by hand so we could replenish our firewood inventory at the cabin.

So I did.  Shovel the complete driveway.  This meant that from beginning to end I/we shoveled almost a quarter mile of driveway.  By hand.  Much of it twice as there were several subsequent weather fronts coming through dropping more snow.  Sunday’s yield was 5-6 inches, fortunately light fluffy snow so the shoveling was easy and (comparatively) fast.  Still, I would guess that in the ten days between two weeks ago and yesterday I estimate 50 hours with my hands on the shovel.  I make a point of going slow and steady.  Almost every night I was almost asleep by the time supper was over.

This is by far the most and longest-lasting snow cover we have had in our years here.  This coming weekend we will have a few days at or above freezing, with sunshine, and that should cure all the ills.  It follows two really cold weeks, including this REALLY cold week with five consecutive nights near or below zero at night.  This morning was -10 when I checked at 8AM.  We haven’t used a week’s worth of wood per day, but still it’s been a lot.  Around a dozen arm loads per 24 hours rather than the normal half dozen.

All that Light has been why the blog has been dark.

Categories: Hand Tools

Workbench Wednesday – BobR’s Magnificent Beast

Wed, 01/15/2025 - 5:51am

Although there are several in the pipeline, I do not have any active workbench projects in the barn at the moment.  I am delighted to feature other folks’ work, though, and here is a video from Bob Rozaieski on his new magnificent workbench.

I don’t think Bob and I have met but I plan to rectify that shortcoming the next time I pass near by his shop, which does happen on occasion as we head up and down the highways.  We correspond with some regularity but thus far no in-person fellowship.

Categories: Hand Tools

The Sublime and the Ridiculous (not woodworking)

Mon, 01/13/2025 - 5:58am

I’m never sure how yootoob executes searches, as I frequently have something pop into my Recommendations that I had unsuccessfully searched for many moons ago.  Much to my delight this is one such example that showed up last week.

As I have already indicated I could listen to Delphine Galou sing the phone book.  I am no fan of operatic music but somehow this oratorio by Vivaldi is captivating.  I am such a fan of hers that were she to tour the US I would make every effort to attend a concert.  Even if it meant going to NYC, especially if Congress manages to pass CCW reciprocity.

Mrs. Galou is firmly ensconced in my current pantheon of female vocalists along with Jennifer Warnes and Eva Cassidy, with Alison Krauss, Gloria Lynne and Deborah Holland in the bullpen.  Full confession — I just don’t get Billie Holliday.

Against the glory of Mrs. Galou’s singing is the ridiculous visual of the chamber music ensemble wearing face diapers in keeping with the edicts of the Fauci Flu fraud purveyors and their gullible myrmidons.  Was the Fauci Flu a real thing?  Of course, I spent nearly two weeks in the hospital with it.  I know folks two degrees of separation who died from it, usually in forced isolation as they died.  Was Fauci Flu something “special” epidemiologically?  Other than its sponsorship and source, not particularly.  Periodic lethal respiratory flus sweep the nation with only slightly less mortality.

I have a good friend who was a BCN specialist in the military.  That’s Biological, Chemical, and Nuclear weapons.  His expertise indicates that the only protection against viruses the size of Fauci Flu would require a full, sealed hazmat suit with independent air source.  Face diapers are futile, as the unfolding medical literature is confirming.  (Mrs. Barn is a trained scientist and reads the stuff)

Thus, the sight of this instrumental ensemble performatively wearing completely ineffective “protection” is more sanctimonious virtue signaling than anything else.  I wonder when or if we will look back at such posturing with the ridicule it demands, or if any of the perpetrators will ever receive justice..

Ironically, one of the guys who got this exactly correct, and was systematically silenced and defamed by the “smart people,” will soon become the most powerful person in the US medical establishment.  Karma, baby.  Karma.

If my comments about the Fauci Flu disturb you, I will give your concerns all the gracious consideration is appropriate.

Okay, I’m done with those considerations.

And if you are not enamored with the voice of Delphine Galou?  You just might be a barbarian.

There, I’ve said it.

Categories: Hand Tools

Neatniks R Us (Not!)

