Although the conference ran through the weekend, I had only signed up for the pre-conference workshop and Friday, the first full day of the conference. A full lineup of presentations and demonstrations was on the agenda. I started off with "Dumb Buildings, Smart Buildings, and Wise Buildings", presented by Lisa Sasser. I was expecting something along the lines of how to build new, "green" buildings, or maybe things like passive solar, etc. Although some of these topics were touched upon, the presentation mainly focused on the preservation of historic structures, but with a decidedly environmental slant. As Lisa wrote in the overview of her presentation, "It's time for the preservation movement to absorb some of the lessons of the environmental movement and broaden the focus from preservation to conservation--not just of buildings, but also of communities, livelihood, and a sense of place."
After her lecture when she opened it up for questions, a woman sitting across the aisle from me asked something to the effect of "Why isn't there something like the CCC that can build these beautiful and durable public structures as they did in the depression?" It may have been more of a rhetorical question, and Lisa essentially talked about budget deficits,etc., and another person in the audience said you'd have to try to get funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. So I chimed in, "you know, we do have Americorps, which may not have building trades as its focus, but it does work on projects similar to those of the CCC such as trail restoration, along with things like working with inner city kids". I know this because my daughter decided to spend her first year out of high school as an Americorp volunteer instead of going immediately to college.
The woman who asked the question shot me a look that seemed to say, "You just ruined the point I was trying to make", but Lisa said, "I'm glad you mentioned that because the same kind of community building that Americorp is trying to accomplish is very much in line with the timber frame tradition." It's nice to get that kind of vindication when you stick your neck out in public.
During the break I wandered out back where several demonstrations and hands-on activities were taking place. Some kids about 10-12 years old were working on a timber frame play structure under the guidance of seasoned timber frame experts. It looked like fun, and I was sorry I would miss the raising. Here are a few shots.
Another demonstration was the hewing and adzing, where a round log was turned into a square timber. The process was quite laborious and time consuming, but I like the look that hewing gives to the timber. Here are some shots of that.
And then Barr Quarton fired up his portable forge. The wind was giving him some problems, but he still managed to guide several people through forging a coat hook. I was fortunate enough to be one of them. Flattening the hot metal between the hammer and anvil felt unexpectedly satisfying. I didn't get a good shot of the hook, but we basically flattened one end, tapered the other, twisted the middle, and then hooked the flattened end. The tapered end was bent 90 degrees so it could be driven into a beam. Here are some shots of the forge and anvil.
I spent most of the afternoon outside, even though there were several presentations I had wanted to attend. Oh well, maybe next time. Then there was a mixer with hors d'oeuvres and beer, and then dinner. Timber framers are pretty interesting people, and I enjoyed hearing the stories of how they came to be involved with this craft. I felt a bit of a poseur, having to admit several times that I wasn't even an amateur.
Saturday morning I took the hotel shuttle to the Spokane airport and caught my flight to Seattle, where I met my wife. My daughter, who is an Americorps volunteer, as I mentioned earlier, has to make a decision about which college she will attend in the fall by May 1, so we thought we would help with moral support.
After meeting my wife and renting the car and getting lost, we met up with our daughter working with about 20 other volunteers painting the hallways of a middle school in the Queen Anne neighborhood. She wasn't quite finished, so my wife and I walked around the nearby shopping district.
As we walked around, something kind of clicked in my brain about timber framing and Americorps. I guess seeing those kids working hard on a Saturday sprucing up a public building made me realize that a collaboration between timber framers and Americorps could work. And if twelve year old kids can build a frame, just about anybody can, at least with the supervision of experienced framers. And as Lisa Sasser had suggested, community building is an integral part of what timber framing is about.
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