Waxing moon

Winter is holding off for the time being despite a few snow flakes that appeared at the end of October.  Harley and I noticed them as we were leaving Blind River to go to do Magical Paws therapy work.  Needless to say the flakes all melted away, for now that is.  A new activity for me for the week was working on the first in a series of correspondence courses.  I am studying to register for a real estate sales licence in the spring and have lined up a brokerage to article with.  The bed-bale-breakfast plan is slow coming together, so I thought that I would branch into a related field.  So far the first course is interesting and the self testing is not too difficult.  I am looking forward to meeting lots of people and having the opportunity to see local houses and properties.  Bob may be concerned that this will add ideas to the to-do list....??? October closed with an early evening waxing moon and I dedicate this photo and post to Alan Moore, a dear former colleague (and recipient of this letter series) who passed away suddenly on Friday evening.  I'll miss his witty insightful comments, as well I will remember fondly the more than twenty years that we worked together.

Indoor progress

A little progress was made indoors this week.  Bob constructed the stud framing for the wall that is to go behind the wood cookstove.  It is a partition to make a visual separation between the kitchen/dining area and the living room, and is just over six feet tall so that the view into the vaulted ceiling and loft is not obstructed. This will cause the rooms under the cathedral ceiling to remain airy looking but also a little tidier.  Theoretically that is. The wall will be clad on the cookstove side with non-combustible cement board for a later masonry and stone siding.

Mago tried to help with carpentry

 We worked this week on outdoor cold weather preparation and a few repairs.  One of the jobs was to fix a large bale hay feeder.  This was of no interest to the three mares, but Mago stayed the whole time and was fascinated by the portable drill, saw, ratchet and hammer.  He kept a close watch on Bob and followed me back and forth to the barn to get extra supplies.

The second shot of him was taken by me from inside the feeder.  I was trying to use the ratchet socket wrench to tighten the bolts when I snapped a picture of him investigating the cordless drill.  This was just before he stole the paper bag full of nuts and bolts and emptied it out.  This was followed by moving other tools around while we were not looking.   Fortunately he believes that bringing things might get him a treat, so he generally brings things back.  He did find a couple of broken plastic pieces that Bob missed on the ground and he kindly brought them to me.  Now there is something useful!  The only catch is if he finds something quite edible, he'll tend to munch it instead of returning it.

Angara is watched over by not only Harley the Wonder Dog, but a few scarecrows and pumpkins too.  The pumpkins were grown by and are the courtesy of my trail riding chum Elaine, after today they will retreat inside and become pies.  Needless to say, although I stocked up on goodies for treat-or-treater's, none came to the door.  We shelled out some to Bob's granddaughter Olivia yesterday when she visited for her birthday, plus to her brother, Mum and Dad too.  The rest will have to be nibbled on by Bob, which should be no problem as it seems that I stocked up on his favorites.

Enjoying the fall

George and Harley the Wonder Dog are pictured checking each other out after gazing from the porch into the bush and autumn colours.  George is eager to go out when Harley is out, but he sticks pretty close to the house and cries at the french doors to come in if it is too windy or cold.  A cat thing as any other cat caretaker will tell you.  George is restricted to going out only briefly in daylight and when protected by Harley. In the continuing adventures of Harley, he tried to make a breakaway to follow Nikki when she visited with her horse Rio on the weekend.   After they left he picked up their scent when I walked with him toward the barn, so he took off to go for what he thought was a requisite ride.  This is the first time she has been here since Elaine and I have been taking Harley with us on our trail rides, so he will have to learn to distinguish between the horses that need escort and those that don't (he has not followed her before!).   Although I was already about to get in my truck to go and retrieve him, Niki kindly called on her cell phone to tell me where to rendezvous with her.  Bad dog.  More communication is clearly necessary with Harley on this matter.

Last up is a little more fall colour from a week ago, already the wind has whisked away most of the mantle of red and orange.  Only the oak trees are holding on to a few leaves.  The deep green of the pines and hemlocks now peek through the white of the birches and brown of the other deciduous trees.   Sure enough, this is a sign that moose hunting season has opened and the deer season is just around the corner.  From now on I will be wearing my fluorescent PINK reflective clothing in the bush, not much of a chance that hunter will mistake anything that large and that pink for game. Mago has learned to cope with this great indignity, as he has learned to cope with my other embarrassing behaviours.

