January 2019
by Jack · 18 June 2026 · Cooking, Food & Lifestyle
January 2019: three weeks of minus 23 in Vermont, frozen pipes, garage shut. Jack works in the shop. Wood moves — that's the central fact. A joint tight in January will be loose in August. The piece changed overnight. So did he, slightly. Cold does that.
The winter that seized everything was January 2019. Three weeks of temperatures that dropped to minus twenty-three at the worst, which in Vermont is unusual enough that pipes froze in four neighbours' houses, the propane ran out twice before the truck could get through, and the garage door froze shut for eleven days. I mention this not as complaint — people in Vermont don't complain about cold as a matter of principle, the same way Norwegians don't complain about rain — but as context for what it's like to work with wood in those conditions.
Wood moves. That's the central fact of the trade that takes longest to understand. In cold it contracts. In summer it expands. You build for the movement, not against it. A joint that's tight in January will be loose in August if you don't account for it. I spent the three weeks in the shop working on a commission for a family in Burlington, and every morning I had to recalibrate. The piece changed overnight. So did I, slightly. Cold does that.
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