The End Table

Sarah and I are going to build a kitchen table this spring, but we haven't made much progress on it.  It's going to be a big (and messy) job.  In the mean time, along with the leather working, gardening, pruning, etc. I built a little end table out of some of the scrap barn wood and a pallet.  Mostly I wanted to practice some of the skills we'll be using for the larger table.

I started with a chunk of wood about two inches thick in some places and not so thick in others, and 14" x 20".

The board was a little bowed, a little twisted, and a little warped.

The bench vise has been a great addition to the shop.  I feel so cool using it with my hold fasts and even made a rough bench dog to help at times as well.

After quickly squaring up the sides, the real work began.  A lot of material had to be removed in order to get the bottom level and ready for legs.

I wanted the worn surface to be the one that was exposed, but obviously that side wasn't conducive to holding glasses vertically.  So what I came up with was the idea to build a frame around it and use a bar top epoxy to create a level surface.  I tried to make dovetail joints, but it didn't go real well.  I wound up with some decent box joints in the end.

Harrington's Wood Shop: Sawdust, shavings, and other fine wood products

I'm not sure it's done yet.  It probably needs a coat or two of finish on the legs, and Sarah says it can't stay in the middle of the floor.  I can't imagine why.  I'm pretty happy with it, and happy to have it done.  Next up, a huge circular kitchen table.  I'm sure we're ready.

Hopshire's Shepherds Pie Throwdown!

For Steve's birthday (cool dude Sarah works with) (not pictured) and just because it was Thursday, Sarah B, Steve, Erik, The Bandit, Margaret, and I all met at Hopshire Farm Brewery for a shepherds pie competition and to drink some great local beer.  What makes Hopshire special, besides that there beer is awesome, is that they are a farm brewery, which means they grow some stupid percentage of their ingredients right on property!  Hyper local! 

There were four shepherds pies to try and two new beers.  They made a 4.2% stout which is an awesome easy drinker.  10 years ago we were all looking for high alcohol palette wreckers, but now that's so 2000s and we're into the session, farmhouse, and other low alcohol beers with great flavor.  The shepherds pies were awesome, too.  They had a good turnout, but it wasn't out of control, so we all got seconds.

Erik and The Bandit in corral mode.

And then it was the weekend.

Pruning and Building a Seed Rack.

So regardless of the continuing snow, wind, and cold weather, Sarah and I have begun preparing for spring.  A couple weekends ago we took a pruning class together at Cornell Plantations.  The guy that taught it was awesome, and Sarah had met him in another class she took on gardening.  The class lasted most of the day and began inside with a detailed account of the four defense systems of a tree and how they relate to each other and to pruning.  We went outside then and about 12 or so of us were turned loose on the shrubs and trees along the main pathway into the building!  Needless to say, we all started out relatively hesitantly.  We snipped little pieces here and there.  By the end, we were suggesting the removal of large limbs and even entire conflicting trunks!  It was great.  Sarah and I couldn't wait to get home and put our newly developed skills to use.

This shrub came with the house.  We like it, but obviously it was getting overgrown.  Time for a trim.

One of the rules of pruning is not to remove more than a third of the overall mass of the plant.  With this one, we decided to cut back the canopy and cut out some of the older and conflicting branches.

Yer supposed to be able to throw your hat through an apple tree when you're done pruning it.  With good aim and the right hat, I think this one would fit the bill.

This one we're pruning more for it's aesthetic.  When we bought the house, this poor guy was completely overwhelmed by pricker bushes.  We cut them back and now the tree has a pretty cool bonzai-like look to it.

With the pruning done, we turned our sites on the garden.  We're still a couple months from the last frost, so we headed inside.

 The shop got filled up again.  I wish there was more space and a dedicated place to work, but I have to admit, like everything else around this little homestead, I have a soft spot for it.

 

Sarah and I had drawn up and agreed upon a plan together and then went to Lowes or Home Depot for the wood and hardware.  I stopped at AgWay for some free pallets to finish off the shelves and save some money.

 

While I worked on cutting the cross beams to length and screwing on support sections Sarah put on all the brackets.

 

It was great to work together on the project and there's something about a woman with tools that gets my heart racing.

 

Especially when her work is on the level!

 

For no fee and a little elbow grease we got many square feet of wood for the shelves.  I had to remove a few nails first.

 

Some of the pieces needed to be squared up a little.  Honestly, they needed it.  It had nothing to do with my fixation of the shk shhhhk of a sharp No. 5 Stanley plane.

 

As always, we had lots of help and supervision.

 

And there she is.  Ready to go.  In the off season, she's sturdy enough to be used as bunk beds!

Two Posts for the Price of One

Ok, here's a two for one post.  Last weekend we went to Bob and Jenn and Zhora's house for a night of ballet, tomato soup, aggressive balloon swatting, magnetic stone gaming, and Valeria June dancing.

Sarah and Zhora set the tone for the evening with some dancing and lots of high energy play.

After a wonderful dinner of tomato soup and chicken sandwiches we played some magnet game that everybody got in to.

The magnets were a little noisy as they crashed together.

But we all had a good time anyway.

After that, it was back to balloon swatting.  Bob won this game when he swatted the balloon into the pencil behind my ear, which elicited giggles from the girls.

This is just a little picture of a Hot Wheels car that was sitting around at the end of the night.  I slapped a little vignette action on it to make it pop!

In addition to the wood, I've been playing around with a little bit of leather.  Originally this was going to be a pair of chaps.  But chaps are complicated and I'm short on tools, so I thought I'd play around a little bit and just get used to working with the leather.  Some sheaths and wallets came out of this work, but I wasn't really pleased with any of those.  Then I hit upon the idea of making a shop apron.  Starting with a few odd square feet of leather, I managed to find enough to cut out a roughly aprony shape.

Using webbing came naturally, and the grommets were both aesthetically and technically pleasing.  Pockets are always handy, so I added a couple of those, too.  Everything had to be hand stitched since we don't have a sewing machine or anything.  Hand stitching is like hand crafting in woodwork, very gratifying and very time consuming.

I love working with the carpenter's pencils, but they don't sit well behind my ears and I'm forever searching for where I set them down, so this pocket was a no brainer.

The clasp is actually a piece of horse tack.  Don't know if it'll ever come in handy, but I think it looks cool.  I also sewed a hammer loop on the side, which I'm sure will come in handy.  Ready to finish up my little end table project now and get on with the kitchen table.

Cheers!