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When I taught for 24 years, my big
thing for all them was just experiment.

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Don't go into this thinking you're
gonna make it perfect just be welcome

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to the fact you're gonna screw up.

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You might actually invent something new
that nobody's ever done in this process

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'cause you don't know how to do it.

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So I teach them, go into
it with an open mind.

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Really look for the breakthroughs.

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Right now the breakthrough is
you're just trying to get it.

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Experiment with that.

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The big fear is and it's funny
because, and I use this as an example

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all the time, people watch somebody
in sports or they'll watch somebody

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play a violin and they're like, wow.

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Years of practice, years of dedication.

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And they watch me do a perfectly
bound book in a two hour demo.

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And then they go home and they go,
there's no way I could do that.

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I can't do it as perfect as you.

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I'm like, you're not expected
to do it as perfect as me.

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Welcome to the Mother Earth
News and Friends podcast.

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At Mother Earth News for 50 years
and counting, we've been dedicated

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to conserving the planet's natural
resources while helping you

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conserve your financial resources.

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In this podcast, we host conversations
with experts in the fields of

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sustainability, homesteading,
natural health, and more to share

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all about how you can live well
wherever you are in a way that values

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both people and our Mother Earth.

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My name is Josh Wilder and I'm the Content
Director here with Mother Earth News.

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I'm here with Jimmy DiResta.

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He is a maker and artist you might
know from his popular YouTube channel,

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co-host of Making It podcast, co-author
of Workshop Mastery, host of Making

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Fun on Netflix, and half a dozen other
shows that have showed his skills.

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He works with wood, metal, letter
press, recycled materials, making

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furniture, sculptures, and just
about any other project in his mind.

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I wanna meet that guy.

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And Jordan, an artist and designer
who, teaches in the fine art

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department at Pitt Community College.

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Thanks for being here.

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Like I said in my email when I reached
out, I turned on your show for my

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son and he's just, he's obsessed.

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I wake up early on Saturday
and just turn it on by himself.

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I gotta get his question
out of the way first.

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Sure.

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Let's do it.

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Is the ultimate workshop real?

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Yeah, I've achieved it.

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I personally have achieved it.

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It's a long-term goal.

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Every workshop that I've had— which
now has been, I can't count really, but

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probably at least seven different, eight
different workshops — has been the best

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workshop at the time until I decide I need
to learn something new add a discipline

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to the shop, and then I upgrade the space.

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And it really is true, like
they say about animals.

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Like a snake, for instance,
will live within its confines.

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It won't grow anymore.

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And every time I've gotten a shop and
expanded my square footage, I've grown.

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In my creativity, I've grown
in my collecting of course, and

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my ability to have bigger, more
interesting, fun vintage machines.

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So I just keep adding space
to my life, which as long as

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I could afford it, I'm okay.

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I think I'm gonna take a pause for a
minute, but I do wanna maybe build a

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giant industrial building on one of
my properties, but I won't do that.

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I'm gonna enlist the partner.

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I'm gonna split the, it's a conversation
right now we'll, see where it goes.

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For sure.

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Yeah.

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And you've been at that property
where the workshop is now for

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what, I think I heard 20 years.

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20 years.

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Yeah.

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September was my 20th year
of closing on this property.

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When I bought this in
2004, I bought the house.

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It's an old farmhouse with a lot of rooms.

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It was a boarding house.

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It's got 11 bedrooms,
11 full-time bedrooms.

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And if I needed to add this
room I'm in with a bed and the

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living room, that adds two more.

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So that would be 13 bedrooms if I needed.

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And this weekend we just did maker
camp, so everything was full, every

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room in the house was full with friends.

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But I bought the original house with
the multiple bedrooms on 17 acres.

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And I went on the tax map and I saw
the property next to me, had nothing

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built on it, but I saw who owned it
and I wrote them a letter in 2004.

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And then in 2006 they reached out
to me and we made a fast deal.

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I refinanced and included
that in my property.

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And so I got that.

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So now I have 40 acres.

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That's 23 acres.

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The house originally is 17, but if
you go back in time, this house was

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the center of hundreds of acres.

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This was the original house for, this
is one of the oldest houses in several

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mile radius, and most of the property
belonged to this original homeowner

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in 17, originally built in 1790.

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In that.

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I quickly went to a new family.

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I actually know the history.

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I gotta brush up on my details, but the
same family owned it for generations.

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So they owned all the farmland.

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That's awesome.

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And then you have the graveyard
house you're working on too, right?

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That's, yeah, down the block.

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That's an old it's a four bedroom house.

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A four bedroom farmhouse.

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I bought it gutted from the
previous short-term owner.

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He bought it in the
beginning of the pandemic.

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Dug into it, gutted it, cut down every
living tree that was on the property,

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which was probably about a hundred trees.

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So now the house sits alone
on a big, empty field.

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Headstrong into the winds.

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My neighbor has 180 acres, and I'm three
of those acres in that little development,

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and it's, it just 180 open field acres.

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It's beautiful space there.

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If you've seen some of the videos.

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So I'm a little island cut out of my
neighbor's, 180 acres, and he said I

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love that you've restored this house.

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He's really happy with that.

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And right across the road
is also part of that parcel.

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That's another 10 acres.

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So all in it's about 13
acres with a big barn.

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So that's a project.

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So I'm digging into that house.

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The biggest part of this last year
was spent fixing the foundation.

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Cool.

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Yeah, I saw the video on that.

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And that kind of brings us into
kind of our, the big theme I

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kinda wanna go into a little bit.

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Yeah.

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For this talk is kinda really
just building with confidence.

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Like whether it's a DIY project,
whether it's restoration, whether it's

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maintenance, really just like going into
a project and you've worked with kids

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and like knowing what it takes to get
them actually not only interested, but

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like feeling like they can do something.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So like, how, how do you approach?

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When I taught at the School of
Visual Arts for 24 years and

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my big push to teach the kids

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intimidating things.

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They're all graphic designers
that for the most part of those

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24 years we're using computers and
developing graphics flat on a page.

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And I was like, this is how you do 3D.

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This is how you might take sculpty
clay and you bake it in the oven.

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You have a 3D object and you take
that object, you make it latex

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mold or a silicone mold and you
make a generation and then you

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do package construction design.

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And my big thing for all
them was just experiment.

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Don't go into this thinking you're
gonna make it perfect just be welcome

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to the fact you're gonna screw up.

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You might actually invent something new
that nobody's ever done in this process

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'cause you don't know how to do it.

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So I teach them, go into
it with an open mind.

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Really look for the breakthroughs.

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Right now the breakthrough is
you're just trying to get it.

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Experiment with that.

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The big fear is and it's funny
because, and I use this as an example

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all the time, people watch somebody
in sports or they'll watch somebody

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play a violin and they're like, wow.

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Years of practice, years of dedication.

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And they watch me do a perfectly
bound book in a two hour demo.

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And then they go home and they go,
there's no way I could do that.

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I can't do it as perfect as you.

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I'm like, you're not expected
to do it as perfect as me.

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Just get your hands on the materials,
experiment, start to understand how the

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glue works, how it dries, how the paper
folds, hit the cracks, when it cracks,

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how to make the Roman corners around the
folded edge of the book binding cover.

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You gotta figure all that out.

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So this is just throw away the first
five and then you start to really look

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at it and think, okay, my learning is
really starting to really take hold.

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So that's really what I do.

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And especially with kids.

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I'm like, let's just experiment.

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Let's have fun.

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Don't think you're gonna do anything that
I've done in my portfolio straight away.

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I've been at it since I've been
at it for 40 years, 50 years.

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I'm 57.

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I started in my workshop five
or six years old with my dad.

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So the practical way to hold and
use a screwdriver and expect it

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to slip and poke me in the hand.

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I learned all that at
six, seven years old.

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Those are skills that if you never
used it, you gotta go through it.

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You gotta go through it.

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Jordan and I both have young kids.

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How late were you at
Scouts last night, Jordan?

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Oh, golly.

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I left there around 8 45 to
kicking and screaming 'cause he

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had to go home and do homework.

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Yeah, exactly.

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So we're trying to figure out that
now as dads, but it's the same thing

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when you're working with people and
trying to build a project together.

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Something you said on your
podcast, I heard you say is

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what's the best that could happen?

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Yeah.

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What if everything works out?

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Yeah.

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Because, my dad was a little bit, my
dad really I owe everything I'm doing

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to my dad, but my dad had, he's from
a different generation where there

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was always that hovering of fear.

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It was always that what
if it doesn't work out?

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He said, I go, dad, I'm
going to art school.

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Maybe you should also
take the police exam.

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Maybe you could be a police officer
in case that doesn't work out.

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And I might have said to him
35, 40 years ago, I might have

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said, what if it does work out?

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Yeah, let's be positive.

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What if it does work out?

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What if everything goes right?

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What if everything goes right because you
talk to anybody, you say, I'm gonna take

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this tractor and carry that pallet and I'm
gonna hang it on the top of that truck.

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And then from there I'm gonna do a rope.

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And they go, what if it doesn't work out?

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I'll figure it out right there and
then, and I'll make it work out.

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Make it go right.

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That's another phrase.

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A friend of mine taught me early
on, one of my early mentors, she

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would always say, make it go right.

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I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing.

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00:09:04,869 --> 00:09:06,039
She just goes, make it go right?

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00:09:06,159 --> 00:09:07,779
You got the skills, make it go right.

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00:09:07,829 --> 00:09:08,369
I like that.

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00:09:08,429 --> 00:09:08,849
Yeah.

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00:09:08,849 --> 00:09:11,054
And I feel like the, what you were
talking about with the graphic

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designers, and that speaks to me
'cause I got my BFA in graphic design.

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Yeah, me too.

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That's great, yeah.

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That's where I'm approaching like, Mother
Earth News from and content creation in

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general is just, taking everything and
making it easily digestible as possible.

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So once you're past that kind
of curiosity stage of like.

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What if everything goes right?

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Then you get into your creative space.

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How do we do this?

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We are all artists, but I had a
hard time calling myself an artist.

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Sure.

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I did a podcast once and the subject was.

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Are you an artist?

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And I basically said, you have the
permission to call yourself an artist.

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And it was so touching a young man
who was, who took a class here.

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I knew him.

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His name escapes me at the moment,
but he wrote me the longest letter.

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He said, when you said that he's an
ambulance driver, he says, when you

238
00:09:56,725 --> 00:09:59,215
said that, I pulled over to the side
of the road and I broke down in tears.

239
00:09:59,215 --> 00:10:01,465
He said, because I've been
resisting that for years.

240
00:10:02,275 --> 00:10:03,925
My father never wanted me to be an artist.

241
00:10:03,925 --> 00:10:05,545
My mother thought it was a loser path.

242
00:10:05,855 --> 00:10:09,305
And when you said it's okay to call
yourself an artist, and I was just

243
00:10:09,545 --> 00:10:13,085
freestyling, I wasn't trying to make
any profound statements, but when he

244
00:10:13,085 --> 00:10:16,010
called me and told me that, and then
eventually I overheard it at a couple

245
00:10:16,010 --> 00:10:19,160
of meetups, like when you said it,
it's okay to call yourself an artist.

246
00:10:19,160 --> 00:10:22,790
It really hit home for me 'cause
people resist it because it's like the

247
00:10:22,790 --> 00:10:24,500
Scarlet Letter in a lot of families.

248
00:10:24,710 --> 00:10:27,020
They want you to get a real
job, join the family business of

249
00:10:27,020 --> 00:10:28,310
construction or whatever it is.

250
00:10:30,350 --> 00:10:34,910
Yeah, but there's so much artistry
in reclaiming old doors or,

251
00:10:35,220 --> 00:10:36,690
any kind of carpentry really.

252
00:10:36,690 --> 00:10:38,520
Any kind of making,
there's artistry in that.

253
00:10:38,740 --> 00:10:42,270
Yeah, I always say make something
every day, even a sandwich,

254
00:10:42,330 --> 00:10:43,320
putting together a sandwich.

255
00:10:43,370 --> 00:10:44,690
Every decision is a creative one.

256
00:10:44,690 --> 00:10:46,220
Every decision you make is a creative one.

257
00:10:46,430 --> 00:10:48,935
Whether you drop that piece of salami
on it and you're like, should I fold it?

258
00:10:49,550 --> 00:10:51,380
If I fold it, I have to
put another one next to it.

259
00:10:51,500 --> 00:10:53,930
And if I, and if you're OCD,
you're gonna put three in a row.

260
00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:55,760
'cause you want it to look
good as if there's a magazine

261
00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:56,690
camera over your shoulder.

