Woodworking from Housebuilding: Green Lumber.

April was the month to complete work on excavation, well-drilling, digging trenches, and installing the utility pole, as described in the previous post. The masonry work on the basement (which would eventually be my woodshop) followed.

We hired mason John DeRidder, another honorable tradesmen.

The good ones take the time to educate you and explain what needs to happen. He did a great job for us on our simple project.

It was a wet and overcast month, but not too cold. I was itching to start working with wood and set out to build a few things in advance of the house carpentry that would begin in May. The very first thing I made was a tool chest for the site.

Tools used: tape measure, framing square, chainsaw, hammer, and hand drill. In this picture it is covered by a rain slicker. Notice the early flowering Shadbush, so named because their blossoms coincided with the schools of Shad that once ran during April in the Hudson River nearby.

Again, tools were a new phenomenon for me and there was everything to learn about them. The first lesson was about rust. It was a merciless taskmaster.

I had it from several sources that the wood to build with should be “green lumber” obtained from a local sawmill. The term “green” did not then carry the meaning of sustainability but, rather, freshly sawn and full of water. George Vincek was the local sawyer/farmer who supplied us with the house building timber. It had been sawn yesterday and felt like it.

The next project was a gate at the beginning of the driveway.

I reasoned that local urchins would avail themselves of tools and building materials stored on the site if they were anything like the kids my friends and I had been. It did occur to me that most of them didn’t drive and that there was nothing to stop them travelling overland. However, the green lumber was, by its sheer weight, not that easy to move very far, so such urchins would probably solicit the help of older siblings, the ones using our rural lane as a drag strip from time to time in their rusty four bangers.

The book “Build It Better Yourself”, mentioned in the introductory post, outlined the steps to build this gate. Tools used: framing square, tape measure, handsaw, hand brace, framing hammer, wrenches, pliers, post- hole digger, and shovel.