Summers in the Mountains

Thought I would take a little bit of time and show a little bit of what my summer has been for the last eight years. This is Numa Ridge in Glacier National Park. This is where I've spent two summers living as a fire lookout. The six summers have been all over Glacier and the Flathead National Forest. Its a very different world living on these peaks and ridges in the wilderness. A little hard to explain. Lets just say its quiet and leave at that. Here's a link to a story that a reporter is making about lookouts,
http://www.vimeo.com/17051698. Its strange to see yourself glamorised.

A Cabinet in Pine

Just finished another cabinet. Lodgepole pine, all traditional joinery of mortise and tenon, frame and panel, all the panels came from the same piece of wood i resawed to get the same grain and bookmatched pieces. The door pulls and drawer pulls are hand carved larch. This a stereo cabinet for a client.

This is a coffee table of beautiful larch wood done in the arts and crafts style. Again, all traditional mortise and tenon joinery, with through tenons and kwila wedges. The finish on both pieces is an all natural oil with a bees wax finish coat.

Finally, here is a gate and rail of larch built for a client's porch. Mortise and tenon joinery with oak pegs. All the styles are mortised. Notice the all wood locking latch of oak and larch. Finished with linseed, tung oil and orange oil.

Light Clay/Straw

A Light Clay/Straw house in Crestone, CO. Timber framed and wrapped with the light clay straw. This was built in 1996 as a workshop and it was never finished or lived in, the walls have been totally exposed for over fourteen years and they are still looking great.

Here is what the straw looks like with the clay coating, clay and water, in a milkshake consistency is poured over the the straw.

This summer I went out to Salt Spring Island to help teach a Timber Framing workshop and to learn about Light Clay/ Straw. The workshops were put on by Robert Laporte, a pioneer for Light Clay/Straw in North America. Its a type of wall system that has been in use for thousands of years, in Europe and Japan, and has been described as second only to stone in terms of durability. The process involves taking straw or wood chips and coating them in a mix of clay and water, then the "light clay/straw" is packed into a form, similar to a concrete form with plywood on either side. These forms are then pulled away after the light clay/straw has had time to set up and you are left with a totally organic, insulated wall. Since everything is coated in clay it is virtually petrified from degrading. When the walls are finished with a clay finished plaster you are left with a durable, healthy and beautiful wall. In our case we wrapped the light clay/ straw around a timber frame which carried the roof load and the light clay/ straw wall insulated and acted as the barrier to the outside. This is the crew mixing up the light clay/straw mix. About five to six folks and you can really crank it out. Here's a finished light clay/straw house, still under construction, we visited while at the workshop.

This spring I went down to Chokecherry farm in Crestone, CO to design, build and raise a timber frame addition onto an old farm house. It will be a commercial kitchen space for processing the organic dairy products the farm produces. It was a riot of good times and hard work, milling the wood on site and cutting joinery, dusk to dawn. This is raising day. Everyone worked so hard to make it happen. Once it was raised and everything was pegged I packed up my tools and headed home to Montana.