maintenance – Page 9

First Rains

The first rains have arrived and Ene planted a cover crop of fava beans as a soil amendment and delicious late winter staple. Our garden was devastated by deer over the summer while we were travelling, but we were able to harvest a few pumpkins, acorn squash and late season chiles that survived the onslaught. […]

Saving Seeds with Alex Quinto

Ene harvested the last of our tomatoes and tomatillos, which she had let over-ripen on the vine to to make it easier to squeeze out the seeds. Our friend Alex Quinto was visiting for the day and helped Ene with the seed saving. Alex is the co-founder of Work Worth Doing and has lived for […]

Eggamoggin Reach Regatta

I’ve been a wooden boat enthusiast for over twenty years, so jumped at the opportunity to crew aboard my friend’s recently launched, Herreshoff-designed Buzzards Bay 30 in this year’s Eggamoggin Reach Regatta in and around Penobscot Bay. I flew into Maine from Oslo on a disorienting sequence of flights and arrived at the Belfast City […]

Lessons from Samone

I had a tiny shop in our garage in the flatlands of North Oakland when Ene and I first moved to California in the early nineties after circuitous travels through West Africa, across the United States and into Alaska. I had been deeply inspired by working with the village menusiers of Togo, and was just […]

Dairy Barn Chair

I discovered this chair in an abandoned dairy barn in Tomales, California, among artifacts from a formerly productive cattle ranch just down the coast in West Marin County. It is a good example of “maintenance equals improvement” in that the original rush-woven seat has been replaced by a woven leather seat improvised by the deceased […]

Elder Chair

I’ve been focused on a furniture commission for my new friend Nick Pihakis, a dining set to compliment his family’s Green and Green-inspired home in Birmingham, Alabama. Nick is the co-founder and owner of Jim ‘N Nick’s, a chain of popular barbecue restaurants throughout the Southeastern and Mountain states. Nick uses only fresh, organic ingredients […]