Sunday is here already. I feel as though I didn’t see much of Saturday. Could be the three hour long movie I chose to watch, or the six hours I spent working. I saw the sunshine though, so that’s got to count for something these days. I need to sort the kids laundry and put that away. Proof my work again, and send that off for review. Finish watching The Return of the King. Make myself some breakfast. Actually get out of bed (mm, so comfy). I could play my guitar, or crank up the tunes for a loud, long, sing along session at a decibel of my own choosing. So many options. I could continue to watch The Bear (so good), of which I am like the last person to actually watch it. Or I can scroll through YouTube watching tool restorations, engine fixes, wood working project builds, or endless shorts about anything, and nothing in particular. Not doom scrolling, but watching other people make stuff can almost, kinda, sorta scratch an itch about making things myself.
I got into the garage shop to tear down the old change table. I reclaimed the actual wood portions, and have use of the flat boards, and other bits. I feel like I want to pull all of my chisels down off the walls to put them in drawers. I want to reorganize some more. I just can’t seem to figure out where I want everything. Also we have lots of household junk in there I want to throw away, but can’t. I’ll have to take the bulk of it to the dump. Old blow moulded tool cases, very old car seats, old strollers, tote boxes of inflatable water park parts. We stole the blower unit to run our other indoor inflatable park set at the cottage. It was so big it needed a second 600CFM blower to keep it upright with children on it. More doors, an old dining room table, old light box for tube lights, and an old bed frame from my college days of using a futon. If I had a giant bin I could fill it pretty easily. Especially if it would take old paints too. This house gifted us ten to twenty mostly empty paint cans, full of old oil paint. The kind you have to pay to dispose of. Very nicely done. Hidden under the basement stairs for us to find.
I’ve been looking for an inexpensive tool cabinet to put my chisels in for a while now. I don’t honestly know if that change would be an improvement or not. Not having to reach over other items to grab them would be handy. Protection from dust would be a plus. But is that enough to warrant $200.00 on storage? I still have things to figure out in there. Like as I get older, do I want to make it a more versatile space? Do I want to try my hand at welding small things like legs for desks, and tables. Do I want to keep it as 80% wood shop? To resaw wood do I want the 1.75Hp bandsaw, or to do it via chainsaw, or with a hand saw, and several hours of labour per cut, per board. I maintain my mower in there, so I need to be able to manoeuvre & lift machinery that feels heavier every year that I touch it. The deck on my mower has a sizable hole, I’d love to patch that with a welded on bit of sheet metal. Do I upgrade the lathe, and drill presses, or let metal machining go as a fantasy dream that i have. Flights of fancy. To have either in here I’d need a shop crane to be able to move items like that around. But you have to be able to store said shop crane too. And eat the cost of buying one. All to move two specific items once or twice over the lifespan of having the machines. Wouldn’t exhaust fans, and climate control inside the shop be a better investment? Wouldn’t a flat roller friendly floor be money better spent? Wouldn’t insulated walls, and boards on the walls make it feel like a real shop? You know, or you can spend $1,500.00 on a bench top mill, and $2,500.00 on a Southbend lathe.
For now it’s just a time consuming day dream. Hunting for bits on-line while never really taking the leap towards buying any of it. I’ve been looking at/for a snowblower the same way for four years. I have a moment of pause when an item costs upwards of a thousand dollars. That’s always been a real tough threshold for me, money wise. I can’t spend that kinda money without thinking about it really hard. In the back of my mind I always think “You know these good times don’t last forever, you need to have some sort of buffer that can last you months incase all the work dries up, and you still have these bills to pay, food to buy, and responsibilities to keep”. Plus I don’t want to incur any debts. I’ve been there, under the mountain, clawing to get out from under it. That’s a horrible way to live. So once I got out from under it, I’ve stayed away from debt owing. I have monthly subscriptions for my business, