Work In Progress

Yesterday afternoon Toothless Paulie shows up on his bike and pushes his nose against the gate.
Shouts "Whadda doing Paul?"
I say "Paulie you always ask the same question and I always answer, 'I'm working'."

I know why Paulie greased up my gate with his nose so I pull out a bottle of something and we go sit out front of 3003 and watch the slow flow go....... of the wide of assortment of West Oakland.  The crackheads coming by asking for money, a long conversation with Tall Paul who lives in a RV, that doesn't move, down Peralta, a young girl struggling with a  cello going next door for her music lesson with Crystal, and all the rest of the warp and woof that make up this place.

But before that (and which very effectively stopped the work in progress) the initial hand saw cuts took place.

Awaiting it's turn for the saw.

Chisel bites into and curls up.

I have no idea at which point in history this technique shows up but I can remember exactly when I first learned of it.  Sven was on top of a roof installing the facia board at the peak.  I was standing down on the ground and he said (probably with his pipe in his mouth) "If you run your saw between the two boards you'll get a perfect fit."
Probably 1976 or so.
So thank you Sven.  Again.