Snooze in the sun

The next photo shows Belle (right) and Mago (left) lounging sleepily in the afternoon sun at the barn.  This week we sealed up the eavestrough over the run-in opening for the shed with a few more aluminum sheet metal nails and some Gutter Seal. The latter is an incredibly sticky product that has excellent adhesion and flex properties.  Fortunately it is dispensed from a caulking style tube, so contact with it is minimized (or mostly minimized??##!!).  Mago will be happy to have that nasty bit of drip line eliminated as he seems to always be the one left standing in it.

Feeder research

It seems that the way our hay was baled last year, I did not have waste problems using our Duplessis feeders, but this year the horses insist on pulling out too much hay at a time and wasting it. Angie and Princess demonstrate in the next photo how they are making a mess for me to clean up.  I have to stay on top of this or the hay makes a mat and mulch layer that causes the area around the feeder to become terribly mushy.  I have been researching a type of "slow feeder" for the Duplessis's and sure enough there is such a thing.  It is made by a company that sells the so-called "Big Bale Buddy".  The big bale slow feeder is a very tough giant bag with a draw cord closure and is made of a hockey net style very tough netting with 1-1/2 inch diameter openings.  The horses have to work to pull the hay out in small tufts at a time.  This has three benefits, it slows down their rate of eating the bale, it prevents them from pulling out large clumps causing waste and it keeps them entertained in a more natural "foraging" manner.   I am thinking of trying one out, savings should be about $80 per month, so it will take about three months to get a payback for the cost of the feeder.   This venture is a work in progress.

How to cope with a rainy fall day

Although there were some mild brilliantly sunny days in the last two weeks, we have had a good share of rain as well.  Gabby (Gabrielle) demonstrates how to snuggle in a comforter to deal with cold rainy days.  There were more than just blustery winds on Wednesday night, apparently a water spout twisted its way up the Blind River into Lake Duborne, taking at least one boat and dock with it.  In addition a chum of mine had a two foot by two foot patio stone (that was attached to the leg of a tent style carport) deposited on the windshield of her car!  Miraculously the windshield and part of the car body was scratched but the glass was not broken.  Weather can have quite a sense of humour.

The gravel trucks rumbled last week with some A gravel (a recycle type with some ground asphalt in it).   We put four loads on the road and two loads next to the house where we park our vehicles.  A little bit at a time will make the wet seasons easier to cope with.  We also took delivery of two loads of "dirty" pea gravel, which is good for horse footing but not cleaned free of sand.  Cheaper and just as useful for keeping the horses out of the muck on supportive but conforming footing.  One load made a mound for a hay feeder "high spot" and the other was deposited just outside the horse's pen...... that would be because the truck got stuck.   Although our trusty tractor was able to pull him out, it seems I left doing this job until a little too late in the season.   Now we will have to wait until the ground freezes so that we can use the tractor to position the second load of pea gravel for another feeder and to extend the horse's loafing area.  How do I know this????   That would be because of the culvert installation caper.  We created a nice trail through the bush for the horses to get on to the trail system without using the driveway, which has minus two inch blasted rock on it.  That surface is good for locking the road bed together but difficult for the horses.  They are fine on natural rounded stoney ground, but the blasted rock is quite sharp edged.  I managed to lay my hands on a WONDERFUL twenty foot length of twenty-four inch diameter plastic culvert (there is nothing like a really nice culver to make me happy), which we cut in half to use for the trails.  We used the tractor to dig it into the existing ditching which goes around the main field, but got the tractor stuck when we came back with the front end loader heavy with fill to cover it in.   Fortunately a four-wheel drive tractor with a loader is easy to free up when you empty your load and push yourself out with the loader, those muck ruts will need to be dealt with next year.  That means we will have to find a way around the wet spot in the trail (we already jump the ditch itself) until the ground freezes and we can get the culvert properly installed late this fall.  Given that, I definitely KNOW that we will not be moving the remaining pile of pea gravel around in the paddock for a while.

Fall colours

This fall is going so fast that I missed out on some good fall colour photo opportunities!  The leaves are now past their peak at the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, but hopefully the brilliantly sunny fall days will continue for a while yet.

Railings and newel creation

Before the rain came in October, I managed to get all three  coats of stain on the porch railings, up and down and up and down the ladder.  It is necessary to do each section, front and back, one at a time to avoid a "stain line" showing.  This should help MY toning???  This time of year, and being on the west side of the house, I have to wait until after 9 am to get the dew and condensation off the railings before I start and I can only go steady until 1:30 pm because it is best not to work in direct sunlight.   This is actually fine because it leaves the afternoon with a few hours for riding, that's my story and I am sticking to it.

