Happiness is a cold planer

..finally. we had a string of 3 days with nice weather so A* and I planed..and planed..and planed. We figure this week we each have spent around 17 hours planing. By our estimation planing is 3/4 of the work that was needed to put in the flooring…but we are done it now. Not a minute too soon as near the end I was taking a break every 2 boards to keep from going over the deep end of sanity. I think only drywalling completion matched the level of joy A* and I feel..and we aren’t even done the rest of the floor yet.

 

Making something crappier with junk

..we had all of the ends off the boards we cut for the flooring. The thin pieces go as firestarter for the winter but we had a bunch of thicker pieces that I thought a shame to simply burn. When A* was on the phone I tacked up a bunch on the ‘deck’..or steps…or entry shelf. It was ugly before but I think it has been upgraded to eyesore level now. We have a bunch more of the end pieces so we may tinker with it..or burn it. Whatever happens first. A* is not sold on it..but we had an estimation for a new huge deck and it was out of our price range.

It’s only a prototype..maybe.

And painted…

 

Varathaned up

..all sealed up with 3 coats..still wet but coming along. With 2 coats of stain in this room the color seems deeper. Window trim, baseboards and then done for now..not that I am doing it now.

 

Get out!

The chicks got pseudo-moved today. I made some modifications to their indoor box and moved it into the coop..perfect timing cause it was also the day that Ma and chickie decided to move back from the small coop into the main coop..blurg. It is nice to have them out of the house but Ma does not seem to like them..plus she likes it outside so I need to let her and chickie out in the morning and back in at night..the extension cable for their heat/light fits in perfectly where I had an unplanned inperfection in hanging the door last summer..hehe.

 

Bedroom Stained

A* started the sanding..and finished it while I worked on the door frame cut to allow for the incoming flooring.

It was a rare moment in the shot where the sun was out. Once the boards were all sanded with the edges sanded off too so it is smooth (nobody likes catching a toe on a sharp board) we moved the boards in..some final adjustments to line up where the doorway meets the room and I was onto nailing. With the joists all marked clearly the boards went in and were nailed in an hour..another 10 minutes countersinking the boards and we were ready for stain. Exciting! It is a little anti-climactic..the actual install with the method we choose to use takes around 2 hours if the wood is all ready..but the processing time per room is much longer.

And the stain goes on..we think we only did 1 coat in the bedroom. We are doing 2 coats of stain in this room.

 

A friend visits

..she heard there was a good deal on compost and chicken feed so she was rummaging around the yard when Jango noticed her. She has been up once before..she lives at a neighbors place around 1/2 a km away and sometimes wanders..pigs are smart animals so I don’t worry about her being lost..coyotes are a different story but I still have not seen real evidence of them active locally..as a roaming pot bellied pig would seem to prove.

 

Room Roughed In

..sweet. have the whole room roughed out and laid in place. We were going to push forward with the sanding but we were expecting bad weather overnight and we can sand inside the shed tomorrow so we toiled away at planing 1/4 of the remaining board pile. Planing boards for 5 hours: Take the board, adjust the height by a 1/5 turn, put it in and support it, feed it through the planer, wait for A* to pass it back, get it passed back..repeat. multiply by at least 10 passes per board. Blurg.

 

Squared Up and Movin On

..sweet. there was once again a rushing of bums and we finished off squaring up the boards. I made some adjustments to where the board feeds into the tablesaw and it cut much more smoothly. While we worked supper cooked..some veggies for veggie burgers..add in some parsley, spices, waltnuts, egg and breadcrumbs..amazing. In the afternoon we began the planing process anew..once again it shocks me how long this takes..we are averaging 10 minutes a freekin board but the end result is hard to argue with…10 inch wide boards that are around 10 feet long. I had forgotten I saved all the really wide ones for the living room..they seem to be perfectly dried too..no cupping of the boards which can be common for wide planks. I think we have enough for J*s room so we might get to that tomorrow.

 

BBQ Pizza

..I cannot belive this is the first time I tried this. My friends showed me last week after our concert and I was amazed..25 minutes to perfection. I do love versitile food..now if I can invent a quiche that can be cooked with a whipper-snipper.

 

only a month behind!

..as the warm days continue the garden continues to grow. We have had salad for a month..so far I have dropped 25 pounds..from my waist to my ass. hehe

basil, onions, marigolds and a rotten dog

..forgive the shots too..A* took them.

rotten dogs are poping up all over the place

..we missed a couple of shots..we have also taken many plants and put them in various places in the yard to see the best places for high heat veggies to grow.

..and lettuce up the ying-yang..

The garden boxes have been great. I do complain that I want a bigger garden but I am always impressed with how many veggies we get from these 6 boxes when the veggies do come in. There is also a spot in the yard where wheat is growing..I dunno where from but it is there. I am going to collect the seeds for next year and see if I can start growing some grain.