in progress

well its time to start thinking about 4-H projects again, this year we decided to do the sheep project again. my barnyard improvement for this season is a little lamb shed that measures 6x8 with a sloped roof and a 2 ft overhang. the framing is done and i am now working on the siding. I'm using old barn wood that came off a 100 yr old granary. i need to recondition the boards into ship lap siding... ill send pictures next time... built the frame in the shop and almost couldn't get it out.... thought i was smarter than that, good thing the B-Man set me straight.

Sad Story

a friend has a son who has a horse..... no its not one of those story's..... anyway the horse passed away this winter and the

kid couldn't bear to have his buddie hauled away by the rendering truck. so he talked his dad into digging a grave out in the shelter belt. well every grave needs a marker and the kid asked his mom to talk to my wife to ask me if i would make a simple cross to use as a marker... here it is

Silly projects

i know i should be spending my time in the shop doing more important projects, but what the heck, gottta do some fun stuff once in a while.. this is a little veggie crate for the farmers market. we are going to partner up with some other people for a booth this year and sell veggies in these little boxes. i made this one out of scrap pine and some old cedar shingles

Fun Weekend

i realy need to quit my job and play in the shop for the rest of my life.... on the otherhand if i did my life wouldnt be very long... anyway

i found the cheepest way to color wood... easter egg dye! turns out bright. sometimes i even amaze myself!

March Update

its been kind of slow here at the woodworks, of course the temperature may have something to do with it. but last weekend it was to nice to stay in so we went ice fishing. the typical things happened, everyone around us caught fish, we got nothing. as no good day goes unpunished, the wife and friend decided that if they can spend a day fishing, we can spend a day shopping. as you can tell, it was a good quality family day (yea right). anyway i did enjoy the weekend and finished a couple of projects. i made one of these contraptions for about 10 cents.... im so thrifty i squeak!

Presidents weekend

Oh how i love a three day weekend! however this one was very unproductive, well kindof. Saturday was spent with the niece and nephew. Sunday was a total rest day, couldnt get motovated to do much more than the dishes, but did work on some plans. Monday i did make the trip to pick up the old camper, of course the wind chill was right around the -stupid mark. the old camper is one of those popus built in the seventys, with real metal. its so cute i dont know if i want to restore it or turn it into a atv trailer... oh well, spring is comming!

Ideas are a brewin!

it appears that winter time does leave one to contemplate the leasure activities of warmer weather... im planning on a camping trip this summer with the family to the hills and we want to take a couple of atv's along to cruze the logging trails... the problem is how to load two atv's on a short box truck and pull a camper at the same time.... or do we do the tent thing and pull a trailer with the atv's on that... either one will work but what would be best?

right now im thinking of pulling the atv's and building a box for the truck to handle all of the gear and kitchen stuff... somewhere between a Adventure Trailer and a King Kamper

a friend has given me an old popup trailer, which i plan to strip down to haul the atv's on. Im hopeing the stove and interior stuff can be reshaped to fit the ultimate camp box and have a fold out/slide out kitchen of sorts. perhaps even have drop legs that would allow me to slide the thing out of the truck and position it around a camp site or something.

i already have a yard long list of things i want to include, but you know how the best of intentions usualy turn out....

Just For Fun

ever see something in a magazine and think what the heck? well the wife likes chickens in the kitchen, no i haven't hung wire from the walls yet. but i thought that this project would be kind of fun to try. its not as easy as it looks but doesn't take that much time. just like any thing else practice and a good light near the scroll saw is the way to go.

whats the theme song from "super chicken"? now you will be singing it all day!

Catching up!

ok, here is a project that really tapped my skill.... its been cold enough to freeze the water in a heated bucket. oh about -15 or so.... the little guy has been making a mess of his hay, doing what little critters do ya know? tough plan and of course as always, general rule of thumb, always build it twice as big as you think you need!

here is the lucky guy... kind of cute in a cow kind of way.

I Love a 3 Day Weekend!

woo! hoo! been gettn er done out in the shop this weekend. besides its to cold to spend a lot of time outside, and its better than cleaning house!

First up is the trash can.... its finally done, its really hard to get polyurethane to dry and cure when the temp is below nothing, however on the plus side, the humidity is so low that the moisture is sucked out.....

