La Querencia

"The Rediscovery of North America" by Barry Lopez is at once a profoundly depressing and hopeful book. In it, toward the end, Lopez discusses the Spanish term La Querencia, which "refers to a place on the ground where one feels secure, a place from which one's strength is drawn. It comes from the verb querer, to desire, but this verb also carries the sense of accepting a challenge, as in a game." He goes on: ".. the idea is quite beautiful- a place in which we know exactly who we are. The place from which we speak our deepest beliefs. The discovery of a querencia, I believe, hinges on the perfection of a sense of place."

Lopez is writing here about our connection to the land, to a place, and how we must have such a connection in order to understand, cherish, and sustain a place.
I believe the same is true of our homes. We should value them as a place of refuge, a place from which we gather strength and courage to confront and embrace the world. We should value them as something other than a commodity: as something that has value beyond re-sale. The resources we consume constructing a home should be honored and respected. As a timber framer, I most frequently relate this to wood: I honor the trees we consume by using them wisely, respectfully, and durably. They offer us shelter and beauty and a place to re-center ourselves. They deserve respect.

La Querencia: a lovely summary of our approach to our work.

The Reno Creeps..

The RENO CREEPS..
We were asked to add 12' X 24' to a friend's "BC box" this winter. While we were at it, we added a water-proof tile deck with nifty timber and glass railing, a shed roof under which her partner sells fresh organic veggies, a bunch of lovely maple flooring, and a wall of cabinets. Our friend loves it: we'd like to know what you think!

Water Tank take-down

Our community recently replaced our 40 year old wood stave water tank with a lager steel one. When Chris learned of the plan, he inquired about removing the old tank. The conversation went something like: "what do you plan to do with the old tank?" "Bull doze it I guess." Mind if I salvage it?" "Heck no, be our guest."

It took a solid three days, but we managed to salvage 137 staves, each 2 1/2" thick, 5 1/2" wide, and 13' long. And they are clear redwood and in near perfect condition.

Dismantling the tank proved a bit of a trick. Looking at the tank from the outside, we assumed there was a compression ring around the top, to which the staves were bolted. There were a series of lag bolts in the right spot, and it sure would have aided in erection. But as soon as the tank was emptied and we were allowed to look inside, we were proved wrong. No compression ring. Plan B began to gel while we removed the roof.

The method we struck upon involved installing "lattice bracing", made from 3/8" plywood ripped in to 6" wide strips, all the way round the tank. First we removed all but the top and bottom 3/4" galvanized hoops that tensioned the tank. Next we installed the lattice. With a bit of trepidation we removed the top hoop. To our relief the tank did not collapse like a house of cards.

The bottom hoop remained in place, tensioning the staves against a concrete curb. We removed one "X" of lattice at a time, cut the staves just above the concrete curb with a chainsaw, then simply popped the staves lout of the tiny tongue and groove. Worked like a charm. Removing the roof and doing all the prep work took 2 1/2 days. Removing the staves took 3 hours>

Next we stacked all the staves in my trailer, moved them to our place, and pressure washed them inside and out, removing a bit of algae from the outside and about 1/8" of what can only be described as scum from the inside. The staves now reside at our place, stickered and happily under tarps drying, while I dream about all the fun stuff to build with them.

Any ideas? And what to do with the 45 galvanized 3/4" rod hoops, threaded at one end with connectors at the other, bent in to one third of a 63' circumference?

Talladega Pavilion project March, 2010: Raising

We raised the hand-cut frame using no power equipment. The walls, which weighed over 3,000 pounds each, were raised by hand, assisted by a block and tackle and pike poles. Trusses were raised by a gin pole: a 24' tall yellow pine mast guyed out and with a 5:1 block and tackle. Safe and quiet- except for the grunting, followed by shouts of joy!

Talladega Pavilion project March, 2010

Chris went to Alabama in March to instruct at an all hand tools project, constructing a CCC era replica pavilion for the US Forsest Service. Cold weather but enough cheer to more than make up for it!

Welcome to the Timberguides blog

Hello, and welcome to the TimberGuides Design • Build blog. We'll post regularly about what we're up to, projects we're working on, and stuff we're interested in that we think might be of interest to you as well.

TimberGuides Design•Build has a complete website at www.timberguides.com.We offer a variety of services revolving around the design and construction of heavy timber structures throughout North America from our home base on Vancouver Island BC.