262
00:10:57,060 --> 00:10:58,740
Every decision you make is a creative one.

263
00:10:58,770 --> 00:11:02,370
Whether it's gonna be a fine art piece
that hangs in a gallery, or whether

264
00:11:02,370 --> 00:11:05,720
you're just deciding how to arrange your
shoes across the edge of the mudroom.

265
00:11:05,900 --> 00:11:07,370
Every decision you make is a creative one.

266
00:11:09,170 --> 00:11:12,560
Yeah, you talked about having a
lot of storage and I saw when you

267
00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:16,730
were making a table out of a door,
like your kind of door collection.

268
00:11:17,010 --> 00:11:18,900
I have a hard time getting rid of stuff.

269
00:11:19,350 --> 00:11:19,530
Me too.

270
00:11:20,470 --> 00:11:23,200
Especially for our Mother Earth News
audience, it's about waste reduction.

271
00:11:23,590 --> 00:11:27,610
It's about doing as much as
possible with as little as you have.

272
00:11:27,740 --> 00:11:31,120
At what point do you decide okay,
I'm gonna do something with this?

273
00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:34,440
I will, when people say, I'm gonna
keep this in if I haven't used it in

274
00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:37,530
a year, I use things that I've had
sitting around for seven, eight years.

275
00:11:38,115 --> 00:11:40,695
So it is a very difficult decision
for me to look at something and

276
00:11:40,695 --> 00:11:42,195
go, I haven't used it in a year.

277
00:11:42,245 --> 00:11:43,295
It's also currency.

278
00:11:43,295 --> 00:11:48,125
If it's good fodder, it's currency
that you could trade to a friend,

279
00:11:48,185 --> 00:11:49,475
or if it's a good machine.

280
00:11:49,835 --> 00:11:51,485
A lot of times people drop off machines.

281
00:11:51,485 --> 00:11:54,905
To me, I'll never use them, but I
have a good currency in that machine.

282
00:11:54,905 --> 00:11:57,575
When somebody comes along and they're
like, I'm needing this old lathe.

283
00:11:57,665 --> 00:11:59,035
I'm like, that one right there?

284
00:11:59,035 --> 00:12:00,415
I'm like, if you like that's yours.

285
00:12:00,505 --> 00:12:01,225
I can have that.

286
00:12:01,225 --> 00:12:01,525
Really?

287
00:12:01,525 --> 00:12:02,275
Aren't you gonna use it?

288
00:12:02,275 --> 00:12:03,505
I go, I never used it once.

289
00:12:03,505 --> 00:12:04,315
Someone brought it here.

290
00:12:04,675 --> 00:12:05,605
And I couldn't say no.

291
00:12:05,605 --> 00:12:09,155
I'm almost like like the way I always
joke about instead of fostering puppies,

292
00:12:09,155 --> 00:12:13,475
I foster old machines because I can't
see them sit outside and get rusty.

293
00:12:13,475 --> 00:12:14,405
I say, bring them inside.

294
00:12:14,405 --> 00:12:14,615
Come on.

295
00:12:14,615 --> 00:12:15,155
We'll bring 'em inside.

296
00:12:15,155 --> 00:12:15,845
We'll take care of them.

297
00:12:16,295 --> 00:12:17,825
Some of them make it inside, not everyone.

298
00:12:17,855 --> 00:12:20,905
But the good thing about old steel
is that it's always revivable.

299
00:12:23,005 --> 00:12:24,475
So everything gets used eventually.

300
00:12:24,475 --> 00:12:25,735
I really do believe that.

301
00:12:25,975 --> 00:12:27,685
But within reason.

302
00:12:28,285 --> 00:12:31,125
For instance, my we're clearing
out, my dad passed away and we're

303
00:12:31,125 --> 00:12:33,945
clearing at his house, and he
had piles and piles of cutoffs.

304
00:12:33,945 --> 00:12:34,275
And wood.

305
00:12:34,275 --> 00:12:34,605
And wood.

306
00:12:34,935 --> 00:12:37,545
And I would always say, and I even
said it in my most recent episode

307
00:12:37,545 --> 00:12:41,505
of The House Build, I keep all
my materials at the lumberyard.

308
00:12:42,450 --> 00:12:43,950
I let the lumber yard be my storage unit.

309
00:12:44,340 --> 00:12:47,520
'cause when I go and get it, it's not
grade from weather, it's straight,

310
00:12:47,670 --> 00:12:50,310
it's not rotten because it's been
standing in a puddle for a year.

311
00:12:50,310 --> 00:12:53,100
When I'm ready to use it and it's exactly
the length I need, I don't have to cut

312
00:12:53,100 --> 00:12:55,290
off two inches, all that type of stuff.

313
00:12:55,290 --> 00:12:57,390
And that's primarily coming from my dad.

314
00:12:57,390 --> 00:13:00,649
So I'm very selective and I curate
the junk that sits around me.

315
00:13:01,039 --> 00:13:03,139
I'm not taking pallets
simply because they're there.

316
00:13:03,769 --> 00:13:04,669
I know where they are.

317
00:13:04,669 --> 00:13:05,779
If I need 'em, I go and get 'em.

318
00:13:05,829 --> 00:13:07,479
I always get my fresh
lumber when I get it.

319
00:13:07,854 --> 00:13:10,134
And a lot of times when you see
somebody cutting down a tree and I'm

320
00:13:10,134 --> 00:13:12,474
like, Ugh, there'll be another tree.

321
00:13:12,474 --> 00:13:13,374
I'll get it eventually.

322
00:13:13,379 --> 00:13:15,509
When I'm ready to look for a tree
and I know it's gonna go right on

323
00:13:15,509 --> 00:13:18,409
the new sawmill, or if I'm gonna
be able to make a hammer stump or

324
00:13:18,409 --> 00:13:19,719
something or other it'll be there.

325
00:13:20,079 --> 00:13:21,639
So I'm not that much of a hoarder.

326
00:13:21,949 --> 00:13:23,569
I'm very selective in my hoard.

327
00:13:25,754 --> 00:13:30,164
So on the top of that, I've noticed
you also kinda use the whole hog or try

328
00:13:30,164 --> 00:13:33,344
to make sure that you're not wasting
much while you are in the project.

329
00:13:33,344 --> 00:13:37,064
Like I think I saw you put an arch out
of a board and make sure that you were

330
00:13:37,069 --> 00:13:40,779
you were taking the cut that you took
and adding it to the top, for instance.

331
00:13:40,989 --> 00:13:41,289
Oh yeah.

332
00:13:41,289 --> 00:13:41,739
I've done that.

333
00:13:41,739 --> 00:13:43,569
That's a technique I've I
learned a long time ago.

334
00:13:43,569 --> 00:13:43,689
Yeah.

335
00:13:43,689 --> 00:13:47,769
If you cut like a four by four,
you can make it like a, like maybe

336
00:13:47,769 --> 00:13:48,969
a six or eight inch curve by.

337
00:13:49,539 --> 00:13:53,319
Cutting out the scallop out of the flat
side and then gluing it right on top flat.

338
00:13:53,379 --> 00:13:55,059
That's an old technique I
used to play with on the bend.

339
00:13:55,059 --> 00:13:58,669
So are there any other techniques
like that where you think you're

340
00:13:58,669 --> 00:14:00,229
stretching materials, making sure,

341
00:14:00,229 --> 00:14:04,127
Yeah, for instance I have a new horse
barn in the back and I made all the doors.

342
00:14:04,157 --> 00:14:05,302
9 doors.

343
00:14:06,307 --> 00:14:09,817
Two of those nine doors are actual
double doors, big double doors.

344
00:14:09,817 --> 00:14:12,007
So 13 doors, door frames.

345
00:14:12,517 --> 00:14:16,777
And I bought a bunch of three inch by
three inch, quarter inch thick angle iron.

346
00:14:18,127 --> 00:14:21,397
And I got down to it and I realized, oh, I
don't have enough to finish the big door.

347
00:14:21,397 --> 00:14:22,237
And I was like, wait a minute.

348
00:14:22,357 --> 00:14:25,447
I got scraps laying all around me and I
just tacked together, bunch of scraps.

349
00:14:25,867 --> 00:14:27,097
Nobody would know where the seam is.

350
00:14:27,457 --> 00:14:28,297
So I just tacked together.

351
00:14:28,717 --> 00:14:33,097
And it's funny, a lot of guys, I
talk to welders, old school welders.

352
00:14:33,802 --> 00:14:36,712
And they say, I realized early on if
I make a mistake in welding and metal,

353
00:14:36,712 --> 00:14:41,002
I could just weld another piece on
and hide it and versus woodworking

354
00:14:41,002 --> 00:14:42,352
where you have to get more creative.

355
00:14:42,352 --> 00:14:45,382
If you're gonna cut something short,
you have to just start over or come up

356
00:14:45,382 --> 00:14:49,252
with a creative scarf joint, and in some
cases you can't really put a seam in a

357
00:14:50,062 --> 00:14:51,592
timber or something or other, whatever.

358
00:14:52,042 --> 00:14:55,192
But, so a lot of guys say, I checked out
woodworking when I was in school and I

359
00:14:55,192 --> 00:14:56,632
checked out metalworking, metalworking.

360
00:14:56,632 --> 00:15:00,413
You can make mistakes and hide 'em much
easier than wood, but in general all.

361
00:15:01,042 --> 00:15:03,862
I always say, what's, I've
learned this from a lot of people.

362
00:15:04,432 --> 00:15:05,992
What is a professional in woodworking?

363
00:15:05,992 --> 00:15:09,112
A professional metalworker, it's just
getting better and better at hiding your

364
00:15:09,112 --> 00:15:11,722
mistakes and making it look intentional.

365
00:15:12,532 --> 00:15:15,112
So with metal, you could
always scab it back together.

366
00:15:15,682 --> 00:15:18,502
And with wood, if you have bits and
pieces of wood and you gotta scab

367
00:15:18,502 --> 00:15:22,612
something together like the magician
say, turn that into your feature.

368
00:15:23,467 --> 00:15:25,927
And look, I made this outta 17
pieces of wood when it really

369
00:15:25,927 --> 00:15:26,857
should have been made outta one.

370
00:15:26,857 --> 00:15:27,962
But I had 17 pieces of scrap.

371
00:15:29,867 --> 00:15:30,157
Nice.

372
00:15:30,172 --> 00:15:33,922
My boat, I recently made, I made a
rowboat a year ago, and the rowboat

373
00:15:33,922 --> 00:15:37,642
is made out of all the leftover porch
planks from my front porch of my home.

374
00:15:37,792 --> 00:15:40,582
I redid my front porch and I was
ripping up all these doug fir porch

375
00:15:40,582 --> 00:15:44,512
planks that were put on a hundred
years ago from a tree that was probably

376
00:15:44,512 --> 00:15:48,292
harvested in a few years before
that, but started growing a hundred

377
00:15:48,292 --> 00:15:49,942
years or maybe 400 years before that.

378
00:15:49,942 --> 00:15:53,542
Who knows, because the grain lines
are so tight in a, in an inch

379
00:15:53,542 --> 00:15:56,007
there's 70, 80 grain lines, and
that's 70, 80 years worth of growth.

380
00:15:57,292 --> 00:15:58,762
And I was like, I cannot burn this.

381
00:15:58,852 --> 00:16:01,882
I was about to just go throw it in
the fire and I put a fresh cut on

382
00:16:01,882 --> 00:16:03,142
one end to see what's inside of it.

383
00:16:03,382 --> 00:16:07,432
'cause it's all covered with lead paint
and the ends are all rotted on both edges.

384
00:16:07,432 --> 00:16:10,072
And I was like, whoa, there's some
beautiful stuff hidden in here.

385
00:16:10,072 --> 00:16:10,912
So I saved it all.

386
00:16:10,912 --> 00:16:13,942
I still have a giant pile on my front
porch pins, but I made a boat out of it.

387
00:16:14,392 --> 00:16:18,162
I made a few little end tables
out of it and I'm gonna do another

388
00:16:18,162 --> 00:16:19,332
video soon where I take all the,

389
00:16:21,012 --> 00:16:24,632
I forget with that one, didn't you, did
you do the cove and bead on that for.

390
00:16:25,797 --> 00:16:26,777
The joints for the boat.

391
00:16:26,827 --> 00:16:28,092
I didn't do a cove and bead on that.

392
00:16:28,092 --> 00:16:31,002
I actually, I made a canoe
in 2018 and I did that, came

393
00:16:31,002 --> 00:16:32,202
with the cove and bead on it.

