75 and sunny. Spent the day in the woodshop

[Clipper]

It turned out to be a great day, hitting 75 this afternoon. I was out in the shop at 9:30 with a flannel shirt on and by 10 I was in a t-shirt with the overhead doors both open, the music playing, the saws just a singing, and a happy camper doing what I love to do in my spare time.

I spent most of the day out there, not coming back in until almost 4. I built a plywood box for our Christmas tree, our wreaths, and some other odds and end Christmas stuff. 4 1/2 feet long, 2 feet high and 2 feet wide. Got it framed up, boxed in with plywood. and sanded, and just need to fit the hinged lid tomorrow, put a couple of cleats on the bottom to mount the casters to, and put handles on the ends. I built it to consolidate two or three totes into one container that I can wheel to the house, empty, and wheel back to the garage where it rolls under a shelving unit I built along a wall in the back of the garage.

Kathy says it looks like a coffin. I told her that if I croak before she does, to just break my legs and fold them up under me, stick me in that crate and FedEx me to Dimbleby's in Whitesboro.

Today it was me, Merle Haggard, and Clint Black in that garage. Tomorrow it will be George Strait, Randy Travis, and Dwight Yokum playing at top volume while I finish the lid. I will probably start spending my days out there now that most days will be warm enough to work out there. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm again, but with showers.

The first day it doesn't rain I have to mow for the first time and do some weed-eating.. Yep, it is mowing season again. Two of my neighbors mowed today and there are plenty of mowed and well groomed lawns appearing around the area. Time to prune the roses back, rake out the old mulch and start preparing for summer. Haven't made any decisions regarding a garden yet. I think I will hire someone to either plow it or do the tilling for me. I feel great and am much less anxious and paranoid now that I have seen the cardiologist and found out that all is going great and that I can sign up for cardiac rehab and get back to working on building my stamina back up. He also told me that the fact that I still get a little out of breath with any strenuous activity is because of the complications they ran into making for an involved process to get the stent placed, having two caths on two consecutive days, and being mass dosed with the steroids both times because I am allergic to the dye. I had been half afraid to do too much or get my heart rate up much, but now I am confident and ready to get back on track. I have lost 20 pounds and am eating right. I sure would like to get back in good enough shape to get back to fishing, walking the trails in our local park, and doing my lawn work and gardening without spending half the time resting in the carport.

[Ralph]

   Ahhhhhh.......how I wish I had the room for a decent shop.  I miss having my own place, but I'll just have to get over it I suppose.
   Glad to hear you are doing so well and can resume normal activities again.   Nothing like being told you can't do something to make you crazy!

[Clipper]

Oh what a blast we could have if I lived where you could share time and share my shop Ralph, but even if we still lived up there you are so strapped for time and busy working. If we were still there on Herkimer Rd, my shop was confined to a corner of the basement and was no where near as well equipped as it is now. As a former cabinet maker I am sure that I would acquire a wealth of knowledge working with you. Who knows. We might even find a way to profit from our labors of love, even on the leisure time hobby level. I expanded the number of power tools and saws when we first moved here. I bought a lathe with a 42 inch bed, found that I am not terribly interested in the turning business. I bought a nice used Craftsmen radial arm saw a few months ago and find that I am not using it very often. I sold the lathe and turning tools and I am thinking of selling the radial arm saw and putting the money toward a thickness planer.

We are forecast to get some fairly heavy but scattered downpours this afternoon. Better than the snow I see headed to NY and the Northeast. Stay safe up there and drive carefully.

[Ralph]

   We had a couple lathes in our shop on Tracy St and I never saw any interest in them.   We used them when we did the cross for St. Johns, but after that they just went back to collecting dust. lol!!     I bought a radial arm saw when I sided the house years ago.  They serve a useful purpose and are quite handy for some things, but not a mainstay for sure.

[Clipper]

I was turning a bowl with a bowl gouge and the blank flew apart and just about broke my ribs. The only other things I ever made on it was a hickory carving maul and a hammer handle for an old claw hammer that was my dad's. Hickory is hard and turns hard. That project was actually fairly fun. After I turned he piece of hickory into a useable blank I put it in the wood vise and finished it with my grandfathers spoke shave, a pocket knife and a chisel. The hickory dulled the tools in a heart beat. I was spending more time sharpening the tools properly and keeping them honed and in decent shape than I did turning anything. I stay busy enough sharpening the blades for my hand planes, drill bits, and my wood chisels without fussing with rounded gouges and the rest of the different shaped tools.lol.

