Sound Joinery

It is important to me that all joints are fully housed. I am surprised how many timber frames I see without housed connections. It is a corner cut for sake of time and money, however, one that could seriously jeopardize the integrity of the frame.

This tie beam seen here is housed one inch into the post. This allows the weight of the second floor to transfer properly onto the post and down to the foundation.
For maximum strength and aesthetics it is best to increase timber size proportionately. This allows one to fully house the timbers into each other. Two things are achieved by this design. The beam and the post are fully housed to 'lock' the timber in place which prevents any unsightly twisting. It also hides any shrinkage which occurs if perfectly dry timbers aren't used which is usually the case. The joinery might look tight at first, but after one or two years there will be shrinkage gaps. This solves that aesthetic issue.

The Owner Built Timber Frame

Have tent will travel seems to be my motto this year. This past spring I taught an organic farmer how to build a timber frame fruit stand for his farm.

This fall I taught a father and son how to build a timber frame home.


Many people want to build their own home and some of these people are drawn to the art of timber framing. What I have found so rewarding about this approach to timber framing is witnessing the process of learning, and the sense of accomplishment in building ones own home...

There seems to be a right of passage I see in the faces of everyone the first time they join two pieces of wood together with a wooden peg...

Getting ready for the roof! Job well done by all!

Timber Frame Porch Addition

Timber frame additions are great added value to a home.

Here's a before and after look at a home in Osoyoos.

I built this frame with Bruce Baker of Rock Mt. Land and Timber. We used locally harvested standing dead Douglas Fir and Western Larch. Both of these species are the hardest of the softwoods used as posts for mine shafts and as railway ties. Fir and larch are almost as strong as oak in compressive strength.

Here we used two king post trusses with wedged half-dovetails to span the 26'.

Their son Marsh Murphy is a documentary film maker from Edmonton.
He made this short film of the raising day.
His website is www.radioisboring.com.
The music is by Stephen Hardy,
a piece called 'Little Cat'.

http://www.radioisboring.com/files/timberCat2.mov

Why Use Sustainably Harvested Timbers?

I believe in the saying "We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." Now that I have children I realize my children and other children look at me and our elders for guidance. It's a monkey-see monkey-do, lead by example experience. If I feel that I am part of the solution , and not part of the problem, then I am doing my part for our children.

I saw this picture of these children on my way to the Timber Framers Guild conference last year. It is a game where each child takes a turn saying something that is round or circular in their community. When a child can't think of something, then he is out. The last child in the circle becomes the leader of the tribe.

Ecosystems have two general directions they like to head, towards grasslands and forest or towards dessert. A forest ecosystem wants to succeed to old growth characteristics. An uneven stand of infants, toddlers, children, adolescents, adults, and elders. Selection logging allows an uneven stand to continue towards old growth. It keeps a canopy of trees shading the earth to prevent the top-soil, microrhizal mantel from drying out and dying. Clear-cut logging allows this thin layer of soil to dry out as it waits for replanting, allowing the forest to take a dangerous step back towards desertification.

A Beautiful Example of Sustainable Forestry

I had the honor of learning from Merv and Anne Wilkinson. They are an inspiration on how to walk softly and live simply.

The sign on the douglas fir tree reads "Douglas Fir, seedling 190 A.D., 1300(?) years old when Columbus sailed, 1677 years old at Canadian confederation, 1800 years old in 1990." This is one of hundreds of trees on his woodlot.

When he was 30 some years old he bought 100+ acres from Macmillan Bloedel, the large clear-cut forestry corporation that 'owned' most of the titles in the part of Vancouver island Merv was living. It was a mature old growth forest of fir, cedar, spruce, and hemlock. The local foresters suggested Merv clear the woodlot, sell the timber to the mill, and replant with seedlings. This didn't make much sense to Merv as he wanted to live there as well as work there, and he wanted to live in the forest.

Merv decided to attend the University of British Columbia's forestry program long enough to figure out how to measure the basal metabolic rate (BMR)(how much timber grows each year in a defined area). He then returned to his woodlot and did the calculations. He decided to cut 80-90% of the BMR each year and to leave 10-20% "in the bank" to accumulate "interest."

He didn't make as much money as the clear-cut loggers, but he lived a life full of a richness that I could not even imagine until I set foot onto his woodlot.



Merv hung up his chain saw and scaling stick while in his 90's.

Why Prana?

What is Prana?

Prana is vital energy. Vital means necessary to life.

I learned about Prana at university and it has dramatically improved my life. I no longer have chronic asthma that had me dependent on pharmaceutical drugs and afraid of farms, animals and feather pillows. I now realize I was using a small fraction of my lungs to breath. No one had ever taught me how to breath properly.

From the inside out it involves the control or flow of ones breath which eventually leads to the control or flow of ones life. If I can control or regulate the flow of my breath, I can control or regulate my ability to respond in this world. This responsibility allows me to remain calm when I would otherwise find myself anxious or tense. This anxiety or tension once led to asthma attacks, me reaching for my inhaler, or me heading to emergency for an adrenaline shot.

