Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[Old Greenhorn]

Yes, we have a boat canvass company locally. I will check them out. I had thought to do it myself, but having a pro with the right skills and equipment might be the better way to go. Just have to look into cost. There are a couple of other little things I could have done at the same time, like new door ties, etc.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yesterday was a busy day and I am fully back at it. My laser vendor was still unresponsive as of yesterday morning and after a month of excuses I had to do something so I found another, quite local,  home shop/business and contacted them. By 2 in the afternoon I had the files and sample wood in their hands, they said they might have working samples for me today. When I got home I got a note from the first vendor saying they were 'just finishing up' and would have samples today.  Well late last night they wrote again and told me they cannot get their PC to talk to the laser and are dead in the water. This was not a surprise to me based on history. I just 'just finishing up' is a metaphor for 'we haven't started yet'.
 I also heard back from the log client and have my clear marching orders, so I looked at a prospective tree and will return to harvest what I can today or tomorrow.
 I finished the cutting mods on that table job, dry fit it all, sanded both custom projects, fitted, drilled and glued the legs on the bench and started the finishing on the lamp table.
 I also heard back and I am doing the show Saturday, so I sure hope that canopy arrives Friday like they said. It was in NM when I checked yesterday and now in MO.  Fingers crossed.
 Today is monthly food shopping after I take a neighbor to the bus station for a trip to the city. Then back at it, probably swapping between mushroom logs, picking up samples and meeting with the end client, sawing bench legs on the mill, and applying finishes. I also have to prep the trailer for Saturday and check my stuff.
 Time to get at it.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yesterday worked out pretty much as planned (go figger) and although my first laser person bailed on me, my second came through. I started by putting finishes on the two custom jobs I am working and then taking my neighbor to her bus in town. She is headed to a tournament in Birmingham, AL, then came home and took the wife on the monthly food buying trip. While we were doing the food shopping, which means my wife is shopping and I am following along doing what I am told, I answered a handful of emails and got the rest of my day planned out. After unloading at home I skipped lunch and picked up the laser samples and ran them out to the client. Had a short meeting with her, then back home. More finish work and other odd stuff finished off the day. I wrote checks and addressed envelopes for show fees and other stuff that is overdue last night after dinner.
 Got a solid night's sleep and woke up early with the first thing on my mind being to make a punch list for today, lots to get done. That was interrupted by falling into a you tube rabbit hole courtesy of @Bradm on another thread. After that I made my list and got at it. More finishes applied to start out, then I took a bench to the sawmill and trimmed the legs (nobody died). I headed to town to do errands and picked up snacks for tomorrow's show on the way home, I rarely have lunch at shows, just a snack or two.
 My new canopy arrived when I got home, so I had lunch and gave it a test run, looks good! After the test, I stuck it in the trailer. I did some sanding on the legs on the bench and applied some finishes.
 The lawn needed mowing last week, now it's a jungle, but I had to fight to get that lawn tractor started, again. Gets worse every time, soon I will have to take some time to work on it. Once started it's fine, but I had to mow twice, at two different heights and it took a lot longer to get it done.
 I hitched up the trailer, pulled it around and got it rinsed off and went down my 'pre-show checklist' in my head. I think I am good, it's getting to be a routine now..
 I got 9 out of 10 items on my list finished, the last was a stretch anyway and can wait until Sunday or Monday. No nap for me today and I didn't miss it. I am pretty happy with that new canopy, it's aluminum and a fair amount lighter than the EZ-Up, which is steel. Looks like some of the parts are directly interchangeable also and I am pretty certain the top from the new one will fit on the EZ-up, so I am going to order a replacement top and stick that on our older easy up so they match and the rain will not come through unimpeded. (The old ones is white and the new ones are a snazzy blue.)
 Sometimes a plan comes together. I can't figure it, but nothing broke and nothing went wrong today. Weird, but I'll take it.
 Let's see what tomorrow brings.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

    For some reason your comment about shopping with your wife caused a flashback to the early 80's when I was stationed at the USMC Logistics base in Albany Ga when the commanding general would go grocery shopping with Devra, his wife. He was a Major General (2 Star) with over 40 years service. They would be in the commissary and he'd be pushing the shopping cart and would periodically pull something off the shelf and put it in the buggy. Then his wife would say "Ray, you know that is not on your diet plan" as she put it back. There was not another person on the base who could do that but she treated him like a small child pulling candy off the shelf at the checkout counter.

