Early on Christmas morning, Moira and Chloe discovered that Santa thoroughly enjoyed his cookies and his reindeer finished nearly all of their treats. How Santa fit the horse barn and corral down our chimney is anyone’s guess, however through the grapevine I hear that one of Santa’s elves had to run down to their basement the night before and cut the floor to size when they discovered it was a wee bit too wide for the inset. Rumor has it that an altogether different elf nearly lost a limb removing the hard plastic case from a stocking stuffer. Luckily, no elves were seriously injured and we treasured our very first Christmas in our new home.

At present six family members are visiting us from as far away as Vermont and Florida. Today, two friends and their three children arrive after lunch and this evening and we will be celebrating the gathering with a prime Vermont turkey imported directly by the Vermont turkey farmer himself.

Nancy got the biggest present of all this year although it’s shared among all of us. Shortly after moving into our 27 year old home I discovered the entire house is wired for multi-room music. Four rooms have built-in stereo speakers and several others were ready to accept speakers. So I untangled the mess of wires and with some help from energetic children I learned which wire bundle controlled which room. I hook up a monitor lead from our home theater to a cable and Moira and Chloe would run around the house to find where the music was playing  Once we identified the cable runs and labeled them, I busied myself searching online for the equipment that would power the speakers. Thanks to Abes of Maine, I found great prices and service, and well in time for Christmas the gadgets arrived. Now Nancy has an independent CD and receiver along with a speaker selector where she can play music through any or all of six rooms on the first floor. Music literally fills the house and follows you whereever you may roam. There are even volume knobs in each room. Kudos to the original homeowner! On Christmas morning we immediately enjoyed some good music – a present from Nancy to me titled A Toolbox Christmas. What better way to enjoy Christmas music than with hand and power tools transformed into musical instruments

Nancy and I brought Matthew – Nancy’s brother – and his wife Sarah out to dine at Alexander’s in Roanoke last night. What a wonderful restaurant! Great food, great wine, great service. It reminded me of a European restaurant, with it’s tempo set noticeably slower than in the States, giving folks ample time for good conversation in between servings. The restaurant was not large, perhaps twenty tables or so, and a sensible amount of sound absorbing objects and materials were placed on all six sides of the space. This gives those who dine a quiet space where ancillary voices are soothing rather than maddening (*cough* *cough* Texas Roadhouse *cough* *cough*). We’ll certainly frequent Alexander’s and if you live in the area and are looking for a special place to bring friends, family and well-behaved children then you shouldn’t overlook that restaurant. We each enjoyed wine, soup, an entree, coffee/tea and desserts at a cost of roughly $50 per person including a 20% tip.

On a semi-related note, I must say that downtown Roanoke seems to be poised for a significant resurgence. Downtown Roanoke is an ideal shopping and dining destination for older residents given the availability of affordable parking that is close to most major offerings. The heart of the market area has a great vibe. Any great city MUST have a special place for an urban community such as the market area in Roanoke.

After having closed the restaurant at 10:30pm, we drove up to Star Overlook for a quick look at the view of Roanoke under the stars. All I can say is this is a must-see on a clear and cool evening. It was the perfect punctuation on what was a joyful day spent with family members visiting from both Vermont and Florida

In July 2004, once we settled into our new home in Blacksburg, VA, I began scheming up the beginnings of my woodworking and home improvement hobby. At the time, I had no idea we’d be moving onto greener pastures in just ten months so I set about building into the house things I thought we’d enjoy for many years to come. The first project of course was a workshop. I had to somehow squeeze a useable work area into a 5’ deep by 22’ long space. I was long on design skills and short on practical woodworking experience. This being my first ever real woodworking project, it took me a good long while to get things right but the end result was a super-usable work area. An elephant could have stood on that workbench! Friends would stop by and marvel at how much storage I crammed into this little slice of garage. Of course, now that I had a workshop area I could now began solving other problems in the house.

