Month: October 2026

I can get a start on the many many arduous hours of sanding that lies ahead. I will need to take this front & centre storage unit up through a good number of grits to try to minimize the year out and gouging from the lunchbox planer that doesn’t work right anymore. Starting at 60 grit, and then traversing up through 80, 100, 120, 150, 180, and ending on 220. At that point I will have to vacuum and use a blower to empty the garage shop space of as much dust as I can. Once that’s completed I can rub on a good amount of rich coloured Danish Oil. I’ll let that soak in for a day or two depending on the weather and then I can do my final assembly. Once the glue sets up then all of the oil off gassing should be done and I can bring it right in, and tear down the cage! Two big ticket items off the to-do list! Nice.

Oh, on a side note we have just about finished my youngest daughter’s Gordie pumpkin head mask/helmet prop for Halloween. Next time I start in cardboard, I will finish in cardboard because paper maché kinda ruined the shape by sagging into a soggy mess. Live and learn.

That makes two of the four rows out of the ground and drying ready to be cut down and stored for the winter. It’s not particularly glamorous work but it’s a chore done. It’s still too warm to venture anywhere near those pesky ground wasps so I’m going to do odd jobs here until I can process the wood pile again. Pretty soon they’ll start the corn and will plough and I can do some rock picking in the front field to kill time in the mornings before snow covers the ground.

It’s Tuesday! Halloween is in just eleven more days. Working in the sun, even at just 9°C has made me sweaty. Mind you I kept both my sweater and vest on the entire time. I get dripping wet when I get the axe moving for an hour or two. Now that’s a hearty exercise. It’ll introduce you to sore back muscles you forgot you ever had! Ha!

I need to go eat now. Take care out there. And thank you to everybody who continues to show up here and read my nonsense. I appreciate it greatly. Ciao Bella!

Started the day with a dog walk then I dug up a full row of Gladiolus, and now I am trying to establish a good place to work in wood pile three behind the barn. I’m not convinced the ground wasps are gone yet so I’m working at the far end of the pile where I apparently skipped a whole bunch of logs that needed to be cut in half or thirds. No matter, I’ll do what I can and then I can reassess because the mornings and nights are only getting colder so I’ll be able to work up by the barn with my pre-cut stuff soon enough. Be patient and avoid the wasps.

It’s Monday now and I need to eat breakfast. Light duty as I figure out a good starting position. It’s not too late to move or shift things around while it’s this early into the process. I for some reason thought I had processed far more wood down this end, but I am mistaken. Simple fix if I bring my saws down one day soon before the snow starts, or even with light flurries I can likely get my saws to start without wanting to puke from all the pulling and exertion. Ask me how I know this. Ha!

Have a great week everybody.

Cutting the box joint pins into my Cherry boards I discovered that they were not going to fit, nor work properly. I had shifted them a full 16th of an inch offset so I had to cut them off at the mitre saw in favour of 45’s. Those weren’t perfect either, but I can sort those out with fair less fuss. So now the unit is one full inch shorter than it should have been in height, and I’m down to 63 and 6/16ths in width. But I did cut the dados in and notch out the legs for the cross brace along the bottom back side. I am now going to move along to sanding this thing to within an inch of it’s life, and then I’ll add the oil stain, and then do any final trimming before I assemble it for glue up. I might add pin nails and splines to dress up the mitred waterfall corners. It could use some visual appeal now that the joinery has gone for shit. Not impressed with myself. I knew even moving slowly I’d fuck something up. I wish it hadn’t been after three or four hours of hand chiseling pins, but here we are. I can pivot and fix it which is all that matters now. Hide my crimes and get it finished.

I spent my entire free day working on this furniture build. Well, I walked the dog at 10 am and again at 5 pm, but 90% of the time in-between was spent in the shop wood working. Not a bad day after all. Wish it had worked out as first planned, but it was sunny and warm and before I got mad it was a real nice time. Live and learn.

I could have done butt joints and been done ages ago, but I wanted something a little nicer and more robust. Did not work out so now we will have splined mitres to take things up a notch. I have done this before so it will still require some chisel work so at least I can have that to look at once it’s done. It was never going to be heirloom quality but I at least want to be proud of it when completed. This thing will be front & centre as soon as you come in the door so it best not be total shit when I’m through with it. Ha!

All three are on their way to a Guiding event at BMO Field downtown today. Due to the Go Train tracks getting some service done they’ve had to resort to the Go Buses which means a longer trip and no bathrooms onboard. The game doesn’t start until 1:00 pm so they’ve got a ways to go yet in travel time, and then sorting all the troops into their assigned sections with chaperones. Could be a mad house down there today. On a positive note it should be 17°C and sunny all afternoon for them. No rain this time, that’s got to count for something in an open air stadium with no roof or coverings.

I’ve just returned from walking the dog, and I’m going to have breakfast. I’m trying to work myself up to going into the garage to get my furniture build on the move once more. Or I could watch a movie or nap, or doom scroll for the entire day? Did I mention I finally started my sculpture project I’d wanted to get done for this year’s fair? Ha. Just ten days too late. It’s not even done, just started to bulk out some sections ready for a skin layer. At this rate I should have a new item for next fall though, so that’s good news. I do want this front entrance storage unit done. Ugh. Being productive is rewarding and all but so is vegging out! Decisions decisions…

It’s below zero in the wind but we all showed up to show our this Saturday morning in the pumpkin patch. From two years old up into their seventies the gangs nearly all here. Soon we’ll gather for pizza and drinks then toddle off on our merry way heavily laden down with our gourds of choice.

