For those of you that aren't familiar, Amy, Scott, and Paul also teach Kung Fu at the Sinking Moon School of Kung Fu. One of the things we often say is that "Kung Fu means hard work." This is literally true - the meaning of the word "Kung" (功) actually means "work", "effort", and the word Fu (夫) means "man" or "person". Thus, put together, it can be translated as "Human effort".
Creating any business requires great effort. This brewery, though, requires a lot of building and construction as well as mental effort. Today, one of the things I've been doing is milling lumber for use at Loons Landing.
One might ask, "why would it be necessary to mill lumber for the brewery?" The reason is simple - we need a bar and tabletops. We want the location to have a lakeside cabin- or resort-like feel to it, so we decided on a natural wood bar top. One of the contenders for the top is the cottonwood tree our neighbors just took down.
Woodworkers reading this are probably shaking their heads about using cottonwood for a bar top, but, keep in mind it'll be sealed with epoxy, so really the strength of the wood is secondary to the story we want it to tell. I suspect there's no tree more recognizable in Minnesota than the cottonwood tree (especially in June when the cotton is blowing all over the place).
I say "one of the contenders" because, since this wood is freshly cut, it's quite possible it won't be dry enough in time to be used for our bartop. If that's the case, we have a few other options we're looking at, but they all have one thing in common: they are natural wood pieces, native to Minnesota, and require a lot of Kung Fu to transition from their current form into a bar and/or tabletop.
