the farmer's market saturday

Fresh produce from the farmer's market Saturday was looking glorious.  Blueberries, heirloom tomatoes, and silver queen corn made our weekend.  Will follow with what Linda did with it.

two more coroplast wall pics

Couple more pics of the coroplast wall that's in progress.   The pic on the right is a close up.  The right side of the stud shows the outside layer of coroplast.  The left side of the stud has both layer's of coroplast installed.  I knew you were dying to know that!

walnut parking in the parking lot

Over the last year or two, we've sawn a good bit of lumber, and it's been stacked it's been air drying for quite a while.  Much of it is now ready to head to the kiln.  Last week we were separating what's ready from what's not, and, - well - made a big mess in the parking lot.  If the rain subsides this week. we'll get it all straightened out, strapped and sent to the kiln.

gulf benefit

I was so glad to see a local benefit for the Gulf.  I continue to feel sick daily seeing the devastation down there.  Really wonderful to see the local groups put this together.  But, the turn out was so dissappointing.  Really can't believe it wasn't packed.  When taking the pic with my Iphone, I attempted to get a pic that looked like it was a good turn out.  It wasn't.  Lots of empty seats.  There are a lot of thing's I don't understand.  This is one of them.

office progress

Friday afternoon we got caught up on some table work, and snuck in some much needed work on our office cubicle.  Here we are attaching the corrugated coroplast translucent plastic to the exterior.  This side wall has two layers of plastic with approximately an inch of air pocket between.  That air space should provide a little more insulation.  We'll see.  Getting quite anxious to build the sliding doors and finishing up this project in the next week or two.

We weren't in the blackberries!

 

I'm catching up on some posts from the weekend.  Saturday morning's farmers market was amazing.  The abundence and beauty of the local produce is wonderful.  As you can see, somebody got in to the blackberries on the way home!.

local event tonight - to benefit the gulf

Two local environmental groups are hosting this benefit at the Florence library tonight.  See the article in the timesdaily.  See you there!

more shots of our independence day contest winner

lucky duck contest

In celebration of Independence Day we had a contest - and the lucky duck was released to the creek.  They are two months old now, and even though I've been bringing them food and water twice a day, they are still amazingly wild.  For their protection, that's a good thing.

I took the winner - the one I could catch - to the creek and released him yesterday.  Haven't seen the mom duck in the creek since these babies hatched, but the dad sure seemed like he recognized him, and led the way.

white oak slab going to the sawmill

Placing Nancy O'neal's white oak slab on the sawmill last week.

Florence, AL farmer's market saturday

alabama farmers market

Florence alabama farmers market was lively Saturday early morning.  Had orders for silver queen corn, but the silver queen wasn't quite ready.  Should be by Saturday.  Isom's had already sold out of peaches by the time I got there at 7:30!  Everything was looking good at the market.

alabama farmers market

Nancy O'neal brought a big oak slice

Nancy O'neal lost a wonderful old oak tree recently.  The Joe Pitt's group cut her a slide of it when they were taking it down, and she brought it by to see if we can straighten it out.  Not really sure about that.  We gave it a shot and did the best we could.  I'm hoping to get my hands on the rest of that massive tree trunk this afternoon.

too much "character", or "be yourself"

Showing off, being too loud, getting too much attention generally aren't attractive attributes.  But, if it's natural and honest, in my book it is more easily forgiven.  This conference table has plenty of character.  But, it's all nature made.  The worms added character in the legs with lots of beautiful irregular "stippling".  And there are several holes in the top, primarily from branch areas that rotted a bit before we got it to the kiln.  I'll be getting plenty of pics of this one, and let you be the judge.  Maybe next week.

walnut joinery work in oak conference table

Last week we completed the joinery work of this oak and walnut conference table.  This morning we rubbed the fourth coat of finish on the top (after doing the undersides earlier this week).  Looking like it will be ready for delivery early next week.

Hickory stump to our sawmill

I haven't given up yet.  These tree stumps were giving us fits last week.  Now that the temps above 95, we're back ready to battle.  All four of these stumps lived in some pretty rocky soil.  Any my chainsaws and sawmill aren't exactly cut out for rock.  Yesterday we got a few angled cuts before dulling the blade again.  We'll take another time-out, and maybe finish them off next week.

old cherrytree

Gosh, I hate seeing some of our most beautiful living sculptures brought down before their time.  But it seems, to keep power safely run to our homes, some trees must be cleared.  On a positive note I'm so pleased to see is our local community becoming more aware of these natural resources.  Here arborist Joe Mcphail with the Florence City Utility Dept inspects this old cherrytree and discusses giving it a second life if it does have to come down.

natural oak top - maybe in 2012??

Last week we cut these cool oak slabs.  They came from our friend Lacey's grand dad's farm, here in North Alabama.  I'm seeing a natural oak top.  Maybe a bar top (haven't done one yet).  Anyway, we have several slabs of this cool oak crotch, and have a year or two of air drying time, then a month or so in the kiln before we can even think about making any decisions.  2012 should be a good year for this one.

natural oak top

Mattie's cooling off after a creekside frisbee session

Got a shot of Mattie cooling off this morning before work.  It's getting warm in here in the studio.  Until I get my office walled off, with just a little a/c, I think I'll be joining here most afternoons.  hmmm.  I'm also thinking watermelon.

We're all ready to attach the two dimensional woodworking joints

When we attach these two walnut dimensional woodworking joints all we'll have left will be the hand applied finish.  Looking like we'll be getting started on the finishing this week.  dimensional woodworking joints

Sanding the oak and walnut conference table

Making a lot of fine oak sawdust the last couple of weeks sanding this oak and walnut conference table.