This path of healing myself has grown like the proverbial onion. I first began with my self. Like Achilles heal my lungs are my weakness and they were the first to benefit from my increased breath and increased oxygen to my blood. Then I started to realize the fuel i was feeding myself and started buying more organically and locally grown fresh produce. Now I grow a lot of my own. Then I started looking at my clothes and where they were coming from. This led me to supporting local craftspeople for my socks, hats, sweaters and the local thrifts store to reuse what others didn't want anymore. I didn't want to enslave women and children for my cheap but stylish fashion anymore. And this finally (is it?) led me to what I now feel to be the outer reaches of my self, my home; how I create and manage my household.

Economics simply means management of the household (economos). How I manage my household or my home involves my self and my relationship with my family, my food, my clothing, my shelter and my village. As I learn to understand these relationships with my self I have chosen the path of timber framer as my connection to my village.

The idea of using large timbers for the frame of a home has led me to many new realizations about why and how we enclose these spaces we live in. Our homes need to be healthy for us to heal and recharge. They are our sanctuaries where we conduct our daily rituals that allow us to reach out further and remain a positive influence to all our relations. A home needs to breath correctly as do we.

Yoga, Tai Chi and Timber Framing

Timbers are heavy.
They have taught me the importance of a healthy back and hips.
Flexibility and strength is key to working with heavy objects.

Strength alone will eventually break without flexibility.

Yoga simply means to 'yolk' or join body and mind harmoniously.
When body and mind are flexible and working together,
One is strong and does not break easily.

Tai Chi simply means flow of energy.
Energy can collide or flow.
If one learns to flow with one's energy,
the path of least resistance is achieved.
The path of least resistance is the ultimate strength,
and conservation of energy.

Timber framing simply means to 'yolk' or join timbers harmoniously.
The job of the timber framer is to join timbers harmoniously,
using the path of least resistance.

Whatever sport I did, my coaches had me stretch and warm up my body. If I didn't do this, I inevitably pulled a muscle or strained a ligament or tendon. As I don't play organized sport anymore, I no longer have coaches encouraging me to stretch. As I have aged I have found my body to become less flexible. It was a serious back injury that has finally lead me back to stretching and bringing flexibility back into my life.

I discovered Yoga in university. Yoga is basically a comprehensive system of stretching that involves the body, mind and breath. It has greatly increased the quality of my life. As I work in this industry of joining heavy timbers I notice many injuries to myself and others that can be avoided by this daily practice.

One basic healing quality I have found to be highly beneficial to my body is in the 'asanas' or postures. For example, there are many postures for the back and hips that put the body into a particular position that allow fresh blood to circulate around the vertibrae and hip sockets. As we stand, walk, sit and lie down our vertibrae and hip sockets find themselves in continuous positions that forbid circulation to particular areas. In tai chi this is known as 'stagnant chi'. By involving the breath and breathing a minimum of 3 deep breaths, Yoga postures/'asanas' and tai chi 'forms' allow freshly oxegenated blood to penetrate otherwise stagnant areas.

What does the Timber Framers Guild do?

The Timber Framers Guild puts on many projects and rendezvous over the year.

Here framers volunteered their time and skills to the lay out, cutting and assembly of two matching gates and an information pavilion for the Japanese American Internment and Exclusion Memorial on Bainbridge Island.

"On March 30, 1942, 227 Bainbridge Island residents were the first Japanese Americans in United States history to be forcibly removed from their homes by the U.S. Army and sent to internment camps. They boarded the ferry Kehloken from the former Eagledale Ferry Dock, located at the end of Taylor Avenue, in the city of Bainbridge Island, Washington State. The city of Bainbridge Island has adopted a resolution stating that this site should be a National Memorial, and similar resolutions have been introduced in the Washington State Legislature."

Here is a great idea! Assemble the roof on the ground as one, then raise it!

A SmartWood Guitar for Roseanne Cash

As a longtime supporter of the Rainforest Alliance Roseanne Cash was presented with a Smart Wood guitar in a 1996 benefit concert for the protection of remaining rainforests. As Miss Cash gently fingers the strings on her new guitar she explains, "Musicians take their instruments seriously, each one has its own life. If its made of wood, the tone is affected by the way the material was aged and worked and then by how the musician has played that instrument over the years." Smart Wood, a program designed by the Rainforest Alliance, is the label afforded to sustainably harvested wood products. Smart Wood Guitars were created by CEO Henry Juszeiewicz of Gibson Musical Instruments. Today the gleaming faces of guitars like Cash's comes from Maple trees supplied by the Menominee Tribal Enterprises (MTE). MTE manages 235,000 acres of tribal land within the state of Wisconsin. Robert Brander, an ecologist walks through the tribal lands remarking at how the forests seem so untouched. Since logging began in 1854, the MTE have harvested over 2.5 billion board feet, which is the equivalent of removing the forest three times over. The method of forest management leaves more trees today than when logging first began in 1854. The trees standing today are of the highest quality, so superior that forest products engineers had to create a new lumber grade designating the product as better than the customary top classifications. MTE also maintains twice as many jobs as other conventional operations of its size.

When selecting trees for harvesting MTE recognizes the importance of securing quality habitat for all the forests inhabitants, nutritious aspen buds for grouse, dry grassy clearings for deer and butterflies. People from around the world come to the MTE woodlands to learn and observe how to treat the land and still harvest for commercial profits.
Here is a link to the Menominee Woodland
http://www.mtewood.com/