Previously (part 2) ...

Christmas Day, 2009 -  Dennis can report that he has started the part of this house project he was looking forward to the most: cutting the timbers.  "A start" means 4 of the 48 braces, but it's an exciting step

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Here about 2/3 of the braces are done and stacked, awaiting final sanding and varnish.

Winter 2009-2010 - In hindsight, this was a season of "little by little"; counting up how many pieces are cut.  It's a time-consuming process.  The tractor doesn't fit into the barn, so every piece of 8x8, 8x10, 10x10 or 10x12" has to be wrestled into the barn and onto the planer by various creative man-powered methods.  Then plane all 4 sides twice over, lift it up onto the sawhorses, measure and mark the layout, triple check that,

and finally cut the mortises, tenons and pockets needed.  All sides that will be visible are sanded with 3 different grits of sandpaper.  Finally the end-grain sealer is applied to all the cross-grain cuts, and 2 coats of varnish are applied before the timber is moved onto the finished pile in the barn.  After about 6 pieces are done, most of the available hours one day are spent moving the done timbers onto a growing pile on the lawn and getting 6 more rough-cut timbers piled up outside the barn. 

This post and braces will stand between the kitchen and dining room.  The occasional glimpse of the bigger picture keeps us going.

...And this one is a Queen Post assembly.  It goes on the upper level, supports the rafters, and will help define rooms.