Wilkinson Automated Bread Baking machine…

My college roommate Jim and his wife Claudia came to Walla Walla to visit us last weekend.  Jill and I suggested that they might like to see the Wilkinson Bread making machine at a local grocery store – Super 1 Foods.

Jim and the Bread Machine... at the mixing end...

Even though Jim is a lawyer by trade, his passion seems to be relatively large gadgets.  How many people do you know that own one of those big pop corn machines that provide free pop corn at hardware stores – Jim does!  So it seemed that this bread machine would be something that he would like to see.

The Wilkinson Bread Machine mixes and bakes forty standard sized loaves of bread an hour.  The dough is mixed and dropped into baking  pans.  The dough rises and then bakes as the pans progress through the machine.  The pans drop the baked bread out and then they continue back through the process.

Loaves of bread progressing through the machine...

We were all intrigued by the machine and the process however nothing (except the mixer) seems to move too fast.  You can definitely see the process when you take the time to look from pan-to-pan.

Jesse (far right) explaining the process to Jim and Jill...

This is the one and only prototype Wilkinson Automated Bread Making Machine and it is located in Walla Walla!

One of the engineers, Jesse Knight, was operating the machine and giving out bread samples.  We asked Jesse a few questions and he gave us very polite, engaging and informative answers.  The bread was great and we had a wonderful experience – check it out when you are in Walla Walla.

Long Low Winter Sunlight in Walla Walla…

Last Friday, the light from the low winter sun was streaming through a window to create a scene that I had never noticed before.  I picked up my camera and began taking pictures of the “sun-lit” wheat and its’ reflection in the mirror of an oak buffet…

I then walked around Shady Lawn Antiques in search of additional photo opportunities.  This picture shows an ‘industrial sculpture’ and its’ long shadow on the top of an oak wine barrel table…

Even the mid-day sun in February is low in the sky...

I’m always amazed when the sunlight of the changing seasons highlights things in a way that I have never seen them before…

a Sneak Peek at Spring in Walla Walla…

Mother Nature has provided us with a Sneak Peek at Spring here in the Valley of the Two Wallas… where we seem to alternate sunny clear days with overcast gray days.

the stark white of the Birch bark in Contrast to the Blue February Sky...

Buds are forming on trees and the occasional clump of posies is in bloom.  The general atmosphere around town seems to be lighter and brighter as well.

the white Snow Drops in our front yard...

I hope that you enjoy the pictures as much as we are enjoying the slow tilt toward Spring!

Antique Display… and the “sweet” spot…

Welcome to Walla Walla and to Shady Lawn Antiques.  During the month of January, I cleaned and restored antiques.  We spent the better part of a week arranging antique displays before our February 4th reopening.

The following picture shows a display that featured three items that were new to the store.

a "sweet" antiques display...

First Jill and I moved furniture around at least five times until we came up with an arrangement that seemed to work.  I then placed a Victorian Eastlake Style clock (circa 1880) and an early 1900′s wooden Walla Walla Produce Company box on top of the oak Printers Cabinet.  The display looked like it needed a little something extra so I put a dry wheat arrangement inside the box.

The WW Produce box sold at the end of the very first day we were open.  I then put a restored wooden Borax box in its’ place and put the wheat arrangement in it too.  I had displayed the Borax box in several different places for probably two months.  But when I placed it on top of the Printers Cabinet it sold the same day.

The top left hand corner of the Printers Cabinet seems to be a “sweet” spot for selling wooden boxes… sadly I don’t have another similar wooden box to display there.

I have noticed that there have been antique “sweet” selling spots in the past.  But since selling antiques is pretty much a one-of-a-kind business it is not always as obvious as it was to me this time.

When I set up the display, the arrangement seemed pleasant.  However, I had no idea that two wooden boxes would sell from the exact same spot two days in a row… “sweet”!

the Opening of 2012 Season at Shady Lawn Antiques…

Saturday, we completed the Opening Week of the 2012 Antiques Season at Shady Lawn Antiques… The Season began with a string of gray drizzly mid-February 40 degree days.  However the atmosphere inside SL was very inviting… it was warm, light and bright.   The coffee was hot and a pleasant mix of music, best described as singer-song writer and acoustic rock, was playing.

You may have picked up on the fact that Shady Lawn was closed during January so that I could clean and restore antiques.  This is that first year that I have dedicated a month to working on new inventory but the results were worth it!  I was able to restore a dozen large pieces of furniture and many more smaller items.