[Deleted]

I built a small bird house when I lived in Missouri. In the barn on one of the properties was some equipment that I could use. Well anyway it looked good my little bird house and placed it high in a tree in the woods. I would watch it religiously for a birdie to move in and build a nest. Low and behold one did. Soon after it fell apart.

[Clipper]

We have bluebirds this year hanging round in the back yard area. When the dog goes out first thing in the morning I stand at the gate and watch them flit about the back yard. They sit and serenade me from the electric line that goes up to the building in the back. They are such a beautiful and brilliant blue. They are so brightly colored it is almost like they are out of a painting.

I am going to build some bluebird houses and see if we can establish pairs that will come back year after year.

[Ralph]

   Hickory.........hard as a rock!   I did my brother-in-laws bathroom for him years ago, in west Utica.  Moved the toilet and had to drill a new hole for the closet flange.
   The sub floor was hickory.
   O M G !!!  I burned up two hole saws, a number of jigsaw blades and finally had to resort to ruining a spade bit and using a couple reciprocal blades to get the job done.   I was in awe.  I've worked with rock maple, and it wasn't that damn hard!!!
   between running the electrical lines and water/waste supply lines, I must have used up a years with of bits and blades.

   I really miss working in a wood shop and doing my thing.  Next time you're up here take a run over to Lichtman's Wine & Liquors in the N. Utica Shopping Center.   I was working for Carbone's at the time, but the company I used to work for contracted with me for all the Old English liquor signs they have there.   Must have been 25 years ago, and they still look pretty good.

[Clipper]

Mar 20, 2020 23:51:21 GMT -5 Ralph said:

   Hickory.........hard as a rock!   I did my brother-in-laws bathroom for him years ago, in west Utica.  Moved the toilet and had to drill a new hole for the closet flange.
   The sub floor was hickory.
   O M G !!!  I burned up two hole saws, a number of jigsaw blades and finally had to resort to ruining a spade bit and using a couple reciprocal blades to get the job done.   I was in awe.  I've worked with rock maple, and it wasn't that damn hard!!!
   between running the electrical lines and water/waste supply lines, I must have used up a years with of bits and blades.

   I really miss working in a wood shop and doing my thing.  Next time you're up here take a run over to Lichtman's Wine & Liquors in the N. Utica Shopping Center.   I was working for Carbone's at the time, but the company I used to work for contracted with me for all the Old English liquor signs they have there.   Must have been 25 years ago, and they still look pretty good.

The only thing I have found harder than Hickory is Locust. I rented a stump grinder several years ago to clean up stumps that the former owner had left all around the property. I rented it for the day and it only took me a couple of hours to clean up what I needed to grind. My neighbor had a half a dozen Locust stumps along his fence line. That stump grinder had all it could do to slowly chip away a very small bite at a time. It literally took all afternoon to grind 6 6inch stumps that only stuck out of the ground 6 or 8 inches.

[Clipper]

My neighbor up behind us passed away a few weeks ago. He had a fully equipped shop also. His widow is going to have and estate sale. He has 5 or 6 lengths of rough sawed and beautiful black walnut. They are about a full dimension 2x12x10 feet. that has seasoned out in his shop ever since they moved here about 10 yrs ago. He also has a beautiful commercial grade thickness planer but I could never afford what they will probably ask for it. I have my eye on a Brand new DeWalt 12 inch miter saw that he only used once or twice if the price is reasonable. If I can buy just one or two of those walnut boards I will snatch them up and treasure every board foot. The last I bought was 12 bucks a board foot for 1"x12".

I have some big stones haha. I may even ask her if I can use the planer to plane a couple before the planer goes, if I promise to clean up the mess. I would even plane it all for her and it might sell better planed. I wish I could buy a lot of what he has. The planer and his table saw set on opposite ends of a 10 foot outfeed table topped with stainless steel that serves both machines. His shop is in a metal building that is big enough that he stored two classic cars, a pickup, and a tractor that only used one side. The building is something like 36 by 75 or so.