catching you up with our 2020

Hello friends!
We sincerely hope you’re all hanging in there.

Apologies for the dearth of news from this corner.
It was a long & weird year of staying put and keeping our heads down,
luckily our little family remains healthy. Once again,
we find ourselves supremely grateful for our simple lifestyle here in the woods.

We spent 2020 getting some things done around the place;
this newsletter will be a photo roundup of what we were up to - not too wordy.

We deeply missed having the normal creative bustle of classes here last summer. Cancelling the entire 2020 season, which we officially did somewhere in May, seemed the most prudent approach for many reasons. In hindsight we’re pleased to have discouraged travel last summer, there was still so much unknown about the pandemic at that point.

This summer is a different story entirely - yesss!!
Our outdoor hand craft classes of at most 5 students are extraordinarily suited to the times, but we never anticipated our business model would be so literally relevant.

2021 summer classes are a clear, bright spot as we slog through the final bit of this long pandemic winter. (please note that blue bit is a link - you can click on it to be taken to our "Classes" page in order to check out what classes are in our 2021 line-up and which ones still have space available)

So here's a look back at some of what we did to keep ourselves busy in 2020 -

We have a new little structure at the school now -
The timber framed sill & deck (photo below) wait while Kenneth & Koala finish cutting the joinery on the beams for our new 19' x 16' building. (Angela's office will be upstairs & common area/kitchen downstairs)

above: Kenneth uses a lipped adze to reduce the dimension of the beam between his feet.
also above: The photo of frame raising day with Pepper the Border collie by Dave Waddell.

above: Austin hammers it home as Kenneth observes. Kenneth is leaning on the post & 45º brace of bent #4. With a half dovetail through-mortise and tenon, it is important to firmly set that locking wedge.
below: 5 of the 7 bents assembled and awaiting the raising.

above: First bent up.
below: Local friends came to help us raise the frame in September.
On one hand it seems that this building went up in about 3 hours, but truly the process began in September of 2018.

Eric lent a cheerful helping hand despite the height & the December snow squalls. Shop dog Georgie wasn't as positive about the snow.
The new building now awaits its metal roof - give us another year...
(drone photos made by our son!)

A much needed & long delayed project involved shingling our house and timber framing a portico over the front stairs and door. Our good friend and quaranteamate Cory was a welcome bit of consistent company and indispensably helpful during the spring of 2020.

Final group of photos -
We carved out a little apartment in the barn behind our house.
(some of you may know that Angela’s mom's home was destroyed by hurricane Dorian, this apartment is intended for her.)

It wasn't all construction around here though - photographs were taken (mostly by Angela ;) WV white oak was split for basket making, wooden buckets were coopered, newsletters & blog posts were considered (& not manifested), several interns were mentored (check out Will Wheeler's article in Mortise & Tenon #10), tools were sold & shipped all around, canoes were paddled, taxes were done, s pice drawers were organized, winter camping trips were embarked upon, firewood was split and stacked, water was carried, etc.
You know the drill - busy hands are happy hands.

Here's to the coming summer!
We will gladly be seeing some of you then.

all the best to all of you,
Angela + Kenneth