The first crooked knife I held was given to me by Michael Kohout, as I and some friends began helping him build his 25th birch bark canoe. I didn’t know what it was, had never seen one before, and did…
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I keep looking at how people did things when there weren’t so many things.  This year I tried to start working towards a more hand-made maple sugarbush, though the metal shop and plastic bucket still played a prominent role.  Gotta…
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There’s been some baskets going on. I got to hang out at the rather new Ely Folk School, teaching a black ash pack basket weaving class.  We had a full group, eight students.  The baskets all turned out great, and…
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Basket Camp:  Good times, like rocket ships and hot air balloons and honey bees.  With all three classes sold out, we had nearly 30 sweaty summertime basket makers hangin’ out in the St Croix River valley, weaving madly (in a…
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  I often dream of doing things that have been done a million times before.  Actually, in general, that’s mostly what I want to do.   I’m not really into innovation, or discovery, or whatever.  I just want to walk on…
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I’ve been wanting to make a toboggan by scratch for a few years now. No power tools, no sawmills. Just hand tools – ax, draw knife, crooked knife, and hand plane primarily – and rawhide. My desire to make a toboggan…
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My finished snowshoes I am currently reading “The Survival of the Bark Canoe,” written by John McPhee in 1975, about Henri Vaillancourt, the most well-known modern birch bark canoe maker. I have been looking at it for many years, and…
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  About three weeks ago, I went to a shaded, mossy creek in far northeastern Minnesota to check on the sucker run.  Incredibly, there was still ice on the banks of the creek, so the water was still told cold…
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