Weblog :: 3.15.05 - 11.11.04

:: :: :: 3.16.05 First bicycle commute of the year.

:: :: :: 3.15.05 Prepped the 520 for commuting. Took it out of the trainer and mounted bags (groceries tomorrow), changed the rear tube (I have a habit of breaking the end of the valves...), and smoothed out the shifting. The weather report claims cold but dry and I've been envious of another rider I see on my way to the office.

:: :: :: 3.12.05 After an all night snowfall I set out this morning to reach Hamilton Falls (again). I was able to ski until the trail became a technical track on the side of the gorge, then strapped the skis to the pack and walked the last half mile. The Green Mountain Club Day Hiker's Guide to Vermont praises Hamilton as one of the "highest and most spectacular waterfalls" in the state. The falls were subdued today, covered in ice and freshly fallen snow, the gorge whispering of water. I skied to the edge of my ability today. The last half mile back to the truck was agony. In my delirium - my body completely out of fuel, bordering on being cold, and trudging through a very wet and heavy snow - I composed the following: cold misty morning snow like sticky rice on skis ski - stop - scrape scrape - sigh

:: :: :: 3.6.05 Inspired. Intense weekend at a Council training workshop.

:: :: :: 3.2.05 Just now A rock took fright When it saw me It escaped By playing dead Norbert Mayer from The Lost Language of Plants Stephen Harrod Buhner

:: :: :: 3.1.05 Took the afternoon off and attended my first Town Meeting. I sat on the sidelines from the decision making as my voter registration never made it to town hall. An interesting article centering on the war in Iraq and the state's control over the National Guard drew national and international attention to some towns. Putney passed the article, after ammending it to make a grammatical correction, and was rumored to have been visited by journalists from New York and Boston.

:: :: :: 2.28.05 Comments from a few friends have had me reflecting on the lack of "media" in my life. I've decided that I'm comfortable where I'm at, and for my entertainment I'll continue to relish the moon, the wind, the trees, the freshly fallen snow, the books discovered at the library, the meals shared with dear friends, the clumsy plucking of fingers on my guitar, the circles my feet make on the bicycle, the smell of the earth, the mud that collects in the tread of my boots, and all the minutes and hours that I feel alive and know that I am not living in someone else's fantasy.

:: :: :: 2.26.05 Enjoyed the Putney Contra Dance at Pierce's Hall and came home sweating and inspired by the little corner of the universe I have the pleasure of inhabiting. It was nearly midnight when I put some tea on, grabbed the pack and wandered up Putney Mountain bathed in silver moonlight and an embracing stillness. Trees speak. I wish I understood.

:: :: :: 2.25.05 AC Delco spark plug after 168,959 miles. The truck had it's first tune up today. Each time I put money into my vehicle I consider embracing winter as the last great undiscovered bicycling territory. Using the bicycle as primary transportation year round would be cheaper (and healthier) than operating and maintaining my vehicle - I would just need to convince my insurance company to charge me for only the miles I actually drive. Imagine a no-fault national program that was rolled into the taxes paid at the pump - the more fuel you burn the more insurance you buy. If priced correctly it could spur local economic growth, encourage fuel efficiency, car pooling, public transit and human powered alternatives. It might even encourage people to move back into town from the suburbs, develop walkable communities, take a deep breath of fresh air, and discover that vibrant local small businesses down the block can be a sign of both fiscal and physical health.

:: :: :: 2.22.05 Modular, stackable, transportable shelves for the house. Baltic Birch plywood or maybe a wheatboard of some sort. Stained in an array of colors. Each cube is just under 12" square and the joinery on the edges holds the cubes together as well as locates them one to another for stacking. The search for shop space continues...

:: :: :: 2.21.05 Winter came out of hiding last night. I thought about setting out my commuting gear Sunday night for a Monday ride but hesitated when I heard conflicting weather forecasts. There's 8" of new snow (or more) on the ground and a bit more forecast for tonight. The moon is nearing full - I hope to get out on the shoes or skis some night this week and enjoy the woods. Here's a snap of the cupola on the barn behind my place.

