"Weekend Doin's"

[Karl Laustrup]

Friday September 25, 2009

GOOD MORNING "CREEKERS"!

Well, fall fell earlier this week, although you wouldn't know it by the temps in the 70's, and so are the leaves and especially the acorns. I have two oaks along side the driveway and I can't recall them ever shedding as many acorns as this year. I thought the squirrels weren't doing their jobs, but they are running around with bulging cheeks and burying nuts in the yard, which of course they'll never find over the winter.

Most of the tourists are gone now. Just a few smart ones that have gotten lucky with the weather and are visiting our area for the change of seasons. We finally got some rain this week. Almost a half inch, which helped a wee bit. 50 miles to our south Madison got three and a half inches. What a difference a few miles can make.

Have a visitor stopping in to spend the night tonight on his way to Mackinac City and Island. It's supposed to be raining for the weekend, so after he leaves Saturday morning, maybe I can get some stuff done in the shop again. I'll be watching some golf [go Steve Stricker] and the Dover race [go Mark Martin] as well as the Packers playing in St. Louis.

What's up in your part of the world for the weekend? Fun, games, work or?????? Whatever you're up to, enjoy the time and please be SAFE.

Karl

[Dennis McGarry]

Well if the rain holds off some around here, I plan on getting the last of the boxes out of the garage/shed and start planning out the little workshop I plan to put in there over the winter.

Other then that, end of season yard work and relaxing...

Mackinac, cant wait for the snow to fall and the lake to freeze, will be up that way a couple times this winter...

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Good morning Karl!

Tell Rennie "Hi" for me.

Clean up my bathroom remodel mess outside....put away tile saw....clean shop.....start finish on candle stand......build stand for new mortiser.

[Michael Poller]

We've been re-doing the bathroom in our house.

Pulled out the old toilet from the bathroom last night.

Wife has the day off and is finishing up the drywall work.

Then it's on to laying down backerboard and tiling this weekend along with replacing the toilet flange so it sits at the right height on top of the new tile and installing a new toilet.

Looking forward to the job being done, mostly so we have a bathroom again and can get rid of the porto-potty sitting in our backyard. Very strange to have one at your home.

[Marty Paulus]

I hope to finish cleaning up the garage, I mean work shop and finish my prototype of a light house I am building.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Good morning Karl!

I really like this weekly post - adds more "reality" to SMC, and makes me feel better that not 100% of my time is spent in the shop (knowing others are the same boat).

This weekend - we are planning to get away to the Cape for one final weekend before the wife goes in for surgery. The weather down there is simply spectacular this time of year, and it's usually much less crowded than during the summer. Hope to take the kids out for some fishing, maybe hit the beach or the local harbor, and see some friends.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

John,

You really have to be careful here about how much "reality" you want at the Creek.

I once mentioned to Karl that the one thing I missed about living in Chicago was the beer that I became addicted to while there. A few weeks later a box showed up on my door step with a couple of cans of Old Style in it.

Karl can add some "reality"!

[Matt Meiser]

Let me check--oh yeah--more kitchen cabinets. Hope to finish the island this weekend and maybe work on some doors.

[william scott]

Fall is here with cool nights and daytime temps in the 90's! Re-finishing a wooden bench on the deck, a project I don't know why I ever started. You know the decorative iron framed, wood slat benches sold at Lowes/Home Depot? The wood on this one was starting to show wear and tear so I thought it would be a simple task to take the slats off, sand them down and refinish them. Never again! I don't know what wood they are using, but I came out with the weirdest aggregation of color that you could ever imagine. I should have just ripped some new boards, stained them and put them in. Oh well, live and learn. I'm putting it back together and it looks pretty good, after quite a bit of tinkering.

Also, working on getting some Osage orange blocks ready to glue up prior to shaping into a Krenov plane. I bought these from Woodcraft, and they are coated with wax. That's a first for me, and I've been experimenting to see what works best for getting the wax off. Turns out, taking a small plane blade and scraping the wax off seems to work best. This method also tells you what direction the grain is running as I have to decide which side(s) are going to be the sole.

Going fishing on Sunday with my son, just to see what's survived the summer fishing onslaught. With luck, we'll come back with a Rainbow trout or two.

If there's any time left, I'll be cleaning up the woodlot a bit. Little chunks of wood to cut, split and stack. There's also the yard sale circuit to check out. Yesterday, I picked up a 15" Diston rip saw for three bucks with the metal in good shape but needing a handle. Who knows what else lurks out there in those attics and garages?

[Zach England]

Don't you guys watch football?

If you're like me you have a big flat screen right above your workbench to optimize your time.

[John Harden]

Well, I had planned on working on a hall bench I'm making to hold the kids' shoes. Q/S white oak in Mission style and should be very nice.

However, the guy who bought my saw and planer wants to come get them next weekend and since I'm out of town all next week, I get to spend tonight and a bit of tomorrow disassembling the cabinet saw and pulling together the accessories and other stuff.

So, I'll be without a table saw and planer until the new ones arrive next month or November. Oh well. I'll just use the band saw and joint with a #7. Just takes a bit longer.

I'm in the air on Sunday, so I'll miss ALL the football games

Regards,

John

[Jacob Mac]

I am taking my kids and visiting my sister. I am really looking forward to the trip. I just don't get to see her or her kids often enough. So no woodworking for me, but after finishing my Roubo and a staircase in August/early September, I have kind of been struggling to find time to get anything done.

However, for my wedding anniversary, my wife did buy me a Ridgid belt/oscillating spindle sander. So I need to find some time to get down there and put it through its paces.

[Dave Wagner]

- Finished up mom's kitchen last weekend!! Finally!! All new base cabinets installed (I didn't make, store bought), countertop, sink, flooring, etc....I Just have to make one small piece of molding I have to router a contour (about 12" long by 4" high).

- Machine some more porch railings for my porch project, I installed 3 last night, just 2 more to go and then onto the Stair Railings....(Pics to follow).

- Probably rake a bunch of leaves, this area is just started turning fall colors! ALready! We had a couple nights of 35 degrees and the trees seemed to turn overnight!! Who knows what else!

[Dale Osowski]

I hope to just about complete this table, http://timberwerksstudio.blogspot.com/ The show is just a week away. It needs a few more coats of finish and I'm polishing the stainless steel rods now. After that it's final assembly.

[Jim O'Dell]

I get to finish up our guest room by grouting the tile tomorrow. Then we will paint the closet on Sunday, and do some paint touch-ups on the rest of the room. Need to go look for a new bed to go in there, then next week we will be re-assembling the room for a friend's visit at the end of the month. Other than that, keeping the rescue dogs out of trouble. Jim.