Hey Hammerstone Fam!

It's me, Christina, stepping in for Kimberly for the next couple editions of the Hammerstone Newsletter while she's on vacation. Topics covered today: Ladders!, Tiny House '24 Updates!, and Upcoming Classes!

Springtime pic of my dog, Laki. Some days you get the sun and some days you get the showers. 'Tis the season for variable weather. Happy Spring, y'all!

Squarely and truly yours,

(get it, square? true? carpentry humor)

Christina and The Hammerstone Team

Class for Immigrants and Refugees!

Coming up this Saturday is the annual Hammerstone class specifically for Immigrants and Refugees! Working with Open Doors English (ODE), our generous supporters and volunteers, we teach a condensed basic skills class completely free to community members who identify as immigrants or refugees. We have a FULL class this year! 18 students signed up to join us in learning carpentry skills while practicing English as a new language. We are still accepting donations to contribute to the success of the event, and looking for a few more volunteers to help for portions of the day.

If you want to help out in any way, send me an email:
christina@hammerstoneschool.com!

"Don't Worry: I'm a Carpenter..."

I got a call from my friend last Thursday saying she had a ‘ladder situation.’ Her landlord, an experienced builder, had popped up onto the roof of an in-process barn build, for one quick task. After stepping off the ladder and onto the roof, the wind shifted and his ladder slipped away.

Luckily he had his phone with him and called my friend who happened to be home, but, unfortunately, was unfamiliar with extension ladders and couldn't help. He called another neighbor who went over but was also unable to assist.

I arrived to the landlord sheepishly looking down from the 25' roof. I knew I could help in this situation and found myself exclaiming, "Don't worry: I'm a carpenter. I can handle this." I wrangled the extension ladder against the will of the wind, moved it to the correct spot, re-extended it, and footed it for the landlord to descend. With a quick and appreciative handshake, that was the end of the so-called ladder situation.

Side note, how cool did I feel walking - let's be real, I sauntered - up to a ‘ladder situation’ saying, "don't worry: I'm a carpenter. I can handle this."

VERY FLIPPING COOL.

That evening I reflected on the occurrence. How did I become the person a friend calls when they have a ‘ladder situation’?

I thought of a time early on in my carpentry career when I was asked for the first time to set up the Gorilla ladder (a brand name that we at Hammerstone use to refer to a telescoping ladder). After a moment or two of fumbling with the knobs and levers on the ladder, I turned to Maria and said, "I am not smarter than this ladder." I felt embarrassed for not understanding how a ladder worked, and felt frustrated that I had to ask for help from my boss on something that is, on the face of it, seemingly easy -- what would she think of her newly hired apprentice? And, turns out, it is easy... once you know how it works.

I also reminisced about the second job site I was on as an apprentice out in Berkshire, working on replacing siding and windows on a 3-story house using ladders of all types all day every day. To prepare for that job, Maria set me free in a field with an extension ladder, gave me a few pointers, and the space to practice and fail. I learned what it felt like to maneuver the massive ladder in the wind, carrying it upright or on its side, lifting the longer-than-life ladder by myself and taking it back down again. Where was its balancing point, and how quickly could I break past that point to still safely lower it solo? That practice time set me up to be able to confidently handle an extension ladder on every subsequent job.

Sometimes we get so far into a chapter of our life, it's hard to remember how we got there. I found this experience - my friend knowing who to call for assistance, me showing up without asking many questions (seriously, aside from knowing my friend was safely on the ground, I didn't ask for backstory and just drove over - the entire scene was a surprise) - to be an opportunity to take a look at my current chapter. What am I proud of? Overcoming obstacles. Striding into the unknown of a new career with very little experience. Having the courage and humility to try, ask, and learn. And even after years in this industry, I still get to do this almost daily; I still get to learn.

We can continue to learn from each other and our experiences. Even though the landlord in this situation was a seasoned builder, he still found himself up a creek without a paddle -- or, rather, on a roof without a ladder. Here are a few quick tips with links to resources to help prevent this same situation from happening to you:

Ladder safety - Always brace or tie off your ladder, especially on windy days, or just pick a different project until the wind subsides;
Roof safety - Always keep your phone on you, or, better yet, never work alone on a roof.
Ladder use - You may not use ladders frequently, but being knowledgeable about their use and functionality will only be a benefit.

