In 2007, we moved to a lake place 8 miles from Perham on Big Pine Lake. We love the house, perched on a high bank of the lake with an incredible view. It has great spaces, lots of windows and has been a great place to welcome guests. One of the interested features of the lot is that it is built on the site of an old lumber camp. There is a deep “chute” cut into the hillside that almost certainly was used to slide the big white pine logs (hence Big Pine Lake) down onto the frozen lake, from where they would be floated downriver to the lumber mill. One of my friends, Art Johnson, told me that he saw a sign in a museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, many miles down the Red River, that the big support beams for the old factory building that housed the museum there had come from the east side of Big Pine Lake in Perham. I’d like to think they came down that chute out onto our lake and made the long arduous journey around the million oxbows of the Red River. An awesome trip.

The small picture below is a link to a larger Picasa photo album that shows lots more pictures of our house and lot.

Lake House

That summer, I began building a new workshop in a Norwegian style, complete with 8-foot turned columns, a “Stabbur” style with the second floor overhanging the first, and lots of space for workshops and storage, 2600 square feet in all. We put hot water heat in the floor, tongue and groove aspen on the walls, two powerful dust collector systems to keep the air clean, 28 electrical circuits and many large windows. My students and I have found it a wonderful place for a workshop, with a sunny covered veranda for coffee breaks, great equipment inside, lots of space for up to 8 lathes and an atmosphere conducive to “turning great stuff.” Summer or winter it is very comfortable and bright, and it is easy for me to hear each student as they are working. That’s an important part of my teaching, that I can hear what they are up to.

In 2008, I enclosed another 10X24 foot area from the garage for a burl and wood room and a spraying room. I built lots of new cabinets and got my compressed air system throughout the shop. It looks sharp and feels more like home every day. I have lots of lathes available. Besides my big 30” X 8 foot Oliver 25 patternmakers lathe, I have a 3520 B Powermatic, a 20” shortbed Woodfast, 2 Nova lathes, a 3000 and a 16-24, all of these with variable frequency drive. I also have a few other lathes that I can bring in for a larger group, two 12” Rikons, a 12” Jet and a 10” Delta, for a total of 9. I have a huge 20” Delta bandsaw for working with the burls, logs and blanks. I have hundreds of turning tools to use and I also have a good selection of Crown tools and Nova chucks for sale, in several sizes. I have a vacuum system for holding bowls, the McNaughton system for coring out bowls, and lots of good sharpening equipment. There‘s nothing we can’t accomplish here and I can’t imagine a more satisfying and creative environment for turning wood with new and old friends.

For more pictures of the building of the shop and of the shop in operation, click here for my web photo album “my turning shop.”