George Benson at Rosie's tonight

Ok, it sure sounded/felt like George Benson.  Eric Essex was rocking down again at this year's handy fest.  But for the first time, he was out cooled by the 12 year old drummer.  This little kid was amazing.  Sooo cool.  Eric had it going.  This kid's a coming.

St. Luke Missionary church

This table  came from an oak tree that provided shade to the St. Luke Missionary Church for over 120 years.  Several years ago, it became a risk to the church and had to come down.  We cut the 45" wide log into slabs, debarked each with a draw knife, and stacked them to air dry for years.  We recently took them to the kiln for a month of the final cure.  For several months we've been turning this historic slab into a functional piece of furniture.  You might be able to see the ribbon that was awarded at the Arts Alive juried art competition recently.

Tennessee Valley Museum of Art artists reception

Tennessee Valley Museum of Art

Local artists are featured in the latest showing at the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art.  Couldn't be more pleased with the way they displayed a couple of my pieces.  I tried to sneak a peak of my pieces, but building was way too busy.  Will try again this week.

mallard release last week

After 10 weeks of protecting these baby mallards that lost their mom, they have grown up, feathered out, and were released last week back to the creek.

yellow oil boom headed to the Gulf

Wednesday I was taking 65 south to Montgomery to pick up several pieces that had been on display at the RSA building.  On the way I saw several of these trucks, obviously delivering the much needed yellow booms for the clean up effort.

Jean Schulman Exhibit

UNA hosted a reception and exhibition of some of Jean Schulman's amazing work Tuesday.  I am mezmerized by Jean's pieces whenever I get a chance to be near them.  So clearly from the dirt, few artists seem to celebrate nature's beauty without impeding like Jean does, and has throughout her life's work.  I look forward to seeing her permenant collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of History and Technology next time I'm that way.  It's quite amazing the depth of creative talent in our small town.

flowing stream walnut low table

We made this table several months ago.  Took the pics, photoshopped the background out - all ready for the website.  But somehow it never made it to the website.  We'll here you go.

It was a little tricky figuring out how to originally make this flowing 90 degree angle work out.  Have several internal mortise & tenons hidden inside, with no visible joinery.  The

flowing stream 

walnut low table was one of my fav's when I first made it.  It still is.

Overnight guests

We had overnight guests camping on the back deck Sunday night.  Sunday morning, I gathered two more of the baby mallards and brought them home with intentions of setting them free on the creek to their single parent (dad - duck).  Well, he wasn't around, so I carried them back up to the house and looked for something to keep them in safely.  This portable/collapsable dog kennel was perfect.  Never found the drake, so we loaned them a dog bowl, threw in plenty of their first serving of cracked corn, and tucked them in for the night.  This morning we woke up to a wonderful booming thunderstorm.  Worried about the ducklings, we flashed a flashlight their way.  It was drenched in there.  A couple of inches of water, and they were having a time, splashing and all. 

Well, the drake showed up, we carriend these two down to the creek before work, and released them.  They seemed fine.  I know I shouldn't worry, but I take my "child rearing" very seriously, even though we never had a real "child".

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.