About Us and Pinestix Furniture

"I would feel more optomistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit nature, and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"

-E.B. White-

I am a firm believer in the saying that if you take care of your land, your land will take care of you. Hundreds of years ago our forefather's faced hardships unimaginable to our modern world. With their barehands they sculpted homes, planted seed, and hunted food from the material Mother Nature had available. The foundation they established was the first step in the ladder we have been climbing ever since. Their efforts have been etched in our history forever.

I find alot of inspiration from the "old way of life", and the men and women who lived it. I think it's a big part of why I build log furniture. To me it's a way of making our past a part of our future....logs are a mark of time. I take great pride in building our furniture in much of the same way as our pioneers did. We hand log our trees taking only "standing deadfall", leaving the live ones to the fate Mother Nature intended. We then hand peel them using a tool called a Drawknife to remove the bark, allowing the piece to keep its natural shape and form. OUR JOINTS are what seperates us from the majority of other log furniture companies. Using the drawknife we taper our ends to fit the holes, instead of using a bit to "machine" them to the size required. This enables us to “wedge” in the ends to ensure a tight fit because logs will always shrink a bit over time. Our way may take hours to do so compared to the minutes it takes with a bit, however it strengthens our statement of "building quality handcrafted furniture", as well as trying to maintain the pieces natural look and form.

We do not make the logs conform to what we are trying to build, rather we let the logs decide how we are going to do it. If your looking for right angles and straight edges, your knocking on the wrong door. Mother Nature did not create herself in this way, and I will not either. Each log is unique, and although you may find a piece similar to another, they will never be the same. This is why my customer's are confident that their piece is one of a kind, and of heirloom quality

I grew up in a western family and feel very fortunate in doing so. We did not have a lot of money (not many people in agriculture do), and I watched my Dad and Grandpa "make do" with what was available. All our corrals and gates were made of log, as were most of our neighbours and this was where I came to appreciate the strength and durability of logs. My father has been my biggest influence in just about everything I have done in my life, and I have a deep admiration of how "handy" he is. He's the type of guy who knows a little about everything, and if he walked into the woods with a cutip and a pair of tweezers he'd build a shopping mall. It seemed he always had a project on the go, and from a pile of firewood would create something beautiful and in his words "should be sturdy enough". He has never hesitated in teaching me and sharing helpful hints, and because of him I can do this today. He's a Cowboys, Cowboy. And I will always look up to him.....Thanks Dad.

The one thing I can promise you is at the end of the day you will be happy with the furniture you have purchased. I would never sell a piece that I would not be proud enough to put in my own home, or would not last for years to come that I expect it too. I want to hear that you passed your furniture on to your children, that you've cherished it enough to consider it an heirloom. I'd prefer to do buisiness over a cup of coffee, put a face to the people I'm serving, however I know this is not always possible. So I hope this website gives you an idea of what you can expect from Pinestix Furniture. Give us a call or email us your number.....it would be nice to at least know your voice.

-Bobby Narkaus-

 

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Don’t dream your life
Live your dreams

It started with a picture I saw some years ago somewhere in a book about Canada and the prairies. It was a great impression for somebody who was born and grew up in the middle of the Alps - high mountains and deep valleys - and never had a strong relation to those natural monuments, that there is such a wideness and open space. Then some time later I was the first time in Canada on a holiday trip. I started like a lot of other visitors in Vancouver B.C.. I made a road trip through Vancouver Island and the Rockys to Calgary. Then I flew to Regina in Sakatchewan where my friends (Bobby Narkaus and Nichola Treble) picked me up at the airport. On the way to their farm I got a first impression what a prairie is. No doubt about that, you can watch your dog running away for three days!! That first picture I saw was coming back to my mind. It was very similar to what I tried to imagine before I came over here but it was not close enough to what I saw in real - reality was much better. Arriving the first time at their farm was a moment that is hard to explain in words –I was just standing there breathing, feeling the open space and the nature’s silent and peace.

I was born and grew up in Innsbruck, a town with about 120.000 citizens in Austria. Made my final exams there and started to work in the financial service branche. I had to manage at first my own stock of customers, then later a department and finally a whole area. So I almost was not able tp do something physical or create something - till the day  I arrived at the farm. One of those days Bobby asked me if I could give him a hand the next day building something. I had no idea what it should be. The next day in the morning we went out there started the chainsaw and cut some trees, pounded posts and finally built a fence. At the end of the day I was tired, really tired. I was not able to move straight every bone in my body hurt – but on the other hand it was the best beer ever I had this evening looking at the fence we made during the day – no doubt about that. I learned how to cut trees, building gates and some other stuff on my own within the next days, weeks and the following visits in Canada.

From now on I came back every year one or two times "to work" beeing the crazy "hamburger helper" from Austria who is coming over to Canada in his holiday and works there. Then one day I started building furniture. Peeling and sand them bring them to the right size that they fit together just with a drawknife as the only tool you have. Finally I was able to do that and at the end of the day a bed, chair or benche was standing in front of me which I made with my own hands. This was one of the most amazing things I ever had in my life. They were not just finished, they were looking good and I still had all my fingers and I was not bleeding. Smelling the wood, give them a great look, fix it together, to build something new useful and beautiful is great.

So when I got home to Austria and back to work I suddenly realised that it was not the same then before - something was missing. I was "infected" by an other way of life. Back in Austria when I was driving around and I saw some wood, I was always thinking about what kind of headboard, benche etc. we could make out of it and how it might look like. I was always thinking about the open spaces and the prairies when I was sitting between the mountains feeling like a prisoner.

So in 2007 when I was on my annual “working-holiday” Bobby and me were talking about the furniture we made and the fencing stuff and that a lot of people really like it and are asking if they could buy it too. We were also talking about making our own business out of that start. At the end of my holiday we decided to go on with the “business” like we made it in the past. My job was to create and design the homepage you are on at the moment and should look for some additional/new ways of purchasing our furniture. Meanwhile Bobby tried to get more orders - friends tell friends ..... . We booth agreed that this would be the best way to get the company started, till the moment when there is enough demand that two people can make their life out of that business.

So that was the plan in April 2007. When I came back it seemed everything was ok gave us, especially me some time to get everything else done. But one day in May I got an email - the meaning was: "How fast can you come over here and start right now - too much orders for just one - two are needed as soon as possible". So that's why I am here and hope you enjoy the stuff you bought or will buy from Pinestix Furniture.

-Klaus Höpperger-