Back At It

After what seems like a century we are back in Shangri-la, having logged thousands of miles in traveling for the past two months.  We were home twice to swap out luggage but otherwise we were elsewhere.

It began with our arrival in DC for the very birthing day of Grandson #3.  Three weeks later we went to Alabama for the third birthday of Grandson #1 and first birthday of Grandson#2.  Then back to DC for GS#3’s baptism, a grand week we got to spend with our co-in-laws.  My co-father-in-law and I are twin sons of different mothers.

While in Rochester our hostswe squeezed in a visit to the Eastman House museum. This was a charming veneered French-style chest, although almost certainly late 19th or early 20th century (I did not take it apart to confirm that thought). I was especially taken by the “knotted banding” pattern.

After another brief stop to swap out more laundry we wrapped up our journeys with a trip to Rochester NY where I made six presentations to the Rochester Woodworkers Guild — Principles of Furniture Conservation, Case Studies in Furniture Conservation, How Furniture Conservation Affects My Current Furniture Making, demonstrations of various conservation techniques, a review and demonstration of parquetry techniques, and finally a conservation/restoration clinic based on the pieces the attendees brought with them for that purpose.

Now back home with summer trying to ramp up we are back at it big time.  Mrs. Barn is feverishly working on her gardens and I am hard at work on the greenhouse, finishing the installation of a greenhouse fan, draping the structure with a shade cloth our newest son-in-law gave to us when it turned out to be too large for their patio space, and sealing up the perimeter to protect from the voles that are the bane of Mrs. Barn’s gardening life.

The shade cloth was something we had been wondering about as the inside temps were in the 80s when the outside temp was in the 20s.  Now that the sun and outside temps are much higher the issue came front and center.  I do not like high temperatures anyway, but when I was working inside the greenhouse in 110-degrees I broke out the shade cloth and affixed it in place.  Combined with the fan that lowered the inside temps to a manageable 85 degrees.

Even though the 1/4″ hardware cloth covers the entire floor out to the walls, I made a second hardware cloth “flashing” to be ground-stapled on top of the continuous layer then crown-stapled to the walls. The tricky part is forming it to the posts, which usually required another piece or two to be cut and fitted.  If voles get past this a number of Rat Zappers will be awaiting them.

As for vole-proofing the space, that began at the very beginning of the construction phase several months ago.  I covered the entire inside space with 1/4″ hardware cloth, and now was the time to tie it all together with new pieces at the bottoms of the walls and posts.  One more day of that and it will be time to move on the laying out the inside configuration.

I hope we get to stay home more from now on, but that may be a vain hope.  In two months the family of GS#1 and GS#2 will be moving to live within five miles of GS#3.  I’m guessing that Grandma and Grandpa will be burning up the roads between here and there.

I am anxious to get back into the shop to work at both the bench and in my writing chair, but that might have to wait a little longer.