Looks like they’re celebrating the twentieth year of hosting a Halloween Haunt series at the park. A few factors lead to last night being a good night for riders. One, it was positively cold last night once the sun went down. Two, under the threat of rain midway into the evening. Three, the tragedy in Six Flags Atlanta meant both B&M giga-coasters were shut down for the remainder of the season, so no Leviathan and no Behemoth. Plus as a very loose fourth point it was a Thursday night with no PA Day on the Friday, nor any sort of holiday. All of these together meant it was practically a walk on coaster night if you weren’t doing the mazes or the Conjuring fright night events (which you pay extra for). So we got on six rides in about 2 hours, stopped for food and bathroom breaks, and walked around a little too. We didn’t quite make three full hours because the rain hit just before nine o’clock and we called it. That’s what’s so great about having passed we no longer need to try to wrong every single ounce of fun out of an admission to the park. We go for whatever is fun and leave when we feel like it. Great!

Now it’s an oddly warm yet very rainy Friday morning. I have sent one project out, and will start a new one shortly. I need to clean up around here because my youngest has a guest coming before volleyball this afternoon, and I promised to glue on, and primer/spray paint her pumpkin helmet so that she can actually get some colour onto it this weekend. So I’m going to finish my breakfast, get a jump on my display project, and then splash some primer on this helmet mask thing, and see if I can clean up a little, vacuum and mop before the school day ends. Never a full moment around here!

A new addition to our field of inflatable Halloween characters on the front yard, along with the hanging skeleton, and a glowing serpent. I think we’ve reached the limit on the two plugs on the one outlet now. If we ever go for more I’ll need a second timer and to start using another outlet on the opposite side of the house. The really little kids up the street seem to like it a lot, same with my own children. The new twenty footer is a surprise for them when they get home. It takes a while to fill and even longer to deflate! Such fun! The box for it is pretty sizeable so I’ll have to revisit the storage solutions I have in place.bi have room, just a matter of tweaking the order in which every item gets put away. The serpent and skeleton go over the garage door so this new massive inflatable can go there too I think. I’m in the process of using up nearly all of my cherry wood so I am thinning out the garage contents one project at a time to offset adding in new decoration storage boxes.

I wonder if the increased presence on the lawn will attract more trick or treaters this year? It’s feast or famine around here. I either get a long string of tots and toddlers or I get nobody whatsoever. And I have zero indication which it will be until the night itself comes. I typically stay home to keep an eye on the candy bowl, and to watch Alien and have an evening in. It’s Saturday this year so I wonder if things will be a little crazier than usual with no school in the morning. Sunday of the first the clocks change which is always good for a laugh.

I have a tiny skeleton for the front door I have yet to put up, so I should go dig through our Halloween box to find him/her/it. Once that’s done all that is left are carved pumpkins done much closer to the event day, and to buy the candy we need to give out. It’s best to wait on that because if I know it’s here in the house I will tear into those boxes and gorge myself on Twice bars, Mars bars and Snickers bars like the weak will fat man that I am. Look at me I’m a pear!

Looks like it will be a cool night for the Halloween Haunt at Wonderland, so we best dress warmly. I love the lights and decorations. We don’t typically try any of the actual scary stuff because I’m personally not a fan. But I guess I could try once my eldest gets a little older if that’s something she likes. Only time will tell.

Some of my older posts are doing real well in China right now. Seems to come in waves from different regions of the world. That’s cool. And this go around they are reading or at least viewing specific named articles and not just archives (which tells me nothing). Nothing much compares to that single 1,500 viewer day from Germany that lead to a 2,000+ month of July 2025. But a big regional jump is cool just the same. Those good days of 70-100 views dissipated and have come back down to the more easily sustained 20-30 views per day. I’d love to know where the lower limit is for those who can make money off of this sort of endeavour. I would guess that they need 20 to 30 thousand visits per day to collect ad revenue of any size to be useful. Here I am working towards 8,000 for the year of I can make that happen through sheer force of will and determination. Keep the writing streak going, and look towards the future!

I recently applied for a part time job here in town. I do not know what, if anything, will become of it. I’ll keep you posted if it turns out that I learn more. Ciao Bella!

Cutting in the box joint teeth by hand has been a slow moving process but today I finished section two. Now that these two bits of the upper most shelf are done I can transfer each side to the appropriate leg. That will require some rigging up of suitable clamps to position the pieces correctly so that my transfers are true. I need some painters tape, a fine marker, and then the use of a knife to get blade tight edges do it’s good and snug! I can pull off the tape where I don’t need it and clear our the receiving pins over the next couple of days. There was talk of snow on Friday or Saturday so those would be good days to stay warm in the shop making small cuts and doing chisel work.

While not the cleanest job I’ve ever done I’m getting better. The trick is to not rush. Once I get impatient it all goes to hell, so live to fight another day and all should go well! I hope.

I spent my morning walking the dog, cutting the grass, taking down the swing & slack line and erecting all of the Halloween inflatables and our (now hanging) skeleton. Add in a few loads of laundry and that’s been my entire morning. The decorations took just about 2.5 hours to complete. Welcome to Wednesday I guess.