Found Materials

Several people have asked me lately where I find all the materials I use in my projects. This will answer some of those questions, but not all, as there always seems to be a new lead come up that I had not heard of before.

For logs or trees, there are several sources: family and friends that need trees taken down, or friends of theirs. Some already have the trees down or they fell down in a storm, etc… Some of these are great sources, others not so much, but you have to follow up on every one of them because you never know when a lead will be a gold mine!

We have also had great luck with city workers in various places letting us know when the city is taking down trees and where those trees can be found. It seems that most cities would rather have the wood go to a good use just as heating homes or being turned into useful items rather than just rotting in a back lot or being burned up in a big pile.

Arborists or tree trimming companies have been good, if somewhat inconsistent in supplying trees or logs. If we can catch them in the process of cutting trees, they will often help us load the logs so they don’t have to haul them away. For all the business cards I have given out to those same companies however, I have yet to receive a call when they are at a job where they have more logs to be hauled away. Not sure why, but just now it has not happened.

When it comes to barn or old building lumber, that has always been word of mouth or simply driving by a building and seeing someone nearby to ask if they own it or know the owner so we can get permission to take the building down.

The same goes with old farm equipment, implement wheels, disk cutters, etc… we see them along a road or in someone’s field and work on tracking down an owner to see if they wish to part with them.

Of course, the more people we have looking the better our chances, so if you know of any of the above items, or any other items you think might be of use to us, please contact us and we will follow up on your information. 

Wood Worker versus Doing Wood work

I have been thinking a lot lately about how there is a difference between making something with wood work and doing wood working.  

At least in my way of thinking I am a wood worker, or I do wood working. That is different than making something from wood. A lot of people can make things with wood, but that is different than being a wood worker.

How, well that’s a difficult difference to quantify. To me a doing wood work implies the person has a love for the material he is using, he (or She) may not have the highest quality tools, but he always strives to do the best possible work with those tools. The layout is the best they can do, the elements complement each other and they strive for the “wow” factor when they are done.

Where as someone that makes something from wood generally (there are Always exceptions to everything) is just using wood because it is either the cheapest material, or the easiest to obtain, etc… it’s not because they love the medium.

Someone who does woodworking does so because they love the way the grain of the wood looks, they can’t wait to see what the wood reveals as they carve away whatever is not part of the end project. They understand how the wood will move and change with the changes in humidity, they know that quarter sawn board will react different then flat sawn, and plan the project accordingly.

A person making something out of wood goes to the local lumber yard, takes whatever boards the yard man loads in their rig and goes about making the project. Little thought is given to the species of wood, the type of joints, or fasteners, and they often paint over the wood. Something a wood worker would find appalling in most circumstances.

With a wood worker it’s all about showcasing the grain and color of the wood as much as the item being made out of the wood.

I know, it’s all a point of view, but at least in my current state of mind, there is a difference and it’s important. To others it may just seem like a minor issue, and perhaps it is, but isn’t that what really makes the difference in most cases, the little things? 

Found wood

I was recently given a very nice burl by a friend of mine and it got me to wondering. Is it still “found wood” if I’m not the one that found it?

I know it’s still being recycled or reused and that is one of the things I promote in my work as much as possible. While some jobs do require me to purchase new material, I try to use old wood or items in my work when possible.

To that end, we cut down trees for family and friends, we cut up and or haul away logs that are left by tree services, cut down by the city, etc. as well as take down barns or other buildings we find that are about to fall down or otherwise need removed.

By the way, if you know of any such items, please let me know, we are always looking for more materials.

While it’s not going to happen soon, we are working on purchasing our own mini sawmill to turn some of the logs we find in to lumber for use in making some of our items. Not only are the various hardwoods hard to find locally, the choices are limited. No one we know of sells Russian Olive boards, but we have some now. You can get Juniper boards, but the price per board foot is outlandish! (Again, if you know of someone wanting Juniper trees cut down on their property, let us know).

We have old farm equipment wheels, parts of old wagon wheels, stove lids, plow/ disk blades, springs, etc., that we have (and are) gathered(ing) that will be “up cycled” into new products for sale or gifts. While all of these were “found” on various ranches around the area and obtained with permission, can we really say we found them when the owners knew perfectly well they were there?

If you know of more of these items that are available, please let us know… notice a theme here? We can only find stuff if someone lets us know it’s there somewhere… or rather, it is a lot easier to find things if more people are looking! 

Memorial Day

            The tradition in the US is to make a special effort on Memorial Day to remember those that have served our country and gave their lives to maintain our freedom. It’s also a day to remember those that have passed away before ourselves.

