New Treehouse Developments

redwood groveThe treehouse will be hidden in a remote redwood grove, beyond a Gravenstein orchard

Structurally, the new treehouse I’ve been commissioned to design will be a radical departure from the various tree-sited structures I’ve made over the years, but the spirit of arboreal living will remain in tact. Sited at the edge of a dense, second growth redwood grove, this treehouse will be more like a watch tower, aloft in the trees without making direct connection to any tree. can i take ivermectin with food Consisting of a rustic cabin perched atop a winding stair tower, the new treehouse will have more in common with regionally familiar water towers and silos, for which the foundational connection to the ground is most critical. ivermectina prevenção chikungunya After laying out the structure’s footprint in a clearing between clusters of coast redwood, our first step has been to take soil samples, which will be analyzed by a soils engineer to specify the appropriate footings for minimal impact to the root system. precio del quanox

soil samplecarefully digging soil samples in the redwood grove

We dug about thirty inches deep and confirmed the soil to be Wilson Grove Formation, consisting of late Pliocene/late Miocene marine deposits, common to our neck of the woods. The structure will be supported by a perimeter of cast concrete, deeply secured to the ground with helical anchors screws

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Fish Sculpture Progress

steel cherryMetal artist Kevin Cherry fabricates the steel substructures for our fish sculptures

With minor revisions, the San Francisco Arts Commission has approved our clay/wood models of fish sculptures for the new, Ortega Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, and we are rapidly proceeding with full scale fabrication. Using templates generated from sections of the models, we had discs cut from plate steel, and steel tubes bent to form the ‘spines’ of the two fish sculptures. ????? ???? ??? cheapest price for ivermectin We’ve hired Sonoma-based metal artist Kevin Cherry of Steel Cherry to fabricate the welded steel substructure, which will be hot dip galvanized once the longitudinal stringers are in place, before we ‘skin’ the skeleton with fiberglass mesh, impregnated with a cementitious resin.

fish spinePetaluma, CA based Van Bebber Brothers bent the 4″d steel tube ‘fish spines’

-To learn more about the evolution of the wowhaus project, ‘Abundance’, please click here and scroll down.
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Aili/Papa Longboards

longboardour matching longboards made from vintage water skis

Over the weekend my 14 year old daughter and I made matching longboard skateboards from a pair of vintage Riviera water skis we found in the barn. At about 49″ long and just under 6″ wide, the mahogany skis make wonderful, if somewhat narrow decks. where to buy albenza and ivermectin without a rx We experimented with different truck configurations to test their performance, outfitting one with 169 mm Independent Trucks, and the other with 149 mm Krux. Both boards have soft OJ3 wheels for traction and low vibration. Aili thought the old school, translucent purple would offset the deck’s deep red and creamy white stripes. can you use ivermectin to worm dogs

After our initial test rides, the wider trucks on Aili’s board performed better, carving tighter turns with more stability. ivermectin injection for horses tractor supply I kind of prefer the look of the narrower Krux on my board, but may swap them out for a more practical ride. The curved nose of the ski makes a great kick tail. I’ve seen longboarders ride with a forward kick, making sharp turns under speed by rocking in a crouch on the front wheels and pivoting the rear of the board by reaching back and sliding it sideways. It seems using narrower trucks might require harder wheels for the slide (and more agility than I currently have).

waterski longboard

Flotsam of the Day

seashells1

I’ve always liked to use chalk when roughing things out on wood. Lately I’ve taken to scouring the beaches during negative low tides in search of seashells for making my marks. kup scabo ??????? ??? ???? The Pacific Razor Clam is ideal, softer than the East Coast equivalent, but hard enough to make a clean scratch, and loaded with calcium carbonate to leave a crisp white line. dosis quanox ???? ?????

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Shuffling the Tree

WoodworkingI can relate to the work style of a 1930’s American cabinet shop (public domain)

After over a year of design development with the architect and client, selecting logs of deodar cedar and having them custom milled and cured to outfit the interior of a new guest house down the coast, I’m regaining perspective on my original thinking behind how I approached the project: Shuffling the Tree.

As my cabinets, doors and built-in furnishings take shape, each part of the tree finds its corresponding use in built form, the planks having been painstakingly graded for grain character, color and structural integrity. The process of hand sorting thousands of board feet of air-dried, rough sawn lumber has been slower than I had anticipated, but well worth the effort, and I’m feeling less overwhelmed as I convert my neatly stickered piles into glowing wooden furnishings. I’m taking extra pains not to use any laminated sheet materials, constructing all casework in solid stock.

I’ve found that designing and building this way automatically bestows a building with a feeling of belonging-ness, as though the house stands in honor of the tree it displaced. When the material is locally sourced from the waste stream, diverted from horticultural salvage that might otherwise be burned as firewood, the building’s interior has the added benefit of reducing carbon emissions to the atmosphere. I call my approach ‘bioregional vernacular’, and I’m glad for the opportunity to test its scalability.

cedar cabinetscabinets of deodar cedar w/face frames, stacked up while I prepare doors and drawers

To follow my progress on designing and building the guest house interior, please click here and scroll down.


Greenwood Global

Greenwood: Selective Harvesting Preserves Forests

Though I’ve built just one boat to date, I’ve been an avid reader of WoodenBoat magazine for over 25 years. The publication is a major torch-bearer for the practice of traditional boat-building, and a treasure trove of primary source knowledge for all things wood. My favorite feature is invariably the Wood Technology column by Richard Jagels, forest biologist and professor at University of Maine. The persistence of woodcraft requires constant adaptation to changing conditions, and Richard’s column always provides valuable, in-depth perspective on forest ecology as it relates to sourcing and processing wood products.

I was thrilled to learn that Jagels has taken his work out of the halls of academia as a founding director of Greenwood Global, a non-profit dedicated to protecting both forests and traditional artisanry internationally.


Surf Serendipity in Sayulita

andy lambrechtsurfer/shaper Andy Lambrecht takes a break in Sayulita

I met surfboard maker Andy Lambrecht on our last day in Sayulita, Mexico. I noticed his handmade  wooden board by the beached fishing boats as we were packing up and getting ready to catch a bus back to Puerto Vallarta. ivermectin dose for cat ear mites Based in British Columbia, Andy makes a variety of hollow surfboards using reclaimed woods from local sources, which he typically re-saws and book-matches in elegant patterns- imperfections like nail holes are artfully incorporated into each board’s unique composition.

Andy is on paternity leave and will be in Sayulita with his wife and their two young daughters for three months, surfing and hanging out (talk about a health care program!). He brought along his shaping tools and has already landed a commission- a surfboard in exchange for work on his ailing car after the arduous journey southward. how much mcg of ivermectin do i give a 20lb dog I look forward to keeping in touch with Andy Lambrecht, and have invited him and his family for a visit on their way back up the coast. overdose ivermectin cat

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