What year is this?

To perpetuate the notion that we might actually have moved in with the Amish, Phil has just completed a two-wheeled cart. That's right. It's not motorized...and it's pulled by horses. No, we didn't decide to move in with the our non-electric friends; he built it for a customer who will be giving horse-drawn wagon rides to children with disabilities.

He has been sub-contracting with RVP-1875- a company that does all of its woodworking as if it were still 1875. This means that they use only hand tools (save for one hand-powered rip saw), fell their own trees, and even make homemade stains and finishes. This was the first piece that he was asked to make for this company, and it turned out to be a challenging one. For this piece, though, he was allowed to use some power tools (thankfully, because the 300 some bolts would have been a bit of a chore with a hand powered drill!).

Nonetheless, it has been a really neat project. He had to do quite a bit of research (you know, he doesn't exactly build handicap-accessible wagons every day) but the end result turned out beautifully.

The woodworkers out there will appreciate hand jointery neccessary for a piece like this - (a dovetail lap joint connecting two sides flared at 10 and 25 degrees. The piece de resistance is a wedged through-tenon holding it all together.) The wood-illiterate wife in me says "wha?". But that's what happens when you don't use things like nails to hold the wood together. You have to be a bit creative.

His next piece is a sideboard - pictures to come.

The great thing about working with this company is that he is using his own shop for building these pieces. When we first started working with them, I thought "Great! All of this extra time to work on my house!" and it has turned out to be "Wow, look at your well-furnished shop..." With this company, for example, he will need to build a special bench- one that can be used with hand planes and such. All of his other (very well organized) benches are for "different purposes." It's not that I'm jealous or anything (Oh, to have a kitchen so well put together!) but then, my husband would remind me (gently) that it has been awhile since our kitchen made us any money...