Sharing the Shop

It was suppose to be a rainy weekend in the mountains, which we were hoping for having planted bushes around the house, but alas only fog (at this altitude actually clouds).

Planting bushes where there is little to no water is interesting in that they came from the state with two bags of polymers, one that you dunk the roots in before inserting it into the hole and another that is poured into the hole before covering. Prior to this both polymers are mixed in a water bucket so that they absorb a great deal of the water which will then be released over time to get the plant going. They will also hold any natural water for a longer time around the roots. We hope it works.

Since it was a gloomy weekend and we had already planned to work on the new sun shade valences, Marlys and I spent both days in the barn/shop.

Usually I am in there myself and Marlys swings by when she has something she wants me to cut, this weekend she was there both days, adding the artiste touch to the valences.

The day though started with the fitting of the valences into the window openings. This didn't take long, but I literally signed my work in blood.

A moment for a safety lesson. I have been getting a little use to being around the power tools lately. I had even had the passing thought that I should slowdown sometimes when using the gear. Saturday morning with the miter saw sitting on the rear rack of the ATV (highly mobile workbench) so I could saw the valences to fit, I got the end of a finger into the blade as it was slowing to a stop. Took a chunk out of the finger nail and the nail bed. It bleed like a head wound and over the course of the next hour I ended up putting a couple of layers of band-aids, a mechanics glove, then blue painters tape around the end of the glove in order to stop leaving Freddy Krugger finger prints everywhere. Meaning all over the valences, which now required more sanding.

As Randy Orten says on the WWE advertisements, "You don't have to like me, but you do have to respect me." Don't get cocky around power tools and make sure the blade has stopped before removing the cutoff.

Those of you who know Marlys will understand this next item, in that I needed to prep the shop before she could make her entry. Prep meaning get it warmed up. I like it to be in the 55-60 range so that I can do things without getting hot. Marlys though wants it just south of a sauna (70 degrees), or she will need to be dressed like a polar explorer.

I also learned that having ESPN playing all day doesn't work in mixed company, for extended periods of time. Now if it had been football draft weekend it might have been different, because Marlys has been know to have that on the TV all day in the past.

But this was basketball, and I have to admit it got old after a while ( no offense meant to you B-ball fans).

The valence decorating that Marlys had in mind was to stencil, then paint bear tracks and a silhouette on to the boards. During her experimentation with all the techniques we could come up with it has decided that it was not only going to be too slow, but wouldn't turn out very good.

The next though was a landscape similar to the ACPOA sign she had recently repainted. Marlys drew a few on a piece of scrap and had me rout them out with a couple of different bits, but the painting in of the grove was still problematic. Wood burning became the weapon of choice.

Marlys drew out the landscapes and i routed them with the $21 trim router from Harbor Freight (one of those noted HF gems). The wood burning turned out to take about 2-3 hours per valence so she brought them back to Parker as homework. After a couple of slight changes they turned out real nice. You cant see them real well here, but you get the idea.

BTW I am attaching them using pocket screws and they will just be lacquered (I have become a real fan of lacquer because it drys so fast).

So what was I doing while Marlys was doing her thing? Making another Adirondack ski chair for the patio. I used templates copied from the existing chairs because they are so darn comfortable, so this should be classified as a prototype. I made it using scrap 3/4" plywood. We will need to see how it holds up.

Its the one on the right.

We are now out of old skis and boards and two more chairs need to be built. If you have any to donate drop them off or let me know and we will pick them up.

Sharing this quasi-sacred space initially made me nervous, but I kind of like having Marlys there to share in what she calls putzing around.