Update on the lack of wood working

Spring has come which always makes it harder to get to work in the shop. The yard needs work, tractors need work, lots of things to do and even though there is more daylight per day there still isn't enough time in a day.

Also before the soon to be built entertainment center can be install the living room is going to get a coat of paint.  Which is my current  BIG project.  The great room is roughly 40' long by 32' wide with 15' high side walls and the cathedral ceiling goes up from there.  Lots of wall surface area.  So Saturday I rented some scaffolding and got it setup. Sunday I primed the burgundy and got the "small" wall painted by the stairs. Progress isn't moving anywhere close to what I would like. Ideally this would be done on Saturday so I can move onto something more fun to work on like DIY dentistry.

I hate heights.

This was he first coat of green, the 2nd coat has been applied.

last week I finalized the plans for the entertainment center and marked the ouline on the wall in painters tape for my wife to check off on the final size.  Last thing I want to do is build it only to hear "it's to big or not big enough."

Last week we had some very intense rain and our driveway was nearly washed away. So I worked with the road commissioner to patch it up and a new culvert is to be installed this week.

large wash outs on each side of the driveway. the water appeared to have backed up enough that it over topped the driveway.

upstream side

downstream side, all this was previously gravel

Well that' s a peak into what has been going on, I am ready to get back into the shop.

A quick update

Things have been really busy lately at work and at home and I haven't had much time in the shop or time to post anything.

I spent almost a full weekend working my wife's trailblazer, it had been making a noise in the front end. So the intial plan was to replace the wheel bearings. The bearing didn't sound bad, and the noise sounded like it was coming from the upper CV joint on the drivers side.  Replacement drive axles with new CV joints are available so I decided to replace it instead of trying to fix the CV joint.  To replace the drive axle the complete suspension has to be disassembled.  I took it more apart than I had ever had the front end of any vehicle.  

 Sadly when I put the drive axle in it still made the same noise.  At that point I wasn't ready to dig any further and I put it all back together after changing the front deferential fluid.  It all went back together rather easily compared to how difficult it was to take it apart.

I've also done a little work in the garden. Last week a friend came over with a 6' tiller and tilled the garden and the sweet  corn patch.  Before he came and tilled I used my garden tractor and a small dics to break it up some.  The garden had been plowed under last fall.

 We will be planting soon.

My wood working projects are being put on hold while I repair a blown head gasket on my lawn mower. I hope to get that done this weekend so I can get back to building things.

1 Year Later

I've been posting my projects and ideas on this blog for just a few days over a year and I have really enjoyed getting to share what I am working on.  Thank you to everyone who reads regularly and I hope anyone else who finds this will continue reading it.

Spring seems to have came early this year and I have already had to mow the yard twice and lawn care season will be in full swing. I have still been working on organizing the shop and the list off projects I want to build is growing daily.

In the last few weeks I have moved my file cabinets that I store parts and tools in from one side of the shop to the other side, and have put together a shelving unit where the file cabinets were. I plan on using the shelves to hold the smaller piece of wood, but I still need  to come up with a place to store any boards longer than 6 foot.

#50 Spring has Sprung

This is my 50th post to this blog.  The last few months the Number of views has grow greatly.  I am amazed with the number of views, in less than a year there have been more than 2100 views.  Thanks to everyone who has visited.  I am enjoying sharing what I have been working on.

Spring official started on Tuesday, but we've been enjoying spring type weather for a little while now.  Trees and flowers are in full bloom, and the grass (weeds) is growing like crazy. I finished mowing the yard for the first time this year yesterday.  I plan on starting to apply shellac to the bottle holder tonight. Over the weekend I applied 2 coats of boiled linseed oil which gave the hickory a warm glow.

Spring

Spring was a bad time to start this blog. I will do my best to do some wood working and write about it, but spring time is very busy for me.

The grass is growing like crazy, it is about time to start working in the garden, and like most home owners I have a to-do list of things on the house that seems to grow daily.

We had a severe storm come through on Tuesday so that meant I got to do some gas powered wood working. Over the winter our large sycamore tree lost a large limb, while cutting up other storm debris I cut some rough boards from sycamore. I am not sure how the boards will turn out, I cut them with the chainsaw and placed them in the wood shed to dry. It will probably be next year before they are usable.