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The problem with being too productive on the weekend is now I need an afternoon nap as I dive headlong into Monday, and the rest of a normal work week. Didn’t really want to leave all this stuff for later because once those cold grey rainy November days get here I’m really not going to want to do much of anything! Blargh. For now I just want to have an hour long snooze, but it’s awful close to sunset, so will that lead to issues going to bed tonight? The ramifications for going hard and getting lots done will Echo through this coming week. Fun times.

In other news I’ve picked up a second two plug exterior timer to go on the opposite side of the house. Means I can spread the load, and have cleaner cable management, and a reduced load on each socket/outlet. I think that will be just the ticket we needed. I can run the house lights on one, and the tree wraps & lawn ornaments on the other.

What I really need to do now is have the dump trailer brought by so that I can load all of the brush onto it, and the maple logs from the tree trimming I did. I have some slabbed bits from beside the shed that should go down to the farm to be burned too while I’m at it. It never ends around here!

I have a coil of old carpet in the garage I need to bring down for garbage day, and after that I can purge the yard waste and go back to purging our household waste. Round and round we go, filling up and purging what accumulates. It’s a cycle. A seemingly never ending one at that.

I’m trying to muster up the drive to go back out to the garage to fetch the step ladder to bring down the carpet roll so I can simply plop that on the curb Tuesday morning. On second though, if I actually put up the exterior lights tomorrow I’ll be messing about with the ladders anyway, and in & out of the garage for a few hours and I can just as easily do it then instead of making a trip to do it now.

I have saw dust and wood shavings that could also go in the dump trailer too now that I think about it a little more. Now we come back to saw dust which reminds me, I was this close to buying a Ryobi 40V leaf blower, the 180MPH version that does something like 800CFM so you know it’ll help blast the dust out of my garage with little effort. My concern there is that it’ll cover the entire street in tiny sawdust sprinkles, or cover the neighbours car & lawn. That’s not so hot. Dick move. Didn’t do it. But the desire is there. Ha!

Going to be a long day of tidying up the lawn. I have all ready gone outside to trigger the inflatables so that the fabrics dry out, and the leaves peel off. I will systematically go through them to unzip the tops, pour out any collected rain water, pull up the stakes, and fit each one back (carefully) into their assigned boxes. Then those boxes go back up to the top shelf of the metal rack in the garage. We have more items to contend with this year, so the other day I spent some time cutting down 2×4’s to close the massive gaps in the overhead storage above the garage door. Now I can use all of the space there without having to worry about stuff falling through the gaps. It was hot & frustrating work, but it should pay off later today!

Then I will need to contend with the grass. I haven’t cut it since the sixth of October. Not only that, but I did the first round of leaves here only yesterday afternoon. I vacuumed up about nine full mulched bags of dry leaves. The Black & Decker vacuum mulcher works extremely well with completely dry leaves, so I took the time while we hadn’t had any rain for a few days. The winds actually helps a little by keeping the air moving and drying out these brittle little bastards! I could likely pull up four more crushed bags of tightly packed mulch just from whatever is still left on the ground, but I might choose to go straight to the mower instead. Grind them down into the grass!

Now that it’s November, we will wait to observe Remembrance Day, and then we will decorate inside the house for Christmas. If I get a sunny day soon I will put out lights up on the house, but will not turn them on for two weeks. I do like Christmas, but it being November first is too early for all our Christmas themed everything. I won’t start with the music for a bit longer anyway.

So that’s most of my day planned out between taking down the Halloween stuff, cleaning up the lawns, and maybe putting lights up on the house. We will have to wait and see if I get that far. Moving all these boxes of things can take far longer than I would expect. So much folding, unwinding, and detailing to do first. If I don’t do it now then I have to do it next fall after months of it sitting in a tangle. Depends on the weather, if it’s nice I’ll spend the time now, if it sucks it will all become future Me’s problem. Apologies future me, you might get burned here!

Also – Time change! I’m up at a reasonable hour now thanks to the extra hour! Such luck!  All the best to you out there.

