11th November 2025
It was back down to John the wood’s barn to do a bit more to the chair.
He looked quite smart in his new winter coat, the car was nice and warm, the day was cold and windy.
We arrived at the barn, John even knew which key opened the door. Usually it’s a ritual of clanking keys until he found the correct one.
Inside he had more timber laid out for the lectern he had to make before Thanksgiving.
He told me they had to make it double skinned with a metal sheet in between to make it bullet proof. These American churches are not safe places to be.
I started by giving the back a good sanding, then there was a rough assembly to check that everything fitted correctly. Then we started on the bottom frame. We found some decent offcuts that would do the job, so I ran them through the saw. John disappeared, he does that sometimes, I then rough cut them to thickness, and awaited John’s return to get the pieces thicknessed to size. For some reason he picked them up and carried them to a different part of the barn with me chasing after him telling him what had to be done. In the end I carried them back to where the thickness planer was.
So another job out of the way we started on the assembly of the chair structure. I decided to use pocket screws to hold the side to the back. I started drilling them, John actually reminded me that not all the holes had to be drilled on the side panels, I looked at him in amazement, he had stopped me making a grave mistake.
I rewarded him with a cup of hot coffee that I had brought down with me.
We put on clamps to make sure all the parts fitted properly before I screwed it all together.
Finally we assembled the frame, and that was a good days progress, now it was time to take John back home.
I loaded the car with some off cuts so that I could make the legs, and whilst I did that John was busy trying to put on his new coat. For some reason he couldn’t work out the zips, so when he got to the truck he only had half of it on, rather than trying to work it out, he sat all the way back home with it wrapping around his waist.
There is never a dull moment with him.
On the way back I had to stop in to Nature’s Market to pick up a supplement for Dharma, our oldest dog. She has developed a hacking cough, she sometimes sounds like an old smoker.
Once I got back home we had to leave immediately to collect a free dresser, you see, everything stops for free.
We found the house, the outside was decorated with Halloween figures and lights, the dresser was in a porch at the end of a stone pathway.
This would be challenging.
First we removed the drawers then gingerly we carried this large piece down the path. I was going backwards, if I fell the thing would fall on top of me and probably break my legs. With that in mind I went very slowly. Poor Kelli could not see any of the path and had to rely heavily on the feel of the path.
Somehow we got it down and into the truck, our days work done we headed home.
Another Lifetime to go 