Lets try a video blog

These were taken with my cellphone so don't expect too much.

Saturday by the fire:


Adventures in staining:

Full Moons - They have names, all of them.

I noticed when walking the dog this morning that it was a full moon.

The December full moon is called the Oak Moon,

or the Cold Moon, Snow Moon, Moon Before Yule, Peach Moon, Twelfth Moon, Christmas Moon, Margashirsha Poornima or finally the Bitter Moon.

It really depends on background or how you look at the moon.

Initially, I though that only a few moons had names, e.g. Blue, Harvest and Hunters. But in doing a little search on the web I found that my view was pretty narrow. It appears that there were some cultures in old Europe that named moons, namely the Celts and English, but the named moons really took off once the Native Americans came into the picture. This may have been from use of numeric systems for calendars in Europe or the closeness on Native Americans to the environment that they lived, but I really don't know and I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

It also appears that moons had names in other areas also, many more, then you will see, I have captured.

Here is a partial list of moon names and the cultures that used them. I plagiarized this list from multiple sources, so in today's world I think it can be classified as actual research at this point.

The Dakotah Sioux names are some of the most interesting when thinking about what had to happen (scale/scope) in order for the moon to be named after the described events.

Lets start with the old Europe moon names:

Month	English	English Medieval	Celtic
January	Old Moon	Wolf Moon	Quite Moon
February	Wolf Moon	Storm Moon	Moon of Ice
March	Lenten Moon	Chaste Moon	Moon of Winds
April	Egg Moon	Seed Moon	Growing Moon
May	Milk Moon	Hare Moon	Bright Moon
June	Flower Moon	Dyan Moon	Moon of Horses
July	Hay Moon	Mead Moon	Moon of Claiming
August	Grain Moon	Corn Moon	Dispute Moon
September	Fruit Moon	Barley Moon	Singing Moon
October	Harvest Moon	Blood Moon	Harvest Moon
November	Hunter's Moon	Snow Moon	Dark Moon
December	Oak Moon	Oak Moon	Cold Moon

But they really get interesting and descriptive when the Native American moon names are added but what follows is only a partial list:

Month	Native American**	Cherokee	Ottewell (Cherokee)
January	Wolf Moon	Cold Moon	Moon After Yule
February	Snow Moon	Bony Moon
March	Worm Moon	Windy Moon	Lenten
April	Pink Moon	Flower Moon	Egg
May	Flower Moon	Planting Moon
June	Strawberry Moon	Green Corn Moon	Flower
July	Buck Moon	Ripe Corn Moon	Hay
August	Sturgeon Moon	Fruit Moon	Grain
September	Harvest Moon	Nut Moon
October	Hunter's Moon	Harvest Moon	Hunter's
November	Beaver Moon	Trading Moon	Hunter's
December	Cold Moon	Snow Moon	Moon Before Yule

And more:

Month	Choctaw	Dakotah Sioux	Algonquin / Colonial
January	Cooking Moon	Moon of the Terrible	Old
February	Little Famine Moon	Moon of the Raccoon, Moon When Trees Pop	Hunger
March	Big Famine Moon	Moon When Eyes Are Sore from Bright Snow	Crust
April	Wildcat Moon	Moon When Geese Return in Scattered Formation	Pink
May	Panther Moon	Moon When Leaves Are Green, Moon To Plant	Flower
June	Windy Moon	Moon When June Berries Are Ripe	Rose
July	Crane Moon	Moon of the Middle Summer	Buck
August	Women's Moon	Moon When All Things Ripen	Sturgeon
September	Mulberry Moon	Moon When The Calves Grow Hair	Harvest
October	Blackberry Moon	Moon When Quilling and Beading is Done	Hunter's
November	Sassafras Moon	Moon When Horns Are Broken Off	Beaver
December	Peach Moon	Twelfth Moon	Cold

And here is what started to happen when the old Europe and Native American names started to merge:

Month	Colonial American
January	Winter Moon
February	Trapper's Moon
March	Fish Moon
April	Planter's Moon
May	Milk Moon
June	Rose Moon
July	Summer Moon
August	Dog Day's Moon
September	Harvest Moon
October	Hunter's Moon
November	Beaver Moon
December	Christmas Moon

And not to leave out the rest of the world:

