States I've Visited

visited 37 states

Wow, I guess I'm an East Coaster! No Canada shown here, but I've been to all the Eastern Provinces starting with Ontario. Pacific Northwest? Never heard of it!

Housewarming Present

 
I built this cutting/serving board for my Mom's new house in Marietta, GA. Her old house in Tennessee was trimmed with cherry, walnut and ash, so I used the same woods in this project. I added some birdseye maple on the outside edge to lighten it up a bit.

Dimensions: 14" L x 8 1/4" W x 1 3/16" H
All handplane jointed and smoothed. No sandpaper or router were used. Only wood chisels, handplanes and cabinet scraper. Finish is Danish Oil and Wax.

Saratoga Race Course

I've been over to the track two times since opening day. So far, I've only cashed two winning tickets! It seems that the more tips I collect from my various "sources", the worse I do with my bets.

2009 Garden is Planted

It all started with the delivery of a dumptruck load of compost/mulch from the city. All of the leaves, grass clippings and limbs that the department of public works picks up during the year is fed to a giant composter. The city then sells and delivers the resulting mulch. It's a lot of work to move a pile of compost around the yard!!
Some of the new garden items for this year are a fig tree, peach and nectarine. We are also trying our hand with honeybees, so far it has been fascinating to watch them get their hive in order. Learn more at www.betterbee.com- they are a nearby mailorder beekeeping supply company and have been a pleasure to work with.
Also new this year is a strawberry pyramid built with plans I found on the web. We've also added an automated irrigation system to improve the quality of everything we grow
Check out the short video below!

Goodbye to the 555

This month of May, my Mom sold the old family home in Tennessee so that she can move to Atlanta to be closer to family. 555 Springhill Drive was a special house because it was built using materials from an even older family house! 100+ year old bricks, slate and stone were used to create the tri-level cottage w/ greenhouse.

I took my first steps as a baby in this house- and amazingly, so did my nephew Brodie this month as we finished up the packing!

As a child, the house was the centerpiece of many great memories such as Holiday family get-togethers, Sunday dinners, cranking homemade ice cream out on the brick patio, looking through the red glass of the giant walnut front door and, especially, climbing through the cherry and ash railing of the beautiful staircase!

The large city lot was populated by some interesting landscape trees, such as a huge pin oak, gingko, magnolias, dogwoods, birch and tupelo.
The gardens were filled with my grandmother's and Mom's lifetime of collecting unusual and beautiful flora. Heirloom daffodils, iris, peonies, columbine, trillium, lilies, hydrangeas, camelias and azaleas dotted the multitude of carefully bordered gardens. A water garden, complete with a babbling brook, provided safe haven for water lilies and coi.

My Dad used to have a large vegetable garden there. My sister and I remember the toil of constant rock-picking whenever the garden was tilled! In later years, the vegetable garden became more of an orchard with the addition of cherry, apple and fig trees.

A great house with many great memories. Now let's start creating the next great family homes!