Hercule, the copper frog, reading The Hobbit to Chris, who loves the scorched leather look. Hercule now lives in Hinckley, Ohio. Chris LeBaron was born in Derby Line, Vermont, graduated from the University of Connecticut and now lives in Fairfax, Vermont. He has been involved in a variety of hand craft areas over the last thirty years, in addition to teaching history. Among other endeavors, he has built two stone houses.

Blood, Sweat and Tears
His first house, built on his grandparents' farm in Quebec, had a totally hand hewn beam frame which Chris made from logs he skidded from the forest using workhorses. Going for logs with horses Betty and Charlie Brown.
Skidding a log through the Tomifobia River to the hewing site. Getting up the steep bank was tough too, The horses knew to shift their position if the butt of the log got hung up. After that there were only a few hundred feet to go,
" I spent a year and a half of my life swinging an axe, " says Chris. The frame of the house has well over 3,000 linear feet of beams. " I might have been the only person in North America hewing beams at five o'clock in the morning during all those months."
Peeling the bark was easy in spring and early summer and made the hewing process easier, Beams piled up await the raising of the third section of the house. The frame was raised and ready for sheathing in one day. A view of spruce beams with brown ash pegs.
" For good measure I added in a few hundred tons of stone." Staging stands before the newly completed endwall. Four foot logs blazing away, winter beaten by a nose.
This is a view of beams and the 160 ton end wall from the loft. Just looking at the photo makes my back and axe scars ache. An inside view of the Quebec house great room. The completed Stanstead East, Quebec house,

How I spent my summer vacation! 600 pound granite blocks and hand tools. There was only one way out of this mess. His present home in Fairfax is native fieldstone with two granite gothic arches and a buttress in the entryway. This project has been underway for years and will, hopefully, be completed some day, " If, " explains Chris, " I live long enough." Whew! The final result--gothic arches with metal railings.
The entryway of the Fairfax, Vermont house. The Fairfax Project nears completion.
Chris has a large collection of old tools related to the areas of stone cutting, timber hewing and metalworking. Uniquely, these tools are not display pieces. They are used regularly for the purpose intended--creating objects both practical and beautiful.