JDW Photos and Life

When I picked up the piece of monkey pod for the cutting board shared a couple of days ago, I also bought a piece of live-edged walnut. It had bark on both sides and a nice sapwood edge with a symmetric center grain. When I was finishing the two cutting boards, I decided to go ahead and use this piece of walnut that had been sitting around for months to make a charcuterie board. As I was milling the board, I decided to add a cheese slicer to the board. Who wants slices of cheese that have been sitting on the board for an hour versus freshly sliced by you to whatever thickness you desire??? The finished board is 19" x 9" x 7/8" - a size OK for a party of two. I would need to find a larger board to support more guests. The total time spent on this board was 2 - 3 hours - a super easy project. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

While making the board posted yesterday, I decided to make another "basic" board that had been on my list of styles to try. In some ways, it's just as easy to make two boards at the same time as one board since I am waiting on glue to cure for stretches of time. I'm already grubby and the shop is already messy so why not use that slack time to make another board? The key to multi-board construction is to have enough clamps! I had flattened and prepared a slab of 2" thick walnut (~10" wide by 40" long) several months ago. Obviously, the board is a brick and mortar pattern. It provided a few challenges in milling and gluing the maple mortar in order to keep everything as an end grain but it was simple in hindsight. This was an easy board to make. The final dimensions are roughly the same as the board shown yesterday (12 x 18 x 1-7/8). Just to answer any question in your head, no, I did not make a 3rd cutting board to show you tomorrow.  I see small improv...

I have no big need nor good excuse to build more cutting or charcuterie boards but I did anyway. I bought a piece of cutoff from a wood shop here in town several months ago (around June). It has been sitting in the shop waiting for inspiration or motivation. After building one of my favorite cutting boards in April using a piece of wood with a great sapwood edge, I found another piece with similar characteristics at this shop. I knew it was shorter than what I really needed for a cutting board but I bought it anyway. Not long after purchase, I flattened it, re-sawed it into book-matched slabs, and then planed it to thickness. That was the end of work for months. Those two pieces sat off to the side in my shop for months in part due to motivation and in part due to frustration over not being quite enough wood to copy the work of my original board. I looked for inspiration to use the pretty book-matched panels but was again limited in my imagination given the limited quantity of material...

This is the end of the Alaska photos. As we continued south, the Denali mountain range became more pronounced. Unfortunately, the clouds set in and we were in rain for the last 1/3 of our trip so we visited with passengers around us. These photos show the heavy clouds over the mountain range (first two photos) but they still have some decent landscape features. The conductor announced we were passing Denali Mountain but the clouds were so heavy, nobody had a clear definition of what the conductor was pointing out! I am guessing that the last photo is Denali Mountain. I have tried comparing its profile to clear-weather photos on the net and I think I'm correct in my assumption. My traveling partners were not giving me much encouragement at the time. To be honest, the photo was more clear (editing can remove some of the haze) in hindsight than I thought we could see at the time. The emails will slow down now as we have not done much since the Alaska trip. I have a few small things I ...

After a short break yesterday, we continue our train journey. The further south we went, the clouds got heavier and heavier. The first photo was obviously taken from my seat as you see reflection shadows on the mountains. The second photo is a nice river shot - now with no clear sky visible. The third shot is the halfway point of the trip where we meet with the north bound train. The engine crews from each train swap places so that they are back to their home base for the evening. The serving staff did not change. It was about a 15 minute pause in the trip and then we were off again. The fourth photo is typical of the real joy of the trip. Lauren is enjoying the cool (and getting cooler) breeze in her face while taking in beautiful scenery. Lauren and I spent quite a bit of the trip in that open air section. Now that I have scared you by saying we are just half way through the train trip, I'll let you know that there are not many photos left. The weather was degrading quickly at th...

And a few more. There looks to be some kind of disease that hit some of these trees in this area.   Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

The first shot is another view of the bridge from yesterday - shooting to the rear of the train as we continued our journey. In the second shot, you see that the train and the main road are on opposite sides of the Nenana River (with one of the MANY tour buses heading north). The last two shots are views of the facilities at the entrance to Denali National Park. Both of those shots were taken from my seat and through the glass of the observation car. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/