Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[John K Jordan]

Saturday was a trip to the Huonville agricultural show with the goats. It was a 3 1/2 hour trip each way and hot for the time of year. We did ok. The show was packed. We find that these days people flock to the small Ag shows and avoid the Hobart and Launceston Royal Shows. 23000 people through our goat section in one day.

Huonville is nearly as far south as it is possible to go in Tasmania. It is on the Huon River which is the home of the Huon pine, my all time favourite timber. Cheers

That's interesting! How many goats do you have and take? Are these shows for "show" animals, milk, meat, anything? How about a photo or two?

I used to raise goats for pets, to sell, and occasionally milk and I loved them. Unfortunately I had to sell them all when I got llamas and alpacas since they share the same parasites and I don't have the facilities to keep them separated.

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Just curious, do people keep llamas in Tasmania?

JKJ

[Joe Mioux]

You have my sympathies Joe. I'm on a 3 year schedule, I did my second one last month. They're sooo much fun.

thanks. its done, this one was pretty fast. no polyps, so I'm good for 7 years.

[Bill Graham]

Afternoons last week, part of the weekend and a couple evenings this week got me a wall in the shop cleaned up, a compressed air supply that doesn't have to be hauled out of the closet and a permanent home for the jointer:

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It all started last Wednesday when I picked up the CAT 2040 compressor from the Big Ernge, got it home, fired it up and it sure is quiet! So now my little Rolair VT20 and the old 13-gal reservoir tank can come out from under the stairs and find a new home(my storage room and a Dumpster, respectively), the new compressor will go into the same closet and take up less space. So Thursday I spent most of the day trimming excess open-cell spray foam from the stairwell closet walls and the bottom of the stairs(everyone likes neat, right?), running the 240V line from the subpanel and wiring up a motor-rated switch with an outlet so I could shut off power without crawling into the closet to unplug it. Hauled the compressor into it's new home, plugged in and fired up and she roared like a lion! Literally, it shook the walls.

I had put up some 1/4" ply on the inside of the stairwell back wall for the foam spray(waste of money, open-cell foam blocks sound just about as well as R-13 fiberglass batts, call it just about useless) and I figured the plywood was essentially a drum head. So the plywood came out, all the foam got removed from the wall behind and I put in two bags of Roxul Safe'n'Sound batts, two layers in the areas that went below the stairs. That was Friday and Saturday. Turned on the compressor and the lion purred, I eliminated everything but some low-freq rumble. I'm good for now, I can deal with that later.

Sunday I decided I could make better use of the near wall than using it to hang a Fletcher 3000 board cutter that I bought in my picture-framing days and hasn't been used in at least 6 years. The space was a good fit for my jointer which has lived in the back of the basement and rolled out for use and(because of the PITA factor) hasn't been used nearly as much as I'd like. So the Fletcher went off to the storeroom, I ran another 240 outlet on the same circuit and the jointer emerged into the light of day.

Monday was putting together the air filter/regulator manifold and hooking it up. I have a leak or two to troubleshoot but finally I have an air source in the shop that doesn't involve hauling out a compressor, hooking it up to a reserve tank and waiting for it to come up to pressure, then waiting for it to build up pressure in the middle of a spray job or using the blowgun. It's the simple things that make life so much easier, right?

Tonight I moved the stuff hanging on the wall around so it wasn't blocking the switches and added another hose caddy to organize things a little better.

I know it doesn't sound like much, I didn't build anything at all. But it has really improved my workflow, in a 260 sft. basement shop that's a big plus. Not to mention the time saved by having tools readily available that don't have to be dragged out and set up.

I hope all of you had an equally productive weekend!

[John Sanford]

puttered some, made some weird Acadian Lamb Stew. (That's what I'm callin' it, 'cause it's got apples and cranberries in it.)

Turned a 5" tall or so snowman out of Douglas Fir on Saturday, and then turned a "Christmas tree" like shape out of another piece of DF on Sunday. Also, went to see Thor: Ragnarok with one of my sons. Barring a few quibbles on my part, it is an excellent movie.