Success!

So I've got things working nicely for the moment now; the new wood steamer works like a charm, and sports nifty features like a thermometer so I can make fairly precise adjustments and ensure that the steam doesn't get too wily. I am also pleased that the quantity of salvaged oak I have bends great and is ample enough to use for the entire skeleton of the structure. I milled my oak up into half inch strips yesterday in Dave Hind's barn, and managed to do so without losing any limbs or destroying any expensive equipment. Nonetheless, I am sore. I am still not used to an honest day's work.

The great side effect of this little bit of progress is I am actually beginning to feel in charge of this project. Even better, I have been connect to the emotional part of the building process, how personal and necessary it is for me to build this structure. Which is great; it makes me feel alive and insane at the same time.

As an interesting moment of serendipity, I came across the following quote from Carl Jung the other day about the tower he built for himself in Zurich in the 1920's. Jung's autobiography, "Memories, Dreams, and Reflections" was a big force in my life as a young adult, it's nice to think about this quote somehow burbling away in the back of my head, never really leaving:

"Gradually through my scientific work, I was able to put my fantasies and the contents of the unconscious on a solid footing. Words and paper, however, did not seem real enough to me; something more was needed. I had to achieve a kind of representation in stone of my innermost thoughts and of the knowledge I had acquired. Or, to put it another way, I had to make a confession of faith in stone. That was the beginning of the “Tower,” the house which I built for myself at Bollingen."

Right on, Carl. You confess in stone, I'll confess in reclaimed lumber.