One other problem we had in the garage was storage space. We had ALOT of stuff and not all of it could be crammed into the attic. So I thought long and hard about how to maximize storage space and I remembered a term a web design client once used in their literature. It was “maximizing the vertical cube” or making use of the full height of a space for storage. In their case, their company provided a robotic vertical carousel that could store twenty thousand pounds of SKU items. In my case, I needed a place for family trinkets . So instead of building shelves to stack random items on, I built a rack system that would fit 21×14x10 boxes. This worked out so well I built two racks in the garage that could store 42 boxes! I had some extra plywood and shelf brackets left over from the workbench project so I even built a shelf that wrapped around the top of the wall, to store less often retrieved items.

With the basement garage looking much more functional and organized, I began working on the other side of the basement: my home office. My bonnie wife Nancy told me when we moved in that the office could be the one room where I’d have complete artistic license. So, when I showed up with three gallons of deep red primer and six gallons of Daredevil Red BEHR semi gloss latex, she had to bite her tongue  I then measured out the nook to be converted into the conference area and ordered a custom designed seven foot by five foot L-shaped diner booth and table. Four weeks later and I had completed the office remodel, with custom whimsical trimwork and integrated lateral file cabinets under the built-in desk. Next the booth arrived, and later an electric projection screen and projector were installed together with new ceiling tiles. The project turned out so good that the diner booth company – even a year later – has a Before/After view of my office in their portfolio section.

At this point I knew my way around a table saw and I was fairly confident with basic power tools so I began to design the next project. This would be my very first actual “furniture” project. Since we entered the house most often from the garage and we had plenty of outdoor gear for each of the four members of our family, we needed a sensible way to store such things. The solution was to design and build a monstrous seven foot tall and six foot wide mudroom style open locker and bench combo. Pictured at right is the bench. Today the bench has adjustable shelves and coat hooks at appropriate heights for each member of the family. The entire bench is made out of 3/4” hardwood plywood with 3/4” oak edging on all exposed edges. Instead of nailing I drilled countersinks and screwed and glued everything together. Then I made my own hole plugs with oak dowels. I never counted but I think I have well over 100 holes that I glued, plugged and sanded flush. I shudder to think how many man hours went into the boot bench but the end result was something that I’m very, very proud of considering it was my first effort. Considering a boot bench half it’s size retails for $1,895 in catalogs, I’d call it time well spent.

My next furniture making project was for a Christmas ‘04 present to my mother in-law. We were to visit for a week during the holidays, and I knew her existing entertainment center sat quite low. She had developed some weakened ligaments in her neck and had to bend her neck to look slightly downward at the TV screen. This caused her no small amount of distress. I had decided to build her a riser for her entertainment center and I began the basic case in Virginia on the afternoon before we were to leave. Then, we drove up with our 15 passenger van full of family, the just-started project and all of my power tools . With less than a week on the farm in Vermont, in a strange workshop where things were continually not where I expected, I managed to finish the riser with three deep drawers in time for Christmas. The stain has since aged a little to match the color of the original unit, and it turned out quite well and managed to complement the original piece. The unit even sits on industrial casters so it can be rolled away from the wall with ease.

My most recent woodworking project was a pair of speaker stands. My original plan was to build sturdy pedestals and then to fill them with sand. The goal being to prevent the pedestals from becoming “part of the speaker” and then resonating sound waves that would muddy the quality of the soundtrack or music. I made the stands with 3/4” poplar and in the end the blasted things were so heavy without the sand that I opted to leave them out, sound quality be damned  I do like the odd pedestal platform. At the last minute I decided to rotate the platform 45 degrees. It gave me something of an “asian mariner” vibe so I stuck with it. They complement the speakers and look even better in our new home (this photo being from our prior home in Blacksburg).