In fact, one piece, a printers type cabinet took over twenty hours to complete.  There is no way that I could have effectively completed that cabinet under normal circumstances…

The Printer's Cabinet with a Walla Walla Produce box and a Clock on top of it...

Prior to our February reopening our friends Barry and Neva helped move furniture around.  Jill and I then spent three days cleaning and organizing displays – we wanted the shop to look the best that it could for the opening.

It was fun and exciting to reopen the shop and show off all of the new furniture and displays.  It was also good to see our Shady Lawn friends!

The weatherman is predicting a bit nicer weather for this second week of the SL Season.  But no matter what the weather is, the Shady Lawn atmosphere will still be warm and inviting and I predict that you will enjoy your visit.

A display that shows the diversity of the inventory available at Shady Lawn...

White Paint Removed… from a quarter-sawn Oak Buffet…

Last month I wrote the post “White Paint on Antique Furniture”.  It seems that every piece of furniture that I restore has specks of white paint on it… the little white splatters from careless house painting.

This is an update on the buffet that I pictured in that post.  Here is the before picture again.

the before view of the paint speckled leg...

Here is a picture of the same leg after the piece was restored.

restored buffet leg

This buffet is an amazing piece of furniture.  It was made in the late 1800′s to the early 1900′s in a revival of the Empire Style.  The Empire Style is primarily straight lined with the addition of scrolled or double curved backets, supports, or legs.

This late period Empire Style furniture was most often made out of oak and oak veneers.  The unique thing about this Buffet is that it was made out of SOLID quarter-sawn oak.

Quarter-sawn oak is cut perpendicularly to the trees’ growth rings.  This cutting technique results in a lot of waste and the resulting wood is more expensive.  Most quarter-sawn oak furniture is therefore made out of some solid and some veneered oak.  Oak has visible medullary rays that are exposed when the wood is quarter-sawn.  When you look at the picture of the restored Buffet top you can see why quarter-sawn oak is also known as tiger oak.

Empire Buffet as found... before restoration

The corner of the top after restoration:

restored buffet top...

This is the most outstanding quarter-sawn oak buffet that we have ever had at Shady Lawn Antiques.  I hope that you have the opportunity to see it.

The buffet after restoration...

the first best day of the year in Walla Walla…

The January weather has been in a state of flux here in the Valley of the Two Wallas.  We had record warm temperatures the first week in January and then we had snow, ice and freezing rain.

Yesterday, January 31st, I had a number of errands to do.  At one stop, I bought some groceries so I decided to drop them off at home before I returned to Shady Lawn Antiques.

The afternoon was sunny and warm enough that I rolled down the car window as I drove home.   I had just finished lunch and the combination of food and warmth was slowing me down…

I took the groceries into the house but when I came out, I just couldn’t walk by the  lounge chair under our covered patio… The January sun was so low in the sky that it was shining on to the chair.  I adjusted the chair so that the back was barely elevated and then I settled comfortably into it…

I was wearing a thin sweatshirt and a fleece vest but I was very comfortable in the low to mid-fifty degree temperature… even though the rays of the sun were weak they added a little more warmth.  As I relaxed, I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds around me.

It is amazing how much you don’t hear when you are shut inside for the winter months.   In my mellow, eyes closed state, I heard all of the sounds of “summer”:  a couple of single engine airplanes, the voices of playing kids, a dog, a leaf type blower, someone pounding nails and a car with studded tires driving by… studded tires?… you can only use studded tires in winter… hey wait, it is only January…

Ah yes, this must be the first best day of the year in Walla Walla…

Meanwhile in Sofia, Bulgaria, our daughter, Carolyn, who blogs as Karolinka (rough translation of Carolyn) reports that it is some 15 to 20 degrees below zero…–

February 1st sunset in Walla Walla

1850′s – 1860′s Walnut Dresser…

This is the last week of the January 2012 Restore-athon, at Shady Lawn Antiques.  I am putting the finishing touches on a large number of pieces – mounting doors, replacing hardware and applying the final coats of wax.  We will once again be open for business on Saturday, February 4th.

I have just finished restoring an 1850′s to 1860′s small walnut dresser.  Several construction techniques indicate that the dresser was probably made in a primitive cabinet shop rather than at home or on the farm.   The two most obvious are the routered edge on the dresser top and the turned knob drawer pulls.

The walnut dresser before restoration...

What I mean by a primitive cabinet shop is that not much machine work went into the construction of this dresser.  The dovetailed drawer joints were cut with hand tools.  You can see that each dovetail is a slightly different size and shape.  The saw cut on each dovetail also extends slightly beyond the dovetail.  This does not occur on a machine cut dovetail.