            While there are several members of our family that have served in the armed forces, none of them that I knew directly have perished during that service. For that I am very thankful and I am grateful to them for their service to our country.

            My parents and Lynn’s mom have been gone long enough for the sharp pain of their loss to be muted somewhat and the loss of our son Joe is mostly down to a dull ache that will likely last for many more years.

            What has helped me get through the rough times when remembering my passed loved ones is to dwell on the fun times we had with them, the memories of them doing things that made them happy and created smiles on those around them. I could write a book or more on some of the great stories based on those memories if I only had the time. Or perhaps better stated is if I made the time to do so.

            For now I’ll leave you with this: When out and about today and in the days that follow, bring up those great memories and push the others to a back shelf. Don’t discard them, just regulate them to a less important station. 

Friends

It has been said that old and dear friends take years to develop. While it may be true that friendships do deepen over time, some friendships are nearly instant and it seems that you have known each other your whole lives after only a short time.

One of those friendships for me started in 2010 when Lynn and I moved to Kalispell MT. After joining the local wood turning group I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Nickel. Bill was one of those people mentioned above. We hit it off right from the start and were soon great friends. Our love for wood working was deep as were many of the conversations we had over the 4 years we lived in the area.

Our ideas for projects ran the gauntlet from practical to sublime and all reaches between. We turned, or tried to turn many projects, made our own tools when the ones we had failed to meet our needs. We helped teach many teen agers at the local schools with demonstrations given by the local turning club. Found old lathes from some of Bill’s many friends and gave them out to the kids (both young of age and young of heart) so others could enjoy our love of turning, working with wood.

We used each other’s strengths to push our own limitations and create things that neither of us would have done otherwise. Most of those succeeded, some did not, but that’s how you learn, but not succeeding the first time.

 Bill was devoted to the community, doing volunteer firefighting for years, helping local library districts near his mountain home, heck, helping anyone that he thought needed help and would be thankful for the help.

It is also said that a dog is a great judge of character. If that is the case, Bill was of Great character. JJ loved that man! He could hear Bill’s pickup pull up outside our house and would start whining and wiggling at mach II. The only issue was that JJ is also a jumper, and due to his size, tends to jump on a person at precisely the Wrong height! It was a constant source of amusement to those of us watching, if not to Bill, when JJ would time Bill’s entry into our house perfectly to nearly bring him to his knees!

As you can probably tell from the tense of this story, Bill has been taken from us at far too young an age. A dear and great friend is no longer around. He is missed by all that knew him.

Good bye Bill, may we meet in another life, and be friends for many many more years the next time around. 

Happy JJ!

Everyone has funny stories in their life. One of our recent ones comes from our inability to leave our house arranged in any given way for longer than 6 months at a time. We always say we move more times in our house than we ever have from house to house.

The latest move, rearrangement, call it what you want, has us changing our living room around once again. What was the living room will now be the sewing/ silversmithing room and the dining room will become the living room. (We always eat in the living room anyway, so this seems appropriate.)

Here is where the funny part comes in: We have an old trunk that we padded and covered last year for JJ to be on and look out the window. At that time it was at the window facing the driveway, we moved it last year to the front window, figuring it was a bay window with three windows actually and he would be happier to be able to see more. Nope, he would get on there but never really seemed to like it. We moved it back today. He is SO happy about that! He gets up there and just wags his tail while looking out the window! Not sure why he likes that window, but it shows that he does... He has spent most of the afternoon looking out that window and then running outside to bark at birds, greet other dogs walking by, etc... All things he could have done from the other windows, but didn’t seem to.

It’s So nice to do things that make others happy, even when that “someone” is a dog. 

The CJ2A

It was a surprise to me, but one of my friends told me they would be interested in hearing about all the projects we are working on.. from wood working projects to the CJ2A project(s) and the barns/ buildings we are taking down.

To that end, I decided to write up something about each project and post it here on my blog, once a week (what day each week yet to be decided). This week I think I’ll cover the CJ2A project(s) and give everyone a bit of an idea where we are and where we hope to be in the not too distant future.

The CJ2A

Last September I told Lynn about an estate sale in Wallowa that had 5 CJ2As for sale. Figuring that there was no way we could afford even one, I sent the guy a message… and got back that he would take $400 for the 3 Jeeps he had left. One rolling chassis and two tubs… We have looked at and talked about these flat fenders for long enough to know that one of the “tubs” (the body of the Jeep) was worth that much… Yep, we scrounged and came up with the $400.