:: :: :: 2.20.05 Greg and Michelle visited from Montpelier, the first official "friends" to visit my place. We enjoyed a fantastic Thai dinner at Anon's in Brattleboro Saturday evening. Sunday morning we took a hike up a sunny and cold Putney Mountain to enjoy the blue sky and the views. Had the mountain bike on the road several nights last week and took a quick spin before I met my guests on Saturday. It's been cold but dry - I'm considering the commute a bit more seriously these days as a snowy winter seems to be in hiding.

:: :: :: 2.13.05 I spent my Sunday morning in a cathedral of pines, snow, ice, and rock, hiking up Mt. Ascutney on the Weathersfield Trail. Clear blue sky, bright sunlight, and fresh snow clinging to the trees. The stillness was sublime - when I stopped walking I felt as if my heart was on a loudspeaker booming each beat into the forest. As the sun warmed the day the mountain became a symphony of water - rushing under ice and flowing over rocks - competing only with the sound of my footsteps. The trail climbs 2,000 feet from the trailhead to the summit at 3,150 feet. I met a few folks along the way that had hiked as far as Crystal Cascade Falls, and after chatting with them I had the whole mountain to myself. I left the snowshoes in the truck - which turned out to be a mistake - as the snow went from 4" at the base to 16" and more on the summit. I lost the trail at one point (I have yet to figure out why anyone in snow country would mark a trail with white blazes...) and bushwacked my way by chance to an overlook. Reconnecting to the main trail I enjoyed lunch and hot tea on the hang glider launch platform. From different vantage points I had southern views down the Connecticut River Valley, western views to the Green Mountains, and northeastern views of Vermont and to the distant White Mountains in New Hampshire.

:: :: :: 2.12.05 Quiet morning walk up the West Cliff Trail to Putney Mountain. There was quite a bit of blow down along the way, branches and pine needles atop the drifted snow and a few uprooted trees laying about the woods. The scattered pine needles floating on the snow reminded me of the night sky - countless bits of fading energy drifting through a cold vast field. Cloudy views of the Green Mountains to the west. The top of Mt. Monadnock, 26+ miles away in New Hampshire, was visible in the east. I stopped to visit the "Elephant Tree" along the way back down. What a pleasure to meet such a distinguished tree! The variety of form that trees create through their life processes is inspiring - a fingerprint of this adaptive and complex universe we have the pleasure of inhabiting. I began wondering about the life and environment of a tree I met last spring in the finger lakes region of New York. Took the mountain bike out for my first ride of the year. Stayed on the pavement - exploring my neighborhood a bit and racing the two dogs up the street. Getting on the road was refreshing - I've been staring at the wall on the trainer all winter.

:: :: :: 2.10.05 Working on a timber frame design for a friend in Canandaigua, New York. The building is 30' x 34' and will act as garage, garden storage, and woodworking shop. It is a cross gable with plenty of windows on the east overlooking Canandaigua Lake. I hope to use locally harvested Eastern White Pine for the main structural components, reclaimed douglas fir for the braces, and locust or oak pegs, splines, and wedges to detail and accent the joinery.

