yestermorrow

i'm near waitsfield vermont this week at yestermorrow building school. tommorrow we raise a small building that my class has hand crafted from scratch. i'm learning a lot, so much i'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, but the instructors say that's normal and that raising the kinds of buildings that we're planning for destiny is definitely do-able. one instructor, josh, has given me a dvd about a school in vermont that raised a large barn built by high school students.

in the last week we've done almost everything by hand: cross-cutting, ripping, drilling, planing, chiseling, mortising, measuring, and even making the pegs that hold the building together. i've learned so much. i can't wait to get home and start playing with specific ideas for the kitchen and bathhouse buildings.

working by hand is slow but very satisfying and relatively safe. no one in the class has injured themselves and it's been wonderfully calm and quiet in the workshop, mostly absent the noise of power tools. our work has a beautiful hand-made look even though no one in the class had prior experience.

i've been thinking our community could start making some frames for our buildings this winter, perhaps in white river junction or some other location convenient to those who'd like to work on it. one of the great things about timberframing is that you can create the building's frame entirely offsite, then take it in pieces to where it's to be assembled and raise it in a day or two. i'm imagining work weekends where i can teach what i've learned to faeries and we can build frames for the privy and perhaps some of the cabins ready to be put up come spring. this may be somewhat ambitious but i think it's prudent to tackle the smaller buildings first if we're going to do timberframing. more later!