Custom Doors and Windows

Here is a selection of customs doors and windows that Gene has done in recent years:

these are barn doors - very tall - on horse barn south side

                         here is a sample of barn pen doors for the goats in the dairy barn

                                                    this is the door to the front corridor

              ................to find out more information and pricing for your custom wood doors or windows email Gene 

 ................................................................thehaystore at yahoo.com

video: breaking block, masonry project

Gene with Adonis

Adonis, named after the handsome hunter - The God of Beauty - our buck born 2/6/2013 from Khaos and Butler.  Here is Gene holding him the week of his birth and here he is in the wood shop 7 weeks later!  Gene uses all his skills to build comfortable facilities for these goats.  They are very fun to watch when they are little running down the barn parlor's long hall at full speed.  We look forward to putting them out again when the grass starts to rise after our long dormant winters.

The wither process requires banding - one way to do it - this is designed to stop circulation to the testicles causing them to become necrotic and fall off.  Gene does it without pain to the animal - but there is some discomfort with the tightness of the band around the area which connects to the underside of the goat.  Careful not to include the nipples and causing as little distortion as possible in the process.

Well this time, I did not think the goat felt right with some of its skin of the testicles pinching together.  This may be that the 7 weeks was one week too long.  we usually go up to 8 weeks and definitely after 5 weeks to ensure that everything has dropped fully.  However we cut this band off, since I was not happy with the look of it.  And now Adonis will live happily as a Buck!

As of now we are a no kill facility and are hoping to re-home some of these great animals as pets and lawn mowers for people interested in goat ownership!  We currently have 4 withers and 6 Bucks in addition to all the girls (11).

Rustic Living - Sustainably

Gene puts up alot of wood for the farm facilities and fencing, wood shop projects and turning, pizza oven, and wood stove to heat the house.  At the same time we preserve old growth forests without any human intervention whatsoever.

How does he do it?  Every tree is either dead or fallen naturally, or he was asked to remove it by a client, it was given to him, or he minimally selects a tree from our land.  He has removed only 3 live trees in the decades of maintaining Ambrosia Farms.  In this time, our neighbors have logged several times over and the Amish clear cut immediately for the lumber and mills they work on nearby.  Suffice to say we are minimalists, conservationists, and green in an ideal way.  We also plant trees and relocate seedlings so they can thrive and create new forests scattered throughout the farm.  The time I identified stolen trees from a neighbor's logger - I was compensated for the wood - but the land can never be restored after logging.  Granted it is necessary to have wood to build and we have 3 pre existing buildings on our farm that are priceless.  But it is my humble opinion that the Earth needs more caregivers like us - conservationists for future generations.  There is much opportunity to reuse - and I will start to photograph the many barns which have fallen and the wood that can be reclaimed.  Gene and some builders he's worked with have have done so.

Honey's Honey

One of the ways Gene relaxes!

Beekeeping- our friends superimposed a bee - cool!  Being cool is the number one trait of a beekeeper...

Mahogony Bowl

Available

Spalted Maple Wood Bowls

Sold

"Spalting is a naturally occurring process in trees that have died or are starting to die.  The problem is that if it's not harvested at exactly the right stage, the decay will become so pronounced that the integrity of the wood fiber is lost."  This maple tree was given to Gene in exchange for the carpentry work he did at a nearby church.  Look at the beauty!