A Little Late.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip, not a bunch, but still trying to save some off of our laptop. The hard drive did fail, but we will be able to save some of the pictures.

This was a common view throughout the trip.

Fish Creek falls in Steamboat Springs Colorado. About 280 feet from top to bottom. I loved it...check out the video below.

Lots of snow in the rockies. Most of it melted within the day and a half we were there. It was almost 80 one day, and a little rain mixed in made it melt fast.

I got to run some heavey equipment while in steamboat, DIG THIS was the name of the place, and the main reason we headed to Steamboat Springs. Was a blast! I ran a dozer and a track-hoe. Video below of me running the dozer.

Enjoying the falls.

The falls were cool...can you spot the fisherman?...we did not notice him until we were about to leave.

Driving over the pile I scraped up....I wanted to fly over but the guy kept saying slow and easy...I guess he knew more about me than I thought. I don't think I could afford that dozer anyway....so I went slow.

Pictures from our journey.

I thought I would post some pictures of our trip so far. My laptop decided to completely crash on our first night. Will not even open up vista...it just says it does not find an operating system. A bunch of the pictures of our trip up, and the badlands were on there...hopefully I can get them back. So, I am at the days inn in Cheyenne Wyoming on the public computer. Enjoy some pictures of Mt. Rushmore and some parts of Nebraska and Wyoming.

Devil's Tower in Wyoming...Near Mt. Rushmore.

Crazyhorse mid project.

Cool angle of Mt. Rushmore

Profile view of our first president

Up close and personal

Some of the longest trains I have ever seen.

I would post some more, but there is a very anxious teenage girl fidgeting behind me that looks like she is going through twitter withdrawal. More to come as our trip continues. Tomorrow we are headed to Steamboat Springs Colorado.

Stay tuned. We did have to buy another memory card just to hold all of our pictures....since I do not have a laptop to off-load onto...damn it.

Completed projects and a new hobby.

Well, both the bookcase, and the step stools have been completed and delivered to the customers. Both projects really turned out great, and we are glad to have some shop space back. Since we are leaving for vacation on Saturday, we will have a busy week trying to get four projects for Mike and Mary completed before we leave. Should be do-able, and it will make our time off a little more enjoyable.

Here is the completed bookcase, excuse the spots on the camera lens.

For the adjustable shelves we used these brass inserts. The shelf support pins just slide in, and there is no room for them to slop around. They not only dress it up a little, they keep the holes from getting chewed up over the years by moving the shelves up and down. This is the first time I have ever used them, and from now on it is the only way to go.

Here are the two steps I made for another customer. Ruth's sister is needing one as well, I think I will use this design for hers as well. The customer supplied her own lumber that her husband cut with his portable mill. These have oak sides, aspen top step and kick board, and cherry bottom steps. They look cool. She will be painting a Disney picture on the top step of each one.



Our New Hobby

For many years I have heard about people doing the hobby of GeoCaching, a week ago Ruth and I tried it out for ourselves. To explain it the easy way, Geocaching is basically a scavenger hunt using a hand held GPS. On the website geocaching.com you can find hundreds and hundreds of these goechaches in your local area. You find the ones that appeal to you, get the coordinates and head out to find it. Most of them take you to a piece of public land with great scenery, or historic importance. We are amazed by how many great things there are to see that we never knew existed. Once you find it you sign a log book, trade items, and log it online to say that you did, or did not find it. Lots of fun...hiking with a goal. Check it out.

We found this guy about 10 feet from one of the geocaches we were looking for. Rocky here was awake, but did not even move a muscle with us so close...not sure if that is good or bad.

This is the sign posted at a piece of land close to us. Ruth and I actually placed our first Geocache for other people to find. It has been found twice already, the first time was early the morning after we placed it. here is the link to our exact geocache..you have to be signed in to see the actual coordinates, but you will get the idea. CHIRKO MULTICACHE

We will be posting many more pictures in the future of our finds. Check it out next week, we plan on finding a few caches while we are out on vacation, we will post pictures throughout the week from our hotel rooms.

Deer, Cleaning, Cutting Board, and Bookcase

Well, some major progress has been made in the shop as two projects have been completed. The bookcase and the cutting board have been finished. Check out some of the pictures.

The deer were out on Saturday at high noon...this picture was taken right out of the shop window, and no zoom was used. They get more and more courageous.

Back to business...Here is Ruth cleaning out the canister filter for the dust collector...dirty job, but it keeps the shop super clean, and makes much less work in the long run.

