Our entire neighborhood was covered with a thin layer of ice this morning, making for treacherous walking and driving conditions. Nevertheless, tomorrow is trash collection day, and it was necessary to roll our garbage and recycling bins out to the street. Laden with holiday packaging and other waste, the wheels left distinctive tracks in the black ice, making for what I deemed an interesting photo.
Our perfect tree, once a shimmering tower of balsam and light, stood naked and skeletal against the window. With Christmas behind us, I worked methodically with my electric shears, cutting through every green bough until only a bare, tapering spine remained. What was once the centerpiece of our living room now lay in a neat heap on the floor. These salvaged branches, still fragrant with the scent of pine, are destined for the porch fire pit; soon, the very tree that warmed our spirits inside will be warming our faces under the cold starlight of a future evening.
A pristine blanket of fresh snow softens every edge of our patio furniture. Beyond this silent space, the world shifts from soft to solid. The river has ceased its flow, an icy reflection of the gray sky. Framing the view are bare branches, each encased in clear ice acting like tiny prisms to catch the weak rays of the morning light.
It is virtually impossible for me to part with even the smallest scraps of wood. I know that I will eventually find a use for each and every piece. The problem is how to store them in the meantime. Today, I began to address that challenge by constructing two racks to store plywood remnants, sorted by width to make finding the right piece easy. In the coming days or weeks, I hope to do the same for my solid wood off cuts.
Despite being short on proper beds, we were thrilled that the kids chose to spend another night with us. It was late morning before everyone rolled out of bed, and coffee was the first order of business. When I noticed Jeanine’s shadow on the cabinets in our great room, I encouraged Nico to lean into the scene and captured this photo of them. I really like the way it turned out.
Jeanine shows off her famous popovers, and Maya her new hiking boots.
Nico and Teddy model their matching bear sweaters.
Kyle is ready for some exercise in his new running glasses.
I was in charge of cooking a rib roast for dinner. It was not a half-bad effort for my first time. Food and game playing consumed most of the day.
Maya arrived this afternoon with a Peace Dove to top our Christmas tree, a change from the angel or star we usually use. In these times, it seemed most appropriate. Her father ensured she did not fall from the ladder as she placed the ornament, a white dove with an olive branch in its beak. The photo was taken by Jeanine’s sister, Susan, who is staying with us for several days, along with her friend Jean. The kids are all here, as well as Nicolai’s girlfriend, Nicole, whom I will refer to as Teddy going forward.
We enjoyed Raclette for dinner, a communal meal centered around melting and scraping cheese, traditionally over boiled potatoes, cured meats, and pickled vegetables like cornichons. It has been our traditional Christmas Eve dinner ever since our local Chinese restaurant closed. We used to dine there with the Budris family.
‘Twas two nights before Christmas, and all through the house, the air smelled of baking, no doubt by my spouse. The tree lights were twinkling, the stockings hung tight, each ribbon and bauble reflecting the light. I poured us some glögg, the cinnamon bold, and marveled at memories—new ones and old. Then, out in the yard, came a rustling sound; the recycling bin had been knocked to the ground! But wait—through the shadows, a scuttling thunk. No raccoon at all, but that flowerbed punk! The woodchuck—my rival, my furry torment— Had come back for vengeance, or maybe just scent. He snorted and waddled, as bold as could be, then looked in my eyes, quite unbothered by me. The cone flowers he’d leveled flashed back in my mind— last spring’s devastation of the botanical kind. I dashed to the closet, adrenaline high, my trusty air rifle glinting close by. I pumped it up twice, then three times—no fear— and crept through the moonlight, my quarry quite near. He froze by the trash can, then vanished from sight— a ghost in the snow, a brown blur in the night. I fired! It ricocheted straight off the bin, and startled the neighbors (and probably him). Now back in my slippers, my pride slightly dented, I pondered the duel that fate had fermented. The beast lives to burrow, to mock, and to feast— and I, the defeated, salute the fat beast.
For many years, I have eschewed wrapping Christmas gifts in fancy paper just to have it discarded in the trash. Saved paper grocery bags have been my go-to substitute. This year, I have turned my recycling efforts in a new direction. For many presents, I utilized leftovers from my shop to fashion custom “gift enclosures.” Unlike wrapping paper, opening these gifts will take some time and may require the use of tools. In the case of the one pictured above, the post “unwrapping” remnants might make an interesting toy for Maya’s cats. For the record, Jeanine fails to see the humor or Christmas spirit in my conservation efforts. Just wait till she sees how I “wrapped” her present this year!
For the second consecutive year, our kids invited their friends over for a holiday brunch. This year we had 38 guests, including a few parents who were also friends of ours. The multigenerational party lasted from noon until sunset with a menu that included overnight brioche praline French toast, mini frittata muffins, a spiral ham, fresh fruit, and an array of desserts.
Relatively mild weather allowed guests to spend time outdoors for a fire ceremony organized by Maya. This ritual involves writing down thoughts or intentions and burning them to release the past, let go of negative emotions, set intentions, or manifest desires.
How do you move a 220-pound headboard from your basement shop to a first-floor bedroom without a team of strong movers? Answer: You turn it into a bus. Using the resources available to me, I added wheels to the front and back of my woodworking creation. Doing so allowed me to single-handedly move it from my shop, out the shop door, around the outside of the house, and up to the steps of the front door. At this point, I enlisted the help of Maya to get it up the stairs and through the door. Jeanine assisted by standing on the cantilevered plywood at the top of the stairs to make sure it did not move under the weight of the metal ramp’s top lip. Due to the very low ground clearance of the “bus,” it was necessary to lift the entire back end to the level of the entry as soon as the front wheels cleared the ramp. Maya, despite her diminutive stature, proved quite a mighty assistant, and together we managed the lift. Once inside the house, I swapped the wheels for a dolly, which made steering through the hallways to the bedroom a breeze. Once there, Jeanine, Nico, Maya, and I rotated it into place atop the nightstands to complete the project. I am very pleased with the final product and, more importantly, so is Jeanine.
High winds today brought down trees and power lines throughout Concord. I had to take a significant detour while returning from a consulting gig as the main road through downtown was completely blocked. When I arrived, the power was out in our neighborhood, but not at our house, where our backup battery system was online. As is always the case, our municipal power company had electrical service restored in short order, just over twenty minutes. The story was not as rosy for our fiber optic broadband service, which was out of commission for more than 30 hours after the top of a utility pole snapped off (pictured above). The repair required a new pole and the replacement of 700 feet of 96-strand fiber.
Today, I completed the bookshelf headboard, the last component for our new bedroom suite. It is shown clamped upside down to a dolly, which has allowed me to move it around the shop. It is, no doubt, the largest piece of furniture I have ever built, and the main construction challenge has been dealing with the weight of over 200 pounds while working alone. When the kids visit next weekend, I will enlist their help to move this behemoth from my shop to our main bedroom and set it on the nightstands that will support it. All that remains to be done is to connect the built-in reading lights to their respective controls and power supply.
Most stone sculptures are created using a subtractive process. Material is slowly removed to reveal the artist’s vision. I made the piece featured above using an additive process. Over a period of years, I added one layer of calcium oxalate at a time to form the final contours. My previous attempts did not have the same surface texture or symmetry that I find so interesting in this one. I have added it to my collection and hope to display it along with some of my other creations at a future exhibit. Unlike some of my other endeavors, work on this project involves a chemical process that takes place in the background, requiring minimal time and attention from me. The only difficult part, which can be a real pain, is removing the artifact from the chemical reactor in which it was formed, especially if permitted to grow beyond the dimensions of the outlet line.