Early tomorrow morning (8:00 a.m. Eastern) we will be opening registration for the summer term of our 8-week Apprenticeship Program. This thing has taken on a life of its own and (having just completed Term Three) we’re hearing feedback like we’ve never heard anywhere else: Many people are telling us that their lives have been changed by these eight weeks. Some say it’s the accountability of weekly assignments, others thrive on the inherent camaraderie in forum discussions, and others cite the unique focus on pre-industrial tolerances and techniques. Whatever it is that motivates them, several of our students are now leaving their lifelong careers to work wood with their hands. This is tremendously humbling and gives us a greater...
For all his potential hypocrisy, there’s no debating that he knew his way around hand tools. The first chapter of Walden, “Economy,” includes a fussily detailed description of the supplies, carpentry, layout, and furnishings of his cabin. He describes how he first visited his homesite in March 1845, bringing an axe he’d borrowed from a neighbor. He notes that “it is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise.” (He also reassures us that he returned his neighbor’s axe “sharper than [he] received it.”) He spent days felling and hewing the timbers for his home, sturdy pine studs 6" square. Thoreau rhapsodizes that...
The house project is getting real now. The “tiny house” cottage in which my family will live during the 1810 house restoration is closer to “ready” each day. Today we were installing the last of the outlets and trimming windows and doors. The only large item that remains inside is the kitchen installation. Mike C has already done the prep work for the small utilities addition which will house the bathroom and washer and dryer. We should be making good progress on that tomorrow. We are as of this writing less than three weeks away from moving in and I’m just starting to feel a bit nervous about it. It’s not that we’re behind schedule, but we are facing at...