It’s been a long while since I’ve built a piece of furniture or trimmed a room. I’ve been busy working with farm-related wood projects. Soon that will change  With the fence project nearing completion I’ve been building my new basement workshop and dreaming of a few winter home improvement projects at our new place. I hope to keep challenging myself and improving my skills until one day I can call myself a true craftsman, rather than an aspiring woodworker

On Christmas Eve at 5pm I was able to meet my pre-Christmas deadline for completing an enclosed area. I finished the perimeter fence for pastures (from right to left in photo) one, two and three. They’re not yet individual pastures but the entire area is enclosed and now horses can be turned out in this pasture while I finish pasture four and two 0.10 acre paddocks on the top of the field. When complete the layout is going to serve us well and will no doubt raise eyebrows among traditional horse folk. Rather than “square” pastures I designed four pastures to be entered from a 2/3 octagon. The line art represents what would be difficult for me to describe  With traditional pastures we’d be twice daily walking thousands of feet to get horses to and from the fields. With this layout, you cut walking distance in half and can also develop a more centralized water, electric and feed supply program. To deal with the inevitable pasture destruction caused by horses milling about at the gates, I’ll be putting down several inches of course aggregate for drainage and several inches of fine aggregate for compaction and traction. I think I’ll be going about 40’ into the pasture areas with this footing, and following the shape of the entrance area. In other words, a giant 2/3 octagon shaped area of gray footing shrouding the 2/3 octagon fenceline. This I hope will prevent the creation of giant mud lots. Giant mud lots are no fun for humans or horses. The two 0.10 acre paddocks are going to be 100% “footing” – no clay whatsoever.

I hope to have the fencing completed by January 1st. In the Spring, I’ll be making more improvements to the pastures, including the installation of water and electric lines to supply Nelson automatic frost-free waterers in each pasture.

When this fencing project is finished I’ll be moving indoors and working through a long todo list of house and barn improvements. I look forward to it – such work is much easier on the fingers! My hands deserve a much needed break from the meat tenderizing process I’ve subjected them to during December!

My dad told me that once. He wasn’t a well educated man. Born David Leo Pecor on a farm in central Vermont in 1924. His mother died when he was very young. His father Claude was a hard edged Franco-American farmer who left it to his children to lean on eachother emotionally. My father and each of his three brothers volunteered for the War in 1942. He would tell me the boys from his town lined up for the recruiters from all military branches and the recruiters would pick their men according to physical characteristics. My father served in the Navy on a destroyer until 1945. As a powderman on a five inch gun he helped fight countless battles that nearly ruined his hearing. After the war he moved from Vermont to Connecticut following gunnite work and then fortunately met my mother. In his forties, some years before I was born, he was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa. He ignored his failing vision and kept working until he could barely see a thing. Hard work helped define my father, although he seemed to take his physical limitations in stride. He would always push himself until just beyond his physical limits. In the end, cigarettes did what a war and fifty years of back breaking work could not. He’s been gone for over a year but I carry him with me forever. Looking at my hands today, I’m reminded of my father and of the physical sacrifices he had to make in order to provide for his family and I am very grateful.

We – especially our girls – enjoyed the Moscow Ballet’s performance on Monday evening. Titled Greatest Love Stories of All Time, it was a performance of Swan Lake and additionally excerpts from other dances. Now that we’re settled in to our new home we’re making a concerted effort to attend theatre performances as often as we are able. This is of particular importance to Moira (age 6) and Chloe (age 3) who are very much interested in the imagined world of Princes and Princesses  

The Roanoke Performing Arts Center is nicely built. It’s large enough to seat a large crowd and the layout offers a good view to nearly all attendees. We had especially good seats and the girls were mesmerized through much of the performance.

My only complaint regards the PAC’s proximity to the Coliseum. We happened to leave at intermission at 8:30pm as it was a school night; originally the performance was scheduled for Friday but was pushed to Monday thanks to a crippling ice storm in our region. As we were leaving at intermission, the Coliseum event was ending (basketball?) and thousands of young men and women were leaving simultaneously. In the open courtyard between the PAC and the Coliseum, many young folks were swearing up a storm, and several fights (between boys and girls alike) broke out that only subsided when police swarmed the crowds. Moira and Chloe got a glimpse into the darker side of urban life that I would have rather they hadn’t. Yes, the real world can be – or is – both beautiful and dangerous. But the wrong conclusions can be drawn from such an experience.

In farm related news, after lunch on Monday I was able to return to the pasture fence project and made substantial progress. Today will see me finishing the fenceline between pastures 3 and 4 and installing four 10’ gates. Once this section of the project is complete, horses will be turned out in pastures 1 through 3 – which remains one large pasture – while I work on vinyl fencing for two 50’ x 90’ paddocks at the top of the field. Then it’s on to trenching for water and electric supply lines.

