Notes from the wood shop.......

The journey from the tree to custom furniture for your home......

Greetings! I'm a furniture maker and this is where you can visit me from to time for a few words of wisdom and to see what I'm currently doing, a new design, a production item, or perhaps a kitchen and once in awhile some gardening thrown in.


About the Author
Paul (SNOTZALOT)Paul has been a furniture builder for over 20 years and follows the values of the Pennsylvania Dutch life style with his sharp wit, enjoyment of life and the value he places in furniture construction. Enjoy reading about his journey.............
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3/9/11

Wow a year and no new posts!

Time does fly when you are busy with orders and having fun! 2010 was a decent year considering the economy. Lot's of folks are doing some serious remodeling and furniture fits right in.

I have scheduled nine shows this year in NJ and eastern Pa, Once again we will show our work at the Kutztown Folk Festival.

I'll update the show schedule on the web site in a few days.

I'm enjoying winters final fury and the coming of spring.

Ain't life grand!
 
3/22/10

Spinach

A quick up date on the low tunnel hoop houses. We have a very nice spinach crop that over wintered and a very small broccoli plant too. Hope to have fresh spinach for Easter Dinner. If you are interested in year round gardening, low tunnel hoop houses work!
 
11/27/09

Beets!

Beet Harvest Nov 09
Today's beet harvest. These will be on the table for our second T'Giving dinner on Saturday. Still have a dozen or so beets growing, I'll save  for Christmas dinners!

Click on the image to enlarge!
 
11/7/09

24.6 F

Winter Harvest Handbook
Yup, 24.6 F this morning, first hard freeze this fall, PA Zone 5B, so the official growing season is over.

Under the low hoop house tunnel it is 28.9 F. Spinach has frosty leaves and mesclun we planted a few weeks back is coming up.

I received Elliott Colemans Winter Harvest book and it's excellent reading for hoop house growing.


 
10/14/09

TrioTable

Triplet Table
Latest edition to the table line, the Trio Table. Features marble insert, hand crafted "Krenov" pull, and a "Blacker" leg. Wood is red oak with the medium stain. It measures 46" X 16" X 27" H.
 
10/12/09

Spinach Over Winter?

Hoop House
We have successfully over wintered a few spinach plants with out any protective cover. This year we are trying hoop houses over two rows of spinach.  This should be an interesting experiment. Here is one row with a heavy Agribon cover. Next month we'll install green house plastic. I guess we'll need to shovel a path to the garden to keep the snow off.


 
9/30/09

Butternut Squash & Greens Over Pasta

Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens Over Bow-Tie Pasta

http://tinyurl.com/yaztwas

From The Splendid Table's® How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2008). Copyright © 2008 by American Public Media.

Serves 4 to 6

10 minutes prep time; 35 minutes oven time

(Furniture Blog? Why not a good recipe once in awhile???)
 
9/26/09

Autumn Equinox

This past Tuesday Sept. 22 was a day spent finishing an order. It was a quiet gray day with little sunshine, cool but not wet.

First order of the day was to turn on the heat in the barn. It was under 50 at day break and and the Hydrocote Resithane finish I use really likes to be applied above 60 degs. F. Finish days are usually spent doing one thing, spraying lacquer, 3 coats with sanding in between coats. I usually don't do any woodworking on finish day to keep sawdust off of me and off of the wet lacquer. The lacquer set up nice and it's a good looking order.

I was done with the finishing about 3 PM and decided to do some cleaning of the shop. All sorts of things need to be taken up to the store room above the shop but first I needed to clean off the stack of stray wood pieces from  the stairs. It's amazing how much stuff ends up on those stairs. After a few trips up the stairs, the car parts were stored securely upstairs probably never to be found again.

I heat the shop with Propane heat and it's expensive, so I needed to reinstall the insulated panel at the top of the stairs. It's a quick job, unscrew the keeper, lay the panel over and slide into place. As I back down the stairs, "well that's done I say", finish the order, clean the shop and seal up the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs I glance at the clock above the saw, it was 5:19 PM, wow that's the autumn equinox.........I was done for the day and the shop is ready for winter...............how timely.
 
9/23/09

Game Tables

Game Table
I received a call last spring from a customer who wanted a game table made with a slate game board her husband used to play with when he was a child. Age of this game board was probably over a 100 years old and it was a very nice antique, 1/2" thick slate with glazed game pattern. This is the sort of job we love to do, design a table to showcase a customers prize possession. This table was hand crafted in cherry with a dark cherry stain which complimented a border in the game board. It measures 24' square, 30" high and includes a drawer. It came out nice!
 
8/19/09

Pocono State Craft Festival Aug 22-23

 
This weekend, Aug 22-23, the Pocono state Craft Festival, Queit Valley, Stroudsburg, Pa. A wonderful show not to be missed! Top artists and all of Quiet Valley's attractions.

http://www.poconocrafts.com/
 

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