Springtime and Japanese Joinery

The last two days have been cold and wet, but before that we had a good week of beautiful Aussie springtime. Nic and I had all kinds of fun playing around in the yard. Here he is on the billy cart, preparing himself for a run on the slalom course we set up with old grape crates.

Simon and I went into Wangaratta on Monday to get some supplies. We had some time to kill while his car was getting fixed, so we walked around town. Above is a sculpture of Simon's that is installed in the park there. It won a competition a few years back, and earned its place in the park facing the billabong (the Aussie name for an ox-bow lake). He made it from an old boat frame he found at the salvage yard. Below are some pictures of spring in bloom. The first is a bottle-brush flower, which I am told is in the acacia family. And the second is some sort of gum tree. All eucalypts have those conical buds with a little cap that pops off when it blooms.

Well, now we're down to the good stuff. Here are some pictures of the progressing kitchen cabinetry. First, we ripped down a bunch of old Murray Pine joists into strips, which we laminated together for the countertops. Here is one of them all glued up and clamped (with every clamp Simon owns, plus a few he borrowed).

Here you go, Uncle Bert (and anyone else who's interested). This is my joinery workstation with the tools of the trade: Saws (crosscut on the right, rip on the left behind the mallet); chisels and mallet; shoulder plane; tape measure; engineer's square; pencil; clamps and bench vises. It is set up for the cutting the lap joint that is pictured below.

Here are a couple examples of the joint that I've been working on for the last couple days. It is a modification of a Japanese dovetailed lap joint. We're using it to join sections of the base of the cabinet frame. It takes a lot of careful measuring, cutting, chiselling, checking, chiselling, tracing, more chiselling, etc. But I really get into it, and the hours just fly by.

The Shed

I've moved out of the bus into my new home... the shed. It is Simon's work of art, built almost entirely from recycled materials. It is quite comfortable. I thought at first it might be too cold and hard to feel like home, but I'm really enjoying it. The patina on the steel walls makes them softer on the eyes, and the wood stove keeps it nice and cosy inside.

The architect in his creation (above). Below is the first thing I made when I came here -- the flue cap for the shed's chimney. We had two beautiful sunny days last week, which we used to replace the roof and insulate the ceiling. And just in time, too: the bus (my previous home) was sold on ebay yesterday.

Here is Nicholas in his tree fort. We've been having a great time playing with legos, dominoes, and the best is the bully cart (a car with a rope attached that I pull him around on). I get my excercise, and he gets his thrills... Last weekend, Simon and I went to a local winery, Pizzini's, for a tasting. It was really nice, the head vintner poured the wines for us, and he had a story for each one. I was quite interested in his description of the flavors produced in wine when there are bushfires in the vicinity (bad flavors that get worse and worse the longer the wine ages).

Well, the main reason I came was to learn some traditional joinery. So, we're getting around to that. I jumped right in with a fairly complex hidden dovetail join (5 of them, actually, and some half-dovetail trenches) for a bookcase we're building for Nic's room. I'm really enjoying the meditative pace and quiet concentration of working with hand tools. We'll be starting into the kitchen cabinets soon, which will be fairly involved joinery. I'm really looking forward to that, and I'll be sure to document it well so you all can see.

Finished dome and a new home

Here are some shots of us finishing the dome. The supporting formwork will remain in place for about three weeks until the concrete reaches full strenth. I will return to the Murphy's to help Shaun with that. There will be quite a bit of shoveling to remove all the gravel that we used to shape the dome.

Shaun's birthday and Aussie father's day fell on the same weekend this year, so we had a series of celebrations. Even Diva got to partake in the festivities.

Above is a table that Shaun built a couple years ago. We helped him bring it out of storage so that he could get it ready for a furniture exhibition in Melbourne starting later this month. Below are some pictures I took on the way up to my new home for the next few weeks. We drove up into the mountains, stopping at an overlook to get a spectacular view of the valley below. We passed quite a few vineyards on the way up too.

Here is my new home at Simon and Cate's. I just arrived yesterday, and I'm just getting settled in. The bus is quite warm and cozy, even though it is a bit cooler up here in the mountains. It is on ebay, though, and we are working on finishing the shed into an insulated living space so I can stay there after the bus is sold. The timber-frame project I initially came to help with has been axed, so I will be working with Simon on constructing new cabinets for their kitchen. I'll post again soon with details and more pictures.

Barn Dancing and Dome Building

We went to a barn dance last weekend. I had no idea what to expect when we left to go on saturday night, but it ended up being great fun. Here's a couple pictures Kazuki took of me stripping the willow...

Well its late and I'm tired, so I won't be writing too much tonight. We just finished troweling the concrete dome on the chook pen. It was quite a long day today. Here is a brief pictoral synopsis of the past week of the project: The first picture is of the completed wooden platform and formwork edges. Again, the front edge proved quite tricky as it curves in two planes.

We piled crushed gravel into a mound on the platform, shaping it to roughly the shape of the underside of the dome to be.

After the gravel was in place, we put a layer of brick sand over the whole thing, and feathered it out to the edges. It allowed us to shape the dome fairly accurately. We kept the sand wet and packed it tightly before covering it with black plastic sheeting.

After the plastic was on, we cut long strips of reinforcing mesh and wired them together in place, forming a steel basket of sorts. Once that was done, we were ready to pour the concrete...

And pour we did! And the clouds joined in too! We had scattered showers throughout the day. But just after we had placed the last bit of concrete, a thunderstorm rolled in. We had just barely gotten the dome covered with plastic when the skies opened up and let loose a torrent of rain and hail. All that water--along with the cooler temperatures--meant the concrete was pretty slow in setting, hence the working until 11:00 pm and me being tired. On that note... goodnight! I'll post some pictures of the finished dome next time.