Wood and stone, among the oldest of organized building materials, this perhaps helps to explain the wonderful affinity and pleasures that I experience while working with them. The act of building with these two materials really approaches reverence, so satisfying and when well done, so sound, enduring, and aesthetic. Even something as mundane as a small tool shed hidden in a back corner of a garden, can be completely satisfying both for the builder and the beholder. What is possible with these two materials is limitless, restricted only be the scope of one's vision.
Economically, wood and stone are still among the least expensive of materials to use. It is true that the world has treated wood as an inexhaustible supply for construction. These are lean times but with new means in the husbandry of the land and hopefully, the cessation of clearcutting, these times will change. In the meantime, we all have a responsibility to build frugally, while using our purchasing powers to chastise those industries late to follow the necessary new procedures required for building up marketable stands of timber.
Regardless of the problems the exist today and may well exist in the future, I have found wondrous beauty in wood reclaimed from turn-of-the-century homes and building, mostly of Long-Leaf Yellow Pine, though there have been other woods prevalent. After these woods have been reclaimed, planed, and sanded, the beauty one finds is unsurpassed. Time has only added to their strength and stability.
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