   Is that the way shopping with your wife works out?

[Old Greenhorn]

No, it can be just the opposite sometimes. The main reason I am there is to lift things up and put things down.  Her knees and back are not getting better and the shopping being done only monthly means there is a lot of stuff. Mostly she pushes the cart to take some stress off her legs. She also asks me what we can/should buy for meals for the month (so she has someone to blame when we come up short or something is missing for a meal). Once in a while she will ask if I want to get this or that again, because I do have some foods I like on occasion (rarely junk food), but not every month, like cottage cheese or cheez-its. 
 Mostly I am there to pack the bags and load the car, then unload at home and carry it all upstairs to the kitchen or out to the freezer. I guess you could say I am her tailgunner and am supposed to know what she wants before she asks for it.
 Mostly I follow along, grab stuff I know we will get, like bread, cold cuts, sausage patties and routine stuff. I also spend time doing emails, texts, and searching craigslist or marketplace for things I might need if I find a deal. Sometimes I am the one who says "we don't need that" because I am cheap fiscally responsible.
 I have been working up the courage to try to talk her into one trip to get the major staple foods, then another 2 weeks later for fill ins. Doing it in one shot burns up more than half a day and many times I have a bunch of other stuff I have to get done. But she's the boss so...

[Old Greenhorn]

Can't figure out why I am so tired tonight but I am. Got to the show site earlier since I knew where my spot was and I figured taking my time was easier. I set up straight through and was ready in an hour and a half, which is normal, but this time my short was only a little damp, rather than soaked through. That lower humidity helped a lot. Didn't have to change shirts. Then I sat from 10am until 3:30 reading a new book I bought at GF last week about the founding and history of Rounder Records. I was uninterrupted by any sales all day. Not a single time did I have to get up and handle money in any form. I did hand out a few cards and have some conversations, but nothing else.
 That's OK, last time at this location I had almost 2 SGU's in sales and another SGU in custom orders. It all averages out and sometimes it goes that way. But I did spend a beautiful day just sitting and reading when I could have been getting some work done.
 Close up time I again decided to take my time but it was hotter and I did soak my shirt through, but I got it done in just over an hour. I think that's a new record. I believe my routine is getting better and more consistent.
 Still I returned home dog tired. Most likely it's because I didn't sleep well last night.
 I'll tidy the trailer tomorrow, do some finishing work, and start getting ready for the trip to MI on Wednesday.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well yesterday I took a mulligan.
 I have been running from one event or 'thing'  to another non-stop since around the first of July. Project work, trips, packing, unpacking, prepping for the next one, mushroom logs, juggling clients, on and on. Prepping for MI will be easy and quick, so no stress there. But all the other stuff added up because I had stuff I HAD to get done everyday. I was tired, in general, and most of the time.
 So yesterday I laid finish coats on the two custom builds out in the shop, did a little dressing up in the trailer, then settled in with that book I started on Saturday. It's a good story of more than passing interest for me.
 Have you ever read a book or an article about something you had even a little bit of personal involvement or participation with and found the writing to be misleading or inaccurate? For me this makes the credibility of the writer come into question if it happens once. If it happens twice, I become dubious, and 3 times makes the writer of little value to me. So yeah, that was in this book. Making matters worse, the writer does not follow a linear pattern in his story telling, jumping back and forth a few years constantly but not really explaining where we are or why we 'jumped'. Lastly, he focused on some bigger (more well known) names that he was more familiar with while at the same time skipping over significant figures who he had little personal knowledge of, thereby missing a large and important piece of the story. All of this leaves the uneducated reader coming away with a very slanted view of how things went down and this aggravates me a great deal (can you tell?).
