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Rosslyn’s Redneck Yacht Club
I challenge any red blooded American who’s spent a little time in the country to dislike Redneck Yacht Club from Craig Morgan‘s 2005 album My Kind of Livin. Can’t do it! Redneck, city slicker,...
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Totally, unabashedly, irreversibly seduced
Today’s question from Al Katkowsky‘s Question of the Day book was the perfect invitation to reflect on Rosslyn Redux, the “big picture”! What should you definitely not have done that turned out okay...
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Carriage Barn Artifact Triptych
Intriguing artifacts tend to pop up in unlikely places. Rosslyn’s carriage barn, for example. We’re currently undertaking structural improvements to the larger of the two outbuildings west of our home....
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Vernal Equinox: Barred Owl Sighting
Welcome to spring! It's currently 43° at Rosslyn, on target to hit 46° shortly. Sun is out. Snow is melting. Bulbs are bursting. So many remarkable signs and suggestions that the vernal equinox may...
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The Past Lives On
The past lives on in art and memory, but it is not static: it shifts and changes as the present throws its shadow backwards. — Margaret Drabble I return today to a recurring theme, a preoccupation...
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Re-Homing Stump-to-Lumber Ash & Elm
Today I’d like to touch upon a recurring theme: re-homing materials and items still potentially useful to others (if no longer to us). We’ve been fortunate over the years to pair Rosslyn’s storage...
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Icehouse Stairway Update
Spoiler Alert: the icehouse stairway is not 100% complete. Yet. But it will be. Soon. I hope! There’s still an itty-bitty electrical wrapup (finishing up the riser lighting installation), but the main...
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Hammocking
A day-ender, after builders and painter have headed home, before sundown but feeling the first flush of a refreshing temperature drop, talking, debriefing the day, Carley stretched in the shady grass...
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Bird’s Eye View: Backyard
Over the last year, I’ve often relied on aerial photography to help me conceptualize icehouse rehab plans, visualize topographical integration, and plan landscape / hardscape layouts. Over the years...
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Red Sky at Night
Perhaps you’ve heard the adage that begins, “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight”? On a recent evening looking west past Rosslyn’s carriage barn and icehouse, Susan snapped this image. Stunning. And...
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Woodchuck Chuck?
Rosslyn’s yards, gardens, meadows, and woods are thick with wildlife. Sure, some are charismatic and mysterious like bobcats and the coyotes. But others are more familiar. Sometimes even mettlesome. I...
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Enclosure
A mid morning meditation on enclosure inspired by ongoing deliberations on the height and porosity of the privacy fence that will screen the mechanicals, propane tank, etc. behind the carriage barn...
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Screening
Still “ciphering” on the particulars of the enclosure screening south of the icehouse terrace. Four days ago I riffed whimsical on the subtleties of decision making for the privacy fence that will...
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Deciphering Ciphering
I first heard the term “ciphering” in 2005 when we were renovating the Lapine House. Context offered some clarity: "ciphering" was used to describe job site problematizing, brainstorming, tweaking and...
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Floorboards Lost & Found
Rosslyn’s rolling rehabilitation — intermittent, to be sure, but ongoing since 2006 — is one way to account for the fact that the carriage barn floorboards have been mostly invisible for much of the...
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Logs Off to Sawmill
After felling five ash trees in the vicinity of Rosslyn’s icehouse and carriage barn with precision and arboreal poetry Aaron and Tony passed the baton to Phil and Calvin. There are still stumps to be...
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Why Helical Piles?
Today Bob Kaleita and Phil Valachovic installed helical piles for a small privacy fence that will conceal the propane tank, generator, mini split compressor, etc. behind Rosslyn's carriage barn. I'd...
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Declutter & Consolidate
As the icehouse rehabilitation reaches its conclusion and nearly two decades of Rosslyn carpentry dwindle down to the final acts, it’s time to declutter the carriage barn that has served as a lumber...
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Tree-to-Timber
As we prepare to fabricate the privacy enclosure behind the carriage barn, the constituent parts are starting to fall into place. One of the most important is the material that we’re using for the...
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Pickets & Kindling
While Glen has been enjoying some much deserved R&R, Tony has been finalizing preparations for the privacy enclosure behind the carriage barn. Cedar Lumber for Pickets (Photo: Tony Foster)...
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