2004 Workshop

Spring Guild Workshop in Texas

Part 3 Report

Another Day in Paradise, and not too far from Palestine (TX) either.

Wednesday began with Mexican food and a high thin cloud cover, soon to be joined by strong winds off Lake Athens.

We're working on our layout skills, and our farmer tans. Both seem to be coming along nicely.

The weather, though perfect today, promises to deteriorate soon, so we're investing some time in moving the larger pieces through the system ASAP, and making arrangements for other, indoor spaces to be available tomorrow.

Cutting continues apace, with the fit up of some scarfs late in the day to applause and good effect all around.

Just about everything is laid out by the end of the day except for the hip rafters and all of the brace stock.

Dinner was provided (catfish and hush puppies) by Tony, a charming Texas Game Warden.

Then it was off to the auditorium for a mind-numbing rehash of the principals of compound roof math led by Curtis Milton. We were all led through the material that was presented at Estes Park as a one day workshop in about a tenth of the time - then it was on to more esoteric subject, including the tangent angle concept. I'm not sure how much of it stuck.

The best part by far was that all of this serious timber framing talk was watched by bemused giant fish on the other side of the 5" wall of this huge aquarium the Fisheries Center uses in their various instructional programs. The following pictures tell the tale. The blue catfish weighs 121.5 pounds. The white one is not an albino, because its eyes are not pink. The fish with the long nose is some kind of gar, but not apparently the alligator gar.

And finally, just to the right of our upper job site, nests this charming killdeer. By good fortune we managed not to run over her or the eggs. Now that we know where everything is, she is protected.