As you can see, this is setup to use a 30 gal bag if you wrap it on the outside of the can or you can use a typical kitchen tall bag and hang it on the hooks on the inside. still a little dust on it. ill have to wipe it down with polish before delivery.

off topic but fun none-the-less

stupid news from south dakota

i know i haven't done one of these in quite awhile, but as this is the first really cold day we have had this winter, it kind of made me wonder why i live here in the first place.

first lets start with our state legislature. this years 35 day session has seen a lot of bills introduced. although the deadline for submitting is still a few days away, there are three of note that i would like to share with you.
hb1210 prohibit recyclers, scrap metal dealers, or scrap yard operators from purchasing certain beer kegs. [edit:huh? what if they are thirsty or tossing a party?]
SB111 extend the prohibition of road hunting of big game to include all firearms. [edit: so what firearms could you use?]
and finely (i cant find the number now) is a bill that the Game Fish and Parks department will have to pay you $200 if you hit a deer with your car. [edit: party on garth!]

now im sure you are sitting there like i was going huh? but if you think about it with a twisted mind like i have you will see an opportunity here..... i am going to go purchase an old pickup, around 1975, and weld on a bumper that looks like an Abrams tank and go for a drive! ill never have to swerve again! im thinking with all the extra money from the GFP i wont have to recycle my beer kegs ever again. is this a great state or what?

anyway this morning arrived with a temperature of -12. as this is the coldest morning we have seen so far i thought i would jot down a couple of safety reminders for those who live in warmer country....

1. do not stick any exposed body part against metal. this is not funny, where do you think politicians get the forked tong? some bully made them stick it to a flag pole...
2. always put your keys in an outside accessible pocket. when you have to take your glove off and dig through 5 layers of jacket, coat, scarf, coveralls, pants. you seem to be standing on the door step doing the jiggy dance. [edit: expecaly if you are dealing with #5 below]
3. never put your keys in your mouth while trying to put your glove back on. see note 1
4. spit will not freeze before it hits the ground until the temp is -22. don't try it, it is disgusting and frozen spit will stay there until june.
5. be prepared to make two trips back into the house. i have noticed as i get older, when going out into Arctic conditions, certain body functions demand attention (please note the 5 layers).


that's all for now... i wouldn't want to live anywhere else
roger

Winter Notes

Here comes winter again! temps not going to get much over zero this weekend... its going to be tough to keep the shop warm when the wind is howling and the temp is nothing. B-man and i did make some progress last weekend, he is progressing with his intarsia box and i did a little segmentation project. i also got the trash can stained and the first coat of poly on it. ill send in pictures soon. meanwhile the farm show is fast approaching and I'm not sure we will be ready......again

Skunked

didnt get much done in the shop this weekend... decided to take a break and do some fishing! had great luck and didnt have to clean any fish

Holidays

the good thing about Christmas and new years falling on Tuesdays, is that its like two extra weekends.... the bad thing about the same is that its like getting two extra Mondays! ug!
anyway the B-man and i got some quality shop time. B-man is about halfway through his insartia project and i am about 3/4's of the way through the trash can project.. one more good weekend should wrap both projects up! of course there is always time for ice fishing! if i can remember to take pictures i will post them here....

Better Off in a Pine Box?

interesting enough, today i saw a story in USA Today about biodegradable coffins. the story is here http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-26-coffins_N.htm

I'm thinking that if you want a pine box for the last ride, i can make one for you! cost you about $200 + shipping. i can get some nice Black Hills Pine for the box, and perhaps use some rope for the handles. I'm thinking a natural finish would be linseed oil and rubbed to a nice shine. and being that you wouldn't want it to fall apart during the ceremony, ill just use a little glue and iron nails that will rust and decompose along with you.

if you want one, send me email or comment

Got it Done!

Yes! With an hour to spare, i finished the macniene shed for the nephew and made it to grandmas house in time for dinner!

dosent the sweet child look so excited? he cant wait to get it home so he can park his John Derre combine inside.

here is another closeup, shh! dont tell but i spent about $8 on this project

christmas crunch

working hard, or hardly working... for the nephew that has everything except the perfect shed for the new JD tractor in 1/16 scale... i took the picture around midnight when i ran out of trim. i think ill have it done in time, but then i always am overly optimistic.

Uncle Rog?

....can you make me a barn for my toy tractors?
not a problem, i live for this stuff!



should be able to cut this down to 1/16th scale and have it wrapped and packed for xmas in just a few hours... i just need to find a few hours to do it! thanks morton building for the pic!

can i have the next project please????

next up on the never ending to do list is a trash can for a friends kitchen..i dont have any pictures yet but will be posting as they are available

here is the plan sheet i drew up to work off of..

converting from a dwg to a jpg realy screws up the picture.. i have a great pdf of this dwg but cant get it to upload....

Working hard....

and using that shop time most efficiently! yea, get a little time and all i do is play with a sign...

We have some friends up north who put on the biggest private fireworks event in this corner of the world. there are a lot of friends and family who camp out in the yard and the site was jokeingly refered to as "Camp Cowpie" being that it is in a pasture....


look mom what i did!!!

they should get a kick out of this