Dad's Day

Now it's time to give you a little peek into the craftiness of the other half of my parent team: Dad (now, to Caden, Adad) Bruce. Whereas the women in my family tend towards textile arts, the men - including my Dad and Grandad (more on him in a future post) - are and have been the wood-workers. I have so much respect and admiration for wood-working because of the natural materials, physical labor involved, subtle artistic touches, and utility and lifetime of the products. Dad has built lots of things out of wood - shelves, benches, picnic table, 2-story garage (!), chicken house, 'nut' guest/playhouses, tool sheds, etc. Here are a few glimpses:

Caden identifies items in our home by who made them. About this candlestick, he would say 'Adad make it'! Whenever electricity goes out - which it seemed to do a lot more back in CA than here in MA (thank goodness, it's colder here!) - we'd always light this candle and set it in the middle of the room. (Note: I realize those little S'mores figurines are totally cheesy, however I love them! I have about 10, but try not to display them in overwhelming numbers.)

Here's a bowl, turned from a burl (walnut?), that Dad gave to us in 2006 when our little Caden Burrell was born. For Caden's first 2 years of life, we kept all of his little memorabilia in it - hospital bracelets, etc. Now we use it for decor...but it's still too special to put candy in just yet!

This is his and my mom's most recent project - the cabin that they are building, almost completely by themselves, in the mountains at Wallowa Lake, Oregon. So far, my contributions to the project have been sanding and finishing a couple of the big, exposed, interior beams and helping to stir and pour the cement for the front step. Isn't it charming?! I love the exterior stovepipe - and you can see their tab trailer in the background. Dad currently lives out of a larger airstream trailer and travels around Eastern Oregon during the week, doing work as an agricultural economist and swinging by the cabin when he can, in between weekends back home in Western Oregon.

Dad and Mom resumed work on the cabin fairly recently, after repairs were made when a tree fell through the roof during a windstorm last fall (see slides 15-19 here). Although it's still a year away, I'm looking forward to spending a week at the cabin next summer (2009) with all of us siblings!

Here's one of Mom's creative vignettes on their mantle at home in Corvallis: a wood tree turned by Dad and one of her ceramic cottages (that I mentioned in my Mother's Day post).

Dad and Mom are such a great team, and we kids are so thankful to them every day, not just on Father's and Mother's Days!