Day: October 8, 2026

I did not get very far on the four edges that will mate with the box joints. I have rough cut only one section of the four that need it. But in order to do the last two section on the leg portions, I need my final sized top panel completed then I can transfer my pins & gaps. And once all that’s done I can measure out my shelves and router those mortises into the legs too. Do a dry fit so that I can notch out the bottom backing plate that is there to stop the dogs toys from getting under the couch and I can dry fit that too. I can take this time to either break all the edges with a sanding block or use the router to round over the edges. I haven’t decided which i’d prefer. Then it’ll be sanding until I’m sick to death of it all. I think I might then go ahead and rub on some Danish oil to make the colour a little richer right off the bat. This avoids the glue accidentally leaving voids where the oil gets repelled and won’t hold. All that’s left is to glue it together, and allow it 5-7 days to offgas in the garage. I can add some rubber feet or some padded strips to the bottom of the legs if I do wish. Save any more scratches of our hardwood floors. Though given how badly damaged they are from the dog’s bones I don’t need to worry about it all that much.

I’ve looked at some new thickness planers and of course the best reviewed and highly rated bench top version is still going to run me $1,100.00 and change. Not to be entered into lightly me thinks. That might stay on the old wishlist for a good many months if there are no sales any time soon. I will monitor the pricing on Amazon, Canadian Tire and such over the coming months to see if the price ever drops. I doubt that it will. It’s better than the cheaper lunch box style planers, so it likely never goes on sale. I could check out Busy Bee but those 15″ wide planers are way out of my league price wise, and are too large for my available shop space. It’s gotta remain mobile and on a wheeled base.

Anyway, progress is slow by moving along so I will consider that a win for today. Nice to be home working and still be able to go out into the shop and tinker with my toys! Why have them if I’m not able to putter around doing stuff.

I started some paper mache today and… good god is that messy! Eew. I only managed to get half the head covered, and it’ll require many layers and I’ll need to be able to flip it over once dry to do the underside. Let us hope the water, flour, salt mixture adheres as well as I remember it. With any luck I can really crank some strips out tomorrow and then we can cut out the eyes and my daughter can paint it however she likes. A big wearable pumpkin head of some random character she likes. Then she can focus on the clothes she’ll need to wear with it. Fun-fun.

As far as I can tell the steps to this process go as follows: Drain the water down to below the jets & intake outlets while cleaning out any leaves and debris. Suction all of the water out of the pipes. Cap the pipes from the pool end. Add three different types of things to the water in an attempt to limit algae, metal corrosion, and one powdered oxidizer. Manoeuvre the pool cover into place and then affix it in place with a rubber weather strip gasket type thin while on your hands & knees bent over the entire time. Takes a couple of hours. Isn’t all together unpleasant but I’m glad we only do it once per year, and then in the reverse order to open it up, but that requires heating the water too so it takes an awful lot longer. Same with filling the pool water level back up, with a garden hose you’re looking at eight or more hours.

Well, it’s now Thursday before the Thanksgiving long weekend and the forecast looks to be halfway decent at least. I think I will try my hand at some joinery today to keep the furniture build progressing at an even pace. I spent a number of hours yesterday hand planing those six boards, and I’m not entirely certain that they are any better than they were to begin with. Ha! I have many hours of sanding in my future that’s for certain.

I haven’t seen enough consecutive early morning frost to venture behind the barn to the last wood pile to start up splitting again. I want to be almost certain that those ground wasps are done for the season before I set up shop anywhere within 300 m of them. All that sweating, banging & clanging with likely raise their ire, and I can do without another swarming attack this calendar year. Never again would be preferable, but I’m not that lucky. Before this I hadn’t had a swarmed attack since 2008 when I built our shed. I was pulling up old posts that were set into the ground as a make shift retaining wall and got jumped by a bunch of yellow jackets or hornets or something. It was very unpleasant. I do not recommend it.

It was unseasonably warm last night so the damn mosquitoes were out in full force too. Seems odd that they never really died down this year. They’ve been a menace since early May. Did the bird flu kill off more birds than we are aware of and that’s why the mosquito population is so high, or was it because we kept having major cloud burst rain fall that likely kept puddles full out in the trees all summer long? When we had the months long drought last summer the mosquitoes practically died off completely due to there being no moisture on the ground anywhere at all. The lake dropped 3 nearly 4 feet by October last year. It was way way up this spring though. Nearly over the shore line at the boat launch. It was crazy high just months after dropping so low some folks had to anchor their boats 50/60 feet out from shore to have water deep enough for their boats draw. Crazy times are afoot.