Shown next is a "carved" newel post for the top of the loft stairs.  We prepared it from a cedar that was cut in the winter of 2009 and that was in the stacked to dry for fence posts or lumber pile.  The bottom is squared up to accommodate fitting in the subfloor at the loft, plus it was bored with a 2 inch diameter hole and electrical outlet box.  This post will house a two way switch for the light over the stairs.  We had to be a bit creative to get the electrical "fish" line in place.   The old fishing-line-and-vacuum-cleaner trick did not work due to the  surface of the bored hole, so we used a length of flexible smooth horse fencing wire and small bungie cord hooks to get it through.  Necessity is the mother of invention.  We will complete this installation with the last 2 foot length of railing and extra handrail when Ronn is staying with us again.

Love that backhoe

We did some more ditching on the road, had some posts for gates installed and made a swale (shallow ditching) to protect one of the horse trails.  John is shown pushing a big rock out of the ditching along Kahles Road.  You gotta love backhoes.....

Cleaning out scrap metal!

October is productive! We loaded about 6 tons of scrap metal on Greg and Deana's flatbed in the manner of a large heavy jigsaw puzzle.  We still have a few loads of miscellaneous materials from the Barbosa property to take to the dump, but we are making progress in getting that parcel of land cleaned up and "back to nature".

Magical Paws dog picnic

This week Harley the Wonder Dog encountered an unexpected challenge in his therapy dog work, well actually a therapy dog play day.   We had a "bring your own lunch" dog picnic at the little park on the south side of the road, just east of the Serpent River bridge.   There is a sign with the symbol of a picnic table at the almost hidden entrance, which is less than about 50 feet from the bridge. Nestled in there is a quiet park that follows a natural bend in the river and that includes a great swimming spot for sliding on the smooth rocks through gentle rapids.  Harley popped in for a swim but immediately came back to the group, getting together with so many doggy friends seemed to have him "wired" to the point of bouncing and vibrating.   I was puzzled but thought it was related to having so many dogs around, albeit on lease.  This was just as well because Harley was so wound up that he got quite snarly with two dogs, one little Papillon and a Sheltie.  I pulled him off, scolded him and remained very puzzled as it is not at all like Harley to behave this way.  After a few more minutes and a brisk "get on heel" walk, he seemed to settle down and sat quietly at my feet while we ate lunch with the other people and dogs.  The first photo shows Harley with the group, we are on the right hand side.  The next day we put our heads together and sorted out that the problem was the Papillon he first snarled at was in season, something Harley (although neutered himself) has likely never encountered..... apparently he still has some hormones to handle.  The second dog that he snarled at was lying in the place that the Papillon had just been, so had the same scent.   All in all, I now know that if he behaves that way again that he needs a strong correction and I need to ask the other person if their dog is in season, too bad for Harley that he just has to learn to cope with this situation.  The next day we did a therapy work session at the Golden Birches nursing home in Blind River, with the same woman who had the Papillon in season.  This time Harley was well behaved, the dog the other lady brought  was not in season and he was back to his regular self.   Always something to learn.

Mago and Angie on the trails

Now THIS is how to see the world, through the ears of my faithful gelding Mago and along with my dear friend Elaine.  We are riding twice a week and I generally get in one additional ride to make it three.  Bob has been very helpful in clearing new sections of trail that we discover, although Elaine points out that there is still irregular footing and some maneuvering required (which is good for keeping a trail horse thinking).   Mago continues to improve, he is very willing to move forward and explore new place,but steady.  Despite being inexperienced and still not "using himself" fully, he has such a LOOOOONG striding walk you'd swear he was a gaited horse.

Angie often has to trot to catch up, which has the benefit of giving her some nice muscle toning.  Angie has lots of trail experience but even Mago can handle the more difficult rocky and slash filled trails, however he still needs more practice on steep downhills.  He is getting "softer" (this is a good thing) with responding to his hackamore (rope halter type bridle) and learning about neck reining.  As Angie gets more miles of trails, she is getting quite zesty and bubbly.  I often hear Elaine behind me saying things like, "hey pretty girl", only to look back and see her smiling with Angie marching along with tail high and ears pricked.  This happens more often when we ride in the crisp morning air instead of the warm sunny afternoons.