Here is the completed cutting board. Instead of wiping on the mineral oil countless times we decided to invest in a container and a few bottles of mineral oil. We just let this one soak over night, then I just put the board on Ruth's nice pampered chef cooling rack while still in the container to let the oil drain off. Wipe it clean a few times and it turns out perfect.

This was donated to be auctioned off at a benefit held this weekend for a local family friend who has cancer. The board did sell, but I am not sure for how much. The event was a great time, and was a huge success, many people attended.

Here is a picture of the bookcase coming together...here Ruth is clamping on one of the side rails. Anyone who does woodworking knows that no matter how many clamps you have...you never have enough...I could use a few dozen more!

Here is the top and bottom for the case clamped up and almost ready for final assembly.

Case all put together...just some final sanding, a good wipe down, then time for stain!!

Speaking of stain...here it is. Jacobean is the color the customer wanted for this piece...a great dark stain.

Stay tuned as many many more things will be happening in the next couple weeks before we head west. Next on the list is the oak tabletop...then the sure to be challenging gun cabinet.

Two Nights in a Row !?!?!

Today I did get a little progress done on the bookcase, nothing really noticeable but progress was made. I also got another cutting board in the clamps today too.

Here are the two sides of the bookcase. It does not look like much, but setting up all of the holes, and the dado's take some time.

Cutting board in the clamps.

Here is a simple lumber rack I put up a few days ago. This is not for bulk storage, but to let the lumber for the current project "acclimate" to the shop. This way the lumber can sit a few days in the shop climate and do all of its "moving" before I mill it square. Has been nice clearing up some shop space.

Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow the bookcase will start to resemble a bookcase, and the cutting board will be almost done as well.

No Pictures Necessary

As I am sitting here watching the Yankee/Red Sox game with the laptop....well....on my lap, I realize it has been a while since I have posted on the old blog. I have been super, super busy in the shop lately, basically starting a bunch of projects. I have step-stools, a bookcase, a gun cabinet and two cutting boards all in progress right now. The shop looks like a bomb went off, but things are definitely happening. Nothing that really makes an interesting picture. I will post some pictures when I have a little more progress done on each project.

On a lighter note, Ruth and I were asked today if we would like to go to the Mt. Rushmore/Badlands area in a few weeks for a week. We will be going with her parents. So, we will be doing that. I have never been out there, but all of them have, so it should be fun for us to get away.

Stay tuned...as I really do plan on posting more often...no, really....I mean it this time!!

Update

It has been a very busy week, not only working on projects but preparing for projects. We will be starting 3 very large projects next week. The table top, a large bookcase, and finally the gun-cabinet for my brother. So this coming week will be spent planning, getting lumber, getting tools and supplies, and cleaning the shop! Here are a few pictures of things we did this last week.

I quickly made this little table for my mom to put her printer on at work.

Ruth's parents dropped of the table last Saturday, so we spent a few days stripping the finish off of the old legs. Here you can see how well it actually worked, I was impressed with the results.

The stipper had to be applied in two coats. The first coat would take the bulk of the finish off, and some of the color. The second coat would really get into the pores, and with a little light brushing with a brass brush we could really get it cleaned up nice...followed by a light sanding.

Here are the legs all ready to go.

On Friday we went to Pickett to pick up this awesome pile of lumber from my Dad's cousin. He had it cut, milled and kiln dried 8 years ago, and never found a use for the wood he did not use for trim in his house. There is about 180 b/f (board feet) of 4/4 (1"thick) & 5/4 (1-1/4" thick) white oak here. About $500 dollars worth of wood, and I just drove away with it!

Another view of the take!

Ruth and I have been playing allot of cribbage in the shop while waiting for stripper to work, and whenever we have a down momemnt. She has been whipping my butt by the way. We decided to make a dedicated shop cribbage board. Of course it cannot just be any old cribbage board, we have to turn it up a notch or two. This baby is 9" X 27" made out of a solid piece of oak. The drill press would not reach the center row of holes, so I had to do it will my centering block and hand held drill as seen above.

Here is Ruth burning in a line for every five points.

Tracing the perfect 29 hand so that can be burned in as well...she is the artistic one, I could never do this as well as she does.

Here is the finished board with a coat of poly on it. We used Brewers colors to paint the pegs, and the score-keeping area at the base of the board. We will have many years of playing on this board, and I might even win a few.

Stay updated, I plan on posting my progress a few times this week, like I said not much will be actually done this week, mostly planning and setup, but there is always something to work on.