Fri, 01/10/2025 - 12:37pm

One of the great things about possessing and occupying the barn is that I have 7,000 square feet of space.  And occupy it I do.  Lots of storage, lots of work space(s).  As a matter of fact, I have more than a dozen work stations allowing me to set up multiple projects, moving from one to the other as needed.  Or more truthfully, moving from a cluttered one to a less cluttered one.

Thus the down side to occupying the barn.  It needs more regular cleaning than I am inclined to do.

I have two dear friends, MikeM and MartinO, whose shops are so neat and orderly at all times they are what critics of shop videos would say, “It looks like no one ever works there, they are too clean.”  I can attest that Mike and Martin are indeed so orderly their shops do look that way.  Whether it is by necessity or temperament, the shops reflect the orderliness of the men themselves.  Everything is in its place, put away immediately after use.  Everything is kept clean, all the time, beginning with the moment a task is completed.

I will resist the churlish temptation to brand this as some sort of psychosis (smile).  Alas, I do not possess the traits these two neatniks have as my operating system.

For the past few months I have been paying the price for my own poor housekeeping habits, working my way back into regular shop time by cleaning the place, one work station at a time.  The end in in sight but I know well enough the trial of messiness will return soon enough.

Here’s a partial montage of my work stations.  I apologize in advance for the photography; trying to get good images when the space is ambient light and blinding snow reflection is blasting through the windows.

On the east wall, directly underneath a double row of windows is my FORP monster workbench, 8-1/2 feeet long and probably close to 500 pounds.  This bench gets used almost every day, currently is is the working platform for assembling my parquetry units for the big tool cabinet I’m making.  Underneath the bench is a cabinet full of marquetry/parquetry tools and supplies, and my stash of adhesives.  They are located here to be near the wall propane furnace.

Turn around from Roubo and you’ll find my third child.  If I was a Viking I would have this one buried with my in the mound.  This bench, with one of my Emmerts on board, is my most used piece in the whole shop.  I’m currently using it tp layout the doors of the parquetry tool cabinet.

One step behind and parallel to this bench is an early Roubo, not really successful but good enough to use as my metalworking and tool repair bench.  It has an Emmert machinists vise on it, and many jigs underneath.

Midway along the north wall is another Roubo bench, now my primary finishing station.  Underneath are cabinets full of brushes, pigments, and tube paints, etc.

Turn around from my finishing bench and you will find the Studleyesque bench I built for the exhibit now almost a decade ago.  It is perfectly usable as a general bench, but I mostly use it for my sellable inventory underneath, and packaging orders to ship out.

Down in the northwest corner of my shop is my “fine work” bench, a salvaged and renovated Sjoberg I use for all manner of small scale work.  Gunsmithing, engraving, checkering, silicone mold making, chasing, etc.

Literally adjacent to the Sjoberg bench is my writing station.  You might not think writing is work, but I promise you it is.  The chair frame was made by my Roubo translation collaborator Philippe Lafargue.  I use a turned over seat deck from a long gone project as my lap desk.

In the corner opposite my engraving station is my waxworks, encompassing all manner of wax processing.  It’s on top of a large map case unit full of veneers, mother of pearl pieces, and other exotic material.  Keeping the waxwork tidy is an unwinnable proposition, I just try to keep it usable with minimal fuss.

And this is just some of the stuff inside my 15′ x 35′ heated shop.

Stepping outside the heated shop is the “great room” in the center of the floor.  In the center of that is this Nichiols that I use whenever I am traveling to demonstrate traditional hand tool work.  It gets used here too, currently for making a Japanese planing beam and the base frame for the parqutery tool cabinet.

The north side of the great room is just tool and supply storage, but along the south edge is the space for my lathe, chop saw, and a vintage machinist lathe I bought at Donnely’s and then it was restored by my long time friend Jersey Jon.

At the east end of the room, in front of the wall o’windows, are two rolling benches with a variety of power machines, and next to them is my drill press.

On the opposite side of the floor from my shop is a space I originally designated as a classroom.  It contains several work stations for students, but now serves as an intermediate space for things in process of being “put away.”

Then on the fourth floor is my Gragg chair workshop.

