A Walk in the Yard ... Springtime in Vermont

It was just such an awsomely beautiful spring day that I thought I should post the pictures I took today before it turned into 'just another day in paradise' as Jimmy Buffett might say. This post is similar to 'A Walk in the Woods' , one I wrote in the fall that had the same flavor but covered a little more geography. Today, for the initial photos, I never left the yard..... If you've never seen a springtime in Vermont, it's something to see (as I guess, really, spring is something to see everywhere), but this one was mine and it was just one of those days when everything feels just right. Click the pictures to enlarge them...

I started out studying my new woodshed and had no pressing plans except to meet an old friend at his sawmill over the mountain in Bondville to get some lumber for my shed deck, stop at the other lumber yard for some red cedar for a shop project coming up and then hit some golf balls at the driving range on my way home. After that I thought I might chat with the wife, read the paper and have a beer, take a nap and do a little hammering when I woke up. Got everything done but the nap by dinner. Did the nap after dinner and here I am ... writing away ...
After my little study, I went in for another cup of coffee and went out the back door and it was just beautiful ... everywhere I looked, everywhere I went ....

Kit has the hummingbird feeders up as of yesterday. They should be arriving any minute ...

Looked to the East, to Peter's Peak, generally, the first and last sunlight in Dorset.

Turned and went past the aspargus patch ... we've been eating that for a couple days now.

Past the hay fern patch with the little (inedible) fiddleheads just coming up ...

Came around the lower edge of the lawn to the front of the house again

Past the Chinese chestnut Kit planted, also for the hummingbirds...

All that green stuff coming screaming out of one little bud at the end of each branch

Past the woodshed again and then past the crabapple about to burst into total pink on the front lawn ...

Over by the metal shop where Sam is working on a tabernackle, the part that allows the mast to hinge up and down for this Barnegat Bay Sneabox that a friend bought last year. I'm helping him with the mast tomorrow ...

Close up of the tabernackle out of it's hole. As I understand it, it's held in by gravity as the mast is held by the rigging when it's up.

Past the pear tree, about to bloom ...

and down to the ravine between the house and the shop to the wild leek patch. Came with the property.

There are also about a million red terilliams there with em.

and the stream that goes to the duck pond. You can see the shop in the backround.

Up the hill past some funky burnt sienna colored something or other

to the back of the house, and then off to Bondville, a little behind schedule ....

to Coleman Hills Farm ... About as 'Vermont Life' looking as you can get ...

Picked up my lumber and headed back over the mountain.

Stopped by Gale Meadows Pond where my wife and I fished often before we had kids...Might be fun to do that again now ...

Stopped at the scenic overlook to admire the green in the valley and the brown at the top
Had my beer, finished the deck framing, had a nice dinner, unloaded my truck, had a nice nap ... nighty night now ....

Folding Coffee Table

I had a client/friend come by with an interesting recycled wood and metal project. She had a board her son had saved when he did some remodeling and demolition work for her. Anyway, she also had some nice handforged nails that had come from the same building. Her son had told her he was going to make a coffee table out of the board he had saved at some point. We'll, she beat him to it and had it made for him, as a present. It wanted to fold, as he was moving cross country soon. The design we came up with is based on a folding sewing table I got from a friend a while ago. It has metal hardware that squeaked when you opened it so we came up with a simple hickory wood version. It has a satisfying 'snap' when you open it and is surprisingly rigid. We pounded about 40 of the hand forged nails into the edge of the board. Folds almost flat ... fun object...instant antique ... whatever ... check it out .. Click the pictures to enlarge them ... I'll have a couple more pics coming tomorrow ...
More pics 4/29

Close up of the corner with nails

Underside

Open and done
4/28/09

The bottom of the board

Folded up

opened up

the original folding sewing table with the metal mechanism
One more photo of the finished table coming ...

Another Interesting Repair

We fixed a desk for the niece of one of our longtime customers recently. It was her grandmother's desk, and one of it's legs had been broken (and repaired) several times. She had moved to a new house and could no longer prop it in the corner as she had in the past. It was a cool piece with nice carvings, some slick hardware that pushed out the flap supports when you pulled open the desk front, and onyx drawer faces and gallery details inside. It took some creative gluing and clamping to reattach the carved foot but it looked pretty good when it was done, if I do say so myself ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

Badly repaired break

planed the ends smooth

Figured out how much was missing

We screwed a piece of plywood to the other three legs to locate the broken foot contact and put a temporary leg the right length in place so that when the leg was fixed, the desk would sit level.

Finished the joinery , doweled it as it was and glued it up with the broken foot

Rough shaped it

Did some minimal suggestive carving

Opened it up and found we needed to get rid of the blotter paper that was taped in there and get some leather down.

Stretched a piece of leather over some scrap plywood, made a luan ply pattern and cut the leather to exact size. masked off the desk and sprayed 3M Spray 90 adhesive on the leather and the desk insert. We put a piece of wax paper under most of the leather and slowly pressed the leather down and tugged the wax paper along, stretching the leather as we pushed it ( glued it ) into place. In the end, the width was good but we had to trim about 1'4" off the length in place.

There were some sweet onyx drawer faces that needed some refitting and handle reattachment and the two columns in the center were 'secret' compartments ... Loved the whole thing when it was done and so did the client when we dropped it off last week.

Sping Fever

The Garden ... of course

Yo! I see I haven't been writing much lately ... must be Spring Fever in Vermont (finally). I think I've played my last paddle tennis for the season and I made it to the tennis court and the golf course in the last week. Too much going on outside to sit in front of a computer any more than I have to, which, (fortunately), has been quite a bit lately. We've had a flurry of requests for new quotes and designs which is quite a change from the last couple of months when I thought someone had stolen my phone or taken down my website. We've got quite a few projects on the board and in the pipeline which is nice. Some of the things we've been working on ... click to enlarge ...

A challenging desk repair .. delivered it today ... more on that later

Finished the doors .. more info here

Put the stove in last fall ... Need a wood shed now ... concrete Friday

Me and my original woodshed with beams I hewed from pines on my property in Arlington, VT .. circa 1975.

A cherry, burl and walnut coffee table to go with a credenza we made four years ago .. roughed out the lumber and stickered it today ..

A cherry bed like we made for my neighbor Sheila (and a few other clients)

Will roughed out the turnings today and Trevor started on the rails and the bolts.

We're copying a knife display case we made about 10 years ago for a new store J K Adams is opening in Stowe ... If the felt for the back of the top case comes tomorrow, we'll finish it up..

In process

This is the next tbig thing ... a room full of paneling, a desk and a bar/stereo cabinet ... concept below ...

Designs for a 'dragonfly ' coffee table for a potential new client

the bar cabinet for the project above ...

All for now though that's not all that's going on ... They say Spring is a time of renewal ... I guess ...