The Heavy Life

I'm Jake Lunniss. I make furniture by hand in a small workshop in Ocean Grove, cook lunch for strangers every other Saturday, and write about what happens when you build a life with your hands instead of a screen. I write here every week about the slow business of building a life that smells like sawdust, dirt and dinner.


Latest

Essay: The Boys Made the Pastry

It's Thursday night at my in-laws'. There're eight of us around the table — my wife's parents, her sister and the boyfriend, her brother and fiancé, our kids doing what kids do at the

23 February 2026 · 3 min read min read

Essay: The Boys Made the Pastry Essay: The Boys Made the Pastry Dispatch: Seventy Four Posts, then Zero Dispatch: Seventy Four Posts, then Zero
The first time a chisel bit into a piece of timber the lie of the digital world was exposed.
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Essays

The longer pieces — the ones worth forwarding
Essay: The Boys Made the Pastry
23 Feb 2026 · 3 min read min read
Essay: Seventy-Four Posts
17 Feb 2026 · 4 min read min read

Dispatches

Notes from the workshop, the kitchen, and the table
Dispatch: Seventy Four Posts, then Zero
20 Feb 2026
Dispatch: Rain, and a Place for the Gear
12 Feb 2026

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