At one end of the 40 x 24 space is my Roubo workbench, steam box and many bending and assembly jigs.

I also have a couple of large assembly tables that can be situated as the need arises.

So there is a truncated account of all the work stations I need to clean.

 

 

Categories: Hand Tools

DO/MAKE/BUY

Thu, 01/02/2025 - 11:23am

I’ve never been a “New Year’s Resolution” sorta guy; either I do something or I do not.  That’s not to say I don’t articulate goals, which is itself a fluid undertaking.  The primary manifestation of this is a large “DO, MAKE, BUY” whiteboard always on display in the shop.  This gets updated by erasing items once completed or new ones added when they pop into my fertile brain.  Remember, manure is fertile, too.  There is no hierarchical organization to the contents, things just go where there is space.

As of January 1, 2025 this is my set of reminders.

Categories: Hand Tools

The Carpenter’s Step-Son (MMXXIV)

Tue, 12/24/2024 - 11:39am

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Holy_Family_Father_and_Son_CorbertGauthier

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

sculpture

And they said, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary?”

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 

 

I pray for you to have a blessed Christmas with loved ones and that you are celebrating the Incarnation, through whom we can be reconciled with The Creator.

Categories: Hand Tools

Bandsaw Upgrade (?)

Fri, 12/20/2024 - 8:50am

As I approach the end of the year I am reflecting/projecting on the projects ahead of me.  In addition to diving deeper into writing I’ve got a large number of things on my plate, including the mini-Gragg for Li’l T’s March birthday (coincidentally the month for the arrival of grandson #3, all of them March boys), outfitting my 18thC tool chest collection for on-site interpreting and re-enacting, doing some casting and patternwork, some possible private tutorials at the barn, several new workbench builds, blah, blah, blah.

High on my list will be resuming work on my ultimate tool cabinet, the one that will take me along until my ashes are scattered on the mountain.  Since the presentation surface of the cabinet will be parquetry in the fashion of the Roentgens, and made from scraps left over from the French Oak Roubo Project, I still have a lot of veneer to saw to complete that.  I’ve written about that some, but it has been so long I will probably start the account all over again.

To enhance my veneer sawing I am thinking seriously about another upgrade to my bandsaw using the roller guide set from Carter.

Have any of you tried this product?  If so, please let me know.  It is not cheap, around $200, but if it works as well as they say I will plunk down the money without hesitation.  Given the fact that I originally bought the saw for $100 at a yard sale, I can afford to tart it up a bit.

Categories: Hand Tools

‘Tis That Season, Can You Handel It?

Thu, 12/19/2024 - 7:26am

Thanks to the generosity and tech savviness of a blog reader and dear friend, I’ve had my favorite version of G.F. Handel’s Messiah playing on my pocket mp3 for some time now.   BTW, I have my favorite mp3 player model Mrs. Barn bought as a gift more two decades ago, and I especially like the feature of external battery power (one AA lasts a week or more) and external memory (a single 2G SD card, the maximum this ancient model can support, holds about 40 hours of audio). IIRC it was so long ago she bought it at a KMart!  Since that model is no longer available, of course(!), I keep browsing ebay to get replacements when they get worn out (or too banged up).  I rue the day this model is no longer available.  Sometimes I score a NOS unit in the original unopened package but used ones are more likely.

This Messiah is most sublime in its medieval setting using period instruments.  All the musicians and vocalists are superb, but alto Delphine Galou is simply hypnotically radiant.

As I ease back into work in the shop, mostly cleaning and organizing which I find to be the best way to get into it, I have this music running through my ear buds more minutes than not.  It puts a sensory smile on my face to accompany the transcendent smile in my heart as I reflect on the incomprehensible grace of The Incarnation.

 

Categories: Hand Tools

A Different Take On Roubo

Tue, 12/17/2024 - 6:08am

Fascinating.

Categories: Hand Tools

Bidnez Advice To Self

Sat, 12/14/2024 - 7:09am

Over the past year I have been working on getting my inventory of the Historic Woodfinishing DVD replenished as I was quickly running out of inventory, which I finally did several months ago.  But still the orders came in.

