The First Good Snow Storm of the Fall Season

A comfortable camp while in the woods is one which affords shelter from the wind and storm.

Daniel Carter Beard, The Field and Forest Handy Book, 1906

The National Weather Service website said that those of us along the Dry Fork of St. Vrain Creek received only 10 inches of snow, I measured 13 inches this morning. It snowed heavily Wednesday night, again last night and when I woke up this morning the thermometer read 18 degrees F., not too cold, but it was just right for this light and fluffy snow. Okay, so I'm rambling, but it was a gorgeous day today.

I've been home sick these last two days and it's annoying not to be able to go out and play in this snow, though I did manage to take the dogs for a walk up the gulch. I look forward to more snowy days like this.

The Ten String Classic Guitar-My Latest Obsession, Part 4

Andres Segovia had little use for modern innovation where the classical guitar was concerned. For Segovia, the classical guitar ethos mainly featured six strings (nylon, to be sure, but still...), one guitar (though he did admire the playing of the Presti-Lagoya duo), and compositions he transcribed or which were dedicated to him.

Howard Bass, Jose Tomas: Memory and Legacy, 2012 (Click on title for the full article!)



Slowly, I continue work on the neck for the 10 string classical guitar.

I decided that the headplate should have BWB purfling sandwiched between to the two halves of fiddle back maple. I will use this BWB in the back of the guitar.

Here's a close up of the joint while the pieces are in situ on the shooting board.

In order to join the pieces I made a small version of a plate joining jig. The two pieces together are four inches wide - a top or back for a classical guitar are a little over sixteen inches wide when you join them, I hope from that description you can get an idea how small this jig is!

Historic Window Restoration for the Cardinal Mill, Nederland, Colorado

The making of the usual Victorian windows, with hollow frames and sashes to slide up and down with cords and weights, was then a job cherished by the joiner. Every workman aspired to possess his complete set of sash ovolo moulding planes; his sash fillister for taking out the rebates to receive the glass; his brass-ended mitres for fitting the ends of the sash bars; his double-tooth gauge and mortice chisels.

Walter Rose, The Village Carpenter, 1937

Oh, to have my complete set of sash ovolo moulding planes! I spent all week restoring old sashes: two are original to the Cardinal Mill; I made an entire new one and in this photo I am trying to figure out how to re-size another old window to fit the openings at the mill.

This window is getting a new bottom rail, the old one was rotted and being on a tight schedule, I don't have the time to stabilize the wood with liquid epoxy. It's quicker to make a new rail.

This sash was missing all but 2 of its muntins, Mike and I spent about an hour milling some yellow pine into new muntin material. The only hitch was that I couldn't find a router bit that matches the original ovolo, and again, we don't have the time to have one specially made for the shop.

A brand new lower sash to mate with the original upper sash that I pulled out
of the mill. I made it as an exact copy of another original window as I could.

Here I am sawing out the mortise on an original stile for a new bridle joint.

Michael Lohr is a Park Technician II with Boulder County Parks and Open Space. He is also a wonderful photographer, do check out his website! In this photo, he is making his first muntins, he was very excited about learning how to make sashes. Mike is also a wonderful glazier, a hundred more windows and he'll be the best glazier ever! Hurray! That means I won't have to glaze windows anymore!

Last week, Mike had problems cutting glass, this week he got the hang of it, no more broken pieces, crooked cuts or over-sized cuts.

Yes, I do glaze windows and I am really good at it! We use DAP Brand Painter's Putty 53, it's readily available, it costs $9.95 at McGuckins Hardware in Boulder and it is a linseed oil and calcium carbonate glazing. Most other linseed oil based glazing is available only through mail order.

Stay tuned for more posting on work at the Cardinal Mill!

Door and Window Restoration at the Cardinal Mill, Nederland, Colorado

The big mill handled the ore successfully, shipping in 1916 close to $1,000,000 worth of tungsten concentrates.


Muriel Sibell Wolle, Stampede to Timberline, 1974

The Cardinal Mill was built in 1904, mainly to process tungsten ore, and operated until 1942. Boulder County Parks and Open Space purchased the site in 2004.

You are looking at the west elevation of the structure, if you look very carefully, in the extreme lower right hand corner of the photo, along the south wall, you can see a door opening. The original door is gone, but I took an old door and butchered it re-made it into a door to fit the hole, which I will install when we go up with the windows.

Much stabilization work was done on the structure this summer by a contractor, but I get to build several sashes to match the historic ones that remained in the building. The windows that you see are all brand new factory made windows that more or less match the originals, but when you are on site you notice that the windows don't fit the building, they look out of place and look, well, fake.

In this opening I found an old whiskey bottle and the rails and stiles of an original window sash, today I made the lower sash to replace to the original. One set has already been restored (new muntins) and the lights were installed and glazed today. There is one more set that needs some work and new glass.

Some of the equipment that remains in the mill.

My wife was born and raised in Nederland, Colorado, the daughter of a gold miner. Her dad owned a mine just north of Central City, Colorado, that he worked and at one point leased to a mining company in the mid-1970's when gold prices skyrocketed. In 1974, when my wife was 10 years old, she helped her father measure the Cardinal Mill, he was rebuilding the head frame over his mine shaft and needed some guidelines. I know that if my father-in-law were still alive, he would be so excited knowing that I get the chance to work on this mill that was so important in the mining history of the town of Nederland and the state of Colorado.

Aspen, Ponderosa Pine and Fall

This is my backyard, yes, I own this and these scenes are less than 100 feet behind our house. How lucky am I! I am so grateful to live here!