Mr. Natural

Every other month, my Wooden Boat Magazine arrives and it never disappoints. An article by Sequoia Fahey in Alaska tells about his father, Mister Natural, and his hand-crafted wooden boat. Fahey writes:

"An admitted hippie, my father has always felt an attraction to the wilderness and the elements of nature. As a young adult growing up in the city, he became disillusion with the lifestyle of the so-called "American dream" and had a desire to escape the rat race, or what he would later call the "maddening crowd." After graduating from high school he began, as he puts it, to "dedicate my life to doing what I wanted." A couple of years of early traveling and exploring found him, bedroll on shoulder, on a boat dock in a remote Alaskan island community, where he has lived for the past 30-odd years..."

So, what's a man to do? His dream of building a wooden boat started with a stack of Wooden Boat Magazines kept "in the family outhouse for casual reading." Two articles from that stack served as his inspiration, and his entire boat was made by hand over a thirteen year period. Congratulations Mr. Natural, on a boat well built. The article reminds us that as long as there are stacks of Wooden Boat Magazines somewhere in the world, the wisdom of our hands will be inspired to action. I love the caption from the photo below showing his first voyage. "I've lived here for 30 years, and I haven't ever been here before." Isn't that sort of what life is about? Mr. Natural's boat is named Clementine, and the design was based on a kåg, a traditional Swedish double ender.

In the wood shop at Clear Spring School, we are making progress in our book making. The 4th, 5th and 6th grade students are beginning to make book covers. But as shown below, there is still a bit of stitching going on first.