Maine craftsman. I hand-hew round logs into square beams using only an axe. Supporter of Ukraine. Coauthor of “Men of God — Men of War.”
Joined July 2019
- Tweets 15,131
- Following 1,191
- Followers 12,012
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1,307 Photos and videos
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Yes I hew beams. Yes it is only with an axe. Yes it is fun for me. Yes I make a living doing this. Thanks for attending my TED talk. 🪓 🪵
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Renaissance Timber LLC retweeted
Jun 12
Our data analysis suggests Ukraine’s strikes have been more extensive, and more damaging to Russia’s economy and military production, than commonly assumed economist.com/interactive/eu…
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Haven’t read these since I was a boy. Looking forward to them 📚 🥰
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Renaissance Timber LLC retweeted
Jun 13
Massive kudos to Scotland Tartan Army hero Craig Ferguson - who has arrived in Boston after an incredible 3,200 mile trek across America. The mental health campaigner has raised over £1 million for Scottish Action for Mental Health. 🏴
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My apprentice broke his axe, so we took a morning to teach him how to make and hang his own hickory handle 🪓
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Saying goodbye to the old hewing shin guards. They took direct hits from my axe a dozen times over eight years. RIP. But helloooo new shin guards 🤩 🪓
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Renaissance Timber LLC retweeted
Jun 9
I teach auto shop at a small high school. We work on students cars, teachers cars, students parents cars and some community people cars. We only charge for parts and not labor, so we saved some people a lot of money last school year. This last school year we did 126 oil changes, 68 brake jobs, 85 alignments, 4 steering racks, 22 tune ups, 32 struts, 20 shock absorbers, 4 transfer cases, mounted and balanced 82 new tires, 4 timing chains, 15 valve cover gaskets, 14 thermostats, 4 radiators, 12 in tank fuel pumps, 8 EVAP canisters, 6 exhaust manifolds, 4 mufflers, 15 AC repairs including evacuate and recharge, 8 alternators, 22 batteries, 9 starters and so much more! Proud of those students I am!
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What’s the best way to keep the post on the left from leaning out of plumb from the weight of the gate? Currently it’s only lagged into the stringer. Thoughts?
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Renaissance Timber LLC retweeted
Jun 5
I see your profile picture. That’s Johnny Cash. My hero too. Arrested seven times. Smuggled 668 amphetamines across the Mexican border in 1965. Took every drug there was and drank like I did. Cheated on his first wife. Slept with more woman than I ever did. Hit bottom in a cave in Tennessee in 1968 trying to crawl off and die. And then he got up. He got clean. He spent the rest of his life singing for prisoners and addicts and the people the country threw away because he knew he was one of them.
That was the whole point of the Man in Black. He wore it for the poor and the beaten down. He wore it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime. He wore it for the ones who never heard a word of Jesus. He wore it for the addicted and the dying. He wore it as a standing witness that no one is past saving.
You picked his picture. You did not pick his message. Try listening to the words.
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Renaissance Timber LLC retweeted
Yesterday, I received a report on the losses of your army on the front in Ukraine during May. Once again, the number exceeded 30,000 Russian soldiers killed and seriously wounded. We have been maintaining that level month after month, and we have video confirmation of every one of your losses — these are not empty claims.
We know that 63 percent of your battlefield losses are killed, while only 37 percent are wounded. In the 21st century, no army can afford such a ratio. And the share of those killed will continue to grow.
It is not as if we in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of Russian soldiers after everything your war has brought to our country.
But I do care about Ukrainians.
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These vignettes are great.
In America, a stranger will hold a door for a man who is nowhere near it.
And that man is then expected to run.
I was thirty feet away. The man at the door saw me coming, took hold of it, and held it. For me. Arm extended. Waiting.
We do not hold gates for strangers we will never meet again. So I understood at once. This was an honor, and a raised arm is a debt that grows heavier by the second.
I could not let his arm fall. To let it fall would be to let his honor fall.
So I ran.
Not a sprint. A man in armor does not sprint. A dignified, urgent shuffle. Quick steps, straight back, grave face. The sacred jog of a man who must not keep a gatekeeper waiting.
I reached the door and bowed. "Thank you for holding the gate."
"No problem, man."
No problem. He had strained his arm in my service and called it nothing. The humility of these people.
But here is where it turned.
He was so pleased by my bow that at the next door, he ran ahead to hold that one too. Now I owed him two debts. So I jogged faster.
A woman saw us and held the third door. I jogged to her. A teenager held the fourth, grinning. I jogged to him. Word, it seemed, was spreading.
By the fifth door I was no longer walking anywhere. I was simply being passed from held door to held door across America. Jogging. Bowing. Jogging. Bowing. A man forever thirty feet from where he meant to go.
I have not reached my destination.
I do not expect to.
A held door must never wait. This is the law now. I did not write it. But I will die defending it.
So tell me, America.
When you hold a door for a man far, far away, and he breaks into that little run,
do you know you have just placed him in your debt forever?
I think you do.
I think that is why you smile.
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Renaissance Timber LLC retweeted
Our long-range sanctions carried out by the warriors of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Unmanned Systems Forces, the Special Operations Forces, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine have yielded good results. Important facilities on Russian territory were hit last night.
Among them was the Petersburg Oil Terminal. The distance from Ukraine’s state border to this facility of Russia’s oil industry, which serves the war, is about 1,100 kilometers. Purely military targets at the Kronstadt base were also hit.
Another target was an enterprise in the Tambov region involved in the production of Russian weapons. The distance from the frontline is almost 600 kilometers.
I thank our warriors for their precision. Ukraine’s plan for long-range sanctions is being implemented exactly as needed to bring peace closer. Glory to Ukraine!
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Honestly, I’m not Catholic, but this pope is speaking to my heart.
Jun 1
The Gospel is much more than a book: it is Christ Himself, the Good News for humanity that is confused, deceived, and disappointed by many evils. He satisfies our thirst for justice and truth, and He instills in us the courage to persevere in doing good and to place ourselves personally at the service of our neighbor.
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Renaissance Timber LLC retweeted
Good Lord, in two days the Russians have lost almost 1000 trucks and close to 3000 soldiers.
May 31
“The genius thing we did was, we didn’t give up.”
Jay-Z
The combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to May 31, 2026.
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