Ashfield's ancient pines

While most of the forests around town were cut for timber, firewood, or just to get them out of the way, some few acres seem to have escaped. These acres contain some ancient white pines several of which are well over 120 feet tall. Here are a few pictures I took while snowshoeing today.

China Cabinet Project

I have been spending most of my project time since early December on making a china cabinet to replace a crude built in in our dining room. It is ambitious and I don't know if I'll get it to look as planned.Here is a sketch of what I am aiming for.

The lower cabinet doors were something of a challenge. The quarter round pieces in the corners required me to develop a new hand tool to make the half round molding on the edge. You'll see what I mean if you enlarge the image.

 The molding on the straight pieces were easier, I made them with a plane produced by the Stanley Tool Co. about 60 years ago( and no I am not the first owner). Each door contains 9 pieces

and had 12 mortise and tenon ( deep groove and tongue) hand sawn and chiseled joints; one at each corner to hold the frame together and two at each corner to hold the quarter round piece in place.

It also took a long time for me to find the exact piece of board with the right figure in the grain for the central panel of each door. Finally last Sunday I got them glued together using traditional hot hide glue as was used two hundred years ago ( not by me). Cold temperatures meant the gluing had to be done in the kitchen rather than the unheated shop or barn. The doors are far from perfect and still need some touch up, but overall, I'll call them  successful.

The mahogany and the shellac finish combine to yield  a finish that is iridescent and that changes color and tone with the angle from which the wood is viewed.

I am now using scrap wood while practicing making up the sides and tops of the lower cabinet. With mahogany plywood going for $125 a sheet, and solid costing $10 a square foot, I need to get it right on the first try when I get to the real boards.

Apple Valley in January

We still have plenty of snow and did a few hours of snowshoeing on Saturday and Sunday.

Here are a bunch of pictures from a brief walk around our neighborhood yesterday.

 Our big sugar maple, like its current owner, could never be accused of being excessively orderly.

 I thought these windswept clouds were worth a picture.

 A few pictures of the valley.

Home sweet project.

One neighbor raises cattle and has a couple of dogs, one of whom refused to pose when she realized it would be too cold for her to roll over and get a belly rub. The other was already back in the house where it was warm. 

Another neighbor has a goat named dog (no picture of him) a few Guinea fowl, a red hen, all seen running past the truck, and a goose named Cat. Cat generally looks after the fowl and keeps them off the road, but this time I had to shoo them back to safety.

Other neighbors raise goats and chickens and the two small pigs hiding in the back of their pictures. They usually come running over to see if I have food, but they had just been fed and were to busy to bother with me.

I'll try to get some pictures of the sheep and lama another neighbor keeps soon.

January Visit to New Jersey

Had a nice visit at Ridge on Monday getting to see Dr. Jaeger, Mrs. Mitchell, Mr. Florance, Ms. Moroni, Mrs. D'Armiento, Ms Muraview, and spend some time with Ms Musumenci, Mr. Lee and Mr. Fry. I also got to spend an enjoyable and interesting few hours with the Verbrugge sisters, Audrey Becker, Lizzie Le Orlando, Neel Choudhari, Eric Wei, Jack Aaron. It's always a pleasure to meet with alums and see how you are doing.

While in Jersey I got to see some old friends and neighbors and do some furniture repairs for some of them. I brought our camera and brilliantly forgot to take any pictures.

What I didn't forget was to load up on bagels, cold cuts and other goodies hard to find outside the New York metropolitan region.

Got home Wednesday evening to find another 6"of snow on the ground, but all nicely shoveled our son Chris and plowed by our neighbor.

Contact info

If you need to reach me tomorrow try 201 444 8206. This is my on the road number I don't check when I am home.

More on Visit

It look like room 506 will be okay to meet at about 2:30. I might be going out for a while with faculty members from about 3:15 to 5. If anyone wants to get together either at 2:30 or later, let me know by email or comment.

Another Visit

For those of you looking for a reason to head back to college early, here it is.  I am hoping to visit Ridge on Monday. I'll post more details as soon as I clear up where and when.

Student Visit

Henry Chen, Akil Kadali , and Dan Golding dropped by last Friday.  It was a very enjoyable evening, at least for me, I'll let the boys speak for themselves. It was our first students since Julia's visit last summer. We wouldn't mind seeing some more of you up here if you can find the time ( and the way).

Photos from Ridge 12/21

Here are a couple of pictures from my visit to Ridge on 12/21. Tony, Melissa, and Kristen are looking great, not so sure about the other guy. I really enjoy seeing you folks. I may be down next week, I'll try to provide more advance warning.

How the New Year Started

Been a busy several days. Took Daniel to Boston on Sunday. We went to two pretty quiet New Year's Eve parties around here. We spent the first two days of the year with friends in Glen Rock. 

On the days we were home we did some snowshoeing from right out our door and some more beginning a few hundred yards down the road . Ah country life. I am getting used to my new MSR snowshoes, but I am having a hard time breaking in a new pair of heavy boots. Oh my aching toes.

Sunday, we went to the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield to see exhibits of Native American art and orchids, and to watch an outstanding performance of Bizet's Carmen, recorded a few years ago at Convent Garden in London.

We then walked around Pittsfield, found a store selling British food, and yes some of it makes pretty good eating.

We met friends for dinner and then went back to the museum to see Chasing Ice, a film about taking time elapsed pictures of glaciers retreating, a very convincing sign of global warming.

I've been in touch with many students via email and facebook messages. Some are starting out on their careers, some doing great things as undergrads and grad students.