Every product at CedarWorks starts with an idea, and that idea becomes a sketch, then more sketches, and after that… even more sketches. We do a lot of sketching.

This is a shot of our mortising machine at our manufacturing plant right here in Maine. CedarWorks has used mortise and tenon joinery since our first playset more than 30 years ago. Why? Because woodworkers have known for thousands of years that mortise and tenon joinery creates the strongest joints. And, no, our mortising machine is not thousands of years old, even though it looks that way.

Thanksgiving came early this year when a rafter of turkeys came calling in the backyard yesterday afternoon.

We had some fun out on the lawn yesterday, taking some fresh photographs of our outdoor furniture. It was a beautiful, crisp fall day and after the shoot we all went over to CedarWorks’ outdoor set display area and the kids got to run wild for a bit. We ended the day with all the kids, parents, and photographers getting together for an impromptu dinner at the home of the parents of two of the children modeling for us. A perfect end to a perfect photo shoot.

Spent a quiet evening on the shore of Penobscot Bay waiting for the Super Moon to rise. Super Moon? Wikipedia to the rescue: “A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the moon’s disk as seen from Earth. The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system”.

Perigee-syzygy.. sounds like something we could add to one of our playsets… hmm.

The world always looks great after we get a big dump of snow, and I had to stop and take this shot as I drove into the office one winter morning… the subtle warmth of the cedar in contrast to the cold white snow was eye-catching.

While driving through Rockport, home to CedarWorks, you just might find yourself face-to-face with the Belted Galloways at Aldermere Farms. Aldermere Farms is a working farm and one of the world’s leading breeders of Belted Galloway cattle… also known as the “Oreo Cookie Cows” or, as a friend humorously calls them, “Belted Getaways”.

Whenever we have photo shoots to showcase new products, I try to arrive at the set before sunrise in the hope of finding great light. This particular morning, for about 10 minutes, the sky was worth being there for.