Projects

[barfle]

You should see what my microwave oven can do!

Can it split a 24" maple trunk?

[analog]

if it's already firepace length, and just three trunks, get a maul and have fun.
You're an engineer, you will enjoy the visceral sensations of inertia, momentum, impulse, centrifugal force, those delicious inelastic collisions and the frightful elastic ones.....

I had to laugh at myself first time i tried a maul. A neighbor, retired truck driver about 75, showed me how. He has the strength of jean-valjean. He flicked that maul like a matchstick and split a two foot diameter hickory, i think it was .
That tree was nearly as tough as elm. I swung at the next piece and the maul rebounded like flubber. Totally elastic. Several times. I said "city boy " and swung with all my might, this time the maul at least stuck. By time i finally got it to split he'd done the whole rest of the tree and we had a good laugh.

I have got better co-ordinated and can make a respectable swing now. Arrrghhh. Tim Allen would be proud.

Oak will not embarass you like the hickory did me. Start at the edge and slab it off. I did a three foot diameter trunk that way, like yours the pieces were way too heavy to lift whole. Got two whole pickup truckloads.

[barfle]

The pile from the maple seems to be about double the capacity of my firewood rack, and there are also the two dead oaks to cut up, so I'm not planning on attacking the three big slabs in the immediate future. In the meantime, one of them is serving quite nicely as a chopping block.

Indeed, chopping the smaller pieces (up to 8" in diameter with no branching) is quite visceral. With an overhead swing and a spat "PTO!", I can usually make two sticks out of one with a single stroke. Sometimes I have to duck the pieces, but damn, it feels good!

There are plenty of pieces between 8" and 12" though, (some with branch stubs that seem to clamp on to the axe like a vise) and I figure a power tool is appropriate for them, once I exhaust the capacity of my existing tools and muscles.

[piqaboo]

Couldnt think of a song about paul bunyon, but this one seems appropriate background noise:

John Henry was hammerin' on the mountain
There was lightenin' in his eye
...

[barfle]

[Shapley]

How about this classic:

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay
I sleep all night and I work all day
He's a lumberjack and he's okay
He sleeps all night and he works all day


I cut down trees, I eat my lunch
I go to the lavat'ry
On Wednesdays I go shopping
And have buttered scones for tea
He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch, he goes to the lavat'ry
On Wednesdays he goes shopping, and has buttered scones for tea.
He's a lumberjack and he's okay, he sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I love to press wild flow'rs
I put on women's clothing
And hang around in bars
He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps, he loves to press wild flow'rs,
He puts on women's clothing, and hangs ... around ... in...bars?
He's a lumberjack and he's okay, he sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I wear high heels
Suspendies and a bra
I wish I'd been a girlie
Just like my dear papa
He cuts down trees, he wears high heels, suspenders and a bra? He wishes he'd been a girlie...?

[analog]

I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I love to press wild flow'rs
I put on women's clothing
And hang around in bars

that sure ain't robert w service...

[barfle]

The full Monty (Python).

[Schmeelkie]

Always loved the lumberjack song....

Here's our crocus in the snow on the first day of spring:


Snowing again now, but not piling up. by all accounts we've had a really mild March - especially compared to the rest of the country. Have a colleague in ND - half his road to his house has washed away. He was hoping he could still drive up it to get home when we talked last Tuesday....

Going to take the day off Wednesday - do the taxes, call the town and see if they'll trim our maple (may be owned by town - tree guy told me to ask), if not call tree guy back, start calling driveway repair guys - see what it'll take to get ours back to good (lots of cracking and pieces coming off the edges, so just sealing won't do the trick)

[jamiebk]

start calling driveway repair guys - see what it'll take to get ours back to good (lots of cracking and pieces coming off the edges, so just sealing won't do the trick)

Schmeelkie...we replaced our driveway with "pavers". They are porus and let the moisture/rain through. They can also be replaced...one or to at a time. No waiting for concrete or blacktop to set either. Once they are in, you can drive on them immediately. Driveway and walkway designs are infinite and easy. This was the company we used: http://www.europeanpaving.com/ I only post it here so you can see the designs etc.

