Happy New Year.  It suddenly became winter here in Maine, with some snow last week and temperatures close to zero this morning.  I have a bunch of different things going on in the barn right now, so I’ll get right to them.

First, I finished the cherry bookcase/bench.  It is in its new home, looking great and being functional.  The base is about five feet wide, sixteen inches deep and around eighteen inches high.  The shelves are four feet wide, eleven inches deep and stand five feet above the base.  The finish is hand rubbed, natural Danish oil.

I also just finishing making a pair of cherry cremation ash caskets.  The tops are floating panels, the finish is oil and wax.

Now I am busy getting the blue canoe ready for Maine Wood 2016, which opens Friday January 22nd at the Messler Gallery in Rockport, Maine. 

I am also gearing up to build toboggans with the eighth graders at the three HAL (Hope, Appleton and Lincolnville) schools later this month.  They will race them at the National Toboggan Championships in Camden next month, and then either raffle or auction them off as class fund-raisers.  I will post some pics later.

And, at the farm next door, Aaron and I are rebuilding the greenhouse.  It is our winter project for this year.  Last year we built an 8’x8’x8′ walk-in cooler that worked out great.