"Weekend Doin's"

[Karl Laustrup]

January 2, 2009

GOOD MORNING "CREEKERS"!

A little late, but, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A quiet New Years Eve here. I, as is usual, was asleep when the new year arrived. I awoke to find that it happened fine without my direct participation. Yeah!!!

Some things remain very similar to last year though. We're still getting snow. Had about 1/2 inch yesterday and more coming tomorrow. Almost 45 inches so far this season. And of course the cold. Teens only for today. BRRRR!!!

With it being this cold, it is not feasible for me to get out to the shop to get any thing done. Just takes too much propane to get the shop up to a resonable temp for WW'ing.

Just as well for this weekend though. We are having our Christmas Saturday and Sunday. Our kids and grandkids will be making the trek from northern Wisconsin for our belated Christmas. Better late than never. I always enjoy watching the grandkids open their presents.

Ken should be getting back from his trip this weekend. I'll be looking forward to a full report and pictures. That's if he actually got out of Spokane during those snows a couple of weeks ago.

What's on tap for your weekend? Whatever it may be I hope it will be productive and SAFE.

Karl

[Thomas Knighton]

I'm planning on finishing up on a bookcase for my Mom, at least the assembly. She wants it painted, so I may or may not get that done this weekend. It all depends on how long it takes to finish the glue-up obviously.

[Al Willits]

Don't feel bad Karl, been so many years I've been asleep at midnight I couldn't tell ya if the ball goes up or down...10:30 here and I was out..had to work new years day though.

We're still working on Xmas here, sis in law had to work Xmas eve and day so we postponed to sat, Friday night rain-turns to ice-then snow made it pretty risky for the father in law (84) to get out so we're doing it this sat.

Xmas good to ya Karl? All??

Ma got me a electric winch for the shop, she says after spending a couple of months recovering from the great plywood meets wind and dummy hangs on incident I should have something to keep me from hurting myself again.

Hope all have a great new year and like Karl says, be safe.

Al

oh...this weekend will be spent at Cabella's and trying to get more done on the kitchen cart I'm making

[gary Zimmel]

And a belated Happy New Year to the Creek!

We have been in a little deep freeze for the last couple of days and our heating system decided to pack it in on New Years Eve.....

Always happens that things when break when the suppliers are closed.

Spent the last couple of days making sure the fire is stoked. The house was a little cool this morning. I really hope we can get a new pump for our boiler today to get things a more toasty in here.

Fingers crossed.....

Then there may be some shop time!

[Matt Meiser]

Some family time and more work on the entertainment center for me. My brother is coming over today to help me move our old EC downstairs and set up the new TV using the coffee table as a temporary stand.

[Gene Howe]

'09 WILL be better!

Finishing up my version of a 30" flea sander today. For the $$ and time spent, buying the one already built might have been wiser.

Then, I have to finish a "Highboy" dresser for my son's Christmas present.

Maybe, '09 will be the year this old man gets to play with his tools and build what HE wants.

[Dan Gill]

I'll be finishing and attaching a TV shelf to our living room cabinets/bookshelves. The kids got us a larger TV, and it's too big to go in the old spot.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Well Karl....Ken made it to Spokane last night. This morning some stranger staying at the Super 8 helped Ken for 2 hours dig out his van. The snow was over 36" deep behind the van and we had to dig out an area longer than the van. There was a vehicle parked in front of the van so going forward wasn't an option.

Now the first big question of the new year...can Ken get 110 miles from Spokane to Lewiston?

We had a wonderful trip. I'm still stunned by the generosity of our youngest son and his beautiful wife! Those New Zealanders know how to treat tourists and have fun! They brew some wonderful beers. The only negative comments I have....they talk with an accent...use words in a funny but interesting way compared to our American slaughter of the English language...and folks....they drive on the wrong side of the road!

A full report with photos if you are interested. If and when we arrive home and download the photos from the cameras. Sharon only shot 20 GB of photos......that's my camera Queen!

If we get home today...this weekend...rest....the latest we slept in since we left...0600. One morning we got up at 0230 for a 0500 hot air balloon ride.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Steve Clardy]

I'm going to quit calling sat and sun weekend days, and just call them work days along with the other 5 days.

[Mike Winslow]

'09 WILL be better!

Finishing up my version of a 30" flea sander today. For the $$ and time spent, buying the one already built might have been wiser.

I spent the weekend pricing out one of those self built ones and came to the same conclusion so i ordered one. Can hardly wait to try it out.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

I'm working on finishing up a complete reload of my computer...it was time...and may get into the shop for a long sharpening session for my Neander tools as well as to work on some assembly of the upper cabinets for my office. That last one has been hanging on for a long time! The usual equestrian activities will also be part of the weekend.

[Dewey Torres]

Continue work on the Morris chair ... coming along nicely so far.

[Anthony Whitesell]

My weekend has started off with a dull thud. I was supposed to be finishing a toy box for my little girl. The toy box was made of homemade Pine V-tongue&groove panels. I was finally able to cut the lock miter corners then started the glue-up. The fit was so tight that by the time I had the box portion standing and the sides aligned, the glue (regular titebond) had swelled the wood and the sides were stuck. The glue joints look very sloppy because I couldn't pull then together and the back panel is on upside down (the V-grooves don't line up). This fiasco was after I had already botched-up making 1/2" box joint corners to hold it together. When I went to index form one cut to the next, the panel caught the router bit chewed up the pin and re-adjusted the jig so the pins didn't line up any longer.

Out of desperation and nothing else to do with the box, I'm going to fit the bottom tonight and let her start using it while I start on version 2. The first one is probably to small now any way.

Hopefully, if time permits, I will get to sand the coat of shellac on the coffee table I'm building for my MIL and apply the second coat.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

I've a HS basketball game tonight, shop work tomorrow and NFL playoffs tomorrow afternoon and evening. GO COLTS Sunday will be church and family time with football thrown in. Shop time will be spent working on templates for Adirondack chairs and table.

[Kent E. Matthew]

Already did it. I finally finished my shop floor. I had about a 60 square foot wedge of my shop that was just dirt. I am not very good at concrete work, but it's done and it will work.