here is my other little project. the picture turned out so well i had to post it. 

I did this little stand for a paying customer.. wow i didnt think anyone would actualy pay me..... 

darn cute if you ask me, it kind of says it all 

Slacken off in November!

Ok so I'm a slacker.... At least when posting is involved... Here are a few pictures of what I've been doing over the last month.... Homework started again so I only have a one day at most a weekend.. But I think I'm making lots of progress. Just one more day on Mother-IN-Laws trim work and I will be freeee!!!!! Just kidding, ill never be free.

September here we go!

Wow I intended to post more in august, but that's the way it goes. So now its September and summer is fading fast. Time to setup the firewood supply for winter, put the yard to bed and get some hunting in!

Weekend Update

Well, well, well... I made a little progress this weekend in the In-Laws house. Did the final coat of mud on the laundry room drywall. Patched some holes (man I love caulk!) and got a good start on the door and window casings. I also put on a lot of base board. The contractor did a lousy job in a couple of areas of trim, where the new addition and old house come together. I think I'm going to have to redo some stuff. I'm thinking a couple more days will finish off the inside. There is still a years worth of stuff to do. Yard work, decks and steps. New lights and stuff. Of course they want to move in this weekend.... Oh well, keep plugging away

Handyman Update

Just received my marching orders for this weekend. I need to finish up the taping and texturing of the laundry room in my inlaws new (old) house. I also need to measure for the black walnut trimming I need to do... not to worry things will change by Friday..
hahah

Achievement days 2006

Brandon made some wooden cars for grant county achievement days. He got his 4-h project ideas from toys n joys catalog. We ordered the plans and cut em out. Pretty cool. He got a purple ribbon on the cars and now they are on their way to the South Dakota State Fair! We are going to make a trip down there to see how they did. With any luck ill remember to take a picture.

This is the latest wild idea. still in the planing stage, this will be a complete 96 sf house. i think i can use it for ice fishing and a guest house! 

What happened to June?

June is gone and now its July! Man the time just flies when the wife is cracking the whip!
I have lots of things to do so I will just do a quick update and get back to work.

the garage project went rather well, the walls were actually plumb. We didn't get to the shingles but its pretty amazing how much work we accomplished in a week of 12 hours days. The project did expand a bit to include a 30x16 cedar deck enclosed with walls and roof. (matching the house was tough) someone didn't know the diff between 2.72/12 and 3/12 pich. Then we did another deck 8x30, the garage itself was 30x32 with 10ft walls.. For a couple of guys that hadn't even built a dog house before, I think we did pretty good. We did get shut down by a couple of thunderstorms.... Something about being on a aluminum ladder and lightning.....hmmmmm what was that? But it did give us a chance to drink a beer or two... Normal people have fun on their vacation, I seem to build stuff!

meanwhile I'm still waiting for the in-laws contractor to install a couple of windows before I can install a couple of false walls for the new shower and utilities. Go figure, that project is expanding too.... Now we get to paint the whole house! Oh well it keeps me out of the bars at night....

shop notes:
finally unpacked my tools from the garage project and decided I needed to install my chop saw with vacuum connection the right way. So I build a box in the wall behind it to run the vacuum line and came out under the bench for the blast gate... Should work great. I also installed the roof fan for the summer, I swear it was 500 deg up in the attic....Whew!
gotta run, have fun hammering!

May is almost gone

Time, Time, Time....
must be the biggest problem I have, lots of projects and no time to get it done. I haven't been totally lazy this last month. All of the typical spring activities and getting the garden ready. The hearth project is moving slowly, I am making my own tile out of field stone. Cutting slices about a half inch thick. The colors are wonderful from red, black and green granite.
I also had to rebuild the step for the garage entrance, I used recycled cedar from an old granary I tore down. Surfaced planed the boards and plugged the nail holes. Turned out really cool.
oh well, this is all the time I have for this month. I wont get back into the shop until June. Working cattle this weekend, removing a garage next weekend and building a new garage for my brother the week after that.....

I know its been awhile, but I have actualy been pretty busy. For my nephews birthday i built this trophy case so he can display all of his trophys. 

My how time flies when you're having fun... this is my first cabinet, and it only took two weekends to build, the special feature here is the slide out tray in the bottom 

Farm Show Final

What a week! The Watertown Winter Farm Show is finally over. Now its time to get back in the shop and complete some projects. Brandon's treasure chest got a first place ribbon. This was a very fun father son project, while I was making sure he had his measurements correct and set up the saws and router. He did all of the work. We used black hills yellow pine and butt joined blanks together, cut out and used the dove tail jig to put the corners together, we rabbited on the top and bottom and separated the lid on the table saw. We used a golden oak stain and polyurathane to finish it off.

Here it is, the final project at the Watertown Winter Farm Show. this treasure chest recieved a blue ribbon and Brandon is very excited about it. Nice Job Brandon! 

Here is Brandon working on his next 4-H project. its a neat little treasure chest. we still need to cut the lid free and stain/varnish then the hardware. ill post pics when complete. 

Farm Show Update

its almost time for the Watertown Winter Farm Show and my son Brandon is busy in the shop building a Treasure Chest to enter for a 4-H project. ill take the camera home this weekend and snap a few photos to post.

other news, i did score 5 solid core doors from the local hospital's remodel project. they are 48" doors and i got them for $2 each. should make some great bench tops.

ttfn

Happy New Year

Its the beginning of 2006 and we just returned from an extended vacation to California. To my dismay we received about 10" of snow which is nomal for this time of year. However the county snow plow decided that my fancy mailbox was just to nice and wiped out the entire row of boxes! This is typical of my type of luck, try to do something nice and someone has to run it over! Oh well, life goes on. So I have a lot to accomplish this year, this would be a partial list, ill have to check back and see if I "got er done" or not.

shop stuff

1. attic floor
2. attic lumber rack
3. paint room benches
4. paint room cabinets

House Stuff

1. re-shingle roof
2. new deck
3. outdoor kitchen
4. fireplace hearth
5. fireplace mantle
6. fireplace enclosure

I'm sure my wife can think up some more as well.

here is the next project, i need to build a surround and hearth for this fireplace insert. hmmmmm i wonder how i should do this....