Things on the go AKA get busy

When you are going thru a bout of depression... Get busy!

It's the best way I know to get thru it, been there done that. Lost a few good brother in arms thru the years, never easy, but you carry on, because that's what you have to do to survive...

Losing a love one dying slowly under your eyes is lot harder, but i'll get thru it.
I have two wonderful kids, a small doggy companion and lots of friends counting on me so Keep calm and carry on we shall.

Anyway, all this to say, I'm trying to kick up a notch my level of distractions.
And if anyone is wondering, yes, blogging help.

This past winter we did not had much snow, but lots of strong winds and freezing rain. A bad combination for trees.

I lost a tree and quite a few branches here and there.

That small cherry tree by the shed lost two trunks

Right across from my driveway, the neighbor lost a pine tree

That was in February, hence the snow, but it was not until mid April that I finally cut the broken trunks down...

I needed to clear the path in front of the shed 

in order  to get to the deck furniture.

That was quite a sizable wound and I'm worry 

about the remainder trunks, they lost a great deal of strength

  

So weeks later, I decided that the tree should come down.
That call for a chainsaw. I maybe a Galoot, but I know when to use "assistant" gas powered or otherwise :-)

My "tailed assistant'' :-)

View after cutting off all the trunks. As you see it grew

 from numerous small trunks that grew into one.

Not a very strong "main trunk" 

This is the small pile of stuff I keep

Hoping to get some good small pieces out of it

Surely there are at least a few good pen blanks in there :-)

Rudy directing where all the branches and etc should go.

Wow look at the size of some of those twigs Dad!

Good job Rudy you deserve a treat!

That was at the end of Apr, that I finally reduce the tree to a pile of branches.
I cut the grass once before, around it, but now it is grand time to clean up so I can mow the grass properly around the shed. Also needed to go thru my pile of salvaged wood, run some thru the bandsaw and stack it to dry properly.
It is a lot easier to resaw green wood than dry.

As I was typing that this morning, it dawn on me that my wood pile has been drying for a good month by now, so much for green wood...
So may as well get off my computer chair and finish that job...

Last load of branches and twigs

The wood I'm keeping is now piled on dry cement, better than in the grass.

You can really see how much it has dried already. 

Notice how it is drying from outside-in?

Rudy has declared that pile of sticks 'HIS'

by marking it. Beware other animals, that pile is mine, all mine.

Enough yard work for now, but soon, I'll tackle resawing some to see what I can get from it. Some would be turned, carved or perhaps made into small lumber pieces?? I kept a bunch of forks, not sure why yet, but :-)

You may remember that another of my shop reorganization project is to built a proper bottom cabinet for my antique joiner chest.

That small chest currently resides on a Rubbermaid container 

After banging my toes on a small chest in the basement, that we once used as a coffee table, I realized as I was hopping around on one foot cursing it, that it would probably do the job nicely.
So I dragged it down to the shop to try it. Dragged you said? Well yes, it currently is holding my vinyl collection of LP records I keep, like my original Beatles albums and etc. Heavy thing...
One of these day, I shall hook up my fancy turntable with a moving coil cartridge and a pre-pre-amp...ahhh, but I digress and my toe is still making its presence known. And I need new (old) amp and speakers, sigh!

Look at lot more dignified for that small tool chest

It is currently sitting about an inch lower than on the Rubbermaid container, but for now that will do. I'm going to experiment by putting a wheeled platform under the bottom chest and check various height till I find my ideal ''Pain free'' height. It will also let me experiment with my final dimensions.

Meanwhile I received in the mail the No 8 lever cap that Ralph sent me.

Then there was that strange sound in the background...

Pieces of bubble wrap are strewed all over the carpet

Following the traces back we find... a clue to whom may be the culprit??

Somebody left a clue behind...

My Stanley No 8, did not came with the proper lever cap and blade. It has a Record blade and a Stanley No 7 lever cap.

Record No 8 blade

No 7 versus No 8 lever cap

No 7 lever cap

Proper No 8 lever cap, much better fit.

Thanks a lot Ralph...

Then I still have the boring till on the go and a lot of tools awaiting their turns to be restored.

The beam boring machine is still in parts on my bench, that Langdon miter box I picked up the other day will need total dis-assembly and clean up. Probably a good candidate for a paint job.

I got the swing arm to move freely, phew!

Yeah for Liquid Wrench!

That is an interesting feature, which I believed only shows up on MF-Langdon miter box, an adjustable width between the front post and the fence

Roughly 2 extra inches. Nice touch...

But you better have lots of rigidity in that adjustment. 

Those No 12 Breast drills don't have much japanning left, I'm thinking maybe I ll try a repaint job. It is not something I normally do, but I want to try a complete restoration job. Depending on my results I will either do a few more or send my failed attempts to Wiktor Kuc for a real good make over job :-)

So that should keep me occupied until...Squirrel! 

Oh yeah, almost forgot. This being the month of June, I'm supposed to participate in the world famous Brian Eve's build a chair in the month of June-ish on line extravaganza. So I better start giving it some thoughts.

Probably some sort of shop chair, with built-in WiFi, beer holder, 8 way power adjust with lumbar support and etc.

Hummm do I still need two seats up front in my Lincoln?

Bob, doing some therapy blogging :-)