 Let me back up. At GF, my friend Steve (with a syndicated Radio show) had been lined up to do an onstage interview with Ken Irwin, one of the 3 founders of Rounder Records. Ken was promoting a book about the story of how the company was formed, survived, and eventually was sold after 50 very successful years. Rounder specialized in the lesser known music and occasionally had a major hit. But they really wanted to preserve the quickly disappearing roots music. Black music from the deep south, bluegrass, traditional music, homegrown. It was an amazing company doing amazing things on less than a shoestring. I was anxious to read the book, especially after Steve was singing it's praises. I did not get to see the interview, but it will be online as soon as the editing gets done and the resulting show airs, if it hasn't already.
 The story was great, as expected, but the writing was less than mediocre and distracted one from the story. When I had just 20 pages to go, I even considered just closing the book and not finishing it. But finish I did, and the last 20 pages got better. I was glad to have it finished so I can move on today.
 I contacted Steve and just told him I thought it was a great story wasted on a poor writer with limited subject knowledge. Steve thought it was a good book and a fun read. To each his own.
 Why am I writing this? Because I have precious time to read at all and when I do I like non-fiction historical type stuff so I can learn something. This is a significant story in the music industry and the timing on the book is just right, but the writer messed up IMHO.
 If you have an interest, the Title of the book is "Oh, Didn't they Ramble" by David Menconi. I still think it's a great story and worth reading, just don't take all the details and generalizations to the bank unless they are direct quotes from the involved subjects.
 Today is another day and more sanding and finishes to lay down.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, not much to catch up here that I didn't cover in Watcha' Makin' or the pig roast thread. It has been good to get back in the work groove pretty quickly (I had no choice   ) and get some stuff knocked out. At least we are "home" now and have no travel plans for a while. I may be spending some overnight's at The Hoot at the end of the month, but that's no big deal, it's local and I might sleep there to save the 20 minute trip home at 3am.
 Interesting follow-up on my previous post regarding that book and Steve's interview. While we were driving out to the pig roast, actually about 40 minutes from Harrison, Steve called me to let me know he had gotten a clean copy of the interview from the sound guy at the stage, which he didn't know was happening. We talked more about the book, and Steve's off stage conversations with Ken Irwin (the subject). Turns out neither of those guys thought the writer was very good either and had reservations about how the book was written and how it presented itself. The general consensus is that he (the writer) was more familiar with pop and rock music and not at all familiar with the people involved with Rounder records.
 It was a little gratifying to learn that my evaluation was accurate in the eyes of other reviewers who know more than I. Steve had called to tell me he was sending me an advance copy of the interview and I had time to download it and listen to it twice, once in camp after everyone was in bed, and once on the way home so my wife could hear it too.
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 Finished off two custom jobs today, and got a bunch of crates and such pre-built yesterday, waiting for the laser work to finish them off. I have to figure out what is next. I know I need to make some replacement stock for shows, I have two good ones coming up in September that should be a good boost for the end of the season...if the weather is good. I don't know if I have time to make what's on my list, heck I don't even recall what's on that list right now. I have to get my notebook out of the trailer and come up with a plan. I have limited time and limited wood, but I will see what I can do. I need more bench and stool legs, never seem to have enough. They are getting tedious to make even though they get faster and easier every time. I just get tired of doing them over and over. It's grunt work now. I should make a half dozen of those foot stools, they move pretty regularly. Not big money, but they add up. 2 stools usually cover my show costs.
 I am still trying to find that 'thing' that sells at every show. No joy yet. I keep looking.
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Bill's annual party is this Saturday and I usually help prep in the days before, but he is overloaded with work (I saw him going OUT with the log truck around 6pm this evening) and we have a full rainout day tomorrow. Looking like we may just get a bunch of guys to make it happen Saturday morning. The party starts around 2pm, so we should be good.

 Tomorrow is another day, let's see what it brings us.