UPDATE: it was a busy morning. I did get all of the inflatables stowed away. The new 4ft pumpkin taken apart and into its box. The serpent also boxed up. The skeleton cut down from the tree and the chain lubed and stored for spring. The door decorations and wispy bits went into a tub together. The solar lights are stored for winter. The hose disconnected and drained of water then coiled up in the shed. The patio furniture is stored along with the bikes, scooters, chairs, umbrella, and railing shelf for plants are all put away. The AC unit was lubed up and covered with a tarp and tied up nice and tight. The rain barrel was disconnected, drained and all the bits put inside it ready for spring. That’s all gone into the shed. Along with the backyard ornaments my wife likes. I’ve cut the grass and mulched the leaves so our lawn looks reasonable now. I disconnected all parts of the pressure washer so it could drain ready for those freezing temperatures. I even brushed off the back walk where the dogs been kicking up mud when he digs in the garden beds back there. I have access to the Christmas tree, and all the lawn care stuff still so that’s pretty great. My plan for how to store everything up over the garage door worked without issue. I have more space than previously anticipated. I found the snowboards that need to get donated, and found an old carpet roll that can go out with the trash on Tuesday. Very productive morning. I’m happy about it.

Only got around to going three times this month because we started off with the Markham Fair for four days, then a three day long weekend, then Halloween Haunts at Wonderland, and a Leafs game downtown and before we knew it the month was done and I’d only visited the three times. I would like to at least double that in November or aim for the full eight visits that I used to do regularly. I notice how quickly my grip fails now that we haven’t gone as much as I’d like.

I think I can remedy that with more wood splitting in November as well. With any luck we will have very cold nights, followed by chilled mornings that will keep the wasps at bay while I’m at the farm in the mornings. I don’t care if it heats up after eleven and they come awake then, but I’d rather prefer to not get swarmed a second time this calendar year.

It’s a real vibe out here these days huh? Like, right? Pretty wild atmosphere we’ve got going on lately. And I got one am here for it. The kids have been building their costumes since late September, so we’re all set for tomorrow evening. Let us hope that the weather holds up because walking house to house in icy rain is not fun whatsoever. The kids don’t enjoy having to wear a parka & snow pants either, kinda ruins the vibes. Same with rain coats, splash pants and 68″ umbrellas. Fifteen degrees Celsius, dry, and not too windy would be just about perfect. Basically I want last Sunday’s evening weather. Ha!

I hope your children all get the snacks they love, and that your house only gets visits from as many people as your candy stash can handle. Also no eggs or toilet papering would be beneficial too.

With several blind curves on hills with four way stops along the way these foggy mornings are not for the faint of heart. These roads aren’t the best in better weather conditions so it’s a bit of a crap shoot to drive them when visibility has been reduced to 10-15 feet at best. Yikes!

Thursday is here with a couple items on the docket for the day. Add the Osmo finish to my furniture build. Make and find a way to display the new light up pumpkin we were gifted by my FIL. And make a new, slightly larger batch of French Onion Soup for my wife to celebrate her week off. She is currently on a field trip today with my youngest child. Who would think that a single week could end so quickly!

Let us hope that their bus has better line of sight on these foggy roads than I did when taking the dog for his morning stroll at the farm.

Updates!

The new pumpkin light-up from Costco has been assembled and placed in the line up. Though where I’m going to store something that’s four foot and solid escapes me at the moment. But a kind gesture nonetheless.

Going to attempt from scratch French onion soup again, this time with more onions in the beginning. I’m going to use our new Paderno 4.7 Qrt dutch oven that is enameled cast iron to see if I get equally good results, or better ones with the diffused heat from the cast iron. Only wooden tools for this bad boy! I dig the blue too! It does slide on the cook top a little too easily though, I can see that being an issue. I’ll have to keep an oven Mitt nearby for holding it still while I stir the onion chunks. I have 49 minutes of storing left to go so bear with me here. This is a slow methodical process. No burnt onions please! Ha.

As I suspected I have some gaps to fill under the top shelf because I cut the relief too wide and then add a bunch of sanding on top of that error and the compounding faults leave a hefty void I now need to fill. Fear not! I have some Cherry bands that I can sand, stain & insert underneath to close the gaps, so that should alleviate most of my troubles. The mitres aren’t as tight as I’d like, but hard to quibble with it now it’s got glue and nails in it! Ha. I will add the Osmo tomorrow and do my little tidy up then too. I can have it indoors by Saturday afternoon or Sunday depending on how busy we are with Halloween.

So we aren’t as long as I’d hoped for. Not as wide, and not as tall. We do have the shape I was aiming for, and the hardwood held up to my ministrations.  The joinery I spent hours on had to be cut off because I was misaligned, so not a great finish to a project, but on the other hand I feel like done is way better than perfect, and I can move on to the yard work here or at the farm without this storage unit weighing heavily on my mind. That’s a good thing.

