Chicken / Egg? ... Woodworker / Workbench?

To do much woodworking, one needs a bench. But if one is building a workbench that requires a bunch of woodworking... You get the point.

Today really highlighted how important a workbench is. Today also highlighted that cutting down a stack of 12-foot-long 2"x12" boards in a one car garage, chock full of junk that used to live in a basement, is a royal pain in the neck. It was a bit like playing chess as you had to plan a couple steps in advance so as not to trip over something and let loose a string of profanity. I can't wait for us to get into a place with more garage/shop room... Now if only I'd get a call back about a job. (that's not in Indianapolis)

The day's activities consisted of many hours making long wide boards into shorter thinner boards. Lots of shorter thinner boards. To make the chore a bit safer I made a nifty collapsable (see above comments about limited space) outfeed table for the table saw.

I got a pretty early start this morning so I started off with sub-120dB tools. Yep, handsaws. Its no wonder that people, myself included, are generally "huskier" than people were 50-100 years ago. Besides the lack of garbage processed food and General Tso's chicken, you really had to expend effort to accomplish something.

I spent a couple good hours cutting boards to length with my trusty,70-year-old Disston crosscut saw. Once everything was cut to length, I briefly considered grabbing my 90-year-old Disston rip saw and starting to cut boards to width. Really briefly. By this time it was 9:30am and the romance of using only antique steel and physical exertion had waned and I fired up the table saw.

The end result is was this larger stack of boards, stickered and resting comfortably. And sore arms.

Norah's 1st art project and cute Old Navy hat/gloves

Norah made a trick or treat bag at the daycare.

This is the front of it.

This is what she actually painted.

If Norah was a little older and actually went trick or treating, we thought she could be little red riding hood in this poncho/coat and Casey could be the big bad wolf.

I don't have the Gap stock or anything, but if you have little girls, go to Old Navy and get these hat/glove combos. They're too cute! (I didn't see what the boys had, so I can't comment there)

...oh and yeah Carrie, that is the super cute jacket that your parents bought. It's 3/6 months, but I still manage to squeeze her in it.


The back is super cute too!

Untitled

Halloween, new stuff, and

Justin and Norah on our hike


Justin's exited to see these on the road...


Justin took this cool pic of a Bluejay.


My friend had some Indian clothes made for Norah and here is one that almost fits her now.




Norah was a skeleton for her daycare Halloween party


Our house on Halloween night


Norah and Dada


Norah and Mama


Norah playing with our decorations

Woodworking? Really?

Seeing how the title of this blog seems to indicate some sort of tie to woodworking I thought it would be nice to at least mention that I'm trying to set up a small workshop in our one car garage in the house we're renting.

I've been pouring over internet articles and Chris Schwarz's "Workbenches" book for a few days and have settled on an idea of what my new workbench will look like. After applying for another job and taking a 5 mile jog this morning, I headed to Home Depot to pick up lumber.... What a workout! After picking through the whole bin and heaving split, warped and other undesirable boards to the side I ended up with ten decent 2"x12"x12' planks of southern yellow pine and a gallon of Titebond II. I think each board weighs around 60lb. By the time I had my stuff picked out, I had literaly left a puddle of sweat on the floor by the lumber bin. Eww. Labor of love I suppose.

Loading 600lbs of lumber that is 12' long into a compact pickup with a 6' bed and driving down the interstate back home seemed a bit dicey, but I took great comfort knowing that the load was secured with ten dollars worth of the finest Chinese ratchet straps you can buy from Harbor Freight. A free-body diagram and summing the moments about the CG of the goodies in the truck bed would have looked pretty ugly but I got home without issue and stacked the boards in the garage. They're now resting comfortably separated by 1/2" square stickers to allow them to acclimate to the garage, essentially being outdoors. I figure I'll give the wood a week and start milling stuff down to size.

The bench, when finished, will have a leg vice on the front left corner and a nifty wagon-style vice on the right side. It should weigh around 300 lbs when its complete. This one shouldn't not rock and scoot across the floor when I'm using the hand planes. If so, I could always throw bags of concrete on the bottom shelf... :)

G-Ma/G-Pa Robinson Visit, Outer Banks Fihsing, Hiking at Eno

Gramma Deb and Granpa Rob came down on a NC scouting trip last week and spent several days with us and checking out the area.

While the women stayed in Raleigh and caught up on girl stuff, Rob and I took an overnight trip to the outer banks. It was the first time either of us had been there and we did a fair amount of exploring (and fishing!). The outer banks offer miles and miles of great beaches, most of which you can drive your vehicle on. Makes for easy fishing and great justification for buying a four wheel drive truck five years ago!

We arrived in Nag's Head, poked around a while and headed further south and fished for a while at Oregon Inlet. After an hour or two of inactivity and soaking up UV rays we headed on to Rodanthe to find a place to stay for the night. We settled on renting a small cabin at a KOA which, unbeknownst to us, didn't have heat or any sort of linens for the beds. Got pretty chilly that night!

We fished that night for a while at the beach right outside the campground then headed to the Rodanthe pier where we each caught a half dozen or so skates (like a stingray minus the stinging hardware) then sucked down a couple frosty beverages at a little bar.

After we thawed out the next morning we decided to head further South to Cape Hatteras, fished for a while, caught another couple skates and a couple little bluefish and headed back to Raleigh. We'll get the big one next time.





Sunday offered a cool cloudy fall day so we decided to take a hike in Eno River State Park outside of Durham. Norah tolerated 3 miles of hills and branches smacking her in the face and was justly rewarded with a few strawberries while sitting on a rock in the middle of the Eno River. Good kid!

Beach!

Hey ya'll! er maybe "How you doin'?" We're finding out that Raleigh seems to have been invaded by New Jersey/Yorkers... Some days it seems I hear more Joisey-speak than what I think North Carolina should sound like. Weird.

Anyway, Nisha's Dad (Pops) came down and stayed with us for a week and treated us to a long weekend trip to the beach! Good times were had by all except for the last night for poor Pops who got into a kicking match with freakishly sharp shell on the beach and got to tour the local ER for a fresh tetanus shot.

It was Norah's first trip (non in-utero) to the beach and she had a grand time:

Cool spider web pic before we left!

At the beach condo:






Hmm... what's that face mean... Nisha, Norah wants you! :)

Beach!




Pops giving Jabba-the-Baby a mile long piggy-back ride (ouch!):


Fun times! Thanks Pops!