[Old Greenhorn]

Time flies when you are busy. Last Friday I did wind up at Bill's helping with party prep for several hours. It drizzled on and off all day with a couple of gulley washer periods thrown in that shut us down. drizzle is easy to work through when you are soaked with sweat.  I got to play with the new mini-track (MT100) spreading some gravel on pot holes and other stuff. We called it quits around 4:30 when the sky opened up again as we were grading off the horseshoe pits with the excavator.
 Saturday morning we got the bulk of the stuff finished, I came home, got a shower and the wife and we were back there around 3:30. I was a good boy (this time) and we were home around midnight. Sunday I pretty much bummed around, too lazy to do much. I went back to Bill's around 11am and helped cleanup and put stuff away, plus bring home the stuff I had brought, like a canopy and some tables and chairs.
 Monday I had the young fella I milled up a maple log for come with his buddy and we drove down into the woods where it's been air drying (covered) for about 10 months. We loaded that all into his truck and they were off by 11. In the afternoon, I had the client come to pick up her two custom tables that she ordered at a show back in July. Another happy client contributing to my bottom line.
 Yesterday I picked up my finished laser work and dropped more off, then came home and finished off the custom crates and some 4 pack carriers. Let the client know that was done and she came to  pick them up last evening. leaving another check.
 I have a show this Sunday, my last time trying this one out unless it improves. Forecast looks rainy, but you can't tell until you get there, things change. One last shot at this one, maybe 3rd time's the charm? Then I have two bigger shows in September that I have good hopes for. I may be doing a labor day weekend pop-up event at that crate clients store, they are working on details. So far I think I have done fairly well with my goal of trying a wide variety of show types to understand what fits for me. I'm also narrowing down what sells to some extent, which will dictate the winter work.
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 The Monday before the pig roast I filled an oddball small mushroom log order for a first time buyer. Sunday I got an inquiry from another first time buyer wanting logs in October. I am hoping we get a winter this year and the ground freezes early enough to be of use. I plan f starting my cutting as soon as we get some cold weather to run the sap down, shut down bug activity and natural mycelium movement. That will allow me to spread out the cutting work, provided I get the orders in early enough.
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 I keep saying it, but maybe today is the day I get started on firewood. I have to whack out a couple of chainsaw chairs for the show trailer (who'd have thought those would sell?) and then buck up a decent pile of logs and arborists cut lengths. This weekend is Boonville an I will be taking a pass on it this year because I have that show on Sunday and I need to stop spending money.
 It's another day.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Wow! 10 months between sawing and pick up? I hope he paid for the sawing up front.

    I shouldn't laugh. I have a stack of walnut a guy left me about 15 -16 months ago. They are mostly limbs and about 5-6 inches in diameter and crooked as all get out. He wants some 6X6 cut out of them. My crystal ball shows them stacked on my firewood pile in the near future.

[Old Greenhorn]

Actually, this was the plan all along and he picked them up earlier than I expected. We milled them together and found a nice spot in the woods for a slow air drying. The plan was he would be bringing them to a kiln around this fall for final drying, but being young and anxious, his plan changed I guess. He doesn't owe me anything but about 4 hours work for the time I spent on them and I am waiting for mushroom season to collect that. No cash on that job and I made out pretty well.

[mudfarmer]

Weather looks like crap for Booneville anyway! I will be down that way Friday for unrelated reasons but not going to sleep in the bed of the truck and then get rained on all day and spend all my money. A lot better to sleep in a nice bed at home with my wife and then get rained on all day and spend all my money 

[Old Greenhorn]