394
00:16:32,202 --> 00:16:32,233
Okay.

395
00:16:32,592 --> 00:16:36,847
This was just, butt joint, but every
time you blow up a plank, you take a

396
00:16:36,847 --> 00:16:41,017
hand plane or a hand plane that has a
whole bleeded blade or think it would be

397
00:16:41,017 --> 00:16:43,447
called a, a joint plane, joiner plane.

398
00:16:43,497 --> 00:16:48,328
And then go right around and then make
that rolling bevel so that the next board

399
00:16:48,328 --> 00:16:50,517
you put on it will land right on it.

400
00:16:52,677 --> 00:16:54,027
Yeah, that was a real learning experience.

401
00:16:54,027 --> 00:16:54,537
That was fun.

402
00:16:54,777 --> 00:16:59,517
And so putting that boat together, all
my porch planks were no longer than

403
00:16:59,517 --> 00:17:03,387
seven feet, but the boat is 14 feet,
so there's scarf joints everywhere.

404
00:17:03,867 --> 00:17:05,937
But I made that a feature.

405
00:17:06,027 --> 00:17:08,757
Wherever the wood was really
weathered from the being near

406
00:17:08,757 --> 00:17:11,457
the edge of the porch, I actually
did my scarf joint close to that.

407
00:17:11,457 --> 00:17:14,662
So when I did my scarf joint, one of
them is aged and one of them's clean.

408
00:17:15,357 --> 00:17:18,342
So I accentuated that just to show
and I was always looking for the

409
00:17:18,342 --> 00:17:20,762
nail holes if I could find them,
because you have a beautifully

410
00:17:20,762 --> 00:17:22,382
shaped boat, which I didn't design.

411
00:17:22,382 --> 00:17:27,062
My Steve Killen designed a beautiful,
classic, beautiful wooden boat.

412
00:17:27,812 --> 00:17:29,912
But when you get up close, you
start seeing, oh, there's a nail

413
00:17:29,912 --> 00:17:32,492
hole, but the nail holes filled
in the pop and it's intentional.

414
00:17:32,492 --> 00:17:34,592
And the scarf joint looks like bamboo.

415
00:17:34,622 --> 00:17:36,542
'cause this one, there's a
scarf joint here, and one here

416
00:17:36,542 --> 00:17:37,712
starts to look like a feature.

417
00:17:39,647 --> 00:17:43,727
So that's why I say you always accentuate
instead of trying to hide and be shamed

418
00:17:43,727 --> 00:17:45,637
about it, take it and make it a feature.

419
00:17:47,107 --> 00:17:49,738
So kinda talking about that
accentuating and that being your,

420
00:17:51,663 --> 00:17:55,383
level of, makes you professional
and and the horse barn, frankly.

421
00:17:55,893 --> 00:17:59,563
I talk a little bit about your clean
shop that you're working on and what

422
00:17:59,563 --> 00:18:00,703
all you're looking at doing up there.

423
00:18:00,703 --> 00:18:04,723
I know you'd mentioned that you made a
cover for your sewing machine doing more

424
00:18:04,723 --> 00:18:06,352
sewing and kinda leather work up there.

425
00:18:06,402 --> 00:18:08,142
Yeah, the second floor of the horse barn.

426
00:18:09,042 --> 00:18:11,082
Is a clean space for me.

427
00:18:11,082 --> 00:18:11,832
It's a clean space.

428
00:18:11,832 --> 00:18:13,152
I don't have really a clean space.

429
00:18:13,152 --> 00:18:17,263
I do now, but when I started my
leather, I ran for my leather

430
00:18:17,263 --> 00:18:20,622
business a year ago and I came up
with a pattern that I really like,

431
00:18:20,622 --> 00:18:21,793
and everyone seems to really like it.

432
00:18:21,793 --> 00:18:24,222
I've been able to sell
quite a few of them and.

433
00:18:24,957 --> 00:18:27,237
Every time I got a hide in,
I was buying three hides at

434
00:18:27,237 --> 00:18:28,497
a time, four hides at a time.

435
00:18:29,007 --> 00:18:30,897
I would bring 'em into my living
room and lay 'em on the floor

436
00:18:30,897 --> 00:18:33,447
because it's the only place where
I know no water's gonna get on 'em.

437
00:18:33,447 --> 00:18:37,617
No animal's gonna pee on 'em and
no saw dust and grinding powder's

438
00:18:37,617 --> 00:18:40,317
gonna burn the edge or get
near 'em and I can lay 'em out.

439
00:18:40,317 --> 00:18:42,507
And also, I also, it's really funny.

440
00:18:42,507 --> 00:18:43,827
Everybody worries about my leather.

441
00:18:43,827 --> 00:18:45,087
They're all like, how are you gonna store?

442
00:18:45,943 --> 00:18:48,253
Go, just lay it on the floor like,
but it's gonna get in your way.

443
00:18:48,253 --> 00:18:49,903
I go, I just won't stand
in that part of the room.

444
00:18:49,903 --> 00:18:50,562
It's gonna be fine.

445
00:18:52,572 --> 00:18:54,913
You're not gonna hang it on
a rack or put it on a shelf.

446
00:18:54,913 --> 00:18:58,003
I'm like, no, because when I get
leather, I like to immediately unroll

447
00:18:58,003 --> 00:18:59,383
it, lay it, lay flat on the floor.

448
00:19:00,043 --> 00:19:01,963
'cause when you need a piece of
leather that you're not fighting

449
00:19:01,963 --> 00:19:05,293
a bump in it, you're not fighting
a scene that's been created.

450
00:19:05,322 --> 00:19:08,953
Or even worse, you've rolled it up
and now you needed a year later and

451
00:19:08,953 --> 00:19:10,062
it just wants to stay in a role.

452
00:19:11,202 --> 00:19:13,902
And you can't work it on the table or on
the sewing machine 'cause it's rolled up.

453
00:19:14,442 --> 00:19:17,892
So that's why I just leave it laying
flat on the floor and now all my hides

454
00:19:17,892 --> 00:19:20,503
are up there and I've actually, since
I'm up there, I'm being productive.

455
00:19:20,503 --> 00:19:21,432
I need to buy more hides.

456
00:19:21,432 --> 00:19:23,562
I've kind, I've gone through
all the useful stuff already.

457
00:19:24,013 --> 00:19:28,632
I've turned them into bags in the last
couple, a couple of maybe last week.

458
00:19:29,142 --> 00:19:31,272
They're all I made about 15
bags out of everything that

459
00:19:31,272 --> 00:19:32,112
was light in my living room.

460
00:19:32,862 --> 00:19:33,042
Wow.

461
00:19:33,492 --> 00:19:33,882
Nice.

462
00:19:35,592 --> 00:19:37,297
So at what point do you are, do.

463
00:19:38,127 --> 00:19:39,267
So having that more space.

464
00:19:39,297 --> 00:19:39,837
More space.

465
00:19:39,837 --> 00:19:43,067
Is there anything else in that clean shop
that you're looking at that, I know you've

466
00:19:43,368 --> 00:19:45,227
done some letterpress work, for example,

467
00:19:45,227 --> 00:19:47,332
Yeah, the letterpress
is down the block now.

468
00:19:47,332 --> 00:19:50,783
I bought an old racetrack, which is
where I do my annual hangout with my

469
00:19:50,783 --> 00:19:54,683
friends and fans that want to come
and they bring a handmade go-kart and

470
00:19:54,683 --> 00:19:56,602
we goof off on the day on the track.

471
00:19:56,908 --> 00:20:00,683
And it was an old concession stand
where you could buy hot dogs and

472
00:20:00,683 --> 00:20:02,483
ice cream and run on the track.

473
00:20:02,483 --> 00:20:06,923
So the building that's there has the
mechanic's garage for the go-karts in

474
00:20:06,923 --> 00:20:10,583
the back and inside there's a was what
would've been the old dining area.

475
00:20:10,583 --> 00:20:12,413
If you bought a hotdog, you
go sit in the dining area.

476
00:20:12,443 --> 00:20:14,343
And now that's all my print
presses are in there now.

477
00:20:15,123 --> 00:20:15,603
That's awesome.

478
00:20:15,783 --> 00:20:17,493
Is that the go-kart you made on Hammered?

479
00:20:18,393 --> 00:20:23,148
No, the one I made on hammered was
a. It was a TV prop that was a prop.

480
00:20:24,528 --> 00:20:26,268
Now what I made on hammered
was so many years ago.

481
00:20:26,268 --> 00:20:29,208
Now I'm like, I'm much more into
welding than I was at that point.

482
00:20:29,718 --> 00:20:33,178
When I got on YouTube, I stored I've
welded and I welded on that show,

483
00:20:33,178 --> 00:20:36,838
but when I got on YouTube, I got
a, I got an endorsement deal with

484
00:20:36,838 --> 00:20:40,498
Lincoln Electric primarily because
like you're the average nube that.

485
00:20:41,953 --> 00:20:48,043
Weld occasionally we wanna show the home
garage guy that he can get a welder,

486
00:20:48,043 --> 00:20:51,763
learn how to weld, and he doesn't
have to be a certified welder to do

487
00:20:51,763 --> 00:20:54,613
VBV groove welding on the pipeline.

488
00:20:55,453 --> 00:21:00,043
So I'm not intermediary where I'm
not a farmer, I'm a furniture maker.

489
00:21:00,043 --> 00:21:01,003
But I could also do this.

490
00:21:01,003 --> 00:21:03,973
I could fix a leg on a table
or I could fix my trailer.

491
00:21:04,243 --> 00:21:06,703
And so that, that was really the
marketing ploy with me behind.

492
00:21:06,703 --> 00:21:08,983
So when I really got machines,
I started really welding.

493
00:21:09,313 --> 00:21:10,093
A lot more often.

494
00:21:10,093 --> 00:21:14,743
I went to school at Lincoln a couple
times for just some basic skills and then

495
00:21:14,863 --> 00:21:16,423
just challenge yourself with projects.

496
00:21:16,423 --> 00:21:19,153
The more projects you do, the more
you challenge yourself to weld,

497
00:21:20,083 --> 00:21:21,493
the better you get at anything.

498
00:21:22,153 --> 00:21:26,773
So I developed a lot of welding projects,
and so now the go-karts that I'm making

499
00:21:26,773 --> 00:21:28,933
for my Go-Kart event are all welded up.

500
00:21:28,933 --> 00:21:30,223
I've made three in a row now.

501
00:21:30,613 --> 00:21:32,953
The first two years, the first
year was COVID, the second year

502
00:21:32,953 --> 00:21:35,923
was admitted beginning of that
TV show that we talked about.

503
00:21:36,163 --> 00:21:40,423
So I, we finished the episode, the final
episode, the day before the Go-Kart event.

504
00:21:40,423 --> 00:21:41,803
So I didn't have a
chance to build anything.

505
00:21:42,103 --> 00:21:46,153
So the last three years, so we've done
five and a, but the last three years I've

506
00:21:46,153 --> 00:21:51,308
built a go-kart every year and I'll do
that every year until the event is done.

507
00:21:51,308 --> 00:21:51,548
That's awesome.

508
00:21:52,148 --> 00:21:52,898
Yeah, it's always fun.

509
00:21:52,898 --> 00:21:57,183
So I start thinking now it's becoming
a short tradition, it's in July,

510
00:21:57,183 --> 00:22:00,603
so May, June, I start thinking
about what I'm gonna make and start

511
00:22:00,603 --> 00:22:04,053
gathering the materials and go to
Harbor Freight by a, by an engine

512
00:22:04,053 --> 00:22:04,983
and start thinking it through.

513
00:22:06,423 --> 00:22:06,843
Nice.

514
00:22:07,533 --> 00:22:10,783
So talking about, you're not a farmer,
but have a farmhouse and all the

515
00:22:10,783 --> 00:22:14,123
land, and I know there's probably,
maintenance projects you have around and

516
00:22:14,288 --> 00:22:15,893
having all your skills come in handy.

517
00:22:16,173 --> 00:22:19,323
For somebody who wants to pick up a
skill and they have some property,

518
00:22:19,333 --> 00:22:20,738
where would you suggest them starting?

519
00:22:21,653 --> 00:22:22,403
I have chickens.

520
00:22:22,453 --> 00:22:26,323
I do take the eggs, so I maintenance
the chicken coop and I built a chicken

521
00:22:26,323 --> 00:22:27,733
coop, which was really easy to do.

522
00:22:27,923 --> 00:22:28,733
That's a simple thing.