Hand cut dovetail drawer joints and hand turned knob...

Each drawer pull knob is also a slightly different shape and size.  This indicates that they were individually turned by hand.  The two knobs on the bottom drawer have been replaced but are knobs from the correct time period.

The back joint on each drawer is also a dovetail joint.  This picture shows the thick plank drawer bottom board and how it was hand chamfered (angled) to fit into rabbet joint in the drawer side.

Hand chamfered drawer bottom and dovetail joints on the back of the drawer...

A close inspection of the before and after pictures will indicate the work that I did.  I re-glued the dresser top and fabricated a back splash to replace the missing one.  I glued the bottom skirt decorative bracket back together and reattached it.  I replaced the bottom drawer pull knobs with some 1850′s mushroom-shaped walnut knobs.  I cleaned the dresser, restored the finish and waxed it.

The dresser after restoration...

This 160 year old dresser has the bumps, bruises, stains and discolorations that you would expect from a piece this old.  Now that it has been restored, it should function as a dresser for another 100 plus years.

White Paint on Antique Furniture…

Regular readers are aware that I have dedicated the entire month of January to restoring antiques.  I’m nearing the end of the Shady Lawn Antiques January Restore-athon and I’m trying to finish a couple more large pieces of furniture.

Late yesterday afternoon I pulled the next piece, an oak buffet, out of my pile of projects.  The first strep in restoration is to look over each piece and make a mental plan of the work that needs to be done.

I wasn’t surprised when I noticed some white paint on the buffet.  I have found that almost every piece of furniture that is in need of restoration has paint spots on it.  Further these small paint spots are almost always white.

Tiny little spots and somewhat larger spots of white paint on the buffet...

My son, Nick, has hung around Shady Lawn and the work shop for fifteen years — well over half of his life.  Years ago, I showed him some paint spots and discussed this white paint phenomenon with him.

Awhile back I was painting a room, at home, white.  He asked me why I hadn’t moved or at least covered all of the (antique) furniture.  Dad, didn’t you tell me that almost all of the furniture that you get has paint specks on it?  I replied:  that was because most people were careless painters but I’m a careful painter.

Then I loaded up the paint roller and started rolling white paint onto the ceiling.  When rolling paint, especially on a ceiling, tiny little drops of paint flip off of the roller.  The careful painter that I was, soon had little drops of white paint on a piece of furniture… just like the paint on the buffet.

I’m not sure if this buffet was owned by a good painter or a careless painter…

I plan to show the progress on this buffet so please check back.

the Stay-cation continued… in Waitsburg

When you last checked in, Jill and I were just leaving the Manila Bay Cafe and our friend Amy in Dayton.  We had a thirty mile drive to get home.  About ten miles into the drive we were unable to face the inevitability of the end of our stay-action.

“Jill, it is only five miles to Waitsburg… do you want to stop there?”

‘Sure, where would you like to stop?’  Well our favorite places include Laht Neppur Brewery, jimgermanbar, and Whoopemup Hollow Cafe.  We can always go to the Laht Neppur Ale House in Walla Walla… and with the jimgermanbar being closed for January that makes going to Whoopemup an easy choice…

The Whoopemup Hollow Cafe is one of our favorite restaurants and the November/December 2011 “Inland NW” magazine has also discovered them… Chef Bryant Bader’s food was pictured on the cover of that issue.

There are four partners involved in the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe and they have been customers at Shady Lawn Antiques since their arrival on this side of the state.  When Whoopemup first opened in 2005, the upscale but relaxed atmosphere was unexpectedly out-of-place in Waitsburg.  There is no question that the opening of the Whoopemup sparked a revival of business in the town.  Waitsburg was reinvented as a bit of a rural – trendy – foodie – artsy Wine Country small town.

It wasn’t even five o’clock but the dark of winter had settled in by the time that we pulled up in front of the Whoopemup.  The wonderful smells and the warm lights  welcomed us into the Cafe…

We ordered the Crawfish Pie, which their menu describes as a Cajun-style pizza with crawfish, roasted garlic and spicy piperade.  Jill ordered a glass of wine and I ordered a Laht Neppur beer – so I managed to combine both Lath Neppur and Whoopemup into one stop.

The thin crust pizza was layered with mildly spicy flavors and the crawfish had a great texture.  The atmosphere and the service were great… it was a wonderful way to top off our stay-cation!