:: :: :: 2.6.05 I'm participating in Voluntary Simplicity, an eight week discussion group sponsored by the Vermont Earth Institute. As a base we're using a course pack of readings excerpted from some great authors. We meet weekly to discuss topics ranging from the ecological impacts of our lifestyles, to our relationship with money, social responsibility and community, to strategies that help each of us embody a simple, deliberate lifestyle. The group decided to meet at my place - so the 8 of us sit on the floor sipping tea and listening to each other's ideas. We discuss the readings, comment on specific questions in the course pack, and interweave our different life stories. The conversation is as much a serious scholarly effort as it is an informal insight into how others in my community have addressed difficult philosophical, social, and spiritual questions. Inspired by the course I have started re-reading several books. I've opened Walden again for a fresh look at Thoreau's experiment in the woods, and Small is Beautiful, by E.F. Shumaker. Shumaker's original work is dated 25 years, but I find the book to be increasingly influential in my life. Each time I read or reference it I find it has increasing power to reveal subtle and positive changes I can make to my world view and lifestyle choices. Greg dropped in from Montpelier and we spent a philosophical afternoon atop Putney Mountain. The rocky peak in the sunlight was sublime. Cold snow surrounded the warm rock where we perched, and I enjoyed the sun's warmth trapped in the stone on my back, and its light upon my face.

:: :: :: 2.5.05 I've unearthed Structure Under Tension from my archives and redesigned it a bit. I created the original piece while teaching design at the Cleveland Institute of Art as an example of combining traditional craft with conceptual art. The piece reflects the interconnected nature of the world, where actions we take are linked through a web of ecosystems, potentially affecting the stability of the structure. The structure is a kinetic sculpture made of wood and steel cable. 26 wedges and 26 keystones form a circle. Steel cable links keystones opposite each other across the circle and individual cables extend outward from the wedges to wooden handles. Participants assemble the structure on the ground, sit in a circle, and pull on the handles. The circle locks together, becoming a tension ring with each piece of the circle compressing on it's neighbor. If the tension is equal and controlled around the circle, the ring lifts off the ground and floats. When pressure becomes unequal, the integrity of the structure is compromised and the ring collapses. The forces involved in holding the circle together are easily visualized - but the variables in the pressure are not easy to control. Predicting where the ring will break is impossible - as the slightest change in pressure finds the weakest link and starts to break the chain. I've started looking for bench space to rent in a Putney or Brattleboro shop. I'd like to create a new 12 person version (the original required 26 people), and remake the original using contrasting hardwoods. I hope to take the 2 new versions to the TF Guild's eastern conference in the fall - using them with the kids to demonstrate the power and structure of working together.

:: :: :: 2.4.05 Rethinking the house I've been designing for some friends on Cayuga Lake. The original is suited to the woodland part of the site. The new version has been scaled back to be an unheated boat house and anchors itself to the cliff at the lake's edge. The enclosed footprint of the building is 16' x 22'. The roof and floor plan are askew to each other creating a dynamic interior and a challenging frame design. From the cliff's edge a staircase will lead to a long covered walkway on the second floor of the boat house. A large "front porch" will face the lake, framing views across the water. The porch will act as indoor outdoor space - becoming a living room in pleasant weather for summer visits. Exterior stairs will lead down to the stone beach and the lower storage level. We are discussing the timber frame being a mix of "as found" or skip planed reclaimed timbers, combined with fresh sawn Eastern White Pine for the major structural components. Salvaged timbers resawn into wood paneling will enclose the space - a "thrifty man's wainscoting" - complimenting the reclaimed timbers and accenting the fresh wood. Pegs, splines, and wedges will be used in abundance where possible in a dark wood to highlight the joinery. The rafters and floor joists will be smaller and more tightly spaced than the average frame - allowing a good yield from the reclaimed timber pile we have to work with. The braces will be slightly tapered with no two of them being the same size. Windows and doors will be a motley assortment of salvaged materials, with antique hardware for the pulls and hinges. We're going to experiment with some large fold out "window-doors" of acrylic or fiberglass framed in wood that will enclose the lower storage level and become an evening beacon when lit from within. There's still plenty of work to do on the design - a big hurdle will be figuring out how to raise the frame at the bottom of a cliff!