The first step was corresponding with the good folks at Popular Woodworking, who produced the original videos, to inquire about their warehouse inventory.  They had none, but did release the rights to the contents to me.  A very generous and classy gesture on their part.

Then I spent a lot of time contemplating the revisions of the cover art and text.  I wanted to simultaneously accomplish three things:

  1. Revise the descriptions of the video content
  2. Promote The Barn as the new distributor of the DVD
  3. Recognize F&W Media as the original producers of the video and retain the general visual presentation of the product

This process took me a surprising amount of time, mostly because I do not have a state-of-the-art graphics and layout package on my compewder.  Once that was done Tim and I sought a fulfillment company to accomplish the task.

Here’s the strong bidnez advice: do not select a fulfillment vendor who is located in the path of both hurricanes plowing through Florida.  The business we were working with just disappeared.

Still, Webmeister Tim worked his magic and got things moving again, and this week I received the first box of new DVDs.  A second box is due after the holidays.

So at long last I was able to finally get all the back orders sent out.  All should arrive at the customer’s mailbox on Dec 19, just in time for Christmas.  In fact, all the orders for all products have been sent, unless something came in over night I am all caught up!

Categories: Hand Tools

Apple Butter, Episode 2

Mon, 12/09/2024 - 6:22am

My recent post about apple butter making was an account of a “public” event at our friends Pat and Valerie’s place a month ago.  A couple weeks ago we learned that there was going to be a second episode of apple butter making, this time pretty much restricted to a close circle of friends.  We are, fortunately, part of that circle.

The appointed day for the apple butter rendering was a brutal cold, raw, windy and rainy day.  In response Pat and Valerie set up the cauldron inside their boiling hearth, normally holding the sugar water boiling pan for making maple syrup.  Being a creative guy, Pat removed the pan and rigged up his cauldron with a propane burner to cook the apple chips.  Or maybe it was Valerie’s idea, I don’t rightly remember.

This made the entire event even more charming and cozy.

So there we were in this homey setting, stirring and adding apple chips to the bubbling cauldron until after several hours it was time to add the spices.  Normally sugar would also be added but this batch of apples was so sweet naturally none was needed.

The spices were stirred in for another half hour.

At the proper time the canning began with a well-honed assembly line.  Once again my task was to take away the full cases loaded with the still-hot apple butter.

Out came the fresh biscuits, made with loving excellence by Pat’s sister.  The scrumptious biscuits were used to clean out the cauldron.   Yummmmm.

Another day well spent.

Categories: Hand Tools

Greenhouse, Episode #6

Fri, 12/06/2024 - 7:01am

The time was fast approaching when I could button up the wire frame tunnel, wrapping it with the 6mil greenhouse plastic.

First, concurring with reader EarlM, I secured al the wireframe panel edges with hog rings along the joints.  Yes, zip ties are not what was ultimately needed but sufficed for the initial assembly, but the metal hog rings were necessary for the long haul.  Addressing the issue of stable edge joints was paramount as the ongoing vibrations of wind against the wire/plastic would eventually breach the film membrane.  Not good.  However should that ever occur I can repair it with special tape made for that purpose.

And speaking of tape, I decided to cover the edges and hog rings with Ace Hardware store brand heavyweight packing tape.  It is not very good for packing cardboard boxes but really excelled at this application.  Two layers of the thick transparent tape had me ready for the final step of this episode — draping the whole thing with the plastic film and affixing said film to the edges of the wooden structure.

I’d arranged for my friend Boyd to come over to help, and he was a great help with excellent ideas on how to actually do the task.

I spent the next few hours tacking down the edges to secure the lid.  Not all of it was aesthetically exquisite, but it has been holding fast through some pretty fierce winds already.

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like greenhouse, just in time for Christmas.

Categories: Hand Tools

Trolling For Firewood

Tue, 12/03/2024 - 4:47pm

Since we have had a six-week stretch of amazingly beautiful weather, although to be truthful a day or two of rain would also be nice, I’ve taken some time to go strolling through the woods, trolling for firewood.  Here’s the standing inventory of firewood just awaiting harvest within about a hundred yards of the cabin or barn.  Expend the perimeter farther and the inventory grows proportionally.

