We rented a cabin, and so did one of our son, next door. Each cabins have a name and a theme, which kinda set the décor inside. Our son Levi was in the Out of this world cabin (ET and other space creatures) we slept in the Dog house...
YES, I can honestly say that we have reached a new milestones in our relationship, I slept in the dog house, well actually both Jean and Rudy also :-)
The first night it was pretty cold, it dropped down to 11 C, Rudy appropriated all the blankets around him. Came morning, we had perhaps 5 in square of blankie left between Jean and I :-)
The grand kids thought it was pretty funny that Grampa was going to sleep in the doghouse, I did not quite got the joke until I saw our cabin, sure enough it was called the Dog house.
Yes, we slept in the dog house, Rudy felt right at home :-)
On our way up and down took time to see my good friend Jack in Nepean. He recently lost his wife at home, from cancer. He knew I went thru it earlier and I could so understand what he was going thru... :-(
Due to some medical emergencies in the family, we had to cut our trip shorter and rush back home. Did not get to do much, if any tool hunting... And yes, we had to skips a few visits along the way.
Sorry friends.
While we were away, my friend Dave, went a few times to check on my house.
After he accepted, I told him about being cautious of the automated sprinklers I deployed around the house and to stay away from the back deck, need urgent repair.
He went 5 times and jokingly said that it was Dave 5, Sprinklers 0, he has yet to get soaked.
I replied that I should have gotten the WIFI model instead of the Bluetooth one, that way I could spray him remotely :-)
When we got back, I went around to see how the gardens survived the heat waves with my clever watering systems I deployed. Solar pumps, Bluetooth enabled timers, electronic timer, soaking cones and etc. running drip irrigation, soaking hoses, rotating sprinkler's and etc. I felt quite smug :-)
Turns out, it was no big feat on Dave part against the Sprinklers...
When we left, I forgot to turn on the water valves to the sprinklers.
Oups, says Bob with a red face :-)
Back home earlier, the first order of business was to put in our two windows Air Conditioner units and to finally replaced the two windows in my garage.
They had been stored inside since last November .
My friend and contractor, Doug Harrison
First one, in the back, replaced
Next one was the double unit on the side of the garage.
This is what my earlier repair look like from the side (first time I see how I did). I previously just cut off the rotten portion and spliced new pieces of wood, being careful not to stuck the window to the house framing
New unit installed, need to clean up, caulk, then install the black shutters back
The specs of my new windows.
Low-E coating, Argon filled, doubled glazed and blah blah...
Thinking of maybe recycling these two windows in backyard structures later on??
If that take too long, I'll just turf them out to the recycling scrapyard
Also took time under the sun during the continuous heat waves, to solidify the back deck.
Yes, those are my two off cuts of the 6X6 beam I put up in my basement hand tool shop.
The literally fallen apart green wooden remains was the former 4X4 post...
I added extra support under when I first salvaged the deck a few years back (posts on deck blocks)
Not doing much to it, just has to hold up until it get demolished and a new one goes up. Hopefully later this season. As soon as we finalize the design and I figured out how I am going to afford it :-)
Back home, we went last weekend to Truro area, to visit Jean's sister and do some exploring around. There are some antique dealers in the area, so we dropped in to see what we could find.
There was quite a few tools to be found, but most of it was useless, hand drill with stuck gears, badly rotted and rusted planes etc. Not good :-(
Planes left outside since ….
The moulding planes are now beyond salvaging :-(
The long jointer body is starting to rot at the bottom of the nose on the ground... Tst Tst.
This is the antique store which had those planes outside (above)
But I persevered and finally found some good stuff across the street
Right across the street there is this one, which kinda looks after them all under one roof when it comes to using Debit machine instead of cash. Each sales is recorded under various codes to differentiate each dealers.
Did not took long before I came across some interesting and promising finds
A Millers-Falls late model (70s) Mitre box for $95, not bad...
But NO I do not need another MBs in my shop thank you. ( I own 7 already) Passed...
Saw a few chisels (Eskilstuna Sweden) a few working hand drills, a few moulding planes, metallic bench planes etc, then I spied this one.
It is in beautiful condition and the dark colours remined me of an English planes.
They were using lots of Tallow on their planes and consequently they tend to acquire a darker colour
Back home did a quick look up, and sure enough it is from the UK, Scottish actually, not English
Stewart from Edinburgh, Scotland
The way the maker stamp is done point to an early plane.
More on that in a follow up blog post...
I was so excited about this find, I just had to rescued it before it suffered a fate like the ones left outside. Yes, Cdn $28 is a bit high, but I just had to rescue it. Besides my eyes were telling me, this thing is quite old, older than the ones I usually comes across... A suivre...
DOMINION CHAIR COMPANY 1860-1989
In the little town of Bass River in Nova Scotia (close to the head of the Fundy bay), there was once a furniture manufactory established along the Bass River. The river was used to bring the logs to the manufactory saw mill but it did not quite provided enough hydraulic force to powered the factory, they then relied on a steam boiler to run a steam engine driving line shaft machinery.
Using steam boilers meant that there was a constant threat of fire and sure enough it burned down with some regularity, 6 times, the last one being in 1989. It was never rebuilt after.
A poignant remember of the constant dangers.
As said earlier they burned down a few times (6)
The partners started making furniture at their homes around 1860, then in 1876, they became a Joint stock company: The Union Furniture and Merchandise company.
The name Dominion Chair was adopted in 1903. During their years they endured 5 devastating fires, an explosion, a four month old general strike in 1979 and finally the six and last fire in 1989.
Some of the explicative display boards around the site:
A pole railway used logs for tracks instead of steel rails.
It was often used to bring out trees from the forest and to bring in boilers, steam engines, saw mill etc. And of course shuttle workers in and out
These 6 fires and explosion have no doubt made an impact on the numbers of tools left to be found... :-(
But there are some remnants of the machinery left behind.
A portable boiler. The factory used a fixed one, but portable boilers like these
were often used to generate power for portable saw mills etc.
A small steam engine from the original plant
This interesting machine was used to impressed the back of the chair
with a decorative pattern (embossing machine)
Making press back chairs.
Hard to photograph in the harsh sunlight, but you can make out the pattern.
This machine was embossing cold. The curved back were feed by hands from a soaking bath.
Examples of antique pressed back chairs
Pic from Kijiji
They previously used a machine which heated the drum with 5 gas flames. Guessing they switched after one of the fires.. :-(
This information was provided to me by a volunteer at the local museum. My guide used to work at the Dominion chair plant in the early 70s.
Being Pioneer days they had displays outside around the museum.
You can always count on some vintage tractors at rural shows
See the antiques display in the background?
Some woodworking related tools
Something I don't see exhibited often, lawn tractors??
So back home, back into our somewhat regular routine.
Today, Wednesday we worked at our local foodbank. I was shocked to see our cupboard so empty, never seen them that low .
So now is a good time as any during these lasting months of summer, a friendly reminder that your locals foodbanks need supplies all year long, and for some reasons at this time of the year they always seems to run low...
If you were thinking of donating money instead of food items, it is always a better idea, since we have a bigger buying power than individuals can. For the same amount you spend at the grocery store, we can purchase more and the things we need most. But however you can help, we will gladly always take it.
Bob, the Rotarian thanking you for helping us feed our neighbours, whomever you are, were ever you are.