Play too

Ma-Nee and me are shown with Harley along the shore of Lake Huron in a deserted bay. We are pictured with one of the hauntingly lovely carvings that are in a circle of driftwood and old  relics by the beach.  Someone has been coming for a week or so annually to camp and make carvings.  They have set up a sort of "honour circle" from driftwood, stones and salvaged metal.   It took us over an hour to hike along the shore to find the spot, but it was worth the hike.

Starting porch railing staining

Now to the outside!  Early October sees me beginning to stain the west porch railing (note the two right hand panels).  It took me a bit of organizing to get my equipment and ladders in the right configuration.  We have clear weather forecast for the week so I hope to complete this task in the next few days.

Yet more stair details

All the details put together are shown here, complete with root flare cedar posts, the twisters and ET!

This is one of the white pine stringers, now aged all of two weeks.  The view is from the underside of the stairs. We will leave the bolt holes exposed on the stringers for another year and then they will be tightened and plugged. Note in this picture the rough finish that we left for character on the back sides of the stair treads. We will be able to put the finish on the underside of these treads and the stringers in a year.

The next photo shows the tenon joinery and lag bolt plugging at the corner newel post, which is one of the "root flare" cedar pieces.  It is shimmed off the floor by 3/4 of an inch because that is the gap needed to put the finish flooring under it.  We still have rough cut oak and black cherry planking stored in one of the sea containers, finishing it for flooring will be a future job.

For the top and sides of the stringers, Bob has been busy doing progressive sanding from 80 to 120 grit.  The top and sides will be treated right away with a water based clear polyurethane floor finish for protection because the floor treads are already well seasoned and dried (for four years in air drying).  This picture shows the top side of a black cherry stair tread with the "custom" cherry wood plugs in place and a sample of the finish coat options.  The clear finish we selected to use is the "band" in the middle.  Black cherry does not take stain very well, it tends to show in a blotchy manner - so using a clear finish and letting nature take its time to deepen the colour is what is recommended.

More stair building details

The end of September was busy with Ronn (the log builder) and Dan (the railing expert) living with us while we completed the transition from the raw black cherry, white pine and cedar to finished railings and stairs.  The first photo is the nearly completed stairs to the loft.  Note that on the left hand side is a gap to accommodate a cultured stone finish on the wall, we have a retired stone mason to help us with this. There are shims at the bottom of the stairs which will be removed as we carry out three more seasons of dropping the jacks for the log wall shrinkage.  In other words, we bring the stairs down with the walls.  After the requisite heating seasons, the structure will be fully stable and we can set the permanent shimming on to the final flooring.

Note "ET" the extraterrestrial mounted on top of the bottom newel post, this is a hard maple tree burl, formed from disease or interference in the tree's development.  This is a close up of ET.    

Dan, Bob and me are shown in the process of preparing ET for installation.   Originally we were thinking of mounting a wood carving on the newel post, but the burl seems eclectic enough to suit us. 

I then feature a detail of one of the ash "twisters" in the stair railing spindles.  This is a small ash tree that twisted because it was growing together with a vine.  We cut this piece in Colborne and it has been drying and seasoning naturally, it made three spindles, two of which are shown installed in the following picture.  One more was put in after this photo was taken to go in at the bottom by the newel post because a space greater than four inches remained there, making it not building code compliant. Now that it is in, we are fully compliant!

Friends and fun

Here we have me and Bob along with the Kahles-Marshall fall visiting team with Bob's brother Jim and sister-in-law Marilu.  We are shown checking out the Pier 17 restaurant that was newly opened in June of this year.  Bob and I investigated it on opening night and it was a little dodgy that day.  The restaurant and soon-to-be-motel are in an existing building along the river that is beautifully restored. In June it was somewhat disorganized and not "on the mark" for the food. With the summer to get some experience, the food is now excellent.  We had great fun, and not just because they now have a liquor licence......  

In this picture Bud demonstrates how to "JUST SAY NO" to chocolate.

