As I was perusing the
Lost Art Press Blog by Chris Schwarz, I came across a picture of a chair in progress, where the author had completed the base of the chair. I was immediately reminded of a stool I constructed while working as a carpenter in Mcmurdo Base, Antarctica several years ago.
While stationed down there, I was working under a supervisor with as much background in the culinary arts as in carpentry. He enjoyed using terms like "pepper it with screws". He also enjoyed giving me grief in those instances that he thought I might not be working as efficiently as possible. In fact, it was invariably those times I was busting my butt that he would comment "yer really milking this project, aren't you"? Soon after, the joke began to center around a fictional milking stool.
In time, it became apparent that a milking stool was in order, so, after hours, I took some time to glue up a seat blank, carve three legs with an old drawshave discovered in the 2nd floor of the shop, and bore the holes for said legs with an interesting old brace with a 45 degree handle attached. Presumably, this brace had drilled hundreds of holes in order to install deadmen to hold down jamesway structures (as pictured above. Interestingly, despite the fact that I had visited all the field camps in the Dry Valley, I have few pictures of the common jamesway structure. It may have something to do with just having purchased a new camera, and not wanting to expose it to -50 degree weather, although one picture is really all you need). After it was assembled, the stools was carefully stored away until the time when "milking the project" once again became the subject of conversation.
Upon the next conversation that centered around "milking it", I pulled out the stool and gave everyone a little chuckle. Or maybe it was just me and a few close cohorts who could appreciate such humor. In either case, it floated around the shop until someone got a splinter from moving it out of their way and threw it out. It stung a bit, having my work thrown out, but, like those before me, I am comforted in the fact that my genius will be appreciated after my death.
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