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Nowadays the night before Six Day is my new "Christmas Eve." The real Christmas Eve, now that I'm an adult with kids is a marathon day of church, seeing family, cooking, and then when they're finally in bed, unpacking the presents, assembling stuff, tiptoeing around, and running ourselves ragged until about 2:00 a.m. only to be awoken at 5:00 Not that I would trade any of it for anything in the world, but it's just not like it was. Tonight I'll be lying bed, not sleeping at all just like when I was a kid on Christmas Eve, only with visions of a big six pointer dancing in my head
Not a hunter but know many ,many and you people are all the same! Best o Luck to you,be safe out there!
I finally found time to start a project that I've been meaning to tackle since the day we moved in. At some point, a very talented mason lived in our house, as we have a beautifully done stone fireplace and chimney, lots of brick work, and a dry stacked stone wall outside all made from granitic gneiss found on the property:
I never liked the bluestone mantel though. In my mind mantels should always be made of wood. It also only juts out from the wall about 5 and 1/2" which doesn't give a whole lot of room for the two hurricane lamps and other stuff we have up there now. Across the valley from us there is an old farm with a barn that fell down a couple of years ago. I did some digging and found a phone number for the owner and made contact with a nice older lady who had immigrated from Brazil to Maplewood and then moved with her husband out here about 50 years ago. She's not sure how old the barn was but the beams are rough sawn, not hand hewn, so probably not more than 150 years old if that, more than likely 100 or so. However, the tight grain of the old growth pine, saw marks, and nail/worm holes give it a lot of character. I cut a little over six feet with the chainsaw and then brought it into the basement to dry (dehumidifier on constant run for about two weeks) as it had been sitting out in the weather for some time:
After notching the backside using a circular saw and a sharp chisel in order to fit it over the existing mantle, I began working it with a drill mounted wire wheel. The wire wheel removes the weathered and weakened outer layer of wood to reveal the hardened wood underneath, and pronounces the grain and machining marks:
Did a test fitting in the living room over the weekend:
The beam is 8" by 10" and I have it oriented so that the 10" face is on the horizontal. It protrudes a little too far out from the wall so I'm going to shave 1" off of it and see how I like it at that point. More to come.
Still not entirely done, but basically secured. Need to do some finish work on the ends and permanently secure it with two large lag bolts so that it can withstand my two (soon to be three) little monkeys who will inevitably end up hanging from it:
You can just see a 3/4" board underneath the beam that I used to cover the old bluestone mantel for a clean look. That board came from our barn when a tree took out the back corner following the string of Nor'Easters last spring. It was nice to be able to incorporate it.
That's absolutely magnificent. It looks like it's been there forever. Good job!
Thanks-that was the goal. We have a lot of elements of the house that we're not really sure when they were done or by whom, but we wanted this one to fit with all of that.
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Not that I would trade any of it for anything in the world, but it's just not like it was. Tonight I'll be lying bed, not sleeping at all just like when I was a kid on Christmas Eve, only with visions of a big six pointer dancing in my head 
Best o Luck to you,be safe out there!
