East Porch - Rebuilding Rail

At the left are two pieces of art, made by our friend Don Hale from Illinois. I attend Spoon River Drive every October and always buy an art piece (rusty old shovel decked out with fancy hair with washer or bolts for eyes). The first piece I bought was Chief Wild Hair, shown at the right. Second piece was Princess Mennie-Paws. I asked Don to make a child for them, and the third year he made Brussel Sprout. Brussel was so little and cute; but I gave him up to go live over at my daughter in laws house. Last fall I brought home the shovel personality on the left. I still haven't fixed on a name for him yet. Any ideas what to call him? I liked his hair (pitch fork).

RESTORATION

My husband Jon rebuilt the porch railings for all the porches. This is the restored east entrance. The original spindles were meticulously hand-scraped and sanded. The decayed rails were replaced by new wood, cut (by shaper machine and special knives), a two-piece rail, then additional straight wood cuts for smaller vertical pieces prepared by Jon and assembled by him to appear the same as they were 116 years ago.

Tomorrow, I'll be painting the lattice work that hides the open area under the porch (left). Jon built vertical stiles in a frame instead of the traditional diamond criss-cross lattice. The lattic is primed but need two coats of trim color. Seems like painting trim takes a back seat to every other project that pops up.