OOOOOOOh, I hadn't looked at the forecast, you are right. I should give Bill a heads up. He may be doing the sleep in the truck thing Saturday night. He has no choice but to go because he has to pick up his new Eastonmade splitter at the end of the weekend and trailer it home.
 Yeah stay home and spend your money, there is always (hopefully) next year.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well apparently as it turns out, they had little or no rain at Boonville until around Sunday noon or so from what I hear. Bill headed up on Saturday morning and gave me a call inviting me along saying they were just going for the day (He and Inga) and did I want to ride-a-long. But I had accepted a much repeated invite from my son to go out with him and the boys on the river and give his boat a test run so I was already on my way to the river when he called. I suspected once he got there, he would be spending the night anyway and I had that show on Sunday so had to be home.
 We had a nice time on the boat, still working out some overheat issues, I think it's a bum thermostat. Runs fine while underway but overheats when idling and holding position. There was apparently a small Bassmasters event going on and when we pulled up tot he ramp to haul out, we were behind 5 very fancy bass boats. Great, I love an audience when I am trying to coach somebody new to this stuff.   Fortunately they were distracted by their weigh-in and the resulting awards. I had 'thoughts' on how we might best handle getting the boat out, but it's my son's boat and he had his own ideas, so we did it his way, which also worked. The boys caught a few fish and I caught a brick with the anchor. I will have to do some forensic on the brick to get it cleaned up and see who made it. I caught that brick about 300' off the bank and along an area that was filled with brickyards back in the day. I figure it fell off a barge, but it is not one of the common brickmakers logos. I need to do some homework. Brickyard were a major industry here for a long time but not since the 1920's. Anyway, it started to rain during the drive home, so good timing on that.

 Later that evening I got a text photo from Bill of his new Eastonmade splitter. Sure enough, he and Inga decided to stay the night in the truck. I sent him back a text and told him I have a spot next to my log pile he can park it for a good test run... and maybe storage while he makes room for it.
 My show on Sunday was rained out, bummer, but no sense going to set up in the rain, then get everything wet, and come home with no sales. They gave me a rain check for September. I worked in the shop and did chores all day and got something done. Around 5:30 Bill is driving by with the splitter in tow, he sees my shop lights on, stops, backs up and pulls the splitter up by my log pile and starts teaching me how to set it up and run it. Yeah, he left it her. It it a nice diesel machine with a box wedge and drag back. This thing is the cats meow! Holy cow! not more grabbing the big splits for resplitting, it splits off the bottom, then drags back and drops the remaining chunk back in for resplitting, you just work the handles, no extra lifting. Can't wait to get the thing running a few rounds through.
 Today, the weather was iffy and I got a call that my laser work was done so I picked that up and finished off those 8 pack carriers. I also got an invite to do a 'pop up' sale at that store on Labor day weekend, sounds like it might be a winner. I got a new cover for the old ez-up that matches my new canopy, Not exactly a precise fit, so I had to do some wangling but got it to fit fairly well. It will do. I also wasted a bunch of time trying to figure out how to use the trashed ez-up legs to get my signs further up in the air for that popup show. Then it all got rained on.  So I left it all out to dry and did shop work. Later I packed it all away, ready for the next event.
 So tomorrow is another day and hopefully it will be cooler and drier and I will get some firewood done.

[Hilltop366]

We had a nice time on the boat, still working out some overheat issues, I think it's a bum thermostat. Runs fine while underway but overheats when idling and holding position.

Checked the water pump impeller? If it is worn I wonder if it would not pump well at lower engine speed, I have seen out board impellers just fall apart and over heat an engine, usually a low hour engine that is older so people think that the impeller is fine but it aged out instead of worn out.

[Old Greenhorn]

Good point. We talked about that. It's his boat and he is going to have to figure it out, but I will pass that thought along because I think it's a good one. It makes sense. Thanks

[Old Greenhorn]

Today was a pretty dang good day. I started early finishing the repair work on my sign and putting a fila coat of poly on the roof, good to go back out the road when I need it now. The boys were coming over for the day (our turn) so I figured I should line up some entertainment for them. I backed a fully loaded trailer of firewood near the house pile for them to stack.  What can I say, I'm a thoughtful Grandpa.
 My son returned the other trailer and we took the tailgate off of it and I backed it right under the outfeed tray on the splitter, game changer. I had a bunch of logs to buck first so I got to work on those. The 'crew finally showed up and I gave them a pepe talk, instructions, and a quick stacking demo and left them to it with Grandma as the overseer. I went back to bucking and got most all of it cut up. Then I started the splitter up just as my youngest GS came over because he had tired of the anarchy prevailing over at the wood stacking department. I ignored that issue and set him up in the trailer with clear rules and a safety talk. His job was to take splits that had cleared the end of the outfeed table and flip them up to the front of the trailer. He is 8. Worked like a charm. I could run a log loader arm full non-stop. 
 The splitter, trailer, and Mule all lined up:


