We need to move

It appears that we will have to move this summer. Not far, but still a major task.

Our landlord thinks commercial rents have gone up 120%+ in the last five years. We disagree. We can go to the parking lot adjacent to where we are now (access from Farlin, not Brown), but it has no building. So we need to build a structure and move the log and lumber inventory and solar kiln during our busiest season for log hauling. Oh what joy.

There are numerous details to work out, and it is probable we could use your help. Watch this space for detailed notices, but we will probably be willing to trade lumber for labor. Certainly when it comes to pulling wood from the bins and the dismantling and reassembly of the bins themselves. That part will probably occur in July, assuming we tackle big hurdles like erecting a new structure etc. It seems  silly to move out of one shabby shed, go 300' away and move into a freshly erected shabby shed, but that is what it looks like is going to happen.

If you have city construction expertise or know people that erect metal buildings, please respond here or shoot me an email. We are gathering information and are all ears right now.

The good news is that, in a way, we get to start from scratch knowing what we now know. So hopefully things will be better than ever once we settle in.

Stay tuned. This will likely be a major blog focus for the next 6 months.

some new wood in

Joe picked up two trailer loads of freshly cut lumber from our guy in Illinois this week. Poplar is not very photogenic, but persimmon looks better fresh cut than it does dry. So here is a shot of some persimmon:

The true color is the dry patch in the upper left. The black bits will all be checks and of course when dry it might look more like a pretzel.

We set aside a birch log last spring to spalt. Our track record on purposely spalting wood is not perfect, but this baby came out just fine thanks. I managed to sneak a picture before more got stacked on top of it:

The spalting goes the full length and we will have a number of these in 4/4 and 8/4 when dry. Joe even scavenged a few offcuts that the sawyer would normally not bother keeping for us:

It will be late fall or next year before this stuff is dry and in the bins for sale. But it is okay to start dreaming now.

more new photos

Check out our gallery for new pictures. Note that I do not make any comments about the work since it would sound too much like an overly proud parent; it is amazing to see what you make from our wood.