toads peeping, and frogs croaking (this is their annual clusterfuck in our pond).

I’m looking at the bucket of [...]]]> After many fits and starts, Spring is finally here and all I want to do in my free time is work outside, enjoying the flowering apples, lilacs, raking old leaves and mowing young grass, hearing the birds singing,

toads peeping, and frogs croaking (this is their annual clusterfuck in our pond).

I’m looking at the bucket of bolts in my driveway and feeling the soreness in my back and neck… cruel and unusual punishment for us both, car and driver, to face a journey of 1,200 miles straight west. Something overwhelmingly special must be calling to make this kind of commitment.

And so there is:

I’ll be leaving Saratoga (F) and stopping in the wilds of the State of Ohio (A) to pick up a hitch-hiker/author

on the way to the Amana colonies (B). He’s been prepped about the sorry vehicle that certain of my family members and friends hesitate, if not refuse, to contemplate a short ride in, let alone a full day’s journey. The hitch-hiker has informed me that he is a former president of OBOBA (Ohio bucket-of-bolts association) and not to worry.

I’ll bet 2 to 1 it’s a comfortable trip, though my passenger, having just endured a bit of surgery, might suggest 3:5, even 2:3.

April and its cool wet weather gave way to a glorious warm and dry May. It was time to begin building on top of the recently laid block walls.

My wife and I hired Dave Bollinger to run the job.

I was to be his “gopher/slave.”  He was only a couple of years older but had substantial [...]]]>

April and its cool wet weather gave way to a glorious warm and dry May. It was time to begin building on top of the recently laid block walls.

My wife and I hired Dave Bollinger to run the job.

I was to be his “gopher/slave.”  He was only a couple of years older but had substantial background in construction. Together he and I completed the rest of the building, plumbing, and electrical work.

Our first construction task was to brace the basement walls in preparation for backfilling. It was a rough start. Though I had built a few introductory projects to get my feet wet, so to speak, I had not been in the position of having to cut a piece of wood to length at someone’s command. “97 and 7/8” Dave would call out. What he got, after several minutes of fumbling, was 79 and 7/16”. This went on throughout the entire morning. Even when the proper place on the tape measure was located there was the problem of the line. How big to mark it, leave it, remove it, try to split it… the green pine was coarsely textured, wet and soggy. The line itself, drawn from a dull carpenters pencil, was rather hefty, perhaps 1/16” thick itself.

Then again, there was the handling of the circular saw. All kinds of errors resulted from my untrained manipulation of it while pushing it through the 2 x material. Out of plumb, crooked, you name it, those were the kinds of cuts Dave was getting from this “green” sawyer. I’m sure he had serious doubts right about lunchtime that first day!

The little saw that could, can, and will.

Dave had recommended that I get a good quality saw, a Black and Decker with “Trade” marked on it.

This saw has been running steadily since 1980, never had its brushes replaced or any kind of maintenance done, been dropped and pushed for miles on end. Here it is on a recent project, ripping a beam.

It was not expensive and has worked like a champ. Honestly, by now it could very well have made a hundred thousand cuts and it’s not complaining one bit.

Up and away.

Having taken a good licking on the foundation bracing I was happy to rise above grade.

The building was simple timber framing with 2” x 6” studs 24” on center. There was an endless stream of pieces to saw to length, tenon shoulders and half lap notches.

And then, magic. Pieces of timber went vertical, there were walls and floor joists and a structure stood!

During the last week I have wondered why certain bloggers have not filed or approved my comments. Then I noticed that [...]]]> Last summer my website was hacked. One evening I noticed that I could not access my blog to write a post. By the next morning my site had a huge amount of material completely removed.

During the last week I have wondered why certain bloggers have not filed or approved my comments. Then I noticed that some comments on my blog that I approved did not appear. Last night I, again, could not access my blog as administrator.

This morning I checked in with my webmaster,  who looked into the situation and responded:

“…looks like what you saw was part of a global attack on WordPress-based sites.”

The hosting company’s message read:

“Since yesterday morning ,______’ s (I don’t want to identify the name of the company)) internal monitoring systems reported that WordPress users were subject to an unusually high number of attacks.  Brute force attacks occur through exploited accounts at other hosting companies.  The attacks are attempts to find users that have weak passwords and outdated installations.

