The NEW Lodge at Black Rapids

Weekly School Update: Session #3

Session #3: June 23 – June 29

Big Tools and Summer Fun

by Diane Olthuis

Jon, Mike, Witold and Diane started cutting bent #3 on June 23, 2003. Joel and Larry continue to join the team when they can and are more valuable than the gold in these hills! This bent is almost identical to bent #2. Matt joined them on June 29th to finish up and oil bent #3. Matt entertained the group at meal time with tales of his glacier research in Antarctica and Alaska’s Brooks Range.

Jon reports that he is staying on schedule…..completing a bent in each class-week!

Many people are surprised to see how many power tools are used. One student had assumed that a timber framing shop would be as quiet as a Denali assent. Not so. Jon and his students rough in all joints with jumbo power tools and “clean up” with chisels and cabinet scrappers. Tools include: a stationary planer, skill saws with 16” blades, and chain mortising machines. The Quonset hums when all four chain mortising machines are employed. Jon’s skid loader can move half a dozen 10′ by 12′s at a time. And his boon truck can lift a bent with ease.

This is the “Land of the Midnight Sun.” Timber framers and their children are hiking, biking and fishing for rainbows in the evenings.

Annette and Sam also volunteered this weekend. The sun carried the group late into the evenings often with guitar music and singing in the old lodge after the wonderful meals prepared by Barbara Mack. She has been the angel this group needed and they look forward to her home cooked meals every day!

The bison have been visible on the shores of the Delta River. The spring babies are close for the traveler to view on the pull-outs close to the site.

Photos from Session #3:

[Multiple Pictures]

Articles and Photos:

Introduction
Session #1: June 2 – June 8
Session #2: June 12 – June 18
Session #3: June 23 – June 29
Session #4: July 3 – July 9
Session #5: July 14 – July 20
Session #6: July 24 – July 30
Session #7: August 4 – August 10
Session #8: August 14 – August 20
Session #9: August 18 – August 24
The Final Push: Weeks 10 and 11

Letter to Prospective Students and a Letter from Jon Gantenbein, one of our Timber Framing Instructors.

Sponsored by the Black Rapids Trust, Inc. a newly formed non-profit.