:: :: :: 2.3.05 The area around Alstead and Walpole, New Hampshire is arguably the traceable "Big Bang" of timber framing in North America. Today I had the pleasure of visiting Bensonwood Homes just over the border in New Hampshire. Ted Benson started the company in the early 70's and has been a driving force in the revival of the craft, the creation of the Timber Frame Business Council, and a founding member of the Timber Framers Guild. Mountain biking acquaintance and timber engineer Ben Brungraber (who arrived in the convertible with the top down) led me on a tour of the office and the shop. Along the way we visited many of the engineers, architects, designers and timber framers that make the place sing. The "shop" is actually a small campus of design and construction offices and workshops, with a pond (for winter hockey?), volleyball courts, and access to a lunchtime mountain bike trail. The kitchen in the main office smelled of simmering chili for the evening's employee cook-off, and I noticed several guitars about the offices of those musically inclined. Like other large timber frame companies in the states, Bensonwood has embraced technology, utilizing the latest design, engineering, and CNC hardware and software. The designers, project managers, and timber framers utilize CADWorks, a software package similar in capability to HSB. In the timber frame shop is a Hundegger K1 (slightly older and a little less capable than the model I was using at NEW) which cuts timber joinery. The enclosure shop houses the Hundegger SpeedCut, which specializes in quick, repeat work like wall studs, rafters, and small timber components. The company prides itself on not only it's frames, which it erects all over the country, but also it's pre-manufactured enclosure systems and integrated fine woodworking. The company philosophy has been pushing the edge of "how to build a house". The timber frame is pre-cut and crafted at the shop, as well as items such as the walls, roofs, electrical baseboard chases, floor systems, and stairs. All the components are crafted in a controlled environment with skilled labor and meet on the jobsite - and I imagine that many of the common headaches that plague conventional construction evaporate. The company has researched and developed their OpenBuilt system which isolates key components of the building - and tries to design for the long term by eliminating the often unplanned and complicated interweaving of incompatible building systems, to ensure that key systems in the building can be upgraded into the future without compromising the integrity of the structure and the nature of the space. As I toured the campus, I was struck by how similar and almost common the tools and technology of the timber framing and construction world can be. I've visited shops large and small that employ many of the same techniques and technology - and I felt somehow that this place was different. I'm sure like any human organization there are ups and downs, stresses, arguments, personality conflicts, and compromises - both with resources, the environment, finances, and people - but the spirit of the human beings that energize the tools, technology, and buildings of Bensonwood are truly inspiring. I was honored to visit and witness such a well thought out and complete devotion to functional artistic creation. I admit that this creation has a price - Benson's homes are not affordable by everyone, and the scale at which they work and are growing allows them to be highly selective with clients - but here is a group of people empowered to research, experiment, study, and create legacy structures which will be tomorrow's historic buildings. On my scenic drive back to Vermont I found myself reflecting on Richard Fiorelli's "the smaller is to the greater as the greater is to the whole" design philosophy. Bensonwood has interwoven the small parts, creating a dynamic tapestry which celebrates the life and community of designers and craftsmen. This whole tapestry echoes with the spirit of people devoted to improving and inspiring their corner of the world - and the world that their clients entrust them to create.

:: :: :: 1.23.05 Finally a bit of winter. It snowed all night. Walked up the Putney Mountain trail first thing this very cold morning. I spent a few minutes on the exposed top and had views of the Green Mountains to the west. Stratton and Mt. Snow stood out with the streaks of ski runs etched on their slopes from base to peak. After exchanging some ill fitting ski boots in Brattleboro I headed for Jamaica State Park and hoped to make it to Hamilton Falls. I began running out of daylight and with the moon nearly full and the sky clear I contemplated finishing after dark. As the light and the temperature started to drop I left the falls for another day and was content with a beautiful walk in the valley alongside the West River.