Once the attacker has found a WordPress account with a weak password, it’s used to gain access to the administration panel.  Outdated versions of WordPress scripts are exploited and used to attack other hosting companies. ______ has implemented additional security tools and is carefully monitoring traffic.  However, the best form of protection against these attacks begins at the customer level.   A tutorial for securing
your WordPress is posted at http://www.lpwebhosting.com/blog/bulletproofing-your-wordpress-site-against-a-brute-force-attack.
This particular attack is focused on WordPress users.  It’s important to note that the attacks could just as easily be focused on any
application.    The reports are not limited to our network.  Reports from all of the major hosting companies confirm that this is a wide
spread situation.

Please feel free to contact us with any concerns or issues you might have.

______ Administration Team”

Does anybody know if it is worthwhile to change your password given this situation?

April was the month to complete work on excavation, well-drilling, digging trenches, and installing the utility pole, as described in the previous post. The masonry work on the basement (which would eventually be my woodshop) followed.

We hired mason John DeRidder, another honorable tradesmen.

The good ones take the time to educate you and explain what needs [...]]]>

April was the month to complete work on excavation, well-drilling, digging trenches, and installing the utility pole, as described in the previous post. The masonry work on the basement (which would eventually be my woodshop) followed.

We hired mason John DeRidder, another honorable tradesmen.

The good ones take the time to educate you and explain what needs to happen. He did a great job for us on our simple project.

It was a wet and overcast month, but not too cold. I was itching to start working with wood and set out to build a few things in advance of the house carpentry that would begin in May. The very first thing I made was a tool chest for the site.

Tools used: tape measure, framing square, chainsaw, hammer, and hand drill. In this picture it is covered by a rain slicker. Notice the early flowering Shadbush, so named because their blossoms coincided with the schools of Shad that once ran during April in the Hudson River nearby.

Again, tools were a new phenomenon for me and there was everything to learn about them. The first lesson was about rust. It was a merciless taskmaster.

I had it from several sources that the wood to build with should be “green lumber” obtained from a local sawmill. The term “green” did not then carry the meaning of sustainability but, rather, freshly sawn and full of water. George Vincek was the local sawyer/farmer who supplied us with the house building timber. It had been sawn yesterday and felt like it.

The next project was a gate at the beginning of the driveway.

I reasoned that local urchins would avail themselves of tools and building materials stored on the site if they were anything like the kids my friends and I had been. It did occur to me that most of them didn’t drive and that there was nothing to stop them travelling overland. However, the green lumber was, by its sheer weight, not that easy to move very far, so such urchins would probably solicit the help of older siblings, the ones using our rural lane as a drag strip from time to time in their rusty four bangers.

The book “Build It Better Yourself”, mentioned in the introductory post, outlined the steps to build this gate. Tools used: framing square, tape measure, handsaw, hand brace, framing hammer, wrenches, pliers, post- hole digger, and shovel.

The first is the “No-Rock Runway” which I developed to improve the performance of the L-N No.51, an excellent tool, there can be no question. The Vogt Super Chute has a Parallel Guide Strip to keep the plane held snugly against the bearing strip as it rides forward. [...]]]> Two new offerings at this year’s Northeast Showcase.

The first is the “No-Rock Runway” which I developed to improve the performance of the L-N No.51, an excellent tool, there can be no question. The Vogt Super Chute has a Parallel Guide Strip to keep the plane held snugly against the bearing strip as it rides forward. That deals with the issue of its tracking. Yet, after using the plane a great deal and watching the efforts of hundreds of others using it, I concluded that it has a problem rocking and that the user’s efforts to counteract it with wrist rotation can be difficult. You might not suspect it from its mass, but it wants to pull toward the workpiece, the far edge of the plane thus lifting up. It becomes noticeable that the fence on the shooting board gets out of square rather quickly.

The “No-Rock Runway” holds it steady all through its path, preventing it from lifting.

Basically a plane on a plate,

the edges of the plate ride in adjustable Slideways and a channel holds the plate so it can’t lift. The contact surfaces are acetal.

A really cool plane is being designed for the Super Chute with the No- Rock Runway. Of this, more anon.

The second is the “Drawer Resister.” It is a drawer stop that is easily mounted and removed, with three applications: under the drawer bottom, under the top, or vertically on the inside face of the drawer back. The wooden part has a concealed magnetized disk.