Month	Hindu Names	Chinese	New Guinea
January	Paush Poornima	Holiday Moon	Rainbow Fish Moon
February	Magh Poornima	Budding Moon	Parriotfish Moon
March	Holi	Sleepy Moon	Palolo Worm Moon
April	Hanuman Jayanti	Peony Moon	Flying Fish Moon
May	Buddha Poornima	Dragon Moon	Black Trevally Moon
June	Wat Poornima	Lotus Moon	Open Sea Moon
July	Guru Poornima	Hungry Ghost Moon	Tiger Shark Moon
August	Narali Poornima, Raksha bandhan	Harvest Moon	Rain & Wind Moon
September	Bhadrapad Poornima	Chrysanthemum Moon
October	Kojagiri or Sharad Poornima	Kindly Moon
November	Kartik Poornima	White Moon
December	Margashirsha Poornima	Bitter Moon

And here are the non-regional names:

Month	Wiccan	Neo Pagan	Seasonal*	Un-Named #1	Other
January	Wolf	Ice Moon	winter 1st - Moon after Yule	Old
February	Storm	Snow Moon	winter 2nd -Wolf Moon	Snow	Candles Moon; Magpie
March	Chaste	Death Moon	winter last - Lenten Moon	Sap	Sap; Crow; Sugar; Crow
April	Seed	Awakening Moon	spring 1st - Egg, Easter, or Paschal Moon	Grass	Grass(Sprouting); Moon of the Red Grass Appearing; Fish; Waking
May	Hare	Grass Moon	spring 2nd - Milk Moon	Milk	Corn Planting; Corn
June	Dyad	Planting Moon	spring last - Flower Moon	Rose	Honey, Hot
July	Mead	Rose Moon	summer 1st - Hay Moon	Thunder	Thunder
August	Wyrt	Lightening Moon	summer 2nd - Grain Moon	Green Corn	Red; Corn; Green Corn; Dog
September	Barley	Harvest Moon	summer last - Fruit Moon	Fruit	Corn
October	Blood	Blood Moon	autumn 1st - Harvest Moon	Harvest	Travel; Dying Grass
November	Snow	Tree Moon	autumn 2nd - Hunter's Moon	Frost	Frosty
December	Oak	Long Night Moon	autumn last - Moon before Yule	Long Night	Moon Before Yule; Frost

And what about a "Blue Moon"? Here is some interesting trivia from Space and Telescope:

When is the Moon 'blue,' in a calendar sense?

According to the Maine almanac, a Blue Moon occurs when a season has four full Moons, rather than the usual three. This type of Blue Moon is found only in February, May, August, and November, one month before the next equinox or solstice.

According to modern folklore, a Blue Moon is the second full Moon in a calendar month. This type of Blue Moon can occur in any month but February, which is always shorter than the time between successive full Moons.

So pick whether you want to follow folklore or the almanac.

Thanksgiving Week Projects

During the last week I had the opportunity between the beginning of the Holiday activities to finish the headboard in bedroom furniture project and start the finishing on the laundry room built-in cabinet.

The headboard project in the end turned out to be one of the most satisfying wood working projects undertaken so far, because it started as a Ponderosa Pine tree here at Pinon Rock that had been killed by Mountain Pine Beetles and had to be taken down. Once down, Marlys and I sawed it on our sawmill, and the then there was the work of turning the slabs into furniture grade wood. The blue fungus spaling adds real character to the wood. To some it looks like very old reclaimed (silvered) wood was actually used.

As with many of my projects this one did not start with anything more then the measurements of the mattress width and height. Although, I thought of drawing up a set of plans using Google Sketch-Up, I was confronted by the need to see what the wood would give me, before settling on the design. As you can see from the picture in keeping with the rustic look and feel it is pretty simple with only the addition of rails and stiles and an arched top.

The joinery was straight foreword also in that the top and bottom stiles were joined to the posts using mortises and tendons and the panels used tongue and grooves. All in all it is pretty sturdy and it passed the “Marlys inspection”. The remaining pieces in the bedroom project, e.g. side tables and dressers won’t get started until the laundry room project is done and we mill a few more beetle kill trees.

The other project has become problematic.

the cabinet carcass and door was accomplished in a few hours over a Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Pocket screws were used for building the face frame and tongue and groves for the door rail, stiles and panels. But, as in the case of the cowboy sideboard the finishing because it includes staining has been a pain.

Maple, like the Poplar used in the sideboard is a softwood and is prone to blotching, especially when being stained. I thought that I had learned how to do this, but alas, I guess not.

The Maple in this case needs to be stained a dark Chestnut to match the kitchen cabinets. I thought I had prepped the surface well by flooding it with pre-conditioner (varnish-based in this case), but once the stain was applied, it was pretty clear I had done a poor job of sanding and the pre-conditioner (as in the sideboard) didn’t work so well.