It looks ok, a tad amateurish, but what can you expect. I aimed high and came in a little lower, but it should serve its purpose. I can now choose to add little rubber feet or soft pads to float on the floors here. Our dog has ruined the hardwood by dropping his animal leg bones everywhere so I’m not all together that worried about fresh indents on the flooring. Soon enough we will be able to reclaim several feet of workable space at our front entrance way, and for that I am happy, happy, happy.

So no custom orders just yet around here, but one day I’d love to build us a dining room table, and a couple of desks for the kids. Nothing too crazy or elaborate, but elegant and tasteful. Made in Walnut or Cherry. It would be cool to add a Padauk or Purple Heart element to those items, but we will see how things go.

Thanks to those whom unwittingly followed along as I stumbled through this latest furniture build. I will post one last update once I get it put in place and tear the dogs crate down. Look for that on Sunday or Monday.

Also, not a fan of working directly on the floor, but this item is so long that I could not do the assembly on my bench. Trying to manoeuvre it into position by myself was a task I’m loathe to repeat, but if I want to get better and improve I need to continue to make stuff for the house. It’s not hot today so the glue gave me slightly longer working time which I am appreciative of. Also, not going to lie, I was pretty happy that my two centre shelves slid into place with little fuss. That was a happy little moment I’d gladly revisit on my next project(s).

I think moving forward (excepting the wood I already have in my possession) I will buy S4S wood from the local mill because my planer is a joke and I can start the build immediately without having to process the rough lumber. Saves me time, but will cost more. I’m ok with that. I think it will be some time before I can afford a new thousand dollar planer to replace the failing one I’ve got now. I can go right into panel glue ups, and cutting my pieces for joinery elements. Could be a game changer.

I personally always wanted to go from rough sawn lumber to finished project all by myself, but now I no longer consider it cheating to by good quality lumber that was surfaced on all four sides. I certainly would have far less dust & shavings to contend with if I did so. I have loads to burn! Better make an added stop at the farm to the burn barrel for my cut offs and sawdust/shavings. They smell lovely but get everywhere and add a tonne of additional cleaning to every single build. That’s all for now.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Came out with clean feet and not much else I’m afraid. Better luck next time. Definitely do not drink the water, it smells like nacho cheese Doritos and feels a tad oily. Not good for the gastric tract of a fellow human. No sir. Don’t drink it, no matter how tempted you might be. Oily feet, remember? I just said it like five seconds ago. Also, knowledge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, along with it comes existential dread, and understanding just how bad things are out there. Far better to keep those little piggies full of jam and have a smooth brain where all the worst parts of life just slide right off. It’s a decision to be made, most certainly, same as any other, but on the upside you remain ignorant to much of the ridicule you face, and the surface of most things are pretty pleasant! No hard feelings, no second guessing, no worries of the slightest detail. Blissful even. So you’d do well to avoid the oily nacho cheese foot water, and instead grab a hot dog and a local team jersey and go on about your life free from the burden of deliberate and considered thought. The world awaits you!

In other news the latest Dune Part Three trailer just dropped and it looks like a lot of fun. I’m excited to go see it in December. I’d like to take the kids to go see Wildwood too because Laika studios makes really great stop motion animation films. This last one took them nearly 16 years to complete. How incredible is that? Right?

I’m pretty sure today is Wednesday. If I can do it I’d love to get my latest furniture build done by the end of the week. Wish me luck.

You guessed it we’re in Niagara Falls until about 11:00 am today then it’s a drive back to our regularly scheduled lives. Just a quick two day getaway with the kids in tow. Visiting with extended family on my wife’s side, and doing some local sight seeing since we aren’t going Stateside for beach fun. At this rate I’ll be back in my office/studio working before 3:00 pm today, as if nothing happened. The dog might feel a little differently about that but he’s with Grandma and she spoils him, so I don’t feel bad for the four legged critter.

It’s Tuesday! I sure hope we didn’t miss the recycling truck because our bin was full to overflowing! Would not be much fun to have to wait two more weeks to get that stuff gone! Yikes.

We’ll be back to farm dog walks by late afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning. Life as we know it continues.

Keeping ourselves occupied while we have better than expected weather! To the Go-Karts! Tally-ho.

Keeping this one short, feel free to disregard this message… Save yourselves.