Just above the site of the old shack, recently cleaned up and ready for bush hogging itself, is this cluster of trees from a storm last winter.  All tolled I think there are eight long trunks, each around a foot in diameter.  Definitely a couple little truck loads.  I think these were birches but will confirm with my chainsaw.

Along the same ridge line, about fifty yards above the cabin is this magnificent pair of locust trunks.  The tops were snapped off in a windstorm maybe three winters ago.  You can just barely make them out in the picture.  The trunk on the right is massive, perhaps a dozen feet or more in girth.  The one on the left is about eight feet in in girth.  Both will require the manly chainsaw of my pal Bob, who will come and fell them some time this winter.  If the wood is sound I might try to split them into fence rails.  If they are not good for that they will become most excellent firewood, probably two winters’ worth.

The tops of those two trees are laying scattered on the ground and I will harvest them in the coming weeks.  Since they are locust they could be downed for many years and still be good firewood.  This hunk is almost two feet in diameter.

Working west along the same ridge line about 100 yards from the cabin is this pair of mighty big trees, brought down in the same storm as the first cluster in this post.  All of the major trunks are 16″-18″ in diameter.  One is cherry, I cannot recall what the other one is.  Either way that is one honkin’ big pile of firewood.

Moving around to the hill up behind and within sight of the barn is another cornucopia of BTUs.  The first picture is of a maple, the second a cherry, and the trunks strewn about in the third picture are all locust.

I can hardly wait to turn my little chain saw loose on cutting all this up and stacking it in the staging area.  But it has to wait until I get all done with the greenhouse.

Categories: Hand Tools

Greenhouse, Episode #5

Mon, 11/25/2024 - 8:18am

With the wire frame tunnel in place it was time to frame out the ends.  It was not as easy as I had hoped given that the perfect semi-circular arc was not, well, perfect.  Nor was it even symmetrical for both ends.  Mostly a semi-circular arch, but not perfect.  That meant that every stick had to be custom cut and fit before assembling with deck screws.  plus, the pile driver/local rocky dirt combination meant that the posts themselves were out of perfect by about an eighth of an inch.  All of that compounded to make sure the assembling of the end framing was a tedious process.

I did have the advantage(?) of lots of recycled windows and doors.  When you have replaced all the windows in two houses, you’ve got plenty of inventory.  There are two doors at each end, one screened and the other glass.  All of the windows will be openable as screened awning windows once the weather is right in the early summer (our “frost free” date is May 30).

Notwithstanding the fact that the arch at the east end of the space was 2″ off-axis due to whatever factor — lunar forces, prevailing trade winds, inherent torque in the raw material — it was an easy enough problem to rectify once I recognized it.

Compounding all of the tedium was that we were at the time of year when I lose usable working light by about 4PM, at least “usable” for these tired old dysfunctional eyes.  But after about four days of effort the ends were framed and mostly glazed.  I say “mostly” because we are awaiting the arrival of the solar ventilation fan to get installed before everything gets buttoned up.

At least you get the idea.

Up next; draping the plastic.  Stay tuned.

Categories: Hand Tools

Cleanup on Aisle 9

Fri, 11/22/2024 - 5:13am

With beautiful autumn weather in the air and the hillside bush hogging (mostly) completed, for a couple days I turned my attention to the last remains of the shack that was once someone’s home a hundred years ago.  My brother, nephew and I dismantled and salvaged a great deal of the lumber from the building nine (!) years ago before I was so rudely accosted by a wheelbarrow and the whole project was interrupted.  By the time I had recovered fully from my broken hip it was late winter and the inspiration to finish the task had passed.

Flash forward to now.

As I was wrestling the bush hog around the site recently, I thought the time had come to finally clean up the mess.  I had hoped that there might be some last vestiges to salvage, even if for nothing other than firewood, but that was not the case for 99% of the detritus.  It just all needed to be piled in the truck and hauled to the burn pit at the dump.

Three heaping truckloads later all that was left were two large timbers.  These were the only elements worth salvaging, and even then it was just for firewood.  It’s a real shame, as they were still bearing the axe marks of the men who made this home probably around 1900 or so.

Categories: Hand Tools

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