Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[Nebraska]

Good luck on the cat I hope her levels are back down to where they need to be. 

[Nebraska]

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Bug wishes her well too. 

[Old Greenhorn]

We will see how it goes, it is what it is. The big trick is to get her in the carrier, always a concern.

[SwampDonkey]

Last cat we had, which was 25 years ago, hated being in a vehicle in motion. She'd climb the walls and all over trying to escape. 

[Old Greenhorn]

She did just fine. She whined a little about being in the box on the way down, and a lot less on the way back. She was very good with the tech's and Doc except for a poofed up tail at one point. When we got home she didn't hold it against me and was behaving normally in just a minute or two. Her 'number' was down to 1.6 which is much better than the 16 she had when we first brought her in, plus she gained a half pound on her skinny boney frame. We don't have to go back for 6 months. Now I just have to find a source for a good price on her meds, she's taking 3 pills a day and it looks like it will stay this way.

[Nebraska]

Excellent! 

[Old Greenhorn]

Routine few days here. Worked in the shop all day Saturday and did a few chores. I got more finishing work laid down trying to finish up the projects on hand before I start more. I think I made more stuff than I can fit in the trailer at this point. I will work on that near the end of the week and figure out what I am taking to the show and what I will leave. I am down to finishing up about a dozen of these silly floating bottle holders because I am curious to see if anyone buys them. I tried the wipe on poly and didn't like the way it looked so I am doing regular poly with a brush. Folks seem to like shiny stuff.  Also finished off a Hemlock stool with ERC branch legs which is kind of funky looking, so I want that in the show.

 Went to the mill on Sunday and loaded up some logs on the deck to finish off the shed order I am working on. Sunday night late, Bill texted and told me he forgot to tell me about a 6x8 column  for a client he has known of for a while. So he had dropped a log in the middle of my queue for that post and could I cut it today.. Yeah, sure. So today I went down and milled up the log I already had on the bed into 1x6's and 2x6's and then dealt with this big knarly log he stuck up. I had to trim some horns off before I could even get it to roll up on the arms. I got some 1x10's off of it and a few 1x6's, and eventually his 6x8. Bill was doing a run up to drop off rubble/stone/dirt at the trommel and he stopped to help me get the post off the mill bed. I had worked up a pretty good sweat just handling the slabs and 60° felt kind of warm today. My shirts were pretty wet.

 I ran an errand and got back to the shop around 2. Finishes were still drying and I have been thinking about this 'open house/shop/studio' thing and realized I needed to be cleaning the shop regardless of whether I go forward with an event. Yesterday I did a much needed cleaning of the floors upstairs. The chips and dust were building and that took a couple of hours. Today I tackled the workbench downstairs, which I have been avoiding for more than 6-8 months. That took over an hour. I'll keep pecking away at the housekeeping to maybe make this open house possible. Assuming I have it, after it's done and I take another week to clean it up and reload the trailer I think I may begin work tearing the shop apart to add one more loft area to increase floor space. OY. That's a project and will shut down the shop for a few weeks. I have the prep work, tear out, wiring changes, equipment moves, mill the dimensional lumber and the flooring, process the flooring, then start building. The build is actually the easiest part. All the work before and after the build is the hard work. I am still thinking on the design and if I will wall in a finishing room in this new space  so I can keep the air clean and maybe run a higher temp in there without having to heat the entire building. I am noticing if I keep the shop at 65-68 my finishes take a long time to dry. If I hold it at 74° things go a whole lot quicker. So a small insulated room may be the answer. Whatever I do, I want to have it done before mushroom log orders begin coming in. I may do another radio show in the next 6 weeks and that always brings a flurry of inquiries.

 So lots going on, but it's all part of the normal routine. Tomorrow is another day.

[aigheadish]

One of the benefits of my small shop is that it just about demands that I clean up between every project... I don't like it but it stays generally manageable. I griped to the wife about the shop being too small and she told me to expand it but there's a lot of concrete and wood costs involved, so that'd be a while and for the short term I've decided to remove a bench I have in there. Then at least I can park my drill press, folded table saw and jointer in that space. When I was messing with my lathe dust remover I had to move things to move things to use things, then undo it. It's maddening. 

I like the idea of a finishing room for you Tom, for what it's worth, the little ceramic space heaters they make now are cheap, like 15 bucks, and will put out real nice heat on a thermostat, keeping a small room above 75 should be no problem. Also, happy to hear your cat is ok. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, when I say cleaning, I do put away tools and supplies after each job by habit or I can't find anything later. But after a few weeks or months the chips and dust build up on the floor, walls, shelves, and everything else, like the stairs and such. I can never get rid of that fine dust, but I can handle the bigger stuff. But having tools and materials organized with a 'home' for each 'thing' makes it easy to put them away and find them again. It's a never ending process to make that happen and I try to add at least one improvement a month for storage. Making choices in a small shop is always tough. When I started my machine shop business it was in my parents basement because I lived in an apartment across town. I had and area that was about 18'x 25' and my machines were so close I could switch from running one to the other by only moving one of my feet and just pivot. It was 3 steps to my furthest machine. SO I have that mindset of fitting a lot in a small space and organization is key.