Ladders can be complicated and intimidating, but with some knowledge and practice they give us power.

This quick reference shows the main types of ladders we encounter in carpentry.

Want to Practice with Ladders?

Impressed with my saving the day, my friend asked which Hammerstone class she should take to learn more about ladders. We teach ladder safety and use in several of our Tiny House classes -- Tiny House Rough Framing, Tiny House Dry-in, Tiny House Roofing, Tiny House Exterior Trim, Tiny House Siding. In these classes you'll gain practical experience both setting up and using ladders and scaffolding while building a tiny house.

Aside from the Tiny House classes where you get in-depth experience using ladders, this whole "ladder situation" got me thinking: maybe we could develop a TWO-hour TWOtorial on Ladder Safety and Use. If you are interested in this class, shoot me an email and I will personally let you know when I get it on the teaching calendar!

Tiny House 2024 Update!

TH24 --not yet nicknamed-- is underway! Maria has been focused on modeling the structure in SketchUp and meeting with our client to work through all of the design details. So many aspects of the build have to be considered long in advance. For example, we started getting quotes on windows in January and only just now finalized our order. We're still a whole six weeks from installing them. We're currently choosing kitchen appliances that won't be installed until October because the rest of the design depends on them.

We received our custom built trailer from The Trailer Shoppe a couple of weeks ago. Initially we parked it in the red teaching barn, but as it turns out, an 11' x 30' trailer takes up a lot of space, lol. We have since moved it just outside of the shop to maintain sanity and prepare for upcoming courses.

Let’s break down some trailer terminology:

**Deck Over**
This style of trailer has the floor deck entirely above the wheel wells and is ideal for single level tiny homes.

**Flat Deck**
This style of trailer integrates the wheel wells into the floor plan of the home. The floor deck is about 11" lower than on the deck over trailer which adds headroom to the interior space so this style of trailer works well with lofts. Unlike in a deck over trailer, the wheel wells on a flat deck impinge on the interior space requiring clever design solutions.

**Flat Deck Drop Axle**
The drop axle design increases usable head height by an additional 4" over that of the standard flat deck trailer. Increased vertical building space means either slightly more interior headroom or more space for better insulation in our roof design.

We recently signed on with NOAH Certified (National Organization of Alternative Housing). NOAH is an ANSI accredited inspection body who has refined standard residential building codes to make them more applicable to tiny houses builds, setting the standards for the Tiny House industry.

At Hammerstone, we have always built our tiny houses employing as many residential building standards as possible. With NOAH, we now have a defined code to work with and our tiny house will be fully inspected and officially certified upon completion.

We're excited to work with the folks at NOAH Certified!

upcoming classes

**Rough Framing: Build a Tiny House!**

*May 20-24 - Space AVAILABLE*

In this 5-day workshop, you will feel like part of a crew as you learn, practice, and BUILD a stick framed tiny house on wheels. All of the skills learned can be extrapolated to projects big and small - building or fixing a shed, framing a partition wall, even garage shelving!

**Build an Adirondack Chair!**

*May 13-14 - Waitlist Only*
*July 18-19 - Space AVAILABLE*
*Sept. 12-13 - Space AVAILABLE*

One of our most popular classes, use a router, table saw, chop saw, drills and drivers, to build you very own Adirondack chair out of locally sourced larch.

**2-Day Basic Carpentry Skills!**

*May 17-18 - Waitlist Only*
*May 31-June 1 - Space AVAILABLE*
And many more dates throughout the summer!

In this class you will learn the basics of carpentry skills and jargon while building a set of sawhorses for your own projects!

We love to see everyone signing up for Hammerstone classes! Some of our spring classes are fully booked with waitlists to boot!

When you make the decision to take a class with us, you are choosing much more than a weekend activity. You are choosing to learn a skill, choosing to focus on your personal development, dare I say, choosing to damn the man and smash the patriarchy. We hope that, be it before, during, or after attending a class, you see just how much you gain from choosing to try something new.