So, the sanding began. After consulting my Fleener on finishing guide I next sealed it with shellac. I was letting it dry when we left yesterday, hopefully next weekend it will get stained.

BTW: when we left yesterday Pinon Rock was in the sun, but windy and cold, little did we know that the trip back to Parker would be a five and half hour slog through the snow starting at Woodland Park (on Hwy 24 above Colorado Springs).

Good Socks!

At 5am this morning walking the dog my thoughts were on one thing...how good my socks felt.

Now some of you may be saying to yourselves, how insightful, there must be some existential meaning behind the observation....ah, not so much, they just really felt good.

I won't argue the point, that I have been accused of being less then deep in my thinking sometimes. But I like to rationalize this as an eclectic interest in a vast (vs. deep) body of knowledge, kinda like a renaissance man. If you think that was good, you should hear me rationalize the need for a new power tool.

Which brings me back to the socks. Sometimes you just need to notice, and take pleasure in, the simple things, and this morning that was the case. Its dark. the wind is blowing, snowing lightly, the temp is down, but damn my socks felt good.

1400 Gallons down the drain!

As that great songstress Britney Spears would say, "Oops I did it again".

We drained the cistern of 1400 gallons on Friday night according to the water meter.

This is the third time this has happened this year and the culprit was the same as the first; the downstairs toilet.

When we arrived on Friday afternoon, I checked the cistern water level as part of the norm when turning up the house and it was as full as the internal float limiter would allow (Next year I plan to move the level up, as it only fills to 1400 gallons in a 1700 gallon tank.).

During the evening I noticed that "fresh air" smell in the lower level while watching TV, but I didn't get up to check for the source. First thing the next morning when I turned on a faucet I knew what it was.

I checked the cistern level and it was empty. I didn't flush any toilets before checking the tanks and guess what, the one in the lower level was empty.

I need to do a couple of things; repair the intermittently running toilet and get some type of monitor/automatic shut off system in place in case it happens again.

In searching the Internet there were two promising systems available; FloLogic and H2ORB.

• The Flologic system in a whole house monitor which is programed recognize an out of normal flow amount and then shuts down the water. The con is it costs about $1,000.
• The H2ORB is built to monitor a toilet only for leaks and overflows. Again it is set to recognize an abnormal flow amount, e.g. 25 gallons, then it shuts off the water to the stool. The pro is it appears to be only about $100, but the con is I can't find anyplace to buy one, on or off line.

No wonder the grass is growing so good over the drain field.

If a recession can have a silver lining

I don't need to wait for the official word that we are in a recession to know we are. But I have to tell you the drop in fuel prices as a result is really a God send not only for the economy, but for my own pleasure in driving around the newish truck.

I mentioned in the previous post the trip to the Springs to pickup wood, on the way back I filled up the truck for the first time in 6 weeks and it only cost $78 bucks. Since buying the truck in March that is the lowest bill I have had on a fill. A couple of times it surpassed the $150 range.

Ok, so I like to putz around.

It was an exceptional weekend for the beginning of November.

The weather was nice enough that the Margarita fixin’s came out of storage.

While partaking of Marlys’ concoction and talking about “things”, it came out that she believes I do a lot of putzing around. I agreed. I guess that makes me a putz.

So I Googled “putz”, to see if I should be worried and this is what came up (intended pre-pun):

putz (p ts)
n.
1. Slang A fool; an idiot.
2. Vulgar Slang A penis.

intr.v. putzed, putz·ing, putz·es
Slang To behave in an idle manner; putter.
[Yiddish pots, penis, fool.]

Source:American Heritage Dictionary.

I don’t believe, or don’t want to, that I bear a resemblance to the noun “putz”, but I do expend significant time doing, as the intransitive verb form suggests, in that I “putter”.

Let’s talk about my latest putzing around project.

This puttering (I have elected to go with puttering vs. putzing so as not to offend those who may be offended) around project had its beginning during the house build in 2006. The laundry room had a 51 inch wide space where a hanging rod with a counter was to be installed by moi. I had even purchased the wooden counter top that was going to be put in…someday.

Next, this space morphed into an area that would include a broom cabinet. No problemo a cabinet and hanging rod with a counter it would be.

But after being visited by Marlys’ cohorts a few times, it was decided a auxiliary refrigeration unit for fermented derivatives of macerated vitis was now a necessity.

Life was so simple before the Internet and Google…right.

