Red feet by red hill

I am given to understand that one of the first steps on a new building site is for the apprentice carpenter to make a saw horse. Making the tea, frying eggs on a shovel over a brazier, wa/ondering from pillar to post in search of a glass hammer; all that comes later. A carpenter's saw-horse is a multi-tasker: just the right height for sawing a 4x2 to length; an extra two feet of height when slabbing up a ceiling; the only safe place to leave your tape-measure; a seat for the tea-breaks. 

The common-or-garden saw-horse is a different beast. No place for a cup of tea (neither for cup nor arse); no horizontal surfaces; precarious to stand on. But 'tis a great asset for sawing logs - either longer / fatter pieces with a chain-saw (saves the back) or final product with a bow-saw (saves the planet). I've made a number of these over the years: because they don't last forever being made from off-cuts and tend to get left out in the rain. In February, my elder saw-horse started to be real shaky . . . and I noticed a matching pair of short red cedar Thuja plicata planks left over from the 2016 wood-shed project; and the 2023 planter project. I usually have a fund of endless 50x50mm oak Quercus robur fence-posts: endless because the pointy bit has rotted out. Nothing going to waste, the elder saw-horse was reduced to sticks [R] for going up  the chimney.

The result of the 2021 saw-horse project is still giving great service despite the top bars being nicked and notched all along from over-active chain-saw. I learned a good bit on that job and was happy that this years offcuts are 10cm shorter that 2021s - a saw-horse needs to be long enough . . . any longer is just extra weight and awkwardness when the it's being moved around. I also used up some surplus red fence preservative leaving the bottom ends of the saw-fetlocks soaking in the gloop overnight. That might just slow down the inevitable foot-rot. Oh, how I wish that I could drill a 12mm hole straight through two 50x50mm timbers rather than at a crazy angle. But the 12mm threaded stock went through the wonky hole anyway. Chekkittout below - the dinky red feet cosa rua that may be viewed at Kncokroe Cnoc Rua the red hill. Also the well-used weathered older brother / template in the background

Now we are back to two saw-horses - one for each wood-shed. Win!