Once in a while he would 'show me the hand' so he could catch up, and once in a while between filling the log lifter I would lend him a hand getting the stuff he couldn't reach safely. He's quite the worker. We had that trailer filled in no time while the other 3 were still 'working things out'.  It was lunchtime anyway, which means I lost my crew. So they went in while Grandma cooked lunch and I did some more work on their stacking. The I joined them, ate, and came back out and finished off the trailer. I swapped trailers and emptied the second one mostly by myself and Pat helped for a little bit feeding me wood.
 I brought that one back up to the splitter and filled it again. I still had a bunch of diddly stuff to buck up to get rid of it but we got some rain coming in, so I covered the splitter and finished bucking the little stuff. It's all cut, but I figured I'll finish the splitting tomorrow after I empty the trailer, it's too fully loaded now, can't fit no more.
 I had held off on bucking one decent log (or so I thought...decent). I stand that one up thinking it would make and adult sized chainsaw chair. It's about 20" round, hard maple. The chair came out OK, but the wood ain't great.  I figure I'll put a $40-50 price tag on it.



(My 562 for scale)
All in all a great day. I did 3 trailer loads (new record for me, I think), plus made a chair and got some shop work done. That 37D is one heck of a splitter. The interesting thing for me is that normally putting out that much wood in a day would have me walking like a hunchback and pretty grumpy. But I feel pretty fine. Yes, pretty tired and a tiny bit sore, but on the whole I seem to be in good shape. 
 Tomorrow I unload that trailer, run out to a client delivery, then rig the splitter up for moving and get it out of the way. Splitting those loads with a lot of brittle and partly rotten ash made for a huge pile of junk underneath the machine. I think I am going to pick through it quick and then burn the pile where it sits.   Then I gotta wash the splitter and return it to Bill, I got no more logs and he brought it here brand new and I want to return it looking the same. Sweet machine. With a better handling system, I could probably split my 8-10 cord in about a week or two.
 Yeah it was a pretty good day for getting work done. Only 1 t-shirt, but I went through 2 hats. We had a nice breeze most of the day. Hopefully, tomorrow is another one.

[aigheadish]

It's always amazing how much better tools help. That thing looks nice!

[doc henderson]

Bill must be a good friend or a great businessman.  I would have wanted to be the guy to wear the new off that great machine.

[Hilltop366]

Nice splitter!

At a timber sport competition 30ish years ago I seen a guy make two kid sized chairs and a table out of one stump, unfortunately I can't recall the order or orientation of the pieces as they were cut out of the log but I think that the chairs were cut so that the seats were facing each other and one set of legs up and one down and the backs opposite to each other then the table cut upside down from the bottom of the log. I do remember that it didn't take a very long log to get all three pieces.

[SwampDonkey]

Another useful thing is a plywood table for camping, one sheet of 4 x 8 x 9/16". The cutting pattern makes use of the whole sheet, no waste. I made one years ago with my grandfather, still have it and use it camping. Nicest thing is it comes apart easy and lays flat on the bed of the truck. No fasteners used, just jointery.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah Austin, that machine did a quick job of my log pile in record time too.
Yes Doc, Bill is a great friend and a pretty savvy business guy too. He trusts me with his stuff because he knows I am gentle and I fix what ever I break. He left it with me to get some hands on time and look for improvements and safety issues. I found a few, he did too. There is no replacement for getting in some run time to figure it out.
 Hilltop, what did that table look like? If you ever find a video of how he laid it out, I'd be interested. There's lots of ways to make these things, it's just paly time for me. I don't know if this one will make it to a show this year, but it's a cheap alternative to my more pricey stuff, so it makes for a balance. Too bad this last one had a big vein crack in the seat. I'll set it in the shop to dry over the winter.
 SD, I have seen those tables, they were popular with Scout troops in the 70's. I cannot remember how they were laid out though.
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Today I did my run out the my client and dropped off some consignment pieces and talked through the pop-up sale on labor day weekend. This one will be different and we'll see how it goes.
 I also stopped by The Hoot to see how setup was going and if I need to bring anything special tomorrow. It's looking good.
 Got home and played musical trailers and emptied the last one I filled yesterday that backed it up to the splitter, split the remaining wood which filled the trailer again and I moved that over to be unloaded. Then I rigged the splitter for moving, there is a lot more to it than others I have used. This one you have to put a swing jack on and lift the front to take the load off the foot bar, pull the foot bar up and lock, dropping the wedge at the same time. then put the tongue in the front receiver, then hook up to the tow and drop it on the ball and swing the jack up, you also need to get the log lift up and tied in. I backed it off the big pile of junk droppings and washed the whole thing down so it looks like new again, even wiped off the water spots.

