CLEARING LAND FOR A SALVAGED TIMBER FRAME

And not just any timber frame.
This is the home of our new green woodworking school, the Maine Coast Craft School.
We are set to have our first workshops in bowl & spoon carving, chair making
(both Windsor and post & rung ladder back chairs), some kids classes, instrument making and
spring pole lathe work this coming summer, 2017.

Here’s a drawing I did to get the general proportions of the school building.

I salvaged this old timber frame a few years ago, it’s a beautiful, hand-made frame from the late 1800’s,
about 26 by 18’, one and a half stories tall.
I have roof rafters, floor joists, wall framing and some of the sheathing as well.

It’s been stacked in pieces on our land for two years now, just waiting for this moment.

So a little background -
my family and I spent some time this past summer (2016) with Drew and Louise Langsner
at their place, Country Workshops, in Marshall, North Carolina.
Some of you may have read about this in the Country Workshops catalogue and newsletters -
we were surprised how many people who know us are on their mailing list.
We had been talking to Drew and Louise about the possibility of moving there to NC and picking up their work of teaching green woodworking as they ease up on their workshop schedule.
We had a great summer together and came away as good friends as always
(ever since I was an intern there in 1995).

But my family decided that we’d like to carry on the Country Workshops tradition, not the location, and the Langsners concurred. That decision rested mostly on the lack of school possibilities for our son
(who is in middle school) anywhere near the Langsner’s home.

Plus we have already put so much into our own homestead here on the Maine coast, why start from scratch?
Why not work to build a school of our own, with the Langsner’s experience to help guide and support us?

We unanimously agreed that was a good plan which suited us all, and so here we go.

One thing we’ve learned from Country Workshops is that we would be better off to establish a
separate building and piece of land for the school.

Luckily our property consists of 6+ acres (where our house is built) on one side of a dirt road,
with 2 separate acres on the other side.
Our plan is to erect the timber frame on this smaller piece of land.
Eventually we’ll build some Coperthwaite style wooden yurts as guest quarters,
plus an outdoor kitchen and covered, outdoor work space.
Plus we’ll have our 1970’s Airstream Argosy there as well, it’ll be an office or guest space.

We’ve been working at clearing the site for the school building, hoping to get that all done before
the ground freezes. Then once things thaw we can get to work reassembling the building, recreating
any missing pieces, and getting ready for our first summer.

This hemlock will make a few good beams for the sill.
Looks to have been about 80 years old, with a clear burst in size when our land was partially logged
about 15 or 20 years ago.

So I’ll leave you with this image that my wife put together with a laugh.
We’ll continue blogging about everything interesting on our new website: mainecoastcraft.com
I hope you’ll follow us there and come to Bristol for a visit soon, we could certainly use your support
as we endeavor to launch our school.