Since we didn’t get the reply back until late on a Sunday, we asked if he would hold them until the next weekend.. and he agreed. We headed over with Robert and his small trailer to get them, figuring we would have to make more than one trip.

Once there we were busy loading the Jeeps (the rolling chassis fit Perfectly in his trailer) when the guy came by and offered to throw in another trailer ( mid 50s Jeep pickup box trailer) to hold the extra tub. With one tub on the pickup and one on the other trailer we towed Roberts trailer down the road to a spot we could leave it and hooked up to the 2^nd trailer that we took to dad’s place in Imbler.

After returning for Robert’s trailer and making 2 trips to home we had all the parts and pieces (plus extra stuff we had bought from the guy) at home.

Fast forward a couple months and an add on Craig’s list came from a guy in Burns that had another frame (the one on the rolling chassis needed work) that had just been rebuilt. Yep, off to Burns to get just the frame and some misc parts for $320…. But while there we learned that he had 3 other tubs, a couple transmissions, more fenders, etc… left overs from when he and his son were building a CJ2A each, a project that ended up being 1 Jeep after the engine for his was toast. He said he was interested in selling all of the stuff, but we were tapped out on funds and had to pass…

I waited a few months and our son James offered us some money for many things that we had done for him in the past, etc… Yep, you guessed it, I offered the guy a lowball price for the whole lot of parts he had, and he agreed. By not though, its mid winter and Burns had gotten hammered with snow.

Fast forward again to late March, and we are again headed for burns with Robert and a different trailer of his… Just the axles alone were enough to convince Robert we had made a Great deal!

Now we have 6 tubs, 3 frames, 4 sets of fenders, 4 hoods, well, you get the idea. Between all the dealing I was talking to a guy back east that sometimes makes trips out to visit his wife’s family near Spokane and he expressed interest in buying all the parts we didn’t want to keep. I’m pretty sure there are enough parts to make two running Jeeps (minus one engine). With the other parts being sold or traded to the guy from back east to get us the other parts we need I hope to have at least 1 of them running by this fall! 

Spring renewal

We have all heard that spring brings renewal and re-growth. Well it seems that has many meanings.

The grass is growing like made, the flowers are blooming, the trees are budding out and my to-do list is growing by leaps and bounds! All the projects that were on hold because it was too cold in the shop are now either higher on the list or underway. We found another small barn (or part of a barn at least) to take down and are currently hauling in the boards from that project, for use on other projects.

New ideas for projects start with every sunrise, the materials for the most part are on hand, it’s the time to accomplish them all that is the issue. I know, I Know, we are not the only one’s suffering from this conundrum! It seems to be a fact of life that either you have lots of time and no money or materials, or lots of materials, and no time. Since I don’t see that every changing, we are just doing the best we can with what we have available of each and moving forward. Of that there is no choice, we could not just sit and do nothing anymore than we could wiggle our nose and make it all happen by magic!

Look for photos of new projects on here or on my facebook page soon.

Lack of shop time

There seems to have been a conspiracy going on here at my house. It’s all the things that are happening to keep me out of the shop. Broken water pipes, new jobs, more orders for Llama Hardware, taxes to get organized and off to the accountant… you know, the things that are our lives.  

On a side note, we have found a few more barn boards and will be headed out to gather those up and brought home. A few of the projects I have in mind for those are cut outs of the state of Oregon. Some I hope to add chalk board in the opening and perhaps I’ll put a mirror in one of the others.

Still on the “to get done” list are a stack of bread troughs, totes full of roughed out bowls, and a few cutting/ serving platters. I’ll be working on those soon I hope. Additional plans are in the works for a “little library” to be put on the street in front of our house.

  

These little libraries are a place where people walking by can borrow a book, leave a book or perhaps trade a book. They have proven very popular in other locations and we have an old cabinet to use to make ours.

More ideas and other projects to be added to the list soon and finished products will get photographed and put on here as well. 

Insulation

This winter has reinforced in me the need to insulate my work space. When it’s zero outside and below zero in the shop it’s easy to tell that something has to change!

Higher on the priority for this spring will be to get some insulation up on the walls and get it covered by the old boards we have from the bunkhouse we tore down at the old barn site. Something has to change, even if slowly.  

I have been thinning down my “surplus” of items. I no longer have 3 forges, just one. The dark room has went on to someone that has the room and time to make use of it, and I’m gaining room a bit here and a bit there.

The project list is still every growing but that too is getting more organized, with set goals and time lines… as much as the weather will allow at least. And, I hope to be back on a more regulated schedule of blogging as well.