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.