The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Black walnut

As most of you will remember, a few months ago we had quite a few trees felled in order to reclaim our once spectacular view. We thought of it as our anniversary/Christmas gift to ourselves.

Writing the check was a little painful but this was our view last December and this below was taken yesterday.

Lots of fog all day but a view, nonetheless.

All those trees ended up in a giant's pick up sticks snarl. (Having the tree guys deal with the fallen trees would have upped the price to out of our reach.)

So John and Justin set in on reducing the tangle to manageable bits -- an ongoing process.

Poplar and black walnut

Lots of firewood -- too green for use now but just wait till next year! The above is only a start -- as I said, it's an ongoing process.

Black walnut

And when the weather was too wet to work outside, John took some of the green wood to his shop, started his lathe, and began turning.

Black walnut

And turning . . .

Black walnut

And turning.

Hickory

Christmas gifts for friends and family . . .

Black walnut

And some put by for future occasions . . .

Hickory

The hickory pieces combine sapwood that looks (to me) like ivory with calligraphic squiggles and a rich reddish brown heartwood.

Black walnut

The black walnut heartwood is deep dark while the sapwood is almost white.  

Black walnut

Some of the black walnut pieces are all dark . . .

Black walnut 

Some have odd bits of the lighter wood . . . and some have quite a bit.

Black walnut 

Every piece reveals something new. I love the fact that any one of these might have been firewood.  And that John loves making them . . .

Hickory

Country Workshops

The following sounds a lot like an advertisement/testimonial. And it kind of is, but it's also an look at some of the folks who live in my county -- and maybe in Elizabeth's Marshall County too.

Back in 1978 when my younger son was about six months old (not two, as the album caption says), my husband and his father signed up for a week-long wood-working class with some folks we'd recently met. Drew and Louise Langsner lived (and still live) at the other end of our county, about a forty-five minute drive from our farm. Though I had little interest in woodworking, I was suffering from a serious case of cabin fever and insisted that I'd like to go too. Fortunately my mother-in-law was willing to stay at our house and look after our five year old, so off John and Jack and Justin and I went for a week at Country Workshops. It was the first year of classes at the Langsner farm.

The experience was wonderful! A week of calm and craft, of beautiful surroundings, interesting people and wonderful food. Justin (still nursing - a 'tittie baby' as some say around here) was a calm, laid back infant, and I was able to carve a spoon and a dough bowl along with the rest of the class. We became good friends with our hosts and over the course of the years have watched them build their log home, expand their gardens, and put together an amazing curriculum for wood crafters and country/nature lovers.

The farm is beautiful, Louise's gardens are inspiring, and the various items produced by students in the workshops are heirloom quality craft. Below is a willow basket made by Louise and a chair crafted by Tom Donahey -- one of Country Workshops' teachers. There are many more pictures and complete information on the Country Workshops website

I can't recommend a more pleasant way to spend a week -- and you come home with a new skill and a fine example of your own handicraft.