Zach Klein's Blog

The Griswalds of Fort Wayne, IN.

My pending Thanksgiving dinner contribution, a cherry clafoutis.

My progress towards building a home using a salvaged barn frame.
A four-season bunkhouse for all of us Beaver Brookies who spend so much time up there.

1. I bought a barn frame from a salvager. My frame once stood in Mount Cobb, Pennsylvania. Recently, on some documents, I noticed that the barn was referred to as “Mack Barn” — Intrigued by the namesake, I dug deeper and learned that the barn once stood on a dairy farm owned by Johann Mack, who made horse-drawn wagons in the barn. Of course, several of Johann’s sons moved to New York City in the early 1900’s and formed the Mack Truck company, creating the world’s first bus which was used for giving tours of Prospect Park. The Mack company became a pioneer of the truck industry.
2. An architect cataloged every frame member and produced plans for putting it back together.
3. The posts and beams were transported to a joinery in N.E. Pennsylvania to be power-washed, inspected for rot, repaired, and treated to be used in a livable space.
4. In collaboration with a barn expert, we sketched up a new purpose for the 30x40’ barn frame. 
5. We excavated into a Beaver Brook hillside and laid concrete footers to build foundation walls on top.
6. The foundation has been poured, a steel deck installed to carry the first floor concrete slab, and some basic plumbing roughed in.

Sanded to 220 and ready to be waxed. 

Twenty Trucks - Excavator

(Source: youtube.com)

Doug fir slabs for my desk in-progess.

The command for Scout’s best trick: Scarf!

Sean Brock Preaches the Gospel of Southern Food →

This New Yorker article thrilled me, and stirred my lurking wish to die and be reborn as an archaeobotanist. Heritage grains found in old bootlegger fields!? Sign me up for the next expedition.

Google and Facebook would have you believe that you’re a mirror, but in fact, we’re more like diamonds. The portrait of identity online is often painted in black and white. Who you are online is who you are offline. That rosy view of identity is complemented with a similarly oversimplified view of anonymity. People think of anonymity as dark and chaotic. But human identity doesn’t work like that online or offline. We present ourselves differently in different contexts, and that’s key to our creativity and self-expression. It’s not who you share with, it’s who you share as. Identity is prismatic.

— 

Chris Poole 

Chris’ comments made me think of Vimeo. It is now considered a video-hosting alternative to YouTube, but that wasn’t initially, and still isn’t for many people, its core value. What attracted our early users was the draw of the social community, and video was the most effective medium for expressing ourselves and observing each other. Videos were social gestures we exchanged; we made them for each other specifically. We crafted identities, and fell in love with each other, through video.

Spending time with Jonathan Harris and Andrew Sliwinski, on a mountain that fell on its back.

The other day, just before a business meeting, I stopped by an eyeglasses store to get my prescription checked before I ordered a new pair of frames. The optometrist dilated my eyes without explaining the effects and sent me out of her office into bright and sunny San Francisco on my third day of living here. I was practically blind for nearly four hours, completely lost for 90 minutes until I found a cab to take me home. I couldn’t control my laughter! I missed my meeting, of course.

I work outside. 

Soon enough.

(Source: blwf)

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.

— G. K. Chesterton

Jace’s Bridge completed over Beaver Brook (by dr. rob)