Proud Mary? not quite...

The latest in an intriguing series of toys and things of a not so serious nature is the mighty river boat "Owen". Constructed with the 4 year old in mind, shove off with your imagination on the mighty Mississippi or take a cruse around the bathtub...

Playing Around

Here is the purple ribbon winner from the 4-H achievement days, the B-man did a real nice job on it.

the next photo is of some cars I've been playing with... what a great stress reliever... gunna sell some and give a lot more away...

project pictures

the first one is a chunk of leftover firewood that i sliced off the bottom and drilled a couple of holes in it, im gunna call it a firelog. the second is a size comparison for some coasters i made and the last is a country quilt holder.... see I've been busy...

Busy times indeede

The shop has been humming over the last couple of weeks. i sold some fence sections and had to replace them, did a custom order for a lady in RI for some wood coasters for her wedding and even sold a couple of wood toy cars the B-man did for 4-H a season or two ago. I momentarily thought about keeping him home from school to work in the shop for room and board but that wouldn't go over very well with his mother.....

Clean Shop

Finaly took the time to clean the shop up some. i have a couple of kids comming over to work on 4-H projects. so i figue a clean shop is a safe shop, besides the sawdust was getting deep.

Did I ever....

post these pictures..... for Mom....

End of June

B-man is working on a nice mirror project, he is framing it with pine door trim with the little rosettes in the corners, he did one of those fancy "expressions" on the glass that says, Dream. the overall effect is pretty cool, ill post pics when done...now we are off for a weeks vacation to do some golfing, fishing and drinkin in the great state of Montana.... now where did i put that silly hat?

Quick Update

oh my how time flies when you are having fun. it seems that spring has bounced into summer a little faster this year.... updates....chicken coop waiting for siding but the rest is done. built a closet for a friend and hung a storm door for the in-laws. new fencing for the chickens, sorting the sheep out and getting them ready for 4-H. did some vacation and caught some fish.. the shop is a mess and i need a half day to straighten it out.... selling fence sections on ETSY.com stop by and make me rich....

checkin in

this post is for the 3 people who stop by on a regular basis to see what im doing.
so the camera didn't work very well and i didn't get final pictures of the picture frames. oh well that's the way it goes... my mum bought me some laying hens for easter (thanks mom) and now the big push is for a chicken coop to keep them in. they are currently in residence in the garage and really need to move out. i did get a chance to tweak the end forms for the kayak, im finally happy with the shape, next step is to rout bead and coves on the strips...

Busy Weekend

its been a great weekend, i had to finish up framing some pictures for my mother. why spend thousands for originals when you can go to wall mart and buy a puzzle? then frame them up? thats what im talking about... I also built another treasure box to put on etsy.com and i came up with plans for a couple more. we are visiting my mum for Easter and ill take pictures when we hang up the pictures and post them then...

Catchin up

The weather is finally turning nice and i cant wait to get my kayak out on the water... only I'm not quite done yet.. here you see all of the forms on the strong back. i will attach strips to form the shell. i think it will leak at this point.

here is a picture of the reciently completed work center. i mounted my planer to the fliptop and a router on the other side.

Flip top work center

I built this work center with plans from Wood Magazine. I mounted my plainer on the flip top side and made a router table top on the other.. great work space and a good layout. i also spent another 2 hrs on the kayak, forms are set and ready for strips...

kayak update

just a quick note
i have the strong back ready to go and now need to space the forms correctly... i couldnt find the silly camera last night so pictures will have to wait.

total hours spent so far.....8

Snow Day

I just love it when the weather man predicts 12" of snow and the city just shuts down for the day. the B-man and i spent a great day in the shop, he built a bunch of trestles for the train set and i cut out all of the forms for the kayak and built the boat rack to build the thing on... so let the wind howl and the snow blow, we put on a pot of beans and baked some bread... life is good.

Off Topic

yea i know, to survive in this world you need to have a sense of humor... i think im gunna make it..

Kayak Update

So now it has finally begun, last night i spent a couple of hours drawing out the cross sections for the forms. i believe i have them all in order. never having done this before i did find that the charts in the book were a little confusing. what i ended up doing was inputting all of the offsets and stations in a spreadsheet and let the computer sort out the deck, hull and shear positions. then i transferred them to an autocad script and plotted them out. i still had to spot check the forms by hand. next step - cut out the forms and build the strong back and stands... project hours so far - 2

Island Stool Update

OK here are the stools in action, i think they turned out pretty good. they are solid and haven't fallen apart with lots of use. with the pads a person can sit in them for a long periodic of time before the lead butt syndrome sets in...

Kayak Update

Epoxy and Glass Ordered!

in the works

even though the temperature in down in the ludicrous zone, i still have a couple of things going on in the shop. i am trying to finish up the island stools, paint issues below 50 deg. i have plans for a small bistro table to go along with the chairs, cute but simple design. and of course i can do nothing without pressure.... i need to have both projects done and to the farm show by Monday morning, feb 9th...

It Is Done

After at least a year (2?) of procrastination, the door bell is fixed. I dont think it will stop the neighbors from walking in and yelling to see if we are home, but at least I will know when the UPS man drops off a package.