News from the Country Estate July 11, 2010

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19:1-4

For the last two days we have had rain during the day, only to have the clouds break right around sunset. Yesterday we had a beautiful sunset on the west side and a full double rainbow on the east. Today's sunset was no less spectacular!

Its a hard life when your sunsets look like this.

Wags, profiled by the sunset.

Clouds, reflected in driveway puddle.

Early 1960's cedar lap-strake Old Town runabout.

Its been a hot few days here at the Country Estate. Temps and humidity in the 90's is about as bad as it ever gets round these parts. Unfortunately, I was in New Jersey all week putting up a horse barn, so I had the distinct pleasure of working in 105 degree heat and full sun for four days. I'd like to say it was bearable with plenty of water and sunscreen, but the pounding headaches really made it hard to work much more than 8 hours. We even started at 6am to beat the heat, but by 3pm we were pretty much all like frayed rope. In any case, the money was good and the frame went together with few hiccups and no joinery mistakes.

For a little fun, I put all three ducks in a big plastic tub to see how they'd like it. They had a good time splashing around until they couldn't figure out how to get out, then I had to use a little persuasion.

The one broody hen finally got up from the chicken house and roamed around the yard again. We were starting to think she had an egg obstruction or something, but I seen her scratching for food this afternoon. Lately they've all stopped laying due to the heat or the ducks encroaching on their space, I don't know which. I hope we can get them laying again soon, or else we'll have to buy eggs for the first time in well over a year.

Coming up we've got more summer, a couple weeks of work, then I go down to Maryland to put up another frame. This time it's a high posted cape with a lean-to shed on one side. We're still progressing on design for our home. Its a slow process, but we finally feel like we're getting somewhere.

Lastly, the motorcycle is in pieces still. :(

the first of the season

With the first backed up line of cars in Wiscasset, we know that the tourist season is here. Despite some of the anti- tourist sentiment (bumper stickers like: "if its called tourist season, why can't we shoot 'em" and "I'm NOT on YOUR vacation" for the locals), people round here know that its money from Mass, Connecticut, NY and elsewhere that makes the Maine monkey dance. Without tourist dollars ( and in that, its mainly the second home folks ), Maine's economy would resemble upstate NY-not much going on other than casinos and logging.

The weather this Memorial day weekend has not disappointed so far. Except for the farmers among us, who would prefer maybe 1 or 2 days of rain per week.

I've spent the last 3 weeks building furniture with my buddy Paul at his shop, working on the Bluebird (our 26' Rhodes Meridian/Seafarer), and enjoying the nice weather. Starting tomorrow, I'm back cutting timbers for a big horse barn going to New Jersey for a couple of months.

I just bought a 3o year old or so, Delta Unisaw table saw. Powered by a 5HP single-phase 220v motor, it will be all the table saw I will ever need. It was collecting dust in an old mill building in Biddeford and I offered a few hundred bucks and got it. Now, where to put the thing when I go pick it up?

Better, but not....

Better

but not yet best. Might not ever be, or at least not for a long time.

But the stomach has finally settled and I will go back to work tomorrow.

Scavenged material resulting in 17 2x4x8's (x $2.50 each =$42.50) and 4 2x6x8's (x $3.00 each = $12.00 more). So about $54.50 in lumber for the 12x16 shed going up on the land. I just changed the design from a 5/12 shed roof to a 12/12 gable roof, thus increasing the cost by about 40% but increasing the useable space by almost 100%. Now I will be able to store 16' lumber in the loft, a big plus when you're trying to build a house. The down side is that the increased floor space makes over 200 sq feet of floor, and a building permit is necessary; $50 and a four page form.

and

The black flies have arrived. KT wants a screen porch on the new house. They are as bad as I remember.

Ick.

Ick.

Sick.

Losing days of work.

Worst part is I know from whom I received this 24 hour flu and they even warned me.

What goes down must come back up.

Trying to maintain hydration .......

Back

So, we're back from Florida and just worked all week.

Woke up this morning to half an inch of snow. It was gone by noon. Spring has reasserted herself.