523
00:22:28,733 --> 00:22:30,653
Some four by fours and
some what do you call it?

524
00:22:30,653 --> 00:22:35,153
Hard cloth wire, which is that
tight closed wire you can get at the

525
00:22:35,153 --> 00:22:37,013
gardening shop or tractor supply.

526
00:22:37,703 --> 00:22:38,993
That that was cool.

527
00:22:39,173 --> 00:22:41,843
I've gone through lots of birds
in the last, almost 10 years now.

528
00:22:42,588 --> 00:22:44,533
I have right now I have three turkeys.

529
00:22:44,593 --> 00:22:46,663
So the turkeys are fun.

530
00:22:46,663 --> 00:22:48,523
I don't eat anything as far as meat goes.

531
00:22:48,523 --> 00:22:50,893
I just harvest the eggs
and they're more pets.

532
00:22:51,763 --> 00:22:52,993
But everybody wants the eggs.

533
00:22:53,023 --> 00:22:53,893
People come by all the time.

534
00:22:53,893 --> 00:22:54,823
They're like, do you have any eggs?

535
00:22:54,883 --> 00:22:56,833
And then there's that prime
time in the summer where you're

536
00:22:56,833 --> 00:22:59,113
getting like 25 eggs a day and you
don't know what to do with them.

537
00:22:59,413 --> 00:23:00,793
Giving 'em to everybody that comes by.

538
00:23:01,483 --> 00:23:02,023
And yeah.

539
00:23:02,023 --> 00:23:06,403
So now I'm getting about one
egg a day, maybe, if I'm lucky.

540
00:23:06,913 --> 00:23:07,813
'cause it's cold out now.

541
00:23:08,638 --> 00:23:10,798
But the chicken coop is
an easy thing to get into.

542
00:23:10,828 --> 00:23:12,928
You could even buy one,
but I recommend making one.

543
00:23:13,318 --> 00:23:15,628
And you don't need a lot of space
if you have one or two chickens.

544
00:23:16,678 --> 00:23:21,778
And what else I got a big field and
it's fenced in and we had a drought

545
00:23:21,778 --> 00:23:25,138
in 22 and my neighbors have five cows.

546
00:23:25,753 --> 00:23:28,573
And they were raising him for slaughter
and he said, we are running outta

547
00:23:28,573 --> 00:23:30,043
grass because nothing's growing.

548
00:23:30,043 --> 00:23:31,033
He said, can we have my cows?

549
00:23:31,033 --> 00:23:33,793
So the cows were in my field all of
August and a little bit of September, a

550
00:23:33,793 --> 00:23:35,653
few years ago, and that was a lot of fun.

551
00:23:35,953 --> 00:23:38,923
So what I'm gonna do, and I just
reached, my business partner, reached

552
00:23:38,923 --> 00:23:42,113
out to me he's my partner on the house
down the block, which is got that big

553
00:23:42,113 --> 00:23:46,793
10 acre field, and I have at least
three acres in the horse pasture.

554
00:23:47,513 --> 00:23:49,513
And he's would you consider
renting to a farmer?

555
00:23:49,513 --> 00:23:52,003
I said, sure, if we can, if you
could find a tenant that wants

556
00:23:52,003 --> 00:23:53,263
to grow something, bring it on.

557
00:23:54,513 --> 00:23:59,443
So having all these projects and,
trying to use as many materials as

558
00:23:59,443 --> 00:24:01,753
you can that are, they're reclaimed.

559
00:24:01,803 --> 00:24:07,153
How does someone who may not have as,
as much, as many access to the materials

560
00:24:07,153 --> 00:24:10,808
you're using to take off your porch or
the door that you might have taken out?

561
00:24:10,808 --> 00:24:13,878
It sounds crazy, but any construction
site dumpsters have the great stuff.

562
00:24:13,928 --> 00:24:15,548
I used to be in the city full-time.

563
00:24:15,548 --> 00:24:19,238
I'm upstate full-time now, but when I
was in the city prior to six or seven

564
00:24:19,238 --> 00:24:21,578
years ago, dumpsters were the greatest.

565
00:24:21,578 --> 00:24:25,298
I there was, I remember when I very
first started my New York City shop, the

566
00:24:25,298 --> 00:24:28,238
one where I started my YouTube channel,
but I had to shop for about four years

567
00:24:28,328 --> 00:24:29,648
before I started my YouTube channel.

568
00:24:30,112 --> 00:24:32,543
All my early videos are down
in this basement hole, in the

569
00:24:32,723 --> 00:24:33,893
basement of a tenement building.

570
00:24:34,553 --> 00:24:35,842
I was dumpster diving constantly.

571
00:24:35,842 --> 00:24:36,683
I had no money.

572
00:24:36,743 --> 00:24:39,773
I was living paycheck to paycheck
then in Manhattan, which was a

573
00:24:39,783 --> 00:24:41,072
rough making a rough go of it.

574
00:24:41,523 --> 00:24:44,342
I had a few clients that I knew would
always, I was on retainer with a few

575
00:24:44,342 --> 00:24:49,267
people designing, developing products
and making prototypes and doing interior

576
00:24:49,267 --> 00:24:50,612
design a little bit here and there.

577
00:24:51,872 --> 00:24:54,513
But you stop at any construct and people
are ripping out plywood that they don't

578
00:24:54,513 --> 00:24:55,922
want anymore 'cause it's got paint on it.

579
00:24:56,178 --> 00:24:59,118
It's perfect for a
workbench, two by fours.

580
00:24:59,118 --> 00:25:00,707
Nobody wants to clean
the nails out of 'em.

581
00:25:00,707 --> 00:25:02,027
Perfect for workbench legs.

582
00:25:02,687 --> 00:25:03,647
It's all free material.

583
00:25:03,647 --> 00:25:06,577
And then one of the, one of
the best fruits of the city

584
00:25:06,577 --> 00:25:08,317
was the old tenement buildings.

585
00:25:08,617 --> 00:25:11,797
If you were gonna rehab a three or
four story, or six story tenement,

586
00:25:12,517 --> 00:25:14,647
there was some rule where you
had to get rid of the timbers.

587
00:25:15,157 --> 00:25:19,297
The three by 10, three by 12 inch doug
fir timbers all have to go right in

588
00:25:19,297 --> 00:25:22,267
a dumpster, and they're 20 feet long.

589
00:25:23,212 --> 00:25:27,322
And you could barely pick
one up, one end by yourself.

590
00:25:27,322 --> 00:25:31,042
They're the floor joists that go
from brick wall to brick wall.

591
00:25:31,582 --> 00:25:35,062
They are the floor joists of all these
old 10 buildings built in the 1880s.

592
00:25:35,062 --> 00:25:35,842
1890s.

593
00:25:36,412 --> 00:25:38,542
And if you're gonna rehab one,
you gotta replace it with steel.

594
00:25:39,667 --> 00:25:42,907
Those buildings were designed so
that the brick wall, my dad taught

595
00:25:42,907 --> 00:25:43,747
me this 'cause he was a fireman.

596
00:25:44,047 --> 00:25:48,037
So when you see these old timbers in
the dumpster, the ends are chamfered.

597
00:25:48,247 --> 00:25:51,187
They're really chamfered like this
so that when the fire in the middle

598
00:25:51,187 --> 00:25:54,067
burns, if there's a fire, which they
always know there would be eventually

599
00:25:54,787 --> 00:25:56,527
the timbers tip out of the wall.

600
00:25:56,527 --> 00:25:57,967
They don't pull the bricks in with 'em.

601
00:25:58,357 --> 00:26:01,207
So all these timbers go wall to
wall with the chamfered corners.

602
00:26:01,207 --> 00:26:03,457
You could tell it's a full piece
'cause the, you could still see the

603
00:26:03,457 --> 00:26:06,667
end on 'em and then they're out, like
half pieces for stairwells and stuff.

604
00:26:07,177 --> 00:26:07,717
So that.

605
00:26:08,422 --> 00:26:11,902
Was a huge giving tree in the city
is when they designed when they were

606
00:26:11,902 --> 00:26:13,792
going to rehab a six story building.

607
00:26:13,792 --> 00:26:16,372
They were gonna be pulling
those things out for months.

608
00:26:17,362 --> 00:26:20,452
Every floor, front to back,
a hundred feet, six floors.

609
00:26:20,842 --> 00:26:25,342
If they're every 18, 20 inches,
20 inches on center, there's a

610
00:26:25,342 --> 00:26:28,462
hundreds of 'em in the building
and they just don't want them.

611
00:26:28,462 --> 00:26:32,002
But there are guys that did come along and
reclaim them, and there was a lumberyard

612
00:26:32,002 --> 00:26:34,042
in Brooklyn called M Fine Lumber.

613
00:26:34,597 --> 00:26:40,117
And they would take those old three bys,
four bys, four by twelves, three by nines.

614
00:26:40,117 --> 00:26:41,317
They were all different thicknesses.

615
00:26:41,317 --> 00:26:45,037
They were basically the I-beams
that held up all these floors

616
00:26:45,037 --> 00:26:47,737
and all these old tenements and
the city is still full of them.

617
00:26:47,737 --> 00:26:50,907
There was the building boom in
the 1890s, 1880s, and 1890s.

618
00:26:50,907 --> 00:26:54,207
All those buildings that were built
then are majority, A lot of them.

619
00:26:56,217 --> 00:26:58,167
So there's always gonna be
that wood coming outta them.

620
00:26:58,467 --> 00:27:04,467
It's all old growth, Southern pine doug,
fir insane with beautiful textures on 'em.

621
00:27:04,467 --> 00:27:06,577
They have now I have shelves all
around the house made out of 'em.

622
00:27:07,617 --> 00:27:08,157
That's great.

623
00:27:08,667 --> 00:27:12,493
So that was, I would take 'em and
cut 'em up into pieces that I haven't

624
00:27:12,523 --> 00:27:15,162
thought about that actually until you
just asked me that pointed question.

625
00:27:15,612 --> 00:27:18,162
But yeah, I would find
that stuff all the time.

626
00:27:18,433 --> 00:27:20,352
I remember one Thanksgiving morning.

627
00:27:21,418 --> 00:27:24,808
I happened, pawn a dumpster full of
them and there was nobody around.

628
00:27:24,808 --> 00:27:26,578
Everybody was getting ready to
have dinner with their family

629
00:27:26,578 --> 00:27:27,988
and I said, I gotta get out.

630
00:27:28,018 --> 00:27:29,668
'cause tomorrow the
city's gonna be bustling.

631
00:27:29,668 --> 00:27:31,498
They're all gonna be taken
by dirt bags like me.

632
00:27:31,768 --> 00:27:34,558
So I spent the whole morning of
Thanksgiving morning before I

633
00:27:34,558 --> 00:27:35,697
drove out to my mother's house.

634
00:27:36,238 --> 00:27:39,148
I kept driving back to my shop,
I'm driving to the ninth Street

635
00:27:39,148 --> 00:27:41,098
and drive back to my shop and
brought 'em back to ninth Street.

636
00:27:41,098 --> 00:27:42,508
I have a pile of them in my backyard.

637
00:27:43,888 --> 00:27:45,178
I would always grab 'em when I could.

638
00:27:45,178 --> 00:27:49,138
They're not easy to get, especially in an
old Tundra that only has a 66 inch bed.

639
00:27:50,698 --> 00:27:54,268
I'd lay 'em up on my roof, so they'd
be like, on the tailgate, they'd

640
00:27:54,268 --> 00:27:56,888
be on the tailgate and on the roof,
and they'd be sticking up past

641
00:27:56,888 --> 00:27:59,498
the roof a few feet and sticking
back past the tailgate a few feet.

642
00:28:00,098 --> 00:28:04,507
I can get a 10 foot piece on the truck,
crushed my taillight, but on the, the

643
00:28:04,507 --> 00:28:05,977
third light on the back of the cab.

644
00:28:05,977 --> 00:28:06,428
But who cares?

645
00:28:07,507 --> 00:28:08,197
You got free wood.

646
00:28:09,562 --> 00:28:09,892
Nice.

647
00:28:09,892 --> 00:28:13,372
I'm imagining you, so this is when
you were down in your basement doing

648
00:28:13,372 --> 00:28:16,433
your first videos, and I saw, I
went back and I watched your first

649
00:28:16,852 --> 00:28:20,783
video that you still have on like
public on YouTube of the foot chair.

650
00:28:21,143 --> 00:28:23,633
Oh yeah, I made that, yeah, I
made that about six or seven years

651
00:28:23,633 --> 00:28:24,803
before I started my YouTube channel.

