I was just giving you some s**t Sim. It looked good and the slotter idea is genius. I'll lend you my Mafell if you need one in the future. Although it looks like your slotter worked just fine.

I think most traditional timber work in earthquake country just relies on the stuff outside of the frame to do all of the work. Of course, Japan has the oldest and largest wood framed buildings in the world (that I believe are about 900-1000 years old), so Simpson must not have not figured it all out. I've showed your TiC steel article to a few others.

That's a dairy barn/wedding space. It sounds like a bad combination to me, but I've been told it's all the rage in the Hudson Valley with the uber elite. They'll have a dirt floor with cows in it in the winter and a raised wood floor in sections during the warm season. The next building is where they're milked and cheese is made, the next is the store. (They're looking for a cheese meister, David...)

The plates are field laminated 1x8 SYP (actually it's all SYP), just screwed together. Engineering by Fire Tower. I offered to consult on it, but they didn't need me. The builder is another young guy, and obviously really talented. Mike drew it up: http://mikebeganyi.com/2012/08/02/a-mention/ (although all those steel brackets got nixed).

That's Billy's camper. He's camping about 8 minutes up the road from me right now, but he must be feeling antisocial. We'll miss you at the conference.