 With regard to the room, Yeah that would be nice, but I am still thinking on it. This new floor will be directly over the woodstove, so I'd rather work that into the plan. Those heaters (I have a couple) work well but burn a lot of electric. But you make me think I need to run another circuit up to that section, which is more work. OY.

 Anyway, I'll worry about all that after the open shop weekend. In the meantime, in my 'spare time' I will find some logs and make the lumber I need. It's more milling to make the flooring than the framing, I think, then processing the flooring. I want good and really clear lumber for this one, not the stuff I have used in the past. But it's all down the road a bit for now.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Tom,

I think, maybe you've mentioned a lean-to off your shop in the past as a possible additional covered area to keep things protected.  I know it doesn't help with the inside situation, but they are helpful, cheap-ish to create, and benefit you buy having more important stuff under cover.  I have most of the materials to put up 9'x12' between 2 of my firewood sheds. I think I'll have enough room to keep the wood splitter and the dag-gum lawn mower at least under cover.  I also plan to hang up a few items on the available wall space.

Matt

[Old Greenhorn]

For me, a lean to would be pretty expensive because I would want a full slab under it so that 'eventually' I could wall it in as an extension of the shop and wire it. So the cost for the concrete becomes a consideration. I don't really need covered parking for equipment, I need space for machines and benches. Given my age, I don't know how much longer I have to do this stuff and I don't want to get back in the rat race of trying to make as much money as I can, I just want to be able to live.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   I can convene an emergency meeting of the design committee if you'd like.

    I still remember when I went to add an additional bay and some vertical storage in my pole barn I use for slab and craft/bench storage and before I was done I had added the bay, vertical storage in 3 bays and installed wooden/puncheon type floors in 4 bays. 

   I understand and can agree about making a proper addition. I don't know id there is any temporary measures you can take that will help. Is there room for a shipping container and would that work? They are not that expensive and you could use or sell it later if you decide to do something more permanent. Just a thought and $$$$.

[Old Greenhorn]

Thanks Howard, I can always count on you, but I don't think that will be necessary. Given the poor sales year I am just going to do stuff that doesn't cost much more than time and simple hardware. When I do the loft I'd rather use plywood, but that's pricey, so I will take the extra hours and mill up 1x6's with a half lap joint and planed for sIZE. But again this is down the road after two 2 day shows.
 We will revisit this around Christmas.

[Old Greenhorn]

In my last post here I forgot to address your suggestion of a conex box, which is a good idea, but as I said it's not storage I need. At any rate, it's a big no on that and not because of me because I think it would be great for wood storage and I would start filling it as soon as I got it. But it's because my neighbor ( generally referred to as "The idiot" around here) is running his own dump with a tractor trailer box and a construction trailer office for storage and his entire yard is filled with crap he will never use and several unregistered vehicles and trailers in various stages of repair. I can't add to that mess. I have alternatives I haven't even developed yet and will go another way. Sometimes you don't have to raise the bridge, if you can lower the river. I am going to maintain the higher road on that score.
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Well today, being the third Wednesday of the month, we did our food shopping and other errands in town, got home after noon. After unloading, I skipped lunch and went out to the shop. My finishes on current work were dried if not cured, so I brought them down and packed them loosely in the crate I whipped out yesterday for them. Then I started cleaning, I hate this part, but it has to be done and I am a little anal about it once I start. I began in one corner and worked my way around the 'baseboards' pulling everything out away from the wall and sweeping with a hand broom and then restacking (neater) behind me as I made progress. Lots of stuff for the trash found along the way, as well as cardboard used for padding and painting back boards that will go in the stove at some point (never waste a BTU). and things to move elsewhere. I covered about 30' of wall edges and moved a lot of stuff. I took the planer, small dust blower, second planer, a table saw I don't use and wanted to make into a dado saw, and drum sander and moved them into the Mule bay which I had cleaned and cleared. Then I worked on the wall where most of that equipment was. Apparently I haven't cleaned in this area for at least 4 years. There is a lot to deal with. I spent 6 hours cleaning and am not done. I knew this would take a lot of hours and that's why I wanted to get started. The plane is to clean up what I can the string some cable or something and hand moving blankets to cover all the tools and such on the walls and basically 'screen in' a display area. So the cleaning and clearing comes first before I can start figuring out how to hang these blankets, how they will look, how to adjust them, and how much room I can get. Tomorrow I have a wall and a half to go, plus the front 'walls' where the bay doors are and more stuff to find a new home for. Gonna rain all day (if you can believe the forecast), so it's a good day for it.
 
Monday after milling I spent the whole afternoon just cleaning off my work bench, which felt great, but now I have a saw on it and just fixed my leaf blower this morning that was also on it. I'll just keep plugging at this and try to make something presentable. Hopefully it will, in some way, pay off eventually.
 Tomorrow is another day.

[Wlmedley]

Tom, you're doing better than me. I decided it was time to clean my garage and as far as I got was taking a broom and knocking down all the cobwebs. I've got a lot of mechanics tools I need to get rid of especially all of my big stuff. I don't plan to work on anything any bigger than a pickup or small tractor. I've thought about putting a bunch of stuff on marketplace but dealing with people I don't know isn't one of my strong points although you sometimes meet some really nice people. Maybe I'll get bored this winter and give it a try.