More gatherings wrap up

Bob is shown with Ma-Nee, just before she left to visit her daughter's family and grandsons.   The are standing by the sweat lodge constructed to wrap up the fasting weekend.   For the fast itself, I was in a little tent on my own, about 200 feet from the "base camp", all in the forest on our property.   Not having any food in the tent is quite beneficial from the perspective of generating no interest from curious local bears and other wildlife.   My tent was surrounded by a ring of cedar leaves, one of the traditional medicines and for protection.  A traditional and effective way to lay down a "non-food" scent.   In order to be certain, when I left the safety circle to let my bladder have some relief, I opened a spot in the cedar leaves, closed them, and piddled in a territorial way around the outside of my ring.  Why not demonstrate some behavior that is understandable to the local creatures?  The folks at the base camp drummed for moral support and checked on me twice a day, but otherwise it was incredibly peaceful and meditative time.  For some folks who are not used to being in the bush alone, getting over the fear of this is a big step.  I was comfortable with that aspect, given the physical arrangements, so was able to get a great deal out of this time.  At base camp, they had a sleep tent and a kitchen tent, plus two fires, one for cooking and one ceremonial (sacred).  The latter is strictly attended in shifts around the clock while a fast is underway.  Surprisingly, I did not feel hungry at all throughout the fast.  I had tapered down my eating prior to starting it and had given up coffee about a month prior.  I quit drinking coffee in the tradition of giving something up, for me the most difficult thing in the selection of vices from coffee, sweets, chocolate and alcohol.  The other consideration was that I wanted to get through the coffee withdrawal headache period before having the fast.  Being a woman, it was acceptable to have sips of cedar tea during the fast time.  My research on cedar tea shows that in moderation, a few tablespoons at a time, it contains a great deal of vitamin C and can be beneficial (as it was to Jacques Cartier who received it from native North Americans when he and his 18th century explorers were suffering from scurvy).  On the other hand, like any "medicine", it can be harmful if taken in large quantities.  Following the fast, five of our group went through a sweat lodge process.  The frame shown in the picture is covered with tarps and blankets to create a dark and "womblike" space.  There is a pit dug into the middle where hot rocks from a fire nearby are passed in three "rounds" into the lodge.  The sweat lodge leader (Ma-Nee) used a branch with cedar leaves to shake water from a container on to the rocks, creating a sauna.   During the time in the lodge, the leader shares teachings and each person has several chances to speak about how they feel and what they are experiencing.  After being cramped in a rather small space for several days, it served to limber me up nicely and was followed by a feast, laid out for everyone and to wrap up the fast.  This process was not only enlightening, but also a learning experience for me.  The process is called either a fast or a vision quest.   A fast can occur without the desire to quest for enlightenment and vision, but when it includes time cloistered alone and followed by a sweat, it is often  called a vision quest.  As with eastern meditation, one of the objectives is to still the chatter in your mind and find a place of stillness, inner peace and inner knowledge.  Being inexperienced, I would say that I touched on this feeling but need more meditative practice to be good at it.  In other words I am not transformed into a totally changed and zen person, but I feel better for taking a little step in that direction.   Each person finds a life path in their own way and this traditional Ojibwe approach embraces that concept, so it's for me!

Mago and the festivities

We took a mid-September break for an Ojibwe tradition wedding and drumming festivities!  A group of about 25 of us met for two days of pot luck and fun over Saturday and Sunday.  Ma-Nee (pictured with me) is the elder who carried out the ceremonies and she stayed overnight   with us for a few days. The ceremonies were very moving and beautiful.  To add a horse blessing, I dressed Mago in regalia and he marched right up to the fire and drumming circle. He stood beautifully to be photographed with the bride, groom and guests.  He was quite insufferable actually, strutting like a peacock, POSING and gracefully accepting treats from folks.  He perked his ears as though he KNEW he was being photographed, stood like a rock and then did NOT want to go back to the barn.  Pretty good considering that it was only my tenth time riding him, that I've never worn a dress before riding him, that he was all fluttery with decorative ribbons and that this was the first time that I've ever used that bitless bridle on him.  He clearly has the notion that he is something special and it made me so amused I almost fell off of him giggling.  How did he know how to do this parade stuff?????  Bob is clearly giving him the "book" to read about such things at night.  Just look at the expression on his face, I am sure that he is so pleased with himself that he will be quite impossible to live with unless I can keep his fans coming to adore him.   Good grief.

Steps into place

The treads are "glove" fitted into place using the short cut sections of muffler pipe as bushings.  They are then through bolted with the 7/16" threaded rod.  These bolt holes will be filled in with wooden plugs made of the same black cherry material as the treads themselves.   Note Dan with the pounder that he made for such fittings, it is a natural hard maple burl mounted on a wooden handle.

We were all so enthusiastic about getting this done that we could not stop ourselves.  We stopped for a dinner snack and then worked with lights until midnight to get all the treads in.  After over 30 years of log house building, Ronn still gets excited about each new creation.

Here is the partly finished product, enough to keep them safe and let us all break for four days of rest... well not exactly for Bob and me.  George is checking things out from tread #4.

Another view, still spindles and more railings to go.

