Category: Farms
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Slow and steady wins the raise
This is the Sabbathday Shaker “Stables” in the left foreground and “Ox Barn” in the right background. Perhaps you’ve seen them? They make up the little logo on highway signs telling drivers to “take the next exit!” (And you should, Sabbathday Shaker Village is both fascinating and chill). We’ve performed extensive assessments on both of…
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It’s Lambing Season!
The Press Herald published a lovely profile of the Foleys, our longtime clients and friends this week. Charley is a surgeon and has been called to duty as part of his reserve unit. Sheila is taking care of the farm, the horses, cows, sheep, and new lambs, and she is preparing in case she is…
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Sustainable Home Renovation at iFarm
On April 27, iFarm will be hosting a workshop for homeowners to learn about energy-saving renovations (that’s this Saturday, folks!) A working farm with lovingly restored buildings, iFarm combines 19th-century knowledge with 21st-century innovation to create a model for sustainability in agriculture. With the effects of manmade climate change now apparent, it is more important than…
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The Barn at Bondgarden Farm
The Barn at Bondgarden Farm has been the talk of Eliot all summer. Nearly a hundred feet long and roofed in slate, the barn was always a stunner, but in July, Rick Geddes lifted the barn 6 feet in the air, and neighbors and news crews took note. Geddes threaded four 50 foot, 12 inch H-beams…
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Brasen Raisin’
“We have to raise Weigand by the second cutting.” To a slicker like me, Arron was exhorting the crew to finish repairs on the enormous Brasen Hill Farm barn in time for some mysterious Pagan ritual. He was right. As soon as the roof was sheathed and papered, and before it wore metal roofing or…
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Lickety Lantern Brasen Hill Barn
Hey, real quick! We’ve been cutting scarf fixes for enormous post feet, and fitting teleport pads for octagonal lanterns. Updates on Chestnut St Lantern, Brasen Hill Barn, and Jennison Barn, below. Teleport Pad, Photo by Jacob Imlay Chestnut St Church Lantern, Camden, ME: This cute little lantern was cut and fit at the shop, and is…
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Hard Work, Adaptation, and Love
The client’s wedding was in a week, and the barn in which he’d marry was in pieces on the ground. It was crane day, and a Friday, two things that don’t usually go together. In the worst case, a crane day on Friday means you don’t have an additional weekday in case you hit a…
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Kung Fu Timber Framing
Troy Union Church was built in 1840, in a vernacular style that combines elements of Greek and Gothic Revival. It is a modest building, 34′ x 42′, built to host the small town’s various Christian denominations, hence the “Union”. Caught up in that communal spirit, the bell tower is preparing to take a trust fall onto…
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Natural woods, their individuality and friendliness*
There exists in wood a quality so satisfying that the proper use of it in the structural features of a house produces an effect of completeness which does away with the need of elaborate furnishings or decoration. – Gustav Stickley, The Craftsman, July 1905 Every now and then, I encounter a windbag who wants to…
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Arbor Days
Arbor Day is everyday down at iFarm this spring. Brian and Shawn have been building an arbor that will support fruiting vines, like arctic kiwi, on this permaculture farm. Serpentine in layout, the arbor is constructed from black locust saplings with simple half-lap joinery on full-round material. Black locust is a choice species for use…