Home on the Hill

I am building a couple of tool cabinets. With my experience with the last ones I want to build ones that use dado 's and rabbets to fit the peg board. That way I don't have to use molding on the exposed edges and it gives more surface area for the buck. I will have to use birch edge banding and I bought a cheap iron for that. Routing all those little slots requires a router table so the project of the day was: Always a challenge. The accompanying manual appeared to be for a similar, but not exactly the same unit. Of course it was written in a language that only approximated English. Jo-Ann read the instructions,( several times) I fudged the parts that seem to go here and here, we tightened a lot of 8mm nuts, and voila a cup of tea later: Getting the thing adjusted took some head scratching but we were able to make a few slots that fit the pegboard perfectly. Construction continues. It didn't freeze last night. As a matter of fact we were awoken by the sound of rain ...

Our kitchen table often gets used as a lap top base station. It's just nice to sit at the table and peruse the www while having breakfast or a lovely cup of tea. The problem we faced was only one outlet near the table and it was on the floor as they didn't drill the logs for wiring when they installed them. The problem is that using a power bar to make additional outlets just isn't that satisfactory. It sits on the floor getting underfoot, and we've even had one melt a bit after residing for a time on the heat register. The solution was to take the kitchen table into the shop and add a couple of outlet bars to the table itself and then just have one plug from the table to the outlet. Neat. When our friends RT and Rhoda get here for some Easter celebrations we can all sit at the table and use our laptops with out getting knitted in the power cords. Xena has a new sister now and were working on integration. It's sure going well. Cleo seems to be adapting to t...

One of a few I will be building. This is pretty cool for tool storage. This one case occupies a 48 X 42 inch wall space and has a sheet and a half of pegboard storage. With a small shop, finding a use for every nook and cranny- maximizing working space and storage is paramount. Today with any luck I will complete the trim and varathane and maybe get a coat of paint on the pegboard. I managed to get some bugwood trim around the small side entry door. What a trial. There is a reason Mike Holmes makes sure everything is square and plumb before he starts. I thought the job would take about a half hour. Several hours later - when I went into the house for a calming cup of tea Jo-Ann mentioned that she was hearing a lot of crashing and banging and sawing and some swearing coming from the shop.. It was twenty below yesterday - time to work on the recalcitrant skid steer. the starter relay appears to be toasted. I will have to see if I can get a new one in town today as we have snow ...

But a work shop yes. I started to shoot primer on the O.S.B. yesterday. This is obviously the most important part of the job - sitting thinking about working. And then the actual painting. Seconds after this shot I stopped and put on my face mask. It doesn't take long to fill the room with acrylic paint fumes. The photographer left right after this shot when she realized what the white haze was. It sucked up the acrylic latex primer like a thirsty sponge. If I would have done some research ( i.e. google) about painting O.S.B. I would have used different material. Like a stain blocker and perhaps a concrete block filler paint to even out the chip pattern of the O.S.B. I am noticing some bleeding through from some of the particles that O.S.B is made from. Hence the need for stain blocker. But it will still look a million bucks better than just bare wood chips. When I checked the place last night before bed I was amazed how much brighter it was with just one coat of primer o...

A friend who is a heavy duty mechanic showed up yesterday to do an oil change in the Drott Skid shovel. It froze up a winter ago because it had water in the transmission oil. We drained it and flushed it out several times before filling it with new oil. We also changed the oil in the final drives, one of them practically empty. Just bad maintenance. Up and running trying to get that oil circulating. This machine can move a lot of snow. Or gravel. Or the clay mountains at the ends of the tire garden. Not that we put it out to pasture, like it looks in this pic, but really it didn't have to be right next to the house. It's not like some one is going to steal it away in the dead of night. I think we are starting to realize that we have enough land that we don't have to keep everything within fifty feet of the house. The nearest neighbor is a couple of kilometers away and were not exactly crowding the fence line. I want to get the area clear of heavy equipment and put a...

Finished a nice little project I've had on the burner since before the shop collapsed. I am really starting to like the Barn Wood. Not finished, just left like it came off the wall. Well these pieces came from a door on one that was hanging there on one hinge. I managed to save the hinges too. This is the window in the upstairs library area. I had taken the window framing off in order to seal around the edges with spray insulation as there was a heck of a draft on this West facing window. Now with it sealed and some stretch plastic over the glass it's warm as toast. I still have a few more windows to do. But will probably wait untill I erect scaffolding so I can paint all the fake wood paneling. Or ..? We spent yesterday decorating the Hall for Tiny's Christmas eve. It was always a tradition in my family to have Christmas on Christmas eve. Maybe because the kids could stay up late and not have to get up at 4:00 am to open presents. Tom likes to invite some of the old timers...