These Maine roads will wreck a suspension...just put $1300 into the Mercedes and $1300 into the Dodge. The Benz got new front struts, strut mounts and ignition wires ($250 for the set!!) and the Dodge got new front U-joints, new ball joints and an oil change. Next time buy a beater and get triple A.

Lost the camera cord, otherwise we'd post recent pics.

No movement on housebuilding due to lack of funds........but we've got steady work for the moment.

Just keep looking ahead and putting one foot in front of the other.

FLA

Sometimes you just have to obey your father when he tells you to get on a plane and fly non-stop to Florida and stay there for a week.

A welcome diversion from Maine's seemingly never-ending mudseason, we're in Orlando taking in the theme parks with part of the Midwestern Wagner clan. Along with lots of chillin out, we've already been to SeaWorld to see all the shows and what not. They even have two neat rollercoasters there.

On tap for the rest of the week: Epcot, Anna Maria Island, watching nieces be cute, and maybe Coco Beach.

We'll be back in the Maine woods this weekend, hopefully bringing beach weather with us.

---w---

Still

Still. We're still here, but hardly still.

Here is what is going on:

-Working again for Connolly and Co. Timberframe Homes and Barns. After two weeks almost finished with a 24x48 story and a half in Hemlock, going to Maryland. The other side of the shop is cutting an octagonal cabana in Western Red Cedar, so we end up wearing dust masks all day because the inflammatory effects of the cedar dust. Looks like there's at least 8 more weeks of work at Connolly's, maybe more. My friends over at Sustainable Structures have landed a new home contract over in Jefferson, and I might jump on that when the work at Connolly's runs out, as I think it will.

-Mudseason is in full swing, almost all the roads are posted "Heavy Loads Limited". Its hard to move anything heavy any where. Otherwise, we'd probably have clearing begin on our land.

-We've been pursuing a particular house design from Timberworks Design in South Burlington, VT. You can see its basic layout here. It is a 24x24 dutch saltbox. We're going to flip the whole thing around and add a day-light basement to get some more out of the small floor plan. We are still hoping to build this year, although it may be better to wait until next year.

That's about it folks,

w

news from the country estate 2-17-09

Greetings from the 'didn't get any snow this time either' country estate,

Other than the reliably pleasant mid winter weather, we've got a few other news items:

-work has been slower than slow, but thats February in Maine.

-housebuilding or more like housebuilding planning has begun in earnest. Septic system design is underway, estimates are being made, financing pursued

-I traded some work for a 6.5 kW generator recently.

-I've been prototyping some new furniture with my friend Paul over at Paul Baines Fine Woodworking. I'll post pictures just as soon as we've got something to show for it. Think about Bamboo though.

-We were down in Boston doing some preliminary marketing work for the above mentioned PBFW's line of Cathance River Stools. We're trying to get them some exposure, so I can work more building furniture as well as houses. Boston is a bit of a culture shock after being on the country estate for a while

-And, that's about it, now go over and read my other blog about Porch Restorations.

---w---

Not this East Coast

I would certainly love to post all sorts of pictures of the blizzards that have been pounding us here on the East Coast, but wait, oh yeah, all the blizzards went way south of here. We haven't gotten any new snow in weeks. Just day after day of clear skies and 25 degrees. I don't know how much more of this I can take!

Can we get some snow here in Maine? Come, on ! They don't even deserve it in D.C., at least around here we appreciate a good blizzard. I might even say we enjoy it.

How am I supposed to go snowshoeing if we don't get a little more accumulation?

Dear Mid-Atlantic and Mid-Western states,
Please deliver any excess or unwanted snow to Coastal Maine via air-mail.

Warmest Winter Regards,

Maine.

PS. please feel free to keep the acid rain and mercury from your soot-spewing coal-fired power plants. we don't need any more ;)

Guillotine Tree

I saw this goofy tree scene this afternoon while traipsing round the woods on the Wagner Estate. Off with its head!

The guillotine tree.

Earlier in the day, I was turning reclaimed lumber into window and door trim, like this:



You can read about the rest of that story here.

Other than that, Winter drags on, slowly here in Maine.