We are on Facebook now. It is a bit scary for me. I rarely leave the island. We made a business page, or should I say Emily made a business page and it came with a personal page so now I am overly connected. The world seems to be moving a little faster now. Come and check it out: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001892572297#!/pages/Marty-Harris-Furniture/156349554409898

Emily has spent the day working on our martyharrisfurniture.com website. It is looking great! We now have the past projects dinning room server and curved seating area completed. We now also have a more uniform look to the pages. You can also follow the construction of the Klinck cat boat. Today I spent some time gluing up a couple benches and trying to get a few rocking chair backs out of a piece of lumber I ordered. It is always a gamble when you order lumber sight unseen no matter what they promise you and how adamant you are about what you need. Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving!!

Here is a photo of the garden bench I have been working on. It has one coat of teak oil applied. It will get many more coats of teak oil.

Here is a bench that is waiting for a seat and arms. It should be finished this week. It will get multiple coats of teak oil since it will live outside. This is the second version. The first version was much more free form but abandoned when I realized the bench and myself would be torturing each other all the way to the end. Experience told me to stop while I was ahead. The present version is much nicer than the first!

I have began planking the cat boat. Here the garboard is fastened down and the broadstrake is steamed onto the boat. Now we are waiting on the rivets to arrive. I think I need to get some more clamps.

Autumn Activities

Hey Marty, that drawer front looks suspiciously like a boat. The dining room server Marty built this spring foreshadowed what was to come this summer, fall, and winter. This spring and summer a dining room server, a 20-foot seating area, a large bed, a laundry table, a walnut ship's ladder for a loft, a walnut rocker with at writing tablet, a shower screen, and a gong rack have left the workshop. The website will soon show the process and completed product for most of these projects. It was a busy summer and we are all glad that fall is here!

The surprise project of the year is Charles' 12'9" Cat Boat. At the moment it is filling up a good part of the workshop. Charles and Marty used some serious brain power and translated Antonio Dias' plans into into a full-scale plan on the floor of Marty's shop. Now the boat is coming to life as it becomes a 3-dimensional reality with the molds, ribbands, stem, forefoot, and transom in place. Sometimes one of the most challenging parts of boat building is finding the wood. Here is an excerpt of an email Marty sent to Antonio: "...we went traipsing off into the woods at an undisclosed location and found a really nice big locust tree that was all but dead. I cut it down with the chain and saw bucked it up into manageable pieces then loaded it in on the truck and headed home.

A few more hours with the chainsaw and planer produced the part we were looking for. A nice solid naturally curved forefoot that was wide at the mast-step and tapered down were it met the stem. The tree was big enough that I was able to avoid having the heart wood in the piece. Locust is good boat wood but I don’t like using the heart wood. I was able to make another cut on a log that had a nice branch coming off it to produce the transom knee. It is a fine knee! The grain follows the curve exactly. I am glad we chose not to settle on what we had previously acquired for wood to make these parts."

Busy Time at the Shop

It is a very busy time at the shop these days. Not only is Marty working on several custom projects, but Jet is also busy with a house guest. Sandy the pug is keeping Jet company and the two of them are running themselves ragged. Jet has even taught Sandy about the wonders of riding in boats and swimming. Yesterday we took a quick break and rode to the beach. Jet did some body surfing while Sandy chose to eat seaweed and stay closer to shore.

This week the focus has been on getting the fence repairs done so we can turn the sheep loose next week. It will be interesting to see how Jet and them get along on the property. They do good together when he gets in the sheep pen to get a drink of water. The work has been interrupted by 3 days of snow on and off, no accumulation, so I have been taking a break from the outdoors and doing some shop work. I made a new stem and forfoot for a wooden rowboat I am trying to make float and installed them. Also this week has seen the completion of a gong stand for a customer.

Sometimes God lets you set up a woodshop in the church

I was thinking back today when I was finishing high school. I had decided to build my mom a table and myself a big four poster bed with drawers underneath. I was able to finish the table at school, but not the bed. I was working for the school that summer in a small town in western Kansas and the school was kind enough to give me keys to the shop to finish my bed. My father was a minister at the time and had candidly remarked before church one day that it was nice to have keys to the shop at the school. Someone overheard and apparently did not like it because the next thing we knew my keys were taken away. My father is a fair and just man and did the most shocking thing. He cleaned out a Sunday school room, procured a table saw from my uncle and set up a wood shop for me in the church. I think God must have been smiling that day, I know I was. It was the day I learned fair is fair, being honest is the key, and sometimes God lets you set up a wood shop in the church. No one said a word, but I suspect someone was a bit surprised when the tables were turned.

My dog Jet

This is Jet. He hangs out around the farm gathering sticks, chasing birds, swimming, and playing his favorite sport tether ball. He loves to be by my side while I work in the wood shop. He is an English springer spaniel about 2 years old. When I can not find him I just hop in the truck and head down the road. He soon turns up in the rear view mirror.