652
00:28:24,803 --> 00:28:25,013
Yeah.

653
00:28:25,973 --> 00:28:26,243
Yeah.

654
00:28:26,303 --> 00:28:29,423
So what would you do with those sorts of
projects after you were done with them?

655
00:28:29,993 --> 00:28:32,963
That sat in the basement for years,
and then I brought it up here.

656
00:28:32,963 --> 00:28:33,773
When I bought this house.

657
00:28:33,773 --> 00:28:36,563
I made that before I bought this house,
and then when I bought this house, I

658
00:28:36,563 --> 00:28:40,133
brought it upstate and I put it in the
woods, and so it was a destination.

659
00:28:40,133 --> 00:28:42,653
You just walk in the woods and then
you see this foot sticking outta the

660
00:28:42,653 --> 00:28:44,888
ground and then it deteriorated it.

661
00:28:45,053 --> 00:28:46,553
It was covered with plastic and wood.

662
00:28:46,553 --> 00:28:49,133
It lasted about four years until
it was completely just a pile

663
00:28:49,133 --> 00:28:50,333
of white spot on the ground.

664
00:28:52,103 --> 00:28:52,613
So yeah, a lot.

665
00:28:52,613 --> 00:28:54,323
A lot of times I just
give it back to the earth.

666
00:28:55,493 --> 00:28:55,883
Nice.

667
00:28:56,453 --> 00:28:56,693
Yeah.

668
00:28:57,428 --> 00:28:57,878
Nice.

669
00:28:58,628 --> 00:29:01,737
Besides, the horse barn and
what other projects do you have

670
00:29:01,737 --> 00:29:02,937
coming up that you're looking at?

671
00:29:03,388 --> 00:29:06,028
I have the horse barn's done and
the graveyard house is always

672
00:29:06,028 --> 00:29:08,638
gonna be in process, probably for a
couple of years, at the very least.

673
00:29:08,727 --> 00:29:12,237
And I just got a sawmill,
so I'm excited about that.

674
00:29:12,287 --> 00:29:13,637
So what are your plans for the sawmill?

675
00:29:13,697 --> 00:29:17,157
Do you think you'll start taking
more folks trees when they come down?

676
00:29:17,517 --> 00:29:18,717
Oh yeah, absolutely.

677
00:29:18,717 --> 00:29:21,987
I also just bought, I just bought
a Kubota, which is something

678
00:29:21,987 --> 00:29:24,147
I really was contemplating.

679
00:29:24,147 --> 00:29:24,927
It's a lot of money.

680
00:29:24,927 --> 00:29:25,557
Of course.

681
00:29:25,557 --> 00:29:26,217
Do I need it?

682
00:29:26,217 --> 00:29:26,697
Do I need it?

683
00:29:26,697 --> 00:29:29,517
But I knew the minute I
bought it, I would use it.

684
00:29:29,517 --> 00:29:34,872
I just got it 10 days ago and the first
thing I did was I brush hog my feel.

685
00:29:35,727 --> 00:29:39,207
With it every year for 20 years, I
gotta find some reluctant farmer that's

686
00:29:39,207 --> 00:29:44,228
annoyed to have to brush hog my field
'cause probably pays pennies on the

687
00:29:44,228 --> 00:29:50,228
minute because it takes 10 hours to
brush hog a three acre field with a

688
00:29:50,228 --> 00:29:54,967
machine that goes four miles an hour,
and with the difficulties of hitting

689
00:29:54,967 --> 00:29:58,178
a stump and stopping and starting
and trying not to flip the tractor

690
00:29:58,178 --> 00:30:00,697
on the hill, nobody wanted to do it.

691
00:30:00,998 --> 00:30:03,728
So this year I said I moved so
many things around the property.

692
00:30:03,733 --> 00:30:06,362
I enlisted my friend Eli who
comes over with his forks on

693
00:30:06,362 --> 00:30:07,693
his what is, he has a yanmar.

694
00:30:07,753 --> 00:30:10,903
He comes over and he picks up stuff
with his forks and moves stuff around.

695
00:30:10,903 --> 00:30:12,673
Whenever he is here, I like,
we gotta move this over, we

696
00:30:12,673 --> 00:30:13,483
gotta move that pile of rocks.

697
00:30:13,483 --> 00:30:13,933
We gotta move that.

698
00:30:14,563 --> 00:30:15,853
I was like, lemme just buy my own tractor.

699
00:30:15,853 --> 00:30:20,803
So I bought a 66 horsepower
M6060 and it's a great machine.

700
00:30:20,803 --> 00:30:22,633
It's like the bigger of the middle size.

701
00:30:22,633 --> 00:30:24,163
It's the big one up from the middle size.

702
00:30:25,423 --> 00:30:27,833
And the wheels are up to about my chest.

703
00:30:27,923 --> 00:30:28,583
So they're that high.

704
00:30:30,538 --> 00:30:30,828
Nice.

705
00:30:32,183 --> 00:30:32,303
Yeah.

706
00:30:32,303 --> 00:30:33,713
That'll take care of a few things.

707
00:30:33,893 --> 00:30:36,803
You won't have to put stuff in your
tundra anymore, that's for sure.

708
00:30:36,938 --> 00:30:37,228
Yeah.

709
00:30:37,233 --> 00:30:37,643
Yeah.

710
00:30:37,643 --> 00:30:39,683
Now I got a couple of Chevys, but
I could show you an interesting,

711
00:30:39,683 --> 00:30:41,183
I just took this picture just now.

712
00:30:42,293 --> 00:30:43,613
What the hell are they here?

713
00:30:44,303 --> 00:30:45,533
So I just got, look at this.

714
00:30:46,673 --> 00:30:50,483
I just got a pack of scaffolding
material for the graveyard house.

715
00:30:50,573 --> 00:30:51,083
Oh, nice.

716
00:30:51,088 --> 00:30:51,238
The ceiling.

717
00:30:52,193 --> 00:30:53,963
And I was able to get it off
the truck with my tractor.

718
00:30:54,413 --> 00:30:54,833
That's great.

719
00:30:55,673 --> 00:30:56,723
It's already paying for itself.

720
00:30:56,723 --> 00:30:59,813
I did the field already with the
brush hog and I just unloaded a

721
00:30:59,813 --> 00:31:01,433
3000 pound pallet in the truck.

722
00:31:03,033 --> 00:31:04,868
And then once the winter comes,
and winter's always, the,

723
00:31:05,613 --> 00:31:06,753
always kicks our ass up here.

724
00:31:06,753 --> 00:31:09,478
So I'll have a place, something
to plow the snow with if I needed.

725
00:31:11,032 --> 00:31:14,247
That's just gonna make it easier for you
to get more pallets of of things now.

726
00:31:14,298 --> 00:31:14,937
A hundred percent.

727
00:31:15,812 --> 00:31:17,133
I cleaned out the basement.

728
00:31:17,133 --> 00:31:20,282
We, I hired some local guys, but
I helped, we pulled out all the

729
00:31:20,343 --> 00:31:24,153
flagstones outta the basement because
the drainage under the floor was the

730
00:31:24,153 --> 00:31:25,713
collapsing and nothing was draining.

731
00:31:26,333 --> 00:31:29,332
I'm on a very fertile ground where the
water comes up constantly, even though I'm

732
00:31:29,633 --> 00:31:32,812
about a thousand feet up somehow there's
a water table that comes into my basement.

733
00:31:33,233 --> 00:31:34,823
So if I'm not draining.

734
00:31:35,198 --> 00:31:36,997
It, my basement will fill up with water.

735
00:31:37,747 --> 00:31:40,777
It's a natural flagstone
basement from 200 years ago plus.

736
00:31:40,777 --> 00:31:44,887
And, but I pulled out all the big
chiseled square stones that were

737
00:31:44,947 --> 00:31:46,237
puzzled together in the basement.

738
00:31:46,237 --> 00:31:48,367
I had to, and we put concrete back in it.

739
00:31:49,177 --> 00:31:51,068
But I got five pallets
of those things outside.

740
00:31:51,068 --> 00:31:51,847
I can't throw 'em away.

741
00:31:51,878 --> 00:31:54,727
'cause some guy 200 years ago
with a chipping hammer made them

742
00:31:54,727 --> 00:31:55,957
all beautifully fit together.

743
00:31:56,557 --> 00:31:59,977
I might use 'em for an outdoor patio in
the backyard, but they're all in pallets.

744
00:31:59,977 --> 00:32:01,957
And the pallets weigh 2000 pounds a piece.

745
00:32:01,957 --> 00:32:04,207
So now I can shuffle them around.

746
00:32:05,588 --> 00:32:06,007
Nice.

747
00:32:06,487 --> 00:32:06,727
Yeah.

748
00:32:07,657 --> 00:32:11,197
-
So one thing I was curious about
you're obviously out a bit away,

749
00:32:11,477 --> 00:32:15,057
on your property, it didn't seem
like you're necessarily off grid.

750
00:32:15,247 --> 00:32:17,797
Is that something you've
thought about all.

751
00:32:17,797 --> 00:32:17,977
Yeah.

752
00:32:17,977 --> 00:32:21,007
In fact the graveyard house, I'm
working with a company called Eaton

753
00:32:21,007 --> 00:32:25,087
Electric, and they said, Hey, if we
get with you, do you think you could

754
00:32:25,087 --> 00:32:26,647
take your house off grid with solar?

755
00:32:26,677 --> 00:32:30,367
And I've been talking to my buddy
Patrick, who's been my electrical

756
00:32:30,367 --> 00:32:31,627
engineer for all my projects.

757
00:32:31,627 --> 00:32:32,872
He said let's do it.

758
00:32:32,872 --> 00:32:36,132
So we're gonna see if we can take
that house off grid with solar panels.

759
00:32:36,132 --> 00:32:36,882
We'll try, we'll see.

760
00:32:36,882 --> 00:32:39,042
There's enough room to put a couple
of solar panels in and around.

761
00:32:39,553 --> 00:32:41,772
I don't want them on the house 'cause
I just don't think they look good.

762
00:32:41,772 --> 00:32:44,842
And plus the house is such a beautiful
old farmhouse, it would be blasphemy

763
00:32:44,842 --> 00:32:47,272
to tie those panels to the roof.

764
00:32:47,272 --> 00:32:52,082
So there's enough space, I'll find a
space to, to set 'em up that's the goal.

765
00:32:52,262 --> 00:32:53,312
To go off grid over there.

766
00:32:53,522 --> 00:32:56,962
If we can even at the very least, to get
a generator partnership or something with

767
00:32:56,962 --> 00:32:59,422
Generac or see if you can do that and.

768
00:32:59,932 --> 00:33:01,582
I've been wanting to do
that here at this house too.

769
00:33:02,242 --> 00:33:05,362
My, my plumber, he set it up
so that we can go off grid with

770
00:33:05,362 --> 00:33:06,772
a Woodburn stove in the yard.

771
00:33:06,832 --> 00:33:07,672
He's got it all set up.

772
00:33:07,672 --> 00:33:09,322
So I got the ports when
I'm ready to put it.

773
00:33:09,772 --> 00:33:10,402
He's it'll be easy.

774
00:33:10,402 --> 00:33:12,412
We just run the pipes on the
ground to through the wall.

775
00:33:12,862 --> 00:33:13,522
We'll set it up.

776
00:33:13,522 --> 00:33:16,492
So I had my plumbing upgraded here
at the house last year, and he is we

777
00:33:16,492 --> 00:33:17,877
will, we'll have that as an option.

778
00:33:19,042 --> 00:33:21,032
Do you do any rain collection
or anything like that?

779
00:33:21,947 --> 00:33:23,867
I don't, but I will, I do need to.

780
00:33:23,957 --> 00:33:27,227
And at the other house I want to it's
definitely something I want to do.

781
00:33:27,227 --> 00:33:27,557
I know.

782
00:33:27,557 --> 00:33:28,937
Do you guys know April Wilkerson?

783
00:33:29,877 --> 00:33:30,957
She's a contemporary mine.

784
00:33:30,957 --> 00:33:33,657
We came up together, April
did an amazing rain collection

785
00:33:33,657 --> 00:33:37,187
system at her farm in East Texas.

786
00:33:37,637 --> 00:33:43,527
And yeah, she's she's got this giant tub
and I was just talking a funny story.

787
00:33:45,342 --> 00:33:48,342
A family called me and said, my
family used to live in your house.

788
00:33:48,342 --> 00:33:52,062
My family was the owners of your house
from like the 1920s to around the fifties.

789
00:33:52,602 --> 00:33:54,402
And my dad wants to come and visit.