 After an hour I went out to cover it up and as I was doing that Bill called and asked how I was making out. I told him I was done with my logs, had washed it, and it was ready for towing. He said he got a call from one of his commercial clients called (a restaurant) and said they were flat out of wood. They require all small splits and short wood. He had bought this splitter with them in mind, making small splits does not go well on his timberwolf at all. So he hadn't planned on this need, he was going to leave it her for a week or two, but down the road I towed it and we pulled out the timberwolf and put this one in. His main guy was there so we ran through a big 28" maple round in short order. He already loves it.
 Easy come, easy go, but it was fun to play with a $30k machine for a few days and knock out all the wood I had. I'm glad I didn't waster anytime getting it done.
 Tomorrow I back up and head over to the Hoot. Nice to have someone else taking over for me and now I can just be a volunteer grunt which means I can come and work my shift, then go again. A nice change, I'll see how it goes. 
 Tomorrow is another day.

[SwampDonkey]

This is it here, but I wouldn't cut those ovals in the side pieces or top. Never did on mine. I think the holes are handles. Those pieces aren't that heavy to handle.

https://www.instructables.com/Flat-Pack-Picnic-Table-From-1-Sheet-of-Plywood

[Old Greenhorn]

Well this post is likely to be more driveller than normal, so maybe it's best if you skip it until you have trouble sleeping. You have been warned.
 I just kind of need to write this out to remind myself of the blessings I sometimes overlook. So this past weekend was The Hoot, a smaller local festival drawing in around 600 folks or so, not counting our staff. After about 12 years of running the EMS crew I took a step back and turned that job over to the Ashokan Staff member that is now full time and can do that, there is also a full time nurse. They just need to understand how I managed the crew and handled the event which is pretty easy. I reduced myself to 'volunteer rank' and signed up for a few work shifts, plus I told them I would fill in any gaps that popped up and be 'around' most all  of the weekend to help out.
 It was a little weird because everybody knows I am 'that guy' and would come to me for stuff and I would have to explain things and that I was just a grunt now. There were some expected growing pains for the new folks to work through as they had underestimated how much was involved in a simple crew. I filled in the gaps after the lessons landed home. I came back early on Sunday because I knew the new crew chief would not get their early enough and I distributed radios to key folks, did some paperwork and had things on an even keel when he got there. I also did the close out Saturday night collecting radios and getting them charged and taking care of close up stuff.
 Sunday afternoon the crew chief asked me what time my shift ended. I had to tell him I had no shifts that day, I was done Saturday at 9pm and didn't need to come Sunday and at that point he realized I had been covering for him all day and I saw the light bulb go on.  Next year I am sure will be a bit smoother.
 I expected all that and planned for it. But the more relaxed atmosphere (for me) meant I could get around a bit more and enjoy some of the music and actually pay attention.
 Over the last 9 years, since my friend Bill passed, the magic that music held for me has faded a bit. I have not picked up an instrument in a very long time. Last Monday I finally grabbed my shop mando and tried to work through a couple of tunes, remembering the notes, it came back slow and incomplete, but more came back than I expected. I began to consider giving it another 'go'. What is holding me back is my better mandolin is in need of a neck reset and that's probably my fault for leaving it tuned through the winter by my desk and it dried out and popped the neck. It's a cheap mando but I had the neck reset by a very high end luthier friend several years back making it a much better playing instrument with a proper action. Well since I let the instrument get ruined by poor care, I could not ask my friend to do it again, or even bring myself to tell him what I had done. It was an embarrassment and I had considered trying to do the neck reset myself, or going to another luthier friend and trying to keep it quiet.
