Apples

Yesterday we went apple picking. It was a perfect day weather wise. I have a blast watching my son run through the orchard grabbing apples of all kinds.

I also love the scenery. Not just the farmland with all of it's fall colors but the weathered old barn boards and the gray apple bins.
I love how it looks when the land starts to reclaim it's territory and swallows up machines and equipment that have been left there to retire.
Crazy sounding I know but I find a strange beauty in it.
The gray boards, the colors in rust'
If you have the chance ask the folks who run the orchard for some of the prunings. Apple wood is beautiful. It turns easily and makes awesome candle sticks or mallet heads. And - if all else fails you can use it for smoking food on the grill, it's delicious'

The ride home consisted of eating apple donuts and drinking fresh apple cider. Awesome'

As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Thursdays tip

Thursdays Tip
Well- sort of

It's not a tip but rather a reminder. I was reading the October issue of Fine Woodworking magazine and turned to an article by Bob Van Dyke, founder and director of the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. The article is about the simple wooden wedge and all of its uses. The title of the article is 'The Versatile Wedge.' Use these simple shop helpers to tackle tricky glue-ups, hold parts at the bench, and more.

I have a collection of How-to and woodworking books from the 50's and 60's and all of them show a simple wooden wedge being used for different purposes. The wooden wedge was the first woodworking clamp. Take a look at a traditional style trestle table and the wedge is used to lock the table in place and keep it sturdy. There are all kinds of clamps available at home centers and woodworking catalog stores. And all of them promise to do this, or do that, but a simple wedge can do all of the same tasks. You can save your self a lot of money on specialty clamps by making some wedges of various sizes and a few wooden jigs.
As adults we tend to over complicate things, when there is a simple solution staring right at us.

If you don't have a copy of Fine Woodworking magazine you can buy one at your local book or grocery store and online atwww.finewoodworking.com. Bobs article is on page 32 in the October edition.
Have a look and enjoy the simpler things. I've had the pleasure of teaching for Bob. Check out the school and all of the courses it has to offer at www.schoolofwoodworking.com

As always - Thanks for watching following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Face lift

The shop underwent a little face lift this week.
Friends of mine gave me some great cabinets that I installed in the shop, freeing up some room and giving me much needed storage space. It's funny how I added more to the space, but there seems to be more room now. Crazy how that works.
Anyways - I finally got it ready and cleaned..

As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Perfect

A couple of weeks ago I made a two plank chair. I've always wanted to make one but just never got around to it. It was after a visit to the Coggeshall farm museum in Bristol, RI that I got inspired to make one. I know it's a little late in the season but when I saw my son sitting in the chair around the fire pit at Coggeshell I thought now's as good a time as any.

The chair is simple to make and works really well. It's also a great project if you have a couple of pieces of off cuts you don't know what to do with. I used a couple of boards I had taken off of a large pallet to make mine. I added a couple of pieces of foam rubber to make it more comfortable. The chairs aren't the most comfortable chairs in the world but they only take an hour to make and they work'

I couldn't quite put my finger on it but I knew after I had made mine that there was something missing. After many hard, arduous hours of searching I found the perfect accessory for the chair. Now it's perfect.'

Check this out'

I know some of you might disagree with me, but think about it -
what can be more perfect than a chair around the camp fire that has a built in flush mounted bottle opener. It was simple to install the flat opener. You simple drill a shallow mortise the thickness and diameter of the opener, and then another smaller mortise, approximately 1/2 inch deep.
The chair is now complete and resides in the back of my vehicle.
Perfect'

As always - Thanks for
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

following