II — The works
Four workshops, one workbench.
Everything I’m building, in four registers: ventures that earn, books that last, systems that run, and a stage that keeps me honest. Each card answers to the cursor. Pick one up and turn it over.
Selected Work, In Full
THE CHAPEL
Confessional Chapel, St. Michael's Parish, Cranford NJ
I treated the Eagle Scout service project like a full build cycle: first the fundraising, then the design, then the construction sequence. Each step had to be clear enough that volunteers could enter the work without guessing.
I built the confessional chapel with my own hands alongside a crew of volunteers, which meant balancing craft decisions with leadership decisions day by day. The work was less about being praised and more about finishing something useful, cleanly, and together.
The chapel was completed and blessed by Fr. Marc Vicari, which marked the end of the project and the start of its actual purpose.
materials: Eagle Scout service project · white pine, hand tools, and a patient parish.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
Summa Scientiarum
Summa Scientiarum is a fifteen-codex encyclopedia of the liberal arts that I write and typeset myself. I built the project as a system, so each codex can stand alone while still belonging to one architecture.
Four books are in print, and eleven codices are in progress. The pace matters, but the structure matters more: each volume has to carry the same standard of language, argument, and form.
materials: self-published · Fraunces & Newsreader · ongoing.
THE FARM
Balchunas Sustainability
Balchunas Sustainability is in its early stage by design. I finished land scouting for a first property in Vermont before moving into the financing work, so the plan is tied to a real place instead of a spreadsheet abstraction.
The business plan and loan applications are underway, and the company remains pre-revenue for now. I want the foundation set correctly before I optimize for speed.
materials: regenerative by intent · pre-revenue · the long game.