I built these Adirondack chairs six years ago so our campus pastors could meet with students outdoors during the beginnings of Covid. People asked me to paint or stain them so they’d last longer. I made them from cedar so they’d enjoy cedar’s natural resistance to decay, and I told people that I liked the idea of them someday rotting into the ground without leaving the residue of paint.

The chairs were hugely popular, and I have since made many more for our campus. I teach students how to make them, and I share the plans with others who want to build them.

The following year someone bought 25 more plastic Adirondack chairs. Within a year or so all had broken and were thrown into dumpsters because plastic chairs are so hard to repair.

I have occasionally replaced a board on one of the cedar chairs, and I keep making more. The wooden ones continue to be enjoyed by students, faculty, and staff needing a little time in the fresh air.

Each one costs about $60 to build. I donate my time and my tools because I like to do things that benefit the university and that don’t cost the university anything. Someday it would be nice to have funding from the university, sure, but the upside of not having a budget is that I never fear budget cuts!

And I have a lot of fun teaching students how to work with their hands.

Two cedar Adirondack chairs sit on a grassy lawn near shady trees. In the background a brick library is partially concealed by flowering trees.