News from the Country Estate 8-24-2010

Is it really almost the end of August? What happened to the time? December--soon it will be December and everything will be covered with snow and the plow will be hanging ready on the nose of the Dodge....But until then, there's still time to enjoy what has been a perfect summer (for weather).

Saturday and Sunday, KT was out of town, seeing her sister off to college (Univ of Minnesota), so I decided it was time to take my first solo daysail out in Casco Bay. I had plenty of wind, and got to practice a lot of things. There seems to be chaos on board when you're single-handing--you only have two hands and one free knee to manage, sheets and halyards, and of course the tiller. So it went ok, not the prettiest bunch of tacks and jibes, but I found my way back to the mooring field after 3 and a half hours. After practicing sailing up to lobster buoys several times, I sailed successfully up to the mooring, stalling the boat into the wind right on top of it. Then with a debonair and casual manner, I strolled up to the foredeck, with all the rigging flapping in the wind, and seized the pin-buoy and the mooring pennant. I felt pretty smug after that....

After church on Sunday, I had the time to go up to Cushing to the Historical Society which was holding a small art exhibition in their barn. My friend, David Cadbury, was showing some of his recent work. He uses Microsoft Paint as his medium and creates pixilated images of coastline and other subjects. I had to stand back 20 feet to get the real effect. Neat stuff.

Over the last few weeks, I had the time to build a custom bed frame for some seasonal resident clients of mine.
The corners are of a reused 8x8 Douglas Fir timber. The rails are simply spruce 2x6's mortised into the corners and pegged with red oak. The slats are white pine. The whole thing is sanded and finished in beeswax and citrus oil.



The client will be using a latex foam mattress on the bed, and so they requested that the surface be made up of slats so the mattress can breathe. We'll see how they find it to sleep upon. I am offering to build similar pieces for $800-1000 depending on the materials and dimensions.



Progress on the shed continues, with the back gable all studded out and one of the four gable overhangs framed. Today I'm going to frame the loft door in the front gable and then build the rest of the overhangs. Rake and eave trim will go up next, then the metal roofing on thursday. Hopefully I'll have the doors and windows going by early next week. Then a paint job.

KT is back safe from her travels, and I am glad to have her home.

Thats the news from the Country Estate for this week.

w

Late summer limbo

Well, well, another late summer limbo. I just got cut loose from my regular job because there's no work right now. Maybe a new project will come in the next couple weeks, but until then its limbo time for the bank account. How low will it go? In the mean time, we'll just eat the bounty that God gives us--this years blackberry harvest has been a bumper crop.


Then there's always the church potluck fellowship meal. We made a not-so-spicy chili.



Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves in the basement of Sheepscot Valley Community Church. Next time we have a potluck, we'll have it outside if the weather's nice.


Then, of course, there's always work to be done over at the Land of Goshen. I've had a shed platform framed up for several months now, but the time has come to frame the rest of it. Here's a progress shot from yesterday. Walls are framed and boarded now, all the rafters are up, and now I'm framing the gables and gable overhangs. I've got a whole bunch of corrugated metal roofing coming on Tuesday to get the roof on. Hopefully I'll get it all finished by the end of next week. Then I gotta figure out how to pay my lumberyard bill! Maybe I'll sell that 12" sliding chop saw you see there!!