Milking Stool Making

Joe Brien took us in-hand, in using hand-tools to make a handy milking stool.

This is a draw shave used by pulling towards yourself and with the grain of the wood.

By clamping the pre-cut stool seat in a neat gizmo called a shave horse. It's a foot operated clamp.
Another way to hold your stool seat.
Smoothing the edges.
Using piece of wood, a nail and a pencil to figure out where to drill holes for the legs. A little decoration.
A hand operated drill press.

Tapering the ends of the legs.


Marking where wedges will go.

Making splits for the wedges to go into.

Putting glue on the wedge.Setting the wedge.

Sawing off the extra leg length.
Planing the top smooth.
How long do you want your legs?
All hard at work.


All done now!!

Applly Ever After

Hmm... what can we do with apples? Lets find out shall we?
Debra told us that to make good cider you need a good blend of different types of apples or else "it turns out really REALLY yicky.We made some last weeks with only red delicious and it is awful!" Then we put the apples into a stainless steel sink and filled it up with water and added a dash of hydrogen peroxide.After getting the apples well rinsed and sorted (if less then half rotten it's still good), we cranked up the cider press.




After pressing a good amount of cider Debra brought out three different vinegars that she had made for us to smell. One was made by just taking cider, putting it in a glass jar, putting the lid on tight and putting it in the cupboard(quart jar). Another was cider that had had a little Braggs(a natural organic cider vinegar) added to it(small roundish jar). The third was made by soaking the pomace and then using the water(large square jar). We took some of the pomace and put it in a pot with water to cook until it was soft.
Then we ran it through a food mill(brand name Roma)to make apple sauce, which we poured into a pot and added sugar,cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. And put it on the stove to cook into apple butter.
Debra showed us and let us taste dried apple rings that she had made by coring, slicing and drying in a food dehydrator. Apple leather made by chopping up and coring apples then with a little bit cider putting a few chunks at a time into a blender and blending them in to mush.And last but not least apple heads for witch dolls