Seldom Seen Farm Sugarhouse c.2019

 The older I get, the more I truly enjoy crafting simple and functional farm buildings.  This 16′-0 x 28′-0 sugarhouse frame is just that.  The overall pattern was heavily influenced by the client, a son of a carpenter. He had been planning for several years to join the frame himself, but after final consideration approached me and asked if I might take on the project.  I offered, in-turn, a few alterations and adjustments to the design, to which he and his wife cordially agreed.  And, we were off and running.

The eastern white pine timber was harvested from his farm woodlot and custom milled at a nearby family-run softwood mill.  I added a hand-hewn, arched, white ash tie-beam with lapped naturally-curved cherry braces from our farm woodlot, and two red pine root-knees leftover from a previous project, to the mix.  A bit of shop-work and about a month and half later, we gathered together with a group of family and friends and raised the framework before lunch.  The client and his family had the sugarhouse completed and made their first on-farm maple syrup in the spring of 2020.