:: :: :: 1.22.05 Getting ready for the big snow. I took the skis to the West Hill Shop for a tune up and to replace the higher tech NNN-BC bindings with some old school 3 pin telemark bindings. Checked out their mid-winter sale and finally purchased some wool outerwear. I'm disappointed with my "breathable" shell and "performance" fleece and have been researching wool. It's breathable, renewable, soft on the skin and the environment, and is an improving throwback to pioneering explorers. My new location warrants that I find a new LBS, so Jim at the West Hill Shop may be a stand in for Jim and the Geneva Bicycle Center. WHS is full of friendly folks without a gear head attitude, a mix of bikes and skis depending on the season, and only a few miles away on the other side of Putney.

:: :: :: 1.18.05 Enjoying the first few weeks of the new job - nice people and a completely different stress level. I'm now working with Winter Panel to transition their design office from 2D to 3D. I've spent the last few weeks configuring and setting up HSB-Cad, a timber industry specific add on to AutoCAD.

:: :: :: 1.16.05 Collected up some of the favorite stones I have from memorable hikes over the last few years and put them on display in the hallway. I stained some old pine and wrapped the stones to hang in copper wire. I added labels to each and left plenty of space to add stones as the collection grows.

:: :: :: 1.9.05 Spent the day on the snowshoes. 10+ miles and really, really sore legs. The morning light filtering through the pines on the snow and the bubbling of a creek made the first part of the hike magic... I hiked around Killburn Pond and enjoyed hot tea atop Mt. Pisgah, north of Hinsdale, New Hampshire.

:: :: :: 1.8.05 Cross country skiing with Greg near Woodstock, Vermont. The snow was falling as we started out and we had four more inches on the ground by the end of the afternoon. We trekked in to a mountain pond, enjoying a packed in lunch. Along the way we found a gently sloping field to practice our turns - imagining we were telemark experts far off in the back country. Had dinner in Woodstock and played checkers in a coffeehouse, revising our schemes from last year for an overnight ski/snowshoe trip.

:: :: :: 12.30.04 The U-Haul has landed - and just like it says on the truck - it was an adventure. I've started settling in to a small apartment attached to an old brick farmhouse in the town of Putney, Vermont, 10 miles from the new employer. I sweated over the choice of an apartment - marking the miles and checking the terrain and scenery in anticipation of cycling season.

:: :: :: 12.27.04 I feel like I've been living like a rock star - driving back and forth to Cleveland, drinking too much single malt, and staying up way too late visiting with family and friends for the holidays. In one weekend I managed to close down 3 different parties in 2 different states. I'll miss only being 4 hours away from the Westminster gang...

:: :: :: 12.25.04 Snowshoeing with Sarah in the CVNP south of Cleveland. We started at Blue Hen Falls and then planned on getting to the lower falls behind Boston Mills Ski area. Not being able to cross the creek without getting wet we settled for the ice formations just above the lower falls. A freak winter storm had Steve delayed in NYC twice and dumped a foot and a half of snow on the Midwest. Sarah is getting ready to leave for Australia for a semester. As part of a sister school with Baldwin-Wallace she will be "studying" biology down under - as well as related subjects such as snorkeling, scuba diving, and hanging out at the beach.

:: :: :: 11.30.04 I've decided that I need to find my place on the planet and dig in. I will be relocating to Vermont after the first of the year.

:: :: :: 11.24.04 Listening to a mix of things, including DJ Shadow, John Lennon Acoustic, and the new U2. Weave together the best of War, hints of Passengers, The Joshua Tree, Pop, a bit of Boy and a heavy hand of Achtung Baby - friends will laugh when I say that I think it is perfect... The Schnell Barn is nearing completion. John, Chris, and Hap poured the concrete floor a few weeks ago. The roof will weather the winter under ice and water shield - awaiting the slate installation in the spring. The barn doors are being designed, and the siding and trim are nearly complete awaiting the custom windows for the lofts. Here are a few snaps from raising day.

:: :: :: 11.20.04 215 foot high Taughannok Falls, near Ithaca, New York.

:: :: :: 11.11.04 - 11.14-04 The view atop Burnt Rock, near Waitsfield, Vermont.

:: :: :: 10.29.04 - 12.19.03

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