Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Modern Log Cabin Chicken Coop Now For Sale at BioFuel Oasis, Berkeley CA

Hello faithful readers! Please stop by to see our friends at the BioFuel Oasis in Berkeley. Along with their usual selection of bio-diesel, chicken feeds, bee-keeping supplies, and canning supplies, they are now featuring our latest chicken coop design, the Modern Log Cabin.



We hope to sell other chicken coop designs at the Oasis in the coming months. Word has it they will also be selling local newborn chicks in the Spring! We are lucky to have such a fine worker-owned business here in the Bay Area. Check out their over-flowing class schedule (bee-keeping, cheese-making, goats, fruit trees, gardening....)

Matt and I are embarking on our next coop, which we are building for Novella Carpenter's Ghost Town Farm in West Oakland. We are tossing around some design ideas but we know it will be a giant coop and we are trying to elegantly build the structure from used shipping pallets. Stay tuned..

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Modern Log Cabin Coop---Chickens Not Included

Hello faithful readers.  Matt and I have been busy putting the finishing touches on our modern log cabin chicken coop.  It features interesting joinery, a sliding barn door, and all the features you have come to expect from a Just Fine chicken coop: private nesting box, easy egg retrieval, removable roosting bars (for cleaning), redwood along the base (resists rot without heavy chemicals), good ventilation, skylight, protection from predators and that heavy Bay Area weather, and of course, FUNKY STYLE.

Building up the walls, one "log" at a time:


Before roof and paint (please notice that handsome barn door):


Zing!:


That little sliding red door on the left is where you will pick up your freshly-laid eggs.

Come check us out at the Crucible's Gifty craft faire this weekend in Oakland, Friday 7-10pm ($10) and Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm (free).  Our coop will be on display and for sale.  Over the next year we will be designing and building another 10 custom coops, so if you want to rap about getting one of these beauties in your backyard bring a pencil and paper.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

More on Rust


Building these shelves for William Stout's new store on Solano required quite a bit of time in the grinding room at the Crucible.  We are truly living our mission statement of using recycled materials whenever possible.  But man, what a job it is to get these old pieces of steel looking bright again.  Gettin' there:


These posts were previously part of the last installation at the old SFMOMA near Civic Center, before the move to 3rd Street in 1995.  Now they announce William Stout's new architecture and design bookstore on Solano Ave in Albany, which opened in September. We are happy to have some pieces in such a fine establishment!


This last photo was taken on install day.  They look better with books, go check them out in person and support your local publisher/bookstore.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Tiny Bowling Set

Frequent Just Fine Collaborator Sheri K. commissioned the Just Fine Squad for a custom hand-turned gift: a tiny wooden bowling ball and 6 pins.  Apparently, her friends just moved into a house with a long hallway.  The pins are poplar, the bowl was a log of undetermined species and origin (but it's heavy! I hope her friends have stout baseboards in that hallway).


We made a lot of sawdust, but my chickens like it.


In her first trial roll, Sheri was wide left; second, wide right; third, strike!

Speaking of gifts, Just Fine will be manning a table at the Crucible's Gifty sale December 10-11-12.  We will have all sorts of wood and metal goodies, small and big.  If we can get our act together, we may even have one of our new experimental chicken coop designs built and for sale!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Book Contract in the Mail!


That's me (on the right) at the West Oakland post office, happily handing over the signed book contract Matt and I have been negotiating since May. Over the next year we will be working on the manuscript.  Sorry to be so secretive but I don't want to give away our awesome idea! More details soon.




I spent another week on the Lost Coast, re-surfacing Leah's tiny deck.  This is my work table for the week, with views of the Pacific and Big Flat:



A couple of the joists under the deck had rotted out over the years.  Here's the deck before:


And after:


I was lucky to re-use the redwood deck planks.  They were still in good shape.
I almost brought back a stray cat.  His tail was lopped off and his ears are all chewed up, but he's friendly.  He walks like a pit bull.  Meet Mr. Man:



This week, Matt and I are teaching a chicken coop building class with City Slicker Farms.  We'll check in next week with photos of the coops we are building for a few lucky West Oakland residents.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Humboldt Fog


Team Just Fine spent the last week on a ridge at 1700 feet on the Lost Coast in beautiful Humboldt County, California.  A 25 year old redwood deck & stairs was in bad need of an update and we were happy to provide the labor.  Here is the finished product:



Carpentry presents its own set of challenges from furniture making.  Different tools, different methodology.  The controlled environment of our shop in Oakland and close proximity to hardware stores and suppliers was a far cry from our new job site. The lumber yard was a half hour drive down a steep washboard road, so we brought along all the tools we thought we might need, including saws, screws, shims, and sawhorses. We were at the mercy of Mother Nature, who for the most part cooperated with our plans. If the sun wasn't shining, our client's solar array wouldn't provide the juice needed to run the chop saw and circular saw simultaneously.

Here is the cedar planking, I like the 2x6, it feels solid underfoot.


We drove in at night, not recommended.  But we did catch a beautiful sunset.  Deep in the flats of Oakland, Team Just Fine sometimes forgets there are beautiful sunsets and stars in the sky.


This is the tiny octagonal house we slept in, with views of the Pacific Ocean.


Sunset from the tiny octagonal house:


We were above the fog line, thankfully, so blue skies greeted us every morning with our coffee on the short walk to our job site.  If you haven't lived within a 2 minute walk of your place of employment, Team Just Fine highly recommends it.  On our last day of work, the fog cleared and we were rewarded with views of the ocean down below.  Not another house could be seen in any direction.


If you haven't been to the Lost Coast, go explore this beautiful untouched gem of the Northern California Coast.  Matt remarked that it feels more like the Pacific Northwest than California.  We brought back some of the old steps, so if anybody wants an old growth redwood table top, or kitchen island, or desk, please send word along.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

We have been busy, just not busy posting to our blog

Team Just Fine has been busy with projects, just not busy blogging about them.  Matt finished some very slick (sapele, walnut, cherry) custom synthesizer parts for our friends at Magic Echo Music.  Kevin scored a fun job with the proprietor of a very excellent new architectural book store on Solano in Berkeley.  Kevin has been teaching weeklong summer classes in wood turning for high schoolers at the Crucible.  Check out those huge melon-sized mallets his kids made!  And the youths are so well-behaved they didn't even bop one another.


To top all that off, the Just Fine lads have been feverishly preparing a book proposal.  Keep your fingers crossed for that, and check back soon for updates and pictures of our work.  In the mean while enjoy your summer!