[jamiebk]

Whew...what a day. Spent today (Sat) pouring a patio for our rental house. I borrowed a cement mixer from a friends and he and I mixed and poured it all. I was covered with cement dust head to toe (yes...we wore resp. masks). Nice to get home, get a shower and sit down with a beer! Absolutely BEAUTIFUL day here in Nor Cal.

[barfle]

I finally rigged up a way to finish routing bar's baseboards. And except for the one pass that showed my first rig was inadequate, they turned out pretty decent. I have a bit of sanding to do, or maybe I'll just use my cabinet scraper for a tiny ridge that I believe is due to the flexing of the router table with the weight of a ten foot long board and my force to keep it down on the table.

Then bar will prime the baseboards, and I will borrow my neighbor's compound miter saw for installation. And THEN I'll take some pictures.

We also extended our path that hides our drain into the back yard. Still using up those stones, although it really does amaze me that something called a stone can fall apart when it gets wet.

[Schmeelkie]

Well - tree guy came yesterday - great job and clean up. Glad to not have broken branches in there as we go to sell the house. Also I finally finished Bella's 'first year' photo album. Had a little time to myself as Pumpkin was at daycare (school's out this week) and husband picked the kids up after class. I came home at 3:30 like usual for a Wednesday (when I get Pumpkin off the bus) and everyone else arrived after 5. Won't have this luxury again for a long time...husband is on sabbatical in the fall, so I'll likely be picking up Bella from daycare the 4 days I work starting in mid-May thru January. And I don't even have my Bella-naptime-freetime the next 2 Fridays as Pumpkin will be home. Oh, well.

So, house-wise - only big thing is driveway. Will have to do some touch-up painting, and will likely rent some storage space to declutter before we put the house on the market. Husband will be unhappy as I will make him pack up 80% of his books so we can get the three bookcases out of the upstairs hallway. As he just went and bought 4-5 more the other day, I think he'll live.

[piqaboo]

Photo Album!~ Congrats! (envy)

does it count as a project if I finally tried a new recipe I've been wanting to?
I find it very difficult to try new recipes while two people are sharing their days. I have to concentrate the first time thru.
Its a keeper tho, so I'll soon learn to do it on autopilot.

[Haggis@wk]

My work has been slow recently, hence my increased output, when I'm bored I spend a lot of time reading the Internet, it's an addiction, I admit it, but I'm not really interested in the cure.

Today - and all week - is gorgous, a sit-in-the-shade-and-read-enjoying-a-cigar day. So Mr. Clemens and I are renewing a life long acquaintance.

One quibble. The shade is provided by a mock pear tree, planted long before we purchased the house. Why would anyone plant a mock fruit tree? Why not the actual tree?

[Shapley]

Maybe they don't like fruit, and didn't want to clean up the mess left by fermenting fruit, and the animals it attracts...

[DavidS]

and didn't want to clean up the mess left

The same reason for keeping a mock turtle as a pet

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I have an aquarium wall hanging at work, three vertical Double Wedding Ring blocks with a fish print for the background. It's the perfect office fishtank: the air bubbler makes no noise, the filters never clog up, tank doesn't need cleaning, fish don't need feeding. I will admit that the fish move sort of slow...

It would look well under the mock pear tree.

[jamiebk]

the air bubbler makes no noise,

Wife INSISTS on having a 50 gal fish tank in the family room where the TV is. It sounds like Niagra Falls.....I hate it

PS...this is in addition to:

1 dog (she's my baby though)
2 cats
100+ canaries (yep...100)
and, of course, the fish

Fortunately, they are not all in the family room. Now she wants another dog.

[piqaboo]

Could be worse, jamie. She could want another child.