Working thru a heat wave.

Things have been busy around here, hence why my blog has been quiet for a while. We have been almost continually in a heatwave since early June, with not much signs of ending soon. It often pushed into the low 100 F in full sun areas.  106 F is my highest recorded so far, that I noticed.

Considering the sizes and locations of Jean's Botanical gardens around the house, it is a constant watering and weeding daily activities, watering morning and before dawn.  But in return you get a constantly changing vistas as the plants flower then dies and are replaced by other blooming on cue.

Scenes from this morning.

Yap, my red Spark is still in the garage having its engine rebuilt under warranty.

Still driving my 2019 loaner from garage, been more than a month now...

My favorite evening spot.

Have a small bistro table and chairs set up

Finally got my gates painted gloss black, were previously still primer grey.

First pic was taken in June.  You can see the flower bed is changing

Coming up project, scrape and paint metal frame, 

replace wood boards on the bench

As you can see my spaces around for my lawn tractor are becoming non existent

The shed in the background is soon to be demolished

Let's just say that as soon as those bed's location and size stabilized, I will deploy underground automated watering solutions.  I have the technology and tried some of it before Both Bluetooth and WIFI, Bluetooth interfaces I find a bit touchy at time, move away with your phone and loose comms.  I have a big yard :-)

Now, if only I could convince her that we don't need more specimens of whatever :-)

Add the constant work required with the pool and you got your work day already starting to fill before you even done anything else.

Scene thru the orchard.  

That black cover is a must on the pool.  It keep the crap out, 

protect the water from algae and also act like a solar heater.

Water temps stabilized well into the 80s F, 84 F is the warmest I seen so far. 

As much as I hate pools, that is a concession to Jean and the grandkids, 

But I will admit that it comes in handy in this heat ;-)

So, all that to say, heat or no heat, the jobs must go on.

Our daily users.

Walking stick with a whistle.  We have bears, coyotes and foxes around.

Rake, broom, Weed eater, LV push mower and weed bucket.

The citronella plant is used to brush your hands on it then run your hands on your face and arms.

Mother nature own mosquitoes repellent.

It is really not that bad if you take it easy, stay out of the open sun areas as much as you can or minimize exposure.  I have a few cooling stations located around the property to take refuge in or work :-)

Pacing yourself, take cover, take breaks often and hydrate (water) and vitally important, get back inside and have a nap :-) 

I usually finish the day inside the pool. May as well get inside to clean it :-)

Anyway, I am taking a break inside right now, hard to see when you have water dribbling in your glasses.  I should really wear a bandana...

For the last two days, I am finally back working on my last two window sashes.  

That meant dragging out machines and setting up shop outside.  

I had previously experimented with making a small sample with hand tools, to get a sense of the better sequences of cut.  The finished sill plate does not have much of a square surface left when done.  So it get tricky to hold, hence my experiments. Which quickly convinced me that I was not going to used my small plow plane as thought to cut the long tapered groove in construction lumber with solid knots in it.

Started by making a paper template

The groove is tapered, took the approximate size for the plow.

The only square surface left.

Made me experiment with my cut sequences.

That square surface on the RHS is only 5/16 in before it tapered, 

being the top surface of the sill

Got it all figured out.

Dimensions and cut sequences

The tools used.

Small plow for groove, LA Jack for the tapers, 

small side rabbet plane for tapering groove sides

Then decided to use the table saw to cut my groove straight walls then using hand tools to widen it in a tapered shape. That worked, but it is a lot of sweating work to trim and fit the groove to the window frame, I know....

Set up her portable Table saw in a shaded area.

Yes, Jean came with her own tools :-)

My first piece done yesterday.  

Finished by hand with jack plane and chisel

So today I have a Plan C, I will still do the bulk of the work with my trusty chisel, but will refine the shape with a scraper.  So I am now making a steel scraper profile to do that.  Then I'll cobble some sort of wooden holder to used it like a marking gauge, to both straighten the groove and ensuring a good fit first try up my work bench out in the sun :-)

Found a suitable piece of steel, a piece of a large bandsaw blade.

The napkin under is to prevent the ink bleeding on her table clothe.

I am allow to work on the dining room table just as long as.... :-)

Then off to the garage.

I don't have a metal vice on the kitchen table :-)

In this pic, the blue tool box is my original tool box issued to work on my first aircraft, the CP107 Argus.  I went away one year on courses for the new aircraft coming in, the CP140 Aurora.  When I came back, I could not return my tool box, all Argus sections having been stood down.  So I got to keep it.

The red vise is a Record Autovise 74, the hack saw is a MF Buck Rogers No 300 high tension frame hacksaw.

quick work to rough cut it to shape

By then I was sweating buckets, so I retreated inside, had lunch and made this blog.  Now time to go back out in the sun...

Bob, loosing or melting weight ??