790
00:33:54,882 --> 00:33:56,562
And this weekend George came to visit me.

791
00:33:56,562 --> 00:33:58,362
He was born in the room right above here.

792
00:33:58,362 --> 00:33:59,712
He was born in this bedroom above me.

793
00:34:00,162 --> 00:34:02,847
He's 85 right now.

794
00:34:03,297 --> 00:34:05,877
And he walked around and showed me
around and we were talking and we were

795
00:34:05,877 --> 00:34:08,427
standing in the kitchen and I said, tell
me what you remember about the kitchen.

796
00:34:08,457 --> 00:34:09,717
Just asking him random questions.

797
00:34:09,717 --> 00:34:11,947
He goes there's a big
cistern under the floor.

798
00:34:11,947 --> 00:34:15,052
He goes, it used to be, I go, it's still
there 'cause I lifted up the floor planks

799
00:34:15,052 --> 00:34:18,862
and I looked underneath, there's a big
concrete square tub underneath the house.

800
00:34:19,282 --> 00:34:21,442
And he goes, yeah, we used to fill
it with rainwater from the roof.

801
00:34:21,997 --> 00:34:23,047
And I said, I know exactly.

802
00:34:23,047 --> 00:34:25,057
I go, there was a thing over
there, we had to rip it up to

803
00:34:25,057 --> 00:34:26,707
redo the drainage for the toilets.

804
00:34:27,007 --> 00:34:27,487
He goes yeah.

805
00:34:27,487 --> 00:34:28,357
And I pointed at the ground.

806
00:34:28,357 --> 00:34:30,897
He goes, yeah, my dad put
that in the 1930s and '40s.

807
00:34:31,387 --> 00:34:34,377
It was a drain that came off the roof
and went back, pointed towards the house.

808
00:34:34,407 --> 00:34:37,617
'Cause it went underneath, through
the foundation into that cistern

809
00:34:37,647 --> 00:34:38,957
underneath the kitchen floor.

810
00:34:39,737 --> 00:34:42,227
So that got me inspired to start to
figuring out how to do more stuff

811
00:34:42,227 --> 00:34:45,437
like that again, especially over
at the graveyard house where I'm

812
00:34:45,437 --> 00:34:46,637
at a clean slate at the moment.

813
00:34:46,682 --> 00:34:46,972
Sure.

814
00:34:48,257 --> 00:34:52,187
But we're all on well water
here, so that's, in a way, we're

815
00:34:52,187 --> 00:34:53,417
still collecting the rain water.

816
00:34:54,017 --> 00:34:54,257
Yeah.

817
00:34:54,707 --> 00:34:54,857
Yeah.

818
00:34:55,487 --> 00:34:57,147
Even this house is fully on.

819
00:34:57,147 --> 00:34:58,467
And so is the house down the block.

820
00:34:58,467 --> 00:34:59,817
Everybody around here is on well water.

821
00:35:02,847 --> 00:35:07,468
I am curious, with Mother Earth News
we've been publishing for about 50 years

822
00:35:07,468 --> 00:35:12,108
and I went back and I looked at a few
different project articles, looking at

823
00:35:12,108 --> 00:35:17,538
old issues and there's this one from the
early 2000s I picked up in the archive on

824
00:35:17,538 --> 00:35:19,848
straw bill house building your own home.

825
00:35:19,878 --> 00:35:20,628
Oh yeah.

826
00:35:20,808 --> 00:35:22,398
$50 at a square foot.

827
00:35:23,148 --> 00:35:23,598
Yeah.

828
00:35:24,138 --> 00:35:24,618
That's funny.

829
00:35:24,618 --> 00:35:27,908
'cause when I was talking about
building the barn with with my ex, he.

830
00:35:28,553 --> 00:35:33,683
All kinds of straw bales and
even IFCs and all different

831
00:35:33,683 --> 00:35:34,973
alternative methods of building.

832
00:35:34,973 --> 00:35:36,023
But we just went with stick frame.

833
00:35:36,023 --> 00:35:38,303
'cause ultimately it was the
cheapest, fastest way to go.

834
00:35:39,293 --> 00:35:39,593
Yeah.

835
00:35:40,073 --> 00:35:45,383
But I was also researching land ships
and all that stuff at the time, looking

836
00:35:45,383 --> 00:35:47,453
at all kinds of cool alternatives.

837
00:35:47,483 --> 00:35:49,518
And I want to build a log
cabin on this property.

838
00:35:49,518 --> 00:35:50,628
I got obviously plenty of room.

839
00:35:50,628 --> 00:35:53,673
So now with the sawmill, talk about
a project, one thing I want to do is.

840
00:35:54,333 --> 00:35:58,408
Cut the timbers to do like a log stack,
not necessarily raw logs, but square

841
00:35:58,408 --> 00:36:03,088
cut logs, but stacked up with some
notch corners, that kind of thing, like

842
00:36:03,088 --> 00:36:05,278
an old prairie house type of thing.

843
00:36:06,028 --> 00:36:06,388
Nice.

844
00:36:07,138 --> 00:36:09,368
And I've always been a
big fan of Dick Proenneke.

845
00:36:09,558 --> 00:36:09,918
Of course.

846
00:36:09,918 --> 00:36:10,518
I always wanted to.

847
00:36:10,518 --> 00:36:10,608
Oh yeah.

848
00:36:11,638 --> 00:36:14,638
That's, it was even in my notes, just
to build the exact, just get all the

849
00:36:14,728 --> 00:36:17,068
pictures of Dick Proenneke's house
and just build that in the woods.

850
00:36:19,068 --> 00:36:22,123
So One Man's Wilderness has a pretty
good layout for the whole thing.

851
00:36:22,823 --> 00:36:24,803
I'm sure some people have
replicated it over the years.

852
00:36:24,803 --> 00:36:25,073
Yeah.

853
00:36:26,663 --> 00:36:26,873
Yeah.

854
00:36:27,413 --> 00:36:28,103
So that's a goal.

855
00:36:29,483 --> 00:36:29,663
Yeah.

856
00:36:29,663 --> 00:36:31,793
I've done a lot of natural
building stuff over the years.

857
00:36:31,793 --> 00:36:35,623
We worked with CASBA, the California
Association for Straw Building, and

858
00:36:35,623 --> 00:36:39,413
then Uncle Mud this guy outta Ohio
that does a lot of cob building.

859
00:36:40,013 --> 00:36:40,463
Oh, okay.

860
00:36:40,463 --> 00:36:40,763
Yeah.

861
00:36:40,763 --> 00:36:41,333
Yeah, I've heard of that.

862
00:36:41,723 --> 00:36:44,533
Yeah, he'd always show up to our
events and make an outdoor pizza

863
00:36:44,533 --> 00:36:46,473
oven out of cob, over the weekend.

864
00:36:46,493 --> 00:36:46,823
Oh, right on.

865
00:36:47,303 --> 00:36:47,543
Yeah.

866
00:36:48,263 --> 00:36:51,743
Yeah, that same issue that I
was looking at that has D-I-Y

867
00:36:51,763 --> 00:36:53,323
make your own handmade caskets.

868
00:36:53,423 --> 00:36:55,213
I made a casket for my friend's wife.

869
00:36:55,963 --> 00:36:59,293
She was diagnosed terminal
pancreatic cancer and she, when

870
00:36:59,293 --> 00:37:01,783
she found out the week she found
out, she said you make my casket.

871
00:37:01,813 --> 00:37:02,743
'cause she only had a year to live.

872
00:37:03,533 --> 00:37:05,693
That's a rough request,
but I won't say no.

873
00:37:06,233 --> 00:37:07,013
Said, of course.

874
00:37:07,073 --> 00:37:10,433
But she lived for, she was able to
hang on for at least five more years.

875
00:37:11,663 --> 00:37:14,873
And then I got a call from my friend
and he said, he goes, I think it's time.

876
00:37:14,873 --> 00:37:18,803
So I started building it in February
and I got close and then at the end

877
00:37:18,803 --> 00:37:21,443
of the weekend, and he calls me, he
goes, she made a miraculous recovery,

878
00:37:21,443 --> 00:37:26,963
but she was obviously, she was on the
downside because she was succumbing

879
00:37:26,963 --> 00:37:29,033
to the illness, but she, they
thought that was gonna be the week.

880
00:37:29,033 --> 00:37:32,033
So she went in February,
I started building fast.

881
00:37:32,543 --> 00:37:35,093
He told me to slow down and
then she lived until July.

882
00:37:35,453 --> 00:37:35,723
Wow.

883
00:37:36,353 --> 00:37:39,073
And he called me in the beginning of that
week and he is this might be the week.

884
00:37:39,193 --> 00:37:41,023
And so I went to work,
I finished it right up.

885
00:37:42,583 --> 00:37:46,013
But yeah, it was a tough one,
it is, in a way, it's an honor.

886
00:37:46,013 --> 00:37:47,813
When somebody asked
you, she got to ask me.

887
00:37:47,813 --> 00:37:47,873
Yeah.

888
00:37:49,913 --> 00:37:52,913
Yeah, I imagine when you're, when you
have the skills, you do, you get asked

889
00:37:52,973 --> 00:37:58,073
for a lot of, personal projects that
you know, people, they're artifacts.

890
00:37:58,123 --> 00:38:01,633
In fact, what I discussed with you, why I
might be a little bit late to this podcast

891
00:38:01,633 --> 00:38:04,393
is that earlier today was in the news.

892
00:38:04,403 --> 00:38:05,453
It's not a secret.

893
00:38:05,453 --> 00:38:09,623
We lost a local community member
to a small airplane accident.

894
00:38:09,693 --> 00:38:12,268
Here in New York State,
there's a Rhinebeck aerodrome.

895
00:38:12,478 --> 00:38:15,778
His plane that he made went down
and he died in the accident.

896
00:38:15,778 --> 00:38:19,888
And so the board members came to me
to help make some of the medals that

897
00:38:19,888 --> 00:38:22,378
they wanted to put in with his burial.

898
00:38:23,038 --> 00:38:27,653
They have these vintage medals and
were just women making them doing some

899
00:38:29,768 --> 00:38:32,353
low melt white metal castings.

900
00:38:32,588 --> 00:38:34,273
So I'm making some replicas
of the ones they have.

901
00:38:35,873 --> 00:38:36,293
That's great.

902
00:38:36,293 --> 00:38:36,503
Yeah.

903
00:38:36,903 --> 00:38:39,123
And I have to go to Sweden tomorrow and
everything, and she called me and said,

904
00:38:39,123 --> 00:38:41,733
can you, I said, a hundred percent come
over, we'll do this, and then you guys

905
00:38:41,733 --> 00:38:43,233
are kind enough to move me up a half hour.

906
00:38:43,233 --> 00:38:43,683
So thank you.

907
00:38:44,043 --> 00:38:44,613
No problem.

908
00:38:44,663 --> 00:38:46,283
It's part of being a community really.

909
00:38:46,283 --> 00:38:49,178
You're able to give back that way
and, for what they've given to

910
00:38:49,178 --> 00:38:51,643
you and part of, their legacy.

911
00:38:51,648 --> 00:38:54,238
And what's funny is these guys,
they're all really hands-on guys.

912
00:38:54,238 --> 00:38:57,628
These guys that are down at the shop now,
they build airplanes with their own hands.

913
00:38:58,228 --> 00:39:00,268
They came here to watch me do the process.

914
00:39:00,268 --> 00:39:02,998
I did it for about an hour and a
half, gave 'em some tips and lessons.

915
00:39:02,998 --> 00:39:05,518
I'm like, I gotta go do my interview
so you guys are on your own.

916
00:39:05,518 --> 00:39:07,708
So by the time I was able to
leave the shop, they did one

917
00:39:07,708 --> 00:39:09,568
successful one, the very first one.

918
00:39:09,568 --> 00:39:10,918
So I'm like, that's it, you guys.

919
00:39:10,918 --> 00:39:12,478
You guys, now you're gonna
teach the next people.

920
00:39:12,478 --> 00:39:12,989
You're good to go.

921
00:39:13,858 --> 00:39:15,238
So that's, you're doing like oil sand?

922
00:39:15,773 --> 00:39:16,063
Yeah.

923
00:39:16,098 --> 00:39:16,458
Yeah.

924
00:39:16,508 --> 00:39:17,078
Petro bond.

925
00:39:18,008 --> 00:39:18,188
Okay.

926
00:39:18,488 --> 00:39:21,188
Yeah, we just, I just got about
a 30 pound bucket of petro bond.

