Riverbend Journal

  Since I have moved away from film finishes and staining, finished is a lot easier and less daunting process than it once was. My go to finish these days is Osmo Polyx Hard Wax Oil. I think it came about as a durable finish for wood flooring until wood workers discovered that it would also work well in furniture finishes. It is simply a wipe on followed by wiping off any excess after a few minutes so there aren't any worries about runs or drips like I always did with film finishes. Also, because is not a stain, it is incredibly easy to touch up or to apply on any missed areas because you don't have to match colors. If something were to happen, I just have to sand out any imperfection and apply some more hard wax oil on that spot and it will blend in perfectly. After two coats and eight hours, I'm left with an incredibly durable finish that I can touch up years from now if needed without much effort. Above is a photo of the underside of the top of the bookcase showing off a...

  The above picture was the ship on which Clara Kuck sailed home at the end of her stay in Europe. She spent several days looking for her trunk which had been sent from Berlin to the port of Hamburg before she finally found it and could arrange for it to join her on the President Lincoln. She also had troubles cashing a check and had to make a trip to the dentist. 

  After scanning all the pictures, I turned my sights on some of the smaller loose things in my tub of Clara Kuck's belongings. I found her birth registration, a Christmas card, a baby book for her grand niece Beth and two of the above books. They are just slightly smaller than three inches by five inches and came new with about 20 pages of blank paper. One belonged to Clara and one belonged to her older sister Bertha.  They were given in 1888 when Clara was around 5 and Bertha 7 so the inscriptions were likely written by their mother Elizabeth and indeed, the first pages of both are notes written by Elizabeth too her daughters. Clara's book reads, " My dearest Clara, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Your loving Mother, Elizabeth. " Beneath that is the date November 2, 1888.  On the rest of the twenty pages are more notes of similar nature written by family and friends, some of which are unknown to me and will require a bit of research to figure out. One...

  For the last few years, I have not had a lot of success when it comes to hunting morel mushrooms. In fact I'm pretty sure I blogged that perhaps last year would be my last year. But every spring, about this time of year, especially with idle time on my hands, I find myself fighting the morel madness as I call it and it doesn't take my heart/stomach long to convince my brain that perhaps this time will be THE time when I pick a mother lode of morels under a mushroom machine producing tree. And so with idle time on my hands this Tuesday, and a wife conveniently unemployed, we made the drive out to the farm to enjoy a walk if nothing else.  We found a small mess of grey morel mushrooms, all under elms that had been deceased for a good number of years and no longer mushroom machines. (Note to newer readers, a recently dead elm can produce as many as 50+ mushrooms around it's roots for a year or two after it's death and hence my term of mushroom machine.) We had to probabl...

With my mistake fixed, I proceeded to do a lot of sanding and then was able to glue the shelves in place. Because I am working with real solid wood, which tends to shrink and expand with changes of temperature and humidity, I couldn't fully attach them along the width of each shelf. Instead they are essentially doweled only in the center of each shelf on each side to the side panel and the edges of both shelves just float in the air for now. Since it is a book-shelf, meaning heavy objects might be placed upon it at some point, I will need to add further support. I had flirted with the thought of some sort of floating mortise and tenon joint similar to a "bread board" table to accomplish the same thing but at the end of the day, I just purchased some small brass brackets which I will pin the underside of the fronts and backs of each shelf to the sides. This will allow them movement for seasonal changes and support for heavy objects. While that was drying, I got to work on ...