Woo boy! This Vermont boy sometimes forgets he’s in Virginia, and even though that sun is low in the horizon at “high noon” it can still pack a solar punch to your skin cells. I say this with rosy cheeks, having just finished lunch and while I prepare to get back outside to keep pushing forward on my fence project. So, boys and girls, remember your SPF 30 even during the winter and you’ll enjoy your golden years with softer skin rather than something akin to warmed over shoe leather. And by shoe leather, I mean the unexposed side. I say this with the authority of a man who worked for a few years in a tanning salon as a 15–17 year old male. I saw many a fine looking man and woman slow baked out of their vibrance by over-exposure to the sun’s power. A little tan can be nice, but daily unprotected exposure over decades will add up and trust me, the results are not attractive. Oh, and by the way, there are few jobs more, uh, rewarding, to a teenage male than manning  a popular tanning salon. In a college town But those stories are mine and mine alone

Okay, back to it, this morning I installed four “rails” of 1.5” electric polytape on 600’ more fence. What remains of this afternoon will be set aside for installing paddock gates. I hope everyone else is having themselves a very Merry Monday. If you are in or near my neck of the woods, head outside and enjoy some top shelf weather! And don’t forget your sunblock!

I hammered posts all day on Wednesday knowing that hard weather was on its way. Luckily, I was able to complete a 488’ line with 61 “t-posts”. That’s a personal record that I hope will stand for a good long while  Progress on my workshop continues, and I await a dry spell so I can haul the remaining debris out of the basement so I can build dust and paint barrier walls.

In more recreational news, this recent snow and freezing rain event created perfect conditions for a little bit of Extreme Sledding  Pictured at right was our north pasture this morning, solid with ice thick enough for me to walk on without breaching the surface. The grade is +/– 18 percent, meaning every 100’ you drop 18’ in altitude. Moments after I took this cameraphone photo I was shooting down the hill on a three rail runner sled. Foot braking near the bottom was not an option, so I bailed off the sled while traveling at an undetermined rate of speed. After about 75 feet the friction from my Carhartt overalls and jacket slowed me to a stop, grinning from ear to ear. I have to build a jump halfway down and pray for snow close to Christmas so visiting family can give it a go

Being a Vermonter firmly transplanted in Southwest Virginia, I can’t resist the urge to post a Real Snow Photograph. Pictured at right is the day after a snowstorm in Vermont. Vermont has a teensy population of just over 600,000. This is a country road the day after the snowstorm and I’m easily driving a two wheel drive vehicle down an old country road. The snowdrifts were unbelievable – the truck in the photo is a F-350 SuperDuty and it’s roofline is still several feet below the height of the plowed snow. I post this picture to wonder why a town in Vermont with a population of 900 can keep its dirt roads safer than a paved road in Franklin County, Virginia? Snow still covers certain paved roads in our county over a week after a minimal snowfall. Methinks VDOT needs more snow removal resources, no?

I’ve seen plenty of accidents in Franklin and Roanoke County that were plainly the result of black ice over the road where drainage ditches are improperly constructed or flat out non-existant. Virginia trumps Vermont in a goodly many things, but road maintenance during winter is NOT something that VDOT should be proud of. I hope that changes!

Yesterday marked the end of useful life for my pair of Mechanix high impact work gloves. After nearly a year of service they were coming apart at the seams. So on my way home from driving Chloe to pre-school, I stopped by Lowes and bought another pair. They’re expensive but you just can’t beat their performance. I’ve got quite a collection of gloves but I keep coming back to my Mechanix because of their traction and protection. Protection being the operative word. Two hours after donning my fresh new pair of Mechanix gloves, I had a very close call with an edge of high velocity metal that tore my brand new glove from just under my palm up to the base of my thumb. If I was wearing cheap work gloves – or no work gloves at all – I’d be blogging right now about the two dozen stitches I would have had to suture my palm back together. Instead, I’ve got a small scratch and I’m out one glove until I can buy another pair. And I can keep on driving those posts, with perhaps a more practiced eye towards propery safety precautions.