927
00:39:21,188 --> 00:39:23,678
We're just using that and a
little wooden flask, which is the

928
00:39:23,678 --> 00:39:25,403
top and bottom frame and yeah.

929
00:39:25,763 --> 00:39:26,423
Easy stuff.

930
00:39:26,483 --> 00:39:28,853
Technically it's easy stuff if
you get a little education on it.

931
00:39:29,603 --> 00:39:29,813
Yeah.

932
00:39:29,813 --> 00:39:33,173
Speaking of education, the the maker
camp, you just had that finished up.

933
00:39:33,173 --> 00:39:34,133
I was taking a look at that.

934
00:39:34,133 --> 00:39:34,973
I wasn't aware of that.

935
00:39:34,973 --> 00:39:36,683
I might have to, I'm gonna
have to make it up there.

936
00:39:36,748 --> 00:39:38,048
Oh, you guys have to come next year.

937
00:39:38,048 --> 00:39:40,583
You guys would enjoy it even if
you wanted to set up a little

938
00:39:40,583 --> 00:39:42,293
thing to promote the brand.

939
00:39:42,833 --> 00:39:46,733
We have all kinds of tents, but we
have jewelry making, leather working,

940
00:39:46,973 --> 00:39:52,113
glass blowing, pottery, welding,
plasma cutting, and above all the

941
00:39:52,113 --> 00:39:53,553
featured event is blacksmithing.

942
00:39:53,883 --> 00:39:57,823
Hammer making, axe making, knife
making, some of the world class knife

943
00:39:57,823 --> 00:40:03,463
makers are there and lots of tool
representatives of grinding companies

944
00:40:03,463 --> 00:40:07,033
that you would use for making the
knives and some blacksmithing companies.

945
00:40:07,033 --> 00:40:10,843
Coal Iron Forge, they produce
forges, and then also the hydraulic

946
00:40:10,843 --> 00:40:12,253
press and some other stuff.

947
00:40:12,643 --> 00:40:14,503
Now it's a really great get together.

948
00:40:14,503 --> 00:40:17,863
This year we, this is year number
six and I'm not a partner in the

949
00:40:17,863 --> 00:40:19,093
event, but I help promote it.

950
00:40:19,143 --> 00:40:20,628
I'm a big part in getting people here.

951
00:40:21,998 --> 00:40:25,508
It's a great weekend and like I said
everybody that knows me personally tries

952
00:40:25,508 --> 00:40:28,088
to get a room in my house, gets crowded.

953
00:40:28,238 --> 00:40:30,008
It's a couple campers outside my property.

954
00:40:30,008 --> 00:40:31,838
All every year it was, I have a camper.

955
00:40:31,838 --> 00:40:35,408
Somebody's, two people stay in the
camper and people camp in their car.

956
00:40:35,438 --> 00:40:36,158
Yeah, that's great.

957
00:40:36,488 --> 00:40:38,048
And at the event we had a thousand people.

958
00:40:38,468 --> 00:40:39,038
Oh, nice.

959
00:40:39,393 --> 00:40:44,283
Speaking of axes, what are some of the,
your tools or machines that you've built

960
00:40:44,283 --> 00:40:46,653
? 
I always say I'm a
student of knife making.

961
00:40:46,653 --> 00:40:49,543
I've made lots of knives in my time
and I always make something different.

962
00:40:49,543 --> 00:40:51,853
I haven't made enough to develop a style.

963
00:40:51,853 --> 00:40:54,553
I guess if I had to say I do have
a style, it's oversized stuff.

964
00:40:54,553 --> 00:40:57,643
I say, I like to make a knife that looks
like Bugs Bunny would use it in a cartoon.

965
00:40:58,153 --> 00:41:01,863
I like big knives, like kitchen knives
that are like 20 inches long, just because

966
00:41:01,863 --> 00:41:03,718
they're just dramatic and they're fun.

967
00:41:04,028 --> 00:41:09,638
And I made a lot of
latches to hold doors shut.

968
00:41:09,698 --> 00:41:10,418
That kinda stuff.

969
00:41:10,788 --> 00:41:12,468
It's a tough thing when you blacksmith.

970
00:41:12,468 --> 00:41:12,648
I know.

971
00:41:12,648 --> 00:41:14,898
It's been a topic of conversation
on some of the podcasts.

972
00:41:15,738 --> 00:41:18,168
What can we make that's
not a bottle opener.

973
00:41:18,798 --> 00:41:20,688
Let's not make a bottle opener anymore.

974
00:41:20,808 --> 00:41:21,588
What can we make?

975
00:41:21,588 --> 00:41:23,568
And I do some door hardware, which is fun.

976
00:41:23,993 --> 00:41:28,333
And I'm, I always, I'm looking around my
area right here to see if I have any, I

977
00:41:28,333 --> 00:41:29,723
don't really have anything that I made.

978
00:41:29,723 --> 00:41:32,093
Here, this is my friend, so I
always make these ice picks.

979
00:41:32,093 --> 00:41:35,933
My friend Jeff made these Jeff
Fader, so this is like a pocket pick.

980
00:41:36,513 --> 00:41:37,923
I sell these ice picks on my website.

981
00:41:37,923 --> 00:41:42,093
So Jeff made this for me as a gift,
but that's all blacksmithed up.

982
00:41:44,583 --> 00:41:46,743
And then it's got this, the folder.

983
00:41:46,773 --> 00:41:50,373
And he, and because Jeff's a New
Yorker like me, he always puts the

984
00:41:50,373 --> 00:41:53,313
subway token as the ring somewhere.

985
00:41:53,313 --> 00:41:56,373
He got a hundred subway tokens, so he
uses them as the little pivot spot.

986
00:41:57,343 --> 00:42:01,183
Stuff like that is fun to make,
but I never, and I probably

987
00:42:01,183 --> 00:42:02,383
never will make a bottle opener.

988
00:42:04,423 --> 00:42:08,113
Outta curiosity with your horse barn, do
you ever do any, do you have horses and

989
00:42:08,113 --> 00:42:09,913
do Ferrier work ever or have you tried it?

990
00:42:09,913 --> 00:42:11,083
I don't, but that's another thing.

991
00:42:11,083 --> 00:42:13,003
I wanna blacksmith up some
of the latches when I'm gonna

992
00:42:13,003 --> 00:42:14,143
make the horse gates and stuff.

993
00:42:14,713 --> 00:42:16,933
There was another time and place
in my life where there would've

994
00:42:16,933 --> 00:42:17,893
been a horse in there, but.

995
00:42:18,518 --> 00:42:22,748
I'm on a different path now and
I'm gonna keep the horse barn as a

996
00:42:22,748 --> 00:42:27,158
horse barn in the can, in the event
that I pass the house on, or if I

997
00:42:27,158 --> 00:42:29,228
sell it or if I ever do get a horse.

998
00:42:29,228 --> 00:42:31,568
So it, it's gonna be a quick
conversion, but in the meantime it's

999
00:42:31,568 --> 00:42:33,758
gonna be for pottery, some storage.

1000
00:42:33,758 --> 00:42:35,528
I have an old caulk, an old Cadillac.

1001
00:42:35,528 --> 00:42:37,568
I'm gonna try and restore
my, pull that inside there.

1002
00:42:38,423 --> 00:42:41,663
There is a slight potential if I
ever needed to rent it so I could

1003
00:42:41,663 --> 00:42:44,783
rent the whole downstairs to a horse
facility if somebody wanted to do that.

1004
00:42:45,143 --> 00:42:49,743
'Cause I got the field, I got plenty
of space for a pen, that type of stuff.

1005
00:42:50,103 --> 00:42:52,113
Like I said, there was a time in
my life where that was the whole

1006
00:42:52,113 --> 00:42:53,403
reason we built it for a horse.

1007
00:42:53,403 --> 00:42:57,123
But the, I don't have a horse in my life
anymore, but I did a quick change and I

1008
00:42:57,273 --> 00:42:58,983
turned the second floor to a leather shop.

1009
00:43:00,843 --> 00:43:01,773
Yeah, I remember.

1010
00:43:01,773 --> 00:43:04,718
And going back to the ceramics
I remember you mentioning that.

1011
00:43:04,773 --> 00:43:07,983
What's your history of ceramics and is
that something you're expanding into?

1012
00:43:08,703 --> 00:43:11,943
I got into a relationship
with even heat ovens.

1013
00:43:11,943 --> 00:43:14,993
They gave me some knife, heat treating
ovens, and I was looking on their

1014
00:43:14,993 --> 00:43:18,353
website and I was like, oh, these
guys originally started at making

1015
00:43:18,713 --> 00:43:22,133
pottery kilns and I reached out to 'em.

1016
00:43:22,133 --> 00:43:23,573
I was like, Hey, I
wanna play with pottery.

1017
00:43:23,573 --> 00:43:27,953
And so I did a deal with them and I got
a pottery kiln from them at a discount.

1018
00:43:27,953 --> 00:43:32,408
I paid for it, but they built me one as a
discount and I said, let me just get into

1019
00:43:32,408 --> 00:43:34,538
it, and I just started playing with clay.

1020
00:43:34,538 --> 00:43:35,768
I don't really know what I'm doing.

1021
00:43:35,798 --> 00:43:38,748
I've taken a couple of courses with
people, but I'm gonna admit something

1022
00:43:38,748 --> 00:43:42,558
here that I thought pottery was easy
and there's an amazing science to it.

1023
00:43:43,068 --> 00:43:46,068
There's, you just see, it's always
the butt of a joke, it's oh, I'm gonna

1024
00:43:46,068 --> 00:43:48,678
learn pottery because, I just got
outta rehab, I'm changing, whatever.

1025
00:43:49,038 --> 00:43:53,298
But I really developed a really
newfound respect for the concept

1026
00:43:53,298 --> 00:43:54,618
of pottery and firing clay.

1027
00:43:55,188 --> 00:43:56,238
I never took it serious.

1028
00:43:56,238 --> 00:44:00,818
But now I understand how serious it is and
what a part of the American experience it

1029
00:44:00,818 --> 00:44:02,543
was from the very beginning of humankind.

1030
00:44:04,283 --> 00:44:05,123
Yeah, a hundred percent.

1031
00:44:05,173 --> 00:44:08,293
It's, it's one of the things of
like the learning how to hoe the

1032
00:44:08,293 --> 00:44:12,013
earth making pottery is it's right
there at the beginning of mankind.

1033
00:44:12,883 --> 00:44:16,683
Say something you can nerd out on
too that's just really fantastic is

1034
00:44:16,763 --> 00:44:20,278
watching the Japanese teapots being
made with that style of turntables.

1035
00:44:20,278 --> 00:44:21,208
It's just beautiful.

1036
00:44:21,288 --> 00:44:21,798
A hundred percent.

1037
00:44:21,828 --> 00:44:23,598
The care that goes into
that, it's amazing.

1038
00:44:24,018 --> 00:44:25,993
Yeah I see those and I'm
like, I could do that.

1039
00:44:26,043 --> 00:44:26,883
It, it is wild.

1040
00:44:27,043 --> 00:44:29,833
It's one of those things where
people look at it and like, why

1041
00:44:29,833 --> 00:44:30,973
doesn't mine turn out that way?

1042
00:44:31,053 --> 00:44:33,813
But it's like these, this has
been passed down through how many

1043
00:44:33,813 --> 00:44:37,023
generations in a single family
at sometimes, and it's like that

1044
00:44:37,023 --> 00:44:41,133
knowledge isn't, just something innate.

1045
00:44:41,343 --> 00:44:41,913
It's learned.

1046
00:44:42,778 --> 00:44:45,958
Have you done a lot of slip, any slip cast
and anything like that with your ceramics?

1047
00:44:46,228 --> 00:44:46,948
A little bit.

1048
00:44:46,978 --> 00:44:47,638
A little bit.

1049
00:44:47,728 --> 00:44:50,818
My buddy gave me a bucket of slip that he
wasn't using, so I had some fun with that,

1050
00:44:50,818 --> 00:44:52,618
pouring it into my tile molds that I made.

1051
00:44:53,158 --> 00:44:54,838
And it's on my, it's on my to-do list.

1052
00:44:54,838 --> 00:44:57,118
I have a big 3D printed
version of my head.

1053
00:44:57,168 --> 00:44:59,398
My beautiful face with the top flat.

1054
00:44:59,668 --> 00:45:02,128
And I was gonna try and make
a big slip of that and plaster

1055
00:45:02,128 --> 00:45:02,458
Nice.

1056
00:45:02,548 --> 00:45:05,008
If we could do it, but it's gonna
have to be obviously multiple pieces.