These products are not yet on my website but will appear later in the Spring.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/MKikHxKeodA?feature=player_embedded

The sixties’ zeitgeist of creativity, a college course in organic gardening, reading “Living the Good Life” by Helen and Scott Nearing, and the  owner/builder movement in the late 1970s coalesced into my taking the initiative to buy country land near Saratoga Springs and construct a [...]]]> My journey to woodworking came via the experience of house building.

The sixties’ zeitgeist of creativity, a college course in organic gardening, reading “Living the Good Life” by Helen and Scott Nearing, and the  owner/builder movement in the late 1970s coalesced into my taking the initiative to buy country land near Saratoga Springs and construct a shelter for my fiancée, me, and future (vaguely imagined) family members.

What will be discussed in this and following episodes is coming in touch, physically and intellectually, with the world of tools. Without venturing too far into New Agism, I do wish to put in a good word for the greatest tool of all, namely, the Unconscious, the Muse, Intuition, and similar ideas. It didn’t protect me from making every stupid male choice (no planning for closets, stairs, size of living and dining areas, etc.) but it did some amazing work guiding an ignorant “kid” in finding a piece of land and a spot for long term shelter.

The overriding concerns for me were that a country or rural home should be removed from the constant sound of automobiles, have good solar orientation, and enjoy a view. The latter two conditions were not very difficult to meet as I traversed the countryside on my own and in the company of Judy, a jovial real estate agent, but when you factored in the first, the pickings were slim.

Luck prevailed, though, as one late November afternoon she mentioned a lot up for sale by an owner who had farmed until recently and then moved to Tennessee. This piece of property, a rectangular shaped piece, had short frontage along Homestead Road (how aptly named) and long frontage along a dead end unpaved road.

She drove slowly westward down the dirt lane with the property on the right. We had gone maybe a fifth of a mile when the “Twilight Zone” moment happened and I asked her to stop the car. The view from the road toward the interior of the property had been obscured by vegetation, but something was pulling me, pulling me. I negotiated my way over an old fence and through a wild hedgerow and jogged over the remnants of corn stalks, cockleburs and dry weeds toward a small rise…

The land form I was seeing was characteristic of the bottom of Lake Albany, a proglacial lake that existed between 15,000 and 12,600 years ago . After it drained into the Hudson River (a few miles to the east of our house) it left a mix of silt and clay over shale bedrock. Eventually silt particles blown by the prevailing west winds (“blow sand” in local vernacular) collected and developed parallel North/South ridges.

The historical territory for humans was an ancient hunting and fishing area for the Mohawks, called by them Sa-ragh-to-ga. “As early as 1684, this hill-side country of the Hudson, the ancient Indian Se-rach-ta-gue, was sold by the chiefs of the Mohawks to Peter Philip Schuyler and six other eminent citizens of Albany, and the Indian grant confirmed by the English government. This old hunting-ground then became known in history as the Saratoga patent. This was the Saratoga of the olden time. It is called on some old maps So-roe-to-gos land.”

The above mentioned land transfer was the  Kayaderosseras Patent by Queen Anne, in 1701, to thirteen subjects.

The surveyors divided the patent into twenty five allotments, and each allotment was subdivided into thirteen lots of approximately equal size. They are referenced in our Deed :

The Town of Northumberland was formed March 16, 1798. The settler James Brisbin, a native of Scotland, may have influenced the town’s name.

From what I’ve been able to learn, this and the surrounding properties, had been in farming since the early eighteen hundreds. As of the 1920s it was owned and managed by the Colebrook Dairy. Here is one of a case of old bottles from that period I found covered over in a slough:

There are the remains of an ice pond dam built by them along the small Cold Brook that meanders through the western woodlands to the open fields.

Of course, I had no inking of such history at the time, but felt very strongly that this was the place. When Courtney came out a few days later, she stood on the hillside, felt the openness and sunshine and expansiveness, and agreed. We promptly moved on the land transaction, taking out a 25 year mortgage, an inconceivable amount of time. But time was running out in terms of weather. Late November in Zone 5 leaves a very small opening for work to be done before the snow flies.

With the assistance of this great book:

and my first tape measure

I was able to experiment with laying out corner boards for the proposed house site:

Oh yeah, to cut the boards I used my first saw:

Our luck held and we were able to begin work on a driveway. Bill Morris was the first contractor I ever hired. He was a
good choice.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Albany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayaderossera_patent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga,_New_York

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nysarato/Sylvester/chap05.html