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I had hoped to both clean the garage and apply the Danish oil stain to my Cherry boards yesterday, but after working in the garden for an hour it was still a little chilly outside so I instead waited until three o’clock to clean the garage and vacuum up as much dust as I could and then wait for today to do the stain. That way I didn’t feel like I had to rush. I could take my time and avoid runs, splotches and missed areas, or overlaps that get darker than everywhere else the stain was applied.

Teens out my choice of darker stain on Cherry might have been a bad choice, but I wanted it darker right away, and given we’re heading into winter didn’t think the UV rays would enrich the natural tones fast enough for my liking. I think a deeper amber, reddish brown after a year or two will look even better. All of our current furniture is dark, so I went with it.

I will come back to assemble it on Tuesday or Wednesday. That should be more than enough time for the stink to wear off a little while it dries undisturbed. Once I get it assembled and make the last two cuts for the centre shelves to fit just right I will then come back to wipe on, buff off the Osmo clear coat protective finish. I took some lengthy breaks so I hope to finish this by November 2nd, if not by October 31st. All I will say is that it’ll be completed before we reach 2027, how about that?

I wore a respirator whilst staining and I had a big box fan acting as an exhaust fan too. But you know what? Still smelly and still makes me feel a little lighter on my feet than I should. At least I tried to mitigate the fumes before putting myself in the centre of them. I think a nice little scuff of the finish with a 400 grit pad will allow the Osmo to really shine once applied next week. We’re going to put up the inlaws Halloween decorations later today, so I did my part before putting this furniture project down for a few days.

Up next, laundry and more cleaning up. The friend I helped out the other day wound up renting a garbage bin because the plywood and strapping we pulled off the walls and out of his garage ceiling weren’t worth reusing like he had originally planned. So since he had only a half full bin he let me bring a few items over to help fill it up. I got rid one one 100L garbage bag of random junk, a big waxed box from old fair veggie entries, two busted bean bag chairs, a broken child’s camping chair, and a twenty year old ceased weed eater that I think I ran on straight gas with no oil mix, and I welded the piston into the shaft in 2006. I have this crappy wire racking in our cold storage room, but getting in there is a hug hassle, and I hadn’t planned on doing the mini purge, so I got out what I could. Maybe the neighbour that takes scrap metal will take it off my lawn if I put it out in another week or two?

I was so in the mood to clean after that I took a shot at the pantry and cleared that up a bunch. So many old spoiled bags of nuts, and out of date oatmeal pouches. I wonder at all the things we buy and then forget about until it starts to take up vital space in our lives. I’m just trying to keep this place from looking like a hoarders episode. When I pass I don’t want others to waste weekends of their lives sorting out my shit. I keep the good stuff, and some sentimental items. No storage lockers or off site deposits of junk for me!  As I continue reading, I’ll have to sweep through my books again. The wardrobe is a constant struggle, same with all of the kids clothes. Holiday decorations & lights too. Bah! I could cull more paintings of my own too. I’ve kept crappy canvases just because I did them in college nearly 30 years ago. I should paint over them with white and try something new if I’m going to keep them around for much longer.

Started with the furniture build and I’m back to talking about purging the house — again. May I never change! Ha.

It is Saturday. Huzzah! I have some paid work to complete before Monday’s PA Day, so that I am freed up to do activities with the children. Should be fun.

Just did my second climb of October three days after my first climb for the month and boy are my muscles tired. Firearms especially. Lost my grip by climb seven, so we called it a day. I need to be able to hold the steering wheel to drive home, so no good climbing until I’m entirely numb! Ha.

It was looking a little empty when we first arrived but a good number of people filled out the seats down in the lower bowl by pick drop. Not only that but it was a fast paced and exciting game to boot! We pulled out a clutch goal with fewer than 30bsec left on the game clock. 26.5 seconds away from overtime play! Wild.

We shouted, cheered & jeered until our voices were hoarse and our throats were sore. A great time had by all. I just wish we lived closer so it wasn’t such an ordeal to get home when we are all ready tired and sleepy. But, in this case it was well worth the effort and the expense. We won’t be going to five games this year with the price increases, but two certainly seems reasonable I think.

Anyway it’s now Friday, it’s cold and I would really like nothing more than going back to bed for much of the day! Ha. But I’ve got some dahlias to pull out of the ground, and a shop to clean, and stain to work onto my furniture project. Full day ahead of physical activity.

I’m putting the gardening at the farm on hold this morning so that I can help a friend move some heavy equipment around. Plus I’d like to spend the remainder of my morning sanding in my own garage so that 8 can focus on a clean-up and then a wipe on buff off stain tomorrow. That gives it until Wednesday to offgas a bit before I move on to assembly. I think that’s pretty reasonable. Also I’m taking my oldest downtown for a Leafs game this afternoon so I didn’t want to have a sore back from bending over pulling up dahlias. I get that that’s a tad lazy of me, but I need to stay awake for the game, and the train ride, plus the drive home afterwards. Best to not get too physical today if I can help it. Or, not hear me out here, I indulge in a mid day nap! Goofy huh?

But with all that said I have made considerable progress on the furniture build. I have saw dust hidden in every crevice imaginable. Building up under my eyelids too I can feel it! Yuck! I wish the sound of an orbital sander was less of a drone and more musical in tone. Luckily for me there are only six pieces to this build so it takes me less than an hour per grit level, which is nice. I really had to go in hard on the gouges and snipe left behind by my lunchbox planer. The tear out was infuriating. But my constant refrain has always been “Not heirloom quality”, also not total garbage either, but utilitarian and in the middle somewhere.

The youngest seems happy with her Gordie mask helmet thing, so that’s a win for the two of us. I will repeat that if you start in cardboard you should stay with cardboard because paper maché ruined the finished shape, and I’m still upset about that. We were able to spruce it up with the paint job, so all was not lost. Phew!

I need to find my work boots and gloves before I head over to their house just across the way. Hard to believe it’s Thursday, and Halloween in next Saturday, and then it’s November! Whizz! There goes another month. My oh my.

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.