1057
00:45:05,518 --> 00:45:05,578
Yeah.

1058
00:45:05,628 --> 00:45:09,678
In seeing how guys combine 3D
printing with slip, it's unbelievable.

1059
00:45:09,728 --> 00:45:15,008
How you guys make these really multi
fractional molds that are unbelievable.

1060
00:45:15,758 --> 00:45:19,958
It a fun thing too, that when I was
doing some slip casting when I was

1061
00:45:19,958 --> 00:45:21,998
in graduate school I started using.

1062
00:45:22,358 --> 00:45:23,948
Infusion 360 specifically.

1063
00:45:23,978 --> 00:45:25,598
'cause I can do my mold lines with that.

1064
00:45:25,898 --> 00:45:31,318
So I'd use that to lay some things out for
5, 6, 7, 8, 9 piece slip molds, which the

1065
00:45:31,318 --> 00:45:34,798
flatter the surface area, the harder it
was to pull the piece off once it got wet.

1066
00:45:34,798 --> 00:45:35,338
But it was,

1067
00:45:35,338 --> 00:45:35,788
yeah,

1068
00:45:35,938 --> 00:45:37,618
really it's a lot of fun.

1069
00:45:37,983 --> 00:45:38,273
Yeah.

1070
00:45:38,278 --> 00:45:40,648
So I definitely have
some slip molds in mind.

1071
00:45:41,428 --> 00:45:41,818
Nice.

1072
00:45:42,483 --> 00:45:45,538
Everything gets timely.

1073
00:45:45,538 --> 00:45:46,408
It all becomes timely.

1074
00:45:46,443 --> 00:45:50,353
All of a sudden I'll get a request
for an advertisement that might tie

1075
00:45:50,353 --> 00:45:52,543
loosely into something like that.

1076
00:45:52,543 --> 00:45:54,983
And, that's why I always
keep my to-do list loose.

1077
00:45:55,283 --> 00:45:57,953
I'm not one of these guys that knows
what I'm doing for the next seven weeks.

1078
00:45:57,953 --> 00:46:00,593
I have no idea what I'm even gonna do
next week when I get back from Sweden.

1079
00:46:01,133 --> 00:46:02,178
I do know that's a lie.

1080
00:46:02,178 --> 00:46:06,938
I have to make a set of saddlebags
for a video, but that's easy for me.

1081
00:46:06,998 --> 00:46:09,468
That's a one day build or one
and a half, two day build.

1082
00:46:09,498 --> 00:46:11,691
I have a loose list and I just
look on it and see what I'm

1083
00:46:11,691 --> 00:46:15,771
feeling, what scrap material I have
around, or what I can recycle into

1084
00:46:15,771 --> 00:46:17,241
something that might fit an idea.

1085
00:46:18,801 --> 00:46:19,941
So you have a potter's wheel?

1086
00:46:21,091 --> 00:46:24,511
I have a small potter's wheel, but
one of my videos, and this is where

1087
00:46:24,511 --> 00:46:27,691
I'm always trying to think of how I
can combine a few things together.

1088
00:46:27,691 --> 00:46:29,101
I have several.

1089
00:46:30,061 --> 00:46:33,091
A lot of people donate me
printing presses and they usually

1090
00:46:33,141 --> 00:46:38,331
disaster, broken, cracked, welded
with weather together forever.

1091
00:46:38,541 --> 00:46:40,341
And it's I always just take the wheel.

1092
00:46:40,341 --> 00:46:45,441
So a leaning on my garage, I have about
eight S-spoked cast iron flywheels.

1093
00:46:46,191 --> 00:46:46,551
Nice.

1094
00:46:46,641 --> 00:46:48,861
It's gonna take one of those
and make it into a kick wheel.

1095
00:46:48,981 --> 00:46:50,001
See if I could play around with that.

1096
00:46:50,001 --> 00:46:53,421
I get a kick pottery wheel.

1097
00:46:55,006 --> 00:46:57,361
You can do a little treadle wheel
too with an old sewing machine.

1098
00:46:57,361 --> 00:46:58,081
That's a lot of fun.

1099
00:46:58,606 --> 00:47:02,636
Yeah, so I have a couple of ideas to
to play around with, and I think for

1100
00:47:02,636 --> 00:47:05,186
me, it'd obviously be fun for me to
build the mechanics of it, but then

1101
00:47:05,186 --> 00:47:09,446
to do the mechanics and then take
it the next step and play around

1102
00:47:09,446 --> 00:47:10,586
with doing something on pottery.

1103
00:47:11,426 --> 00:47:12,656
So that's in the timeline.

1104
00:47:12,656 --> 00:47:14,726
I'll probably do that closer to
the spring, but that's definitely

1105
00:47:14,726 --> 00:47:15,836
something I wanna do sooner than later.

1106
00:47:16,856 --> 00:47:17,006
Cool.

1107
00:47:17,456 --> 00:47:17,786
Nice.

1108
00:47:18,966 --> 00:47:20,106
I appreciate your time.

1109
00:47:20,156 --> 00:47:20,966
Yeah, reach out anytime.

1110
00:47:21,016 --> 00:47:23,776
If you guys wanna talk about anything
specific, I'd love to get involved.

1111
00:47:24,466 --> 00:47:24,916
Awesome.

1112
00:47:24,916 --> 00:47:25,216
Appreciate it.

1113
00:47:25,426 --> 00:47:27,496
And when you do another jamboree,
I'd love to come and hang out.

1114
00:47:28,246 --> 00:47:28,666
Awesome.

1115
00:47:29,026 --> 00:47:29,266
Yeah.

1116
00:47:29,356 --> 00:47:31,306
We were actually just
down in southeast Ohio.

1117
00:47:31,306 --> 00:47:33,676
We had, where we went to
school at Pawpaw Festival.

1118
00:47:34,046 --> 00:47:36,261
I have a pawpaw tree in my backyard.

1119
00:47:36,481 --> 00:47:36,821
Do you?

1120
00:47:36,821 --> 00:47:37,301
That's great.

1121
00:47:37,371 --> 00:47:37,661
Yeah.

1122
00:47:38,236 --> 00:47:39,286
Do you guys know Eric?

1123
00:47:39,286 --> 00:47:41,276
Do you guys know Eric
from Hand Tool Rescue?

1124
00:47:41,296 --> 00:47:42,856
I've seen his, I watch his videos a lot.

1125
00:47:42,856 --> 00:47:43,096
Yeah.

1126
00:47:43,126 --> 00:47:45,436
So Eric from Hand Tool Rescue
just spent the weekend here.

1127
00:47:46,126 --> 00:47:49,661
Years ago an ex-girlfriend of mine said,
"Hey, I wanna I want a pawpaw tree.

1128
00:47:49,711 --> 00:47:51,661
This is going back like 10, 12 years ago.

1129
00:47:51,901 --> 00:47:52,831
She found a pawpaw tree.

1130
00:47:52,831 --> 00:47:55,981
We planted it in the yard, and she's okay,
it's gonna fruit in seven years from now.

1131
00:47:56,611 --> 00:47:58,211
And is that about right?

1132
00:47:58,211 --> 00:47:59,081
Am I remembering that right?

1133
00:47:59,131 --> 00:47:59,611
Yeah.

1134
00:47:59,611 --> 00:48:00,181
Yeah, that's about right.

1135
00:48:00,466 --> 00:48:00,706
Yeah.

1136
00:48:00,706 --> 00:48:00,946
Yeah.

1137
00:48:01,216 --> 00:48:02,956
So I forgot about it every year.

1138
00:48:02,956 --> 00:48:03,796
I'm like, it didn't die.

1139
00:48:03,796 --> 00:48:04,786
It didn't die every year.

1140
00:48:04,786 --> 00:48:05,986
Oh, I can't believe it said it didn't die.

1141
00:48:05,986 --> 00:48:09,906
Now maybe it's 12 or 13 feet tall and
there's seven or eight sprouts, around it.

1142
00:48:09,956 --> 00:48:15,176
And my buddy Eric, who
is a botanist by trade.

1143
00:48:15,176 --> 00:48:15,926
Nobody really knows this.

1144
00:48:15,926 --> 00:48:17,546
He's a PhD level botanist.

1145
00:48:18,176 --> 00:48:21,026
He goes, "Do you know you have a
pawpaw tree in your backyard?" He

1146
00:48:21,026 --> 00:48:23,906
goes, "Why the eff do you have a
pawpaw tree in your backyard?" I

1147
00:48:23,906 --> 00:48:25,346
go somebody planted that years ago.

1148
00:48:25,346 --> 00:48:27,056
He goes this, he goes, this tree.

1149
00:48:27,056 --> 00:48:29,116
There is 6 to 7,000
dollar tree sitting there.

1150
00:48:29,876 --> 00:48:32,336
He goes, this is a very
highly sought after tree.

1151
00:48:32,336 --> 00:48:33,716
He goes, that they're hard to get.

1152
00:48:33,716 --> 00:48:35,866
He goes, they're almost getting
they're on the verge of being extinct.

1153
00:48:35,866 --> 00:48:35,911
He said.

1154
00:48:37,391 --> 00:48:38,441
Especially in your region.

1155
00:48:38,471 --> 00:48:39,971
'cause they're not really cold hardy.

1156
00:48:40,071 --> 00:48:40,611
Yeah, that's what he said.

1157
00:48:40,881 --> 00:48:42,351
It's a little unusual for it to be here.

1158
00:48:42,651 --> 00:48:45,981
For sure, our lead editor from
Mother Earth News is up in Wisconsin

1159
00:48:46,031 --> 00:48:48,701
and she's trying to grow some
now, but she's trying to find a

1160
00:48:48,701 --> 00:48:50,291
variety that was more cold hardy.

1161
00:48:50,341 --> 00:48:51,091
He's in Toronto.

1162
00:48:51,091 --> 00:48:52,561
I was like, take one with you
'cause they probably won't let

1163
00:48:52,561 --> 00:48:53,551
me bring it across the border.

1164
00:48:53,551 --> 00:48:54,511
They're gonna gimme a hassle.

1165
00:48:55,021 --> 00:48:56,131
So I might mail him some seeds.

1166
00:48:56,181 --> 00:48:59,021
Yeah, I have actually, that reminds
me, I have a slurry of seeds

1167
00:48:59,021 --> 00:49:00,281
in my, in the trunk of my car.

1168
00:49:00,281 --> 00:49:01,331
I need to put in a bucket.

1169
00:49:01,931 --> 00:49:02,111
Yeah.

1170
00:49:02,111 --> 00:49:04,841
The guy who wrote a book on them
said, if you just keep a slurry to

1171
00:49:04,841 --> 00:49:07,571
ferment over the winter, you can just
throw it in the ground in the spring.

1172
00:49:07,621 --> 00:49:08,041
Oh, right on.

1173
00:49:08,641 --> 00:49:09,931
It's been great talking to you.

1174
00:49:10,171 --> 00:49:10,741
Alright, guys.

1175
00:49:10,741 --> 00:49:11,431
Thank you so much.

1176
00:49:11,431 --> 00:49:13,441
And like I said, count me in
anything cool and interesting.

1177
00:49:13,441 --> 00:49:14,311
I would love to be involved.

1178
00:49:14,731 --> 00:49:15,181
Awesome.

1179
00:49:15,271 --> 00:49:15,631
Appreciate it.

1180
00:49:15,681 --> 00:49:16,461
Thanks so much.

1181
00:49:16,701 --> 00:49:17,001
Thanks.

1182
00:49:17,001 --> 00:49:17,811
Love and respect guys.

1183
00:49:17,811 --> 00:49:18,141
Thank you.

1184
00:49:19,101 --> 00:49:22,481
Thanks for joining us for this episode
of Mother Earth News and Friends.

1185
00:49:22,781 --> 00:49:26,891
To listen to more podcasts and get
connected on our social media, visit

1186
00:49:26,891 --> 00:49:31,051
www.motherearthnews.com/podcast.

1187
00:49:31,361 --> 00:49:35,071
You can also email us at
podcast@ogdenpubs.com with

1188
00:49:35,071 --> 00:49:36,631
any questions or suggestions.

1189
00:49:37,051 --> 00:49:40,381
Our podcast production team
includes Kenny Coogan, Alyssa

1190
00:49:40,381 --> 00:49:42,611
Warner, and myself, Josh Wilder.

1191
00:49:42,611 --> 00:49:45,641
Music for this episode is the
song Hustle by Kevin MacLeod.

1192
00:49:46,051 --> 00:49:49,841
The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast
is a production of Ogden Publications.