Clever inside positioning

Now the trick that made this really slick, we transfer the lifting to a wheeled single lift of scaffolding, using a peeled fence post log as a lift beam.  With this "trolley" we roll the stair assembly into position.  This seems to be the "secret" of log stair building, to be tackled only with the guidance of a professional log builder!!!!

From here we transfer from the trolley to a second log lift beam, this one at the stair opening in the loft floor (you can see a bit of the second beam on the right at the top of the photo).

Now we hoist them into place and fine tune the fitting into the space (e.g. by flattening the log header beam of the opening with an electric chain saw).  Ronn kindly switched to using clear chainsaw oil instead of the usual messy red oil.

Flip and in the door

Bob and helpers used the tractor to flip the stair assembly with all but four of the stair treads (two top and two bottom) removed.  With Bob at the controls, we did the preliminary positioning with the tractor to run them into the house using saw horses.   Although the treads are black cherry, seasoned by air drying for four years - the stringers are white pine, seasoned for only two days........  They were a little sticky to handle.....

From here they are guided to the porch and "roller" logs (that's double duty for the future stair railing posts).

The "from" view of running the stair assembly in.

Loft stairs continue

Ronn is shown with a mirror and special self inking scribing tool.  The stringers are scribed to fit the "round" of each log stair tread.

Dan uses two squares to set the alignment and spacing for the treads.

The stringers are bored out to match the treads for bolting.

Elaine watches on as we now finish off the other side of the treads with the stringers off.

Now the loft stairs - we begin

The jagged cut edge is of a plywood jig used to build the stairs in an upside down and backwards configuration, basically you build them lying down and then flip them over to put them in place.  In order to get perfect alignment, we needed to fit the lovely black cherry treads to the  pine stringers a few times.  The treads are set into the jig, which is cut based on the dimensions of the place it is to be installed.  They are then drilled and trimmed in various stages with and without the stringers laid on top of them.  I had expected Ronn to bring the stringers, but he did not, so we found two nice white pine and harvested them for the stringers.  We used Ronn and Dan's peeling blades, and this went quickly but the pine is very sticky with pine sap.  The hardwood black cherry stringers are seasoned with four years of air drying, but for these structural members, Ronn normally uses green logs such as the pine ones that we cut.  This was an adventure as we felled them along the edge of our property and used the tractor to drag them across the 557 highway on to River Road to load them on the trailer......

We needed a few more spindles, so here I am using Ronn's draw blade instead of my little scraper.  It is faster but not as smooth a job.  I am very fond of his clamping vice, pictured here holding the spindle for me.

Elaine took this picture of (clockwise from the left) - Ronn, Bob, me, Frank and Dan working on the treads. They are bored and countersunk for bolting using a novel fastening technique.  There are short pieces of 3 inch diameter muffler pipe used at each of the two bolting spots on the treads. This acts as a strengthening bushing to seat the stringer-to-tread connection.  Inside this, the hole all the way through the stringer and tread is made for the 7/16 inch threaded rod bolting.

West porch railing comes together

Mid September comes and we see the results of all that cutting and peeling we did in the summer. We worked from Wednesday to Monday, dawn to dusk with Ronn Hann the log builder and Dangerous Dan (nice fellow, relates to another story) helping out, as well as Elaine and Frank on Monday.  Ronn and Dan stayed here with us so we had some great visiting and dinner conversation too. Here the fabricated railing pieces are assembled, using a nice set of Veritas brand cutters for making the dowel and tenon end fittings for the spindles and rails.

 Dan stands in front of the freshly installed elephant tusk, adding more curves to add to the roundedness of the house, giving the picture that it is growing right out of the ground.  These corner braces were my idea because I did not like the lack of support at the ends for the straight rail run, despite assurances that it was acceptable.  I could see that bending moment in my mind.... so we adopted a creative solution! Bob was the one who conceived the idea to put them on this way around, we'd also toyed with using the radius the other way around, scooping up instead of down.

Here is the nearly completed railing.  After this photo was taken, Dan inserted and sanded down wooden plugs over the lag bolt holes at the bottom.  I then polish sanded the whole thing again, scrubbed it with 25% bleach solution and finally "painted" it liberally with Sasco Boracol 20-2 BD (a water based solution containing 20% disodium octaborate tetrahydrate).  The latter is a preservative that prevents blackening of the wood and protects it from insect infestation.  Once dry, I will be able to put the final three part Sansin stain and sealer on - hopefully within the next week or two.