Wednesday Woodworking – Table Saw and More Raised Beds

Posted on 03/31/2021 by Andrew Reynolds

This week it arrived – my new table saw:

It took 10 minutes to get the box open. Looks like I’ll need to get one of my strong grandsons over to get the saw vertical.

So far I’ve opened the box and retrieved this:

Found the manual. Time to do a little studying.

Yes, I have the owner’s manual. The whole saw is shipped in a number of boxes and will require a bit of assembly and adjustment before I can use it. It’s also very heavy and I’ll need to get help standing it up and attaching all the rails, extension tables and so on. My back hurts just thinking about it.

We’ve had warm weather here so I’ve been working on more raised beds. These will go into the veggie garden. I’m making a total of six of these two foot by five foot long beds. Here’s one bunch of them:

Three of the four raised bed for the veggie area.

One is already in place and these three will go in next week. The area we’ll be using for vegetables is currently getting new fencing installed and until they fence company is done, they’ll have to wait out here.

and with my garage shop cluttered with table saw parts I’ve moved to this temporary shop:

One raised bed under construction in my “outdoor” workshop. It used to be a patio, but I’ve turned it into a “workshop.”

Okay, it’s the patio, but it’s also self cleaning – just wait for the afternoon breeze and all the sawdust blows away.

That’s it for this week – if you need me, I’ll be reading my owner’s manual.

Posted in woodworking | Tagged , , | 24 Comments

Love

Posted on 03/29/2021 by Andrew Reynolds

A couple of months ago I joined a writer’s group at church.  This is a local church we’ll be transferring our membership to so it seemed time to start joining some of their stuff.  The writer’s group meets once a month with a suggested writing topic.  This month there were two: Love and how have you changed your mind.

Couldn’t think of how I’ve changed my mind so I went with the topic I know even less about, love.  Here’s the poem I read for group.  Strangely enough, they said I could come back next month.

Love

You ask me to write of love.
What can I tell you that you don’t know?
Would something abstract do?
Shall I speak of the Greek – Agape, Eros, Philia, or pragma?
Perhaps I could sing you a love song – crooner, country, romantic, or perhaps a they done me wrong song.

What could I tell you?
What don’t you know?
The yearning of a single heart looking for that one.
The joy of the couple at the altar.
That look,
those words,
the touch …

Can I tell you of the heart ache when love is gone?
Of the emptiness when the mourners go home …
nights when no one calls
when grief becomes the world?

Perhaps I could tell you the great mysteries.
How love works,
or perhaps a list of all the great books of love.

The song is wrong you know.
There isn’t a book of love.
Not one, but thousands.
Books, poems, songs, sculpture, paintings, pictures …

What do I know of such things?

All I know is that in my life,
I’ve had family that loves me,
I’ve had beloved pets,
and twenty years ago, I found that one
who made my life complete.

I’ve decided that love is about creating, giving, working at, and holding onto when all else fails.
We can speak of it, but it is best felt and gently held where all can see.
I cannot write of love.

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

Friday Wisdom – Electrician

Posted on 03/26/2021 by Andrew Reynolds

I have an electrician on-site today wiring up my workshop shed so here we go:

What do you call an electrician’s appurtenance? A shock absorber.

What do electricians call a power outage? A current event.

Why do fluorescent lights hum? Because they don’t know the words.

How do you greet an electrician? Say, Watt’s up!

If you plant a light bulb in the garden, does it grow up to be a power plant?

When did the electrician marry her? He couldn’t resist her.

Why is wind power becoming so popular? It has a lot of fans.

Most people are shocked when they find out how bad an electrician I am.

Posted in wisdom | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Wednesday Gardening – Raised Beds

Posted on 03/24/2021 by Andrew Reynolds

The weather here is starting to warm up and we’ve been getting a few days outside to get started on this year’s garden.  Since this will be our first year here, lots of what we’ll be doing is infrastructure.  We’ll get some veggies planted and put in some of the bigger plants, but not much more.  First project is the herb garden:

This will be the herb garden. The ramp is temporary.

This is the lowest level on our newly redone hill.  There will be more beds when we’re done and this will mostly be for herbs.

First set of raised beds.

We have another area where we’ll be doing a veggie area so we’ll need lots more planter boxes and beds so here I’m cutting old fence boards to make these boxes:

That’s me making sawdust.

The fence boards came from a fence we took down to make room for my shed and from my daughter’s home where some fence had been partly burned last summer’s wild fires.  She’s replaced her wood fence with a metal fence.

The stacks on the right are what I’ve salvaged so far and will make six more planter boxes.

If you need me, I’ll be out back cutting fence boards.

Posted in General | 27 Comments