 Saturday night at the Hoot we had Steve Poltz go on just before the main headliner closing act (The Mammals) and I have now seen Steve 3 times at the Hoot but never had time to really listen, this time I did. Wow. I just had a blast listening to him and decided I needed to learn more. I had thought he was a unique, off the wall, talented singer/songwriter who works off the cuff. He seldom has any idea what he is going to do when he steps up on that stage. His set was 'off the hook good' and I resolved to learn more about 'this guy'. On Sunday I ran into him as he was putting the last of his gear in his car to leave and I thanked him and told him how much I enjoyed his set. We chatted a bit, he gave me a hug and told me he would be playing a local club here in December. I told him I'd be there and I will. What a wonderful person. (You can google him and go down a you tube rabbit hole, but more on that in a bit.)
 Later on Sunday my Luthier Friend, Martin surprised me by showing up with his family. We haven't seen each other in a year or so, but we call and text. It was great catching up with him, his lovely wife, and his little girl, or now I should say lovely young lady. She was about 5 when I first met her and treated a boo-boo at a much earlier Hoot, now she is blossoming out. It's amazing. After a while he set up with his family on the field to listen to music with his daughter while his wife went swimming in the creek. I was sitting in the First Aid tent and saw then sitting in the up on the hill and started thinking about my Mando issue.  I finally decided that I needed to come clean, so I walked over and sat with Martin and confessed with a great deal of apology. He laughed and said "yeah, well I have been waiting a few years for you to tell me and bring it over so I can do it right this time". I told him it was my fault and he maintained he did not do a proper job the first time and wanted to set it right. I was hoping he would coach me through doing it myself, but he insisted I bring it by so he could do it. I asked him how he knew it had failed and he reminded me I had a house concert here several years ago and when he came in to use the bathroom, he saw it hanging by my desk and knew it was blown out. Sneaky guy. I'll bring it over to him in a couple of weeks. So a happy moment none the less.
 It was nice for me to know that after 12 years this festival is growing into it's own and I was able to turn over my work for someone else to continue. I caught some good music, helped some folks stop bleeding here and there, and got to hand over the helm as well as all the gear I have been carrying back and forth for more than 10 years.

 Today I was a little slow starting and could not get that guy Steve Poltz out of my head and I wanted to know more so I fell down the youtube rabbit hole...all day long. Holy Cow, this guy has co-written songs with a lot of people! He plays to 15,000 seat venues, and travels the globe. He's a big deal and we are lucky to get him at our little festival at a below scale rate. Mike, who does the festival booking is good friends with Steve and I guess that seals the deal. I am already looking forward to the December gig. Mike, his son Will who has been a huge fan for Steve's for years, and I are going together. We just have to figure out how to get tickets. Maybe from Steve or another resource.  Mike has a lot of resources.

 So for me, this was a good weekend. I felt a little bit of some old juices coming back that might get me back on the wagon, play a little music, and relax a little more. Now that I can't work as many hours as I used to, I need something to keep my hands and mind busy. I might as well give music another shot. Maybe I can get it right this time. Who knows? It could happen. I've been able to learn and get pretty good at a lot of other stuff, making music has confounded me every time, regardless of the hours I put in. Maybe my head will figure it out this time around. Maybe.

 Tomorrow is another day and I gotta get back to work. I still have a trailer load to stack, the lawn to mow and some shop work is always in progress. Show on Saturday too.

[Nebraska]

Play Tom if you enjoy it.   I think I would enjoy the music at your "hoot" sounds like you had a great time.  Remember all work and no play makes....... 

Something I have to remember as well.