Back in the Saddle (of a shave horse)

People,

Thanks for checking to make sure I wasn't dead or anything... just kidding. Nobody raised an eyebrow during my month long "let's-see-if-anyone-checks-on-me-to-make-sure-I'm-not-dead" internet hiatus. Just to be clear, yes I am alive. No, I did not quit building awesome stuff and go back to teaching; and no, I did not completely ditch blogging because hunting season is upon us (though the prospect is enticing).

I have to catch you up on some things and tell you some stories*; but, not today. Today, we're all up at Mom and Dad's. We loaded up Helga Beast and the trailer, broke Georgie out of school early and drove up for the 70th Annual Waterford Homes Tour & Crafts Exhibit in Waterford, VA of all places. Waterford is hard to describe, because it is so utterly and exquisitely amazing. It's a tightly packed little village dating back to 1733, nestled in the rolling hills of western Loudoun County. The whole village, along with the surrounding countryside is a National Historic Landmark. The beauty of it all, is that all the homes are still lived in. It's as if a protective bubble was placed over the entire area 150 years ago. The drive there, down a meandering two-lane country road only warms your appetite. When you enter the village, instant sensory overload. You need to come see for yourself.

I am going to be a "premier artisan" exhibiting a "heritage craft" at the festival. I sent the folks over there an email in August, about 6 months after the application deadline (I know, out of character, right?). I sent some pictures with the email and they let me in! Since I said I would be making hand-split shingles to cover hand-made chicken coops, I had to get busy making some "heritage craft" tools.

 

I had to open with this shot, because it's so cool looking. Brinn took this from the dining room window. It's been a lot of late nights getting ready for this thing.

I figured the Waterford Festival deserved some primo product, luckily the timing worked out perfectly for me to snag this load of black walnut lumber from Fitzgerald Log & Lumber, the flat out friendliest sawmill in town. I mean that literally, our town of 6,000 people has two sawmills, one logyard and 1/2 a grocery store.

I normally look through the firewood pile at the log yard and get the operator there to pick off the best white oak logs they have, but -for my purposes- they're mediocre at best. The good stuff, the straight, thick, relatively knot-free logs go to the sawmill, where I bought these bad boys.

So, there's a lot going on here. The thing I'm sitting on is called a shave horse, or draw bench. I made it out of logs and stuff... actually, just logs. Yeah, there are no nails or glue or anything like that in it.

These pictures are all jumbled up and I don't have time to fight the computer this morning, so whatever. Here I am making a door for one of the Waterford coops.

I also made this rad "beetle" for poundin' stuff. The head is a section of Pecan tree that my friend Jon cut out of his yard, the handle is white oak and the little wedge in there is walnut.

Again...

If you want the sweet "rustic" vibe, you gotta make your own pegs and pound them in with a hand made mallet.

Super safe.

I'm not going to lie to you right now, Brinn made me move it to a clean spot in the yard for this shot. I guess the jig is up... our yard always looks like a tornado ripped through a lumber mill, picked it up and dumped it in a pile beside our house.

The one coop has a lot of peg stuff going on.

I also built this little garden shed / tower thingy on the left. There's a copula deal up top, which isn't visible in this shot. More on that later.

Brinn is going to get some shots today at the festival, so just get ready to see how amazing this place is.

See you soon,

F.W.

*I have to tell you about all the stuff I made for Brinn's first bridal show, and what happened there. The stuff I'm taking down to Roanoke next week (thanks for waiting Jen!), the doors I made for Brinn's old boss (thanks for waiting even longer Judy!!) and I'm finally starting my barn!!! Goodbye farmer's tan!