A wine cooler was integrated into the puttering project.

Can you say “scope creep”.

To finish off the space, it was deemed that a hanging rod no longer seemed appropriate, so built in shelving and crown molding now was part of the plan,

Before it went any further the list was committed to paper via a cabinet planning application, found on the Internet via, you guessed it Google.

The thinking was that by putting in on paper the list would stabilize.

According to Cabinet Planner this was now a $1100 cabinet, using its average material, labor and mark-up rates.

So on Saturday off we went to buy the materials. This in itself became a great adventure as Paxton Lumber in Denver was the only place I knew of to get cabinet grade plywood in something other then Oak (Home Depot). In consultation with the folks on the Sawmill Creek Forum it was suggested that Colorado Lumber Specialties in the Springs would be another place to try.

This opened up a whole ‘nother chapter in this project, because they had a lot of nice wood.

An interlude for context –

This “built-in”, yes we have moved beyond simply calling it a cabinet, was to look like those in the kitchen, meaning three stile Shaker style Chestnut stained Maple cabinetry.

Initially, Birch and Poplar were going to be used to save a buck, since the leftover stain from the kitchen could be used for color matching.

BUT, CLS had Maple cabinet grade sheet goods (fancy name for 4’x8’ wood products).

So on to the cart it went.

Now on to the solid stock for the face and door frames.

The Poplar stock has made up of both sap and heart wood and after the problems I had with matching the two on the Molesworth and after seeing the Maple inventory, we unloaded the Poplar and re-loaded with S2S (surfaced two sides) soft Maple.

Even though we were ready to go, this place had so much nice wood, I needed to look around.

While looking at all of the different molding CLS stocked we came across a wall of S4S (guess) lumber and the Maple looked even better (#1 vs. #2?), so back we went to off-load the S2S Maple and then back to re-load with S4S. The price difference was actually pretty minimal and I rationalized this as having to do less machining to prep it.

For those keeping score we have loaded the cart three times and unloaded in twice.

Before greater damage could be done we headed for the door.

I will need to re-adjust the material pricing in Cabinet Planner due to the CLS adventure.

BTW, the other head board puttering project, using the Ponderosa cut at Pinon Rock, is moving along also.

I have found that for efficient putzing requires multiple projects must to be in play at any one time.

Adventures in Woodworking: A cabinet from the cut off pile.

I was reading a blog about saving the wood cutoff that accumulates in the shop over time. The advice was that if a saved piece of wood is not used within a year, move it to the burn pile.

We have a pretty good burn pile going for fire pit use over the coming winter as you can see from this picture.

Last Saturday while reviewing the wood stacked on the rack and having not quite decided on the actual design for the headboard project and found myself wandering down the path of what could I do with some of the scrap that might help me learn something and provide a nice "1 dayer" project.

I had watched a Fine Woodworking web video a while back by Mario Rodriguez (?) about the building of a hanging cabinet, that I thought could be plagiarized for this activity.

The goal of the day would be to build a storage cabinet for the "drill press stuff".

I had some leftover poplar from the Molesworth sideboard, curly redwood from the floating shelf and a thin piece of beetle kill Ponderosa that I had been looking to use somewhere.

Although there were know plans I went with a pretty simple final dimension of 24" tall by 12" wide. It would have a full width frame and panel door, with the top and bottom overhanging and a shelf with maybe a dovetail front drawer for small items.

This will be a warm up for the broom closet cabinet project that I should start next week.

Although I had done a number of these techniques already as the "1 dayer" project progressed my mistakes added to my repertoire. I planned to use dado and rabbit joinery for the cabinet carcass and biscuits for the door frame. If I had time the draw would have a hand cut dovetail front. I had done dado, rabbit and biscuits before, but I was looking forward to the dovetailing. I have no jig or dovetailing saw and my chisels and pretty basic Stanley Fatmaxx's, but they are sharp. For sawing I would use the Japanese backsaw that Derek got me for Christmas a number of years ago, it doesn't have a back support, but what the heck this is my first time, so a little wobbliness is OK.

The carcass when together pretty well until the point that I noticed that the top and bottom piece side rabbits showed in the front on the sides. To fix this first mistake I decided to rabbit the front of the top and bottom and in set the door so that the side rabbits would not be seen. It looked better then the original idea once completed. This did point out that even though this projects was a "shot from the hip", it still should have been committed to paper before cutting wood.

Once the carcass had been glued up and clamped. I tackled the door frame. The contrast between the dark redwood and beetle kill Ponderosa would be nice when done.

The door frame and full length stiles. I learned a trick after completing this from a forum that will help in fitting the next projects that needs a door, but more on that later.

The rail and stiles would be joined using #10 biscuits, cut by my trusty Harbor Freight POS biscuit jointer. Since I believe that tools sometimes seem to have a mind of there own I always refer to this one in less then glowing terms so that it can try and prove me wrong and give me a better joint that I have come to expect. A good biscuit jointer would cost me more then a $100, based on the amount I use one, I though the $30 for this one would be OK. Well as they say you get what you pay for.

BTW the tools having a mind of their own thing can usually be directly related back to the forethought and attention of the operator.

Once the frame had been glued up and drying, the next item was the panel. After cutting it to size I needed to plane it, since it was so thin I figured I would build a sled to give it the need thickness to make it through the planer. This is something I had read about some where, so don't be fooled by my ingenuity. I took a piece of 3/4" plywood and screwed (this will screw me later) a cleat on one end.

Boy am I a jenyuz (genius).

So I but the panel on the sled with the cleat on the backend so that it can pull it through the planner. Well the planer rollers just pulled the panel off the sled.

Aah, the jenyuz thinks, the sled has to be turned around so that the cleat is on the front and the panel pushes it through the planer.

So the jenyuz, turned it around and re-inserted it. Wow, it worked! I needed to take a little more off so I lowered the blade a half turn and sent it back through.

As the roller grabbed the panel on sled and pulled it into the blades I heard a metal on metal sound that was not good and as the piece exited the other side there was a nice grove extending from one of the screws used to hold the cleat all the way along the panel.

Before you say, "you d### s###", I did check that the panel stood proud of the cleat when I screwed it on.

OK now you can say, "you d### s###", I didn't think about how the actual cutting would make the panel thinner by this operation and the impact (literally) this would have on the cleat and screws.

So the blades will need to be replaced. Aah, but I learned this week that the Dewalt 735 has reversable blades, so I don't need to buy new ones...yet or at least until my jenyuosity comes back into play.

So the panel it ready and the frame is dryed, now on to the rabbit in the frame for the panel. Out comes the router on to which I put a edge fence and a straight bit. This operation actually went pretty well, so I thought I would also relieve the edges on the cabinet with a small round over bit equipped with a bearing. This really put a nice finishing touch on the cabinet.

I should have put the router away at this point.

I once read that one of the disciplines an artist needs to learn is when to stop working on a piece and say it is done...before they screw it up.

The door frame was done. But I thought that since the roundover bit did such a nice job on the edges of the cabinet why not do the inner edges of the rails and stiles...instead of just using a piece of sand paper. Heck the router was setup and ready to go and everyone knows that cutting is better then sanding anyway.

So down goes the frame on to the bench and on goes the router.

As I bring the bit into contact with the inner edge I am feeling for the contact of the bearing to so that I can start to move is along the stile...but something doesn't seem right. The bit seems to be taking an awful big bit out of the frame and instead of just rounding over the edge has cut a big groove into the rail.

WTH!

Well there is a slight gap between the bottom of the bit cutting edge and the bearing. This seems to be slightly larger then the edge itself so guess what...the bearing didn't even hit the edge to stop the bit from going any deeper.

So there I am looking at what was a great looking and square door frame not with a big divot in it.

What to do...build a new one? No! Again I read somewhere that how you recover from mistakes in woodworking (and life) is the real learning.

So what to do? Cut a piece to replace the chunk? No this is going to hang over the drill press in the shop not in the house, so out comes the 5 minutes epoxy gel and the box of saw dust.

I tend to be learning...a lot, so I have a collection of sawdust boxes from all of the woods I have used.

Mix up the epoxy, mix in some sawdust, schmooze it into the divot and sprinkle more sawdust on top as frosting, let dry and sand and scrape.

For those of you that have followed this blog for awhile this is the same technique used for the mortise I cut on the wrong place on the coffee table in our great room. I challenge anyone to find that repair without me pointing it out.

OK, at this point the project is going to slip in to the next day.

Due to the slip up I will not have time to build the draw this weekend. but I do a great job of mortising the hinges and mounting the finished door frame with panel. Marlys took a look at it and said it was to good for the barn...you be the judge.

The knob is a piece of deer antler and I still need to build a door catch, but I think it looks pretty good.

BTW here is a shot of my first try at dovetailing. I need some practice before building the drawer.

Marlys, you know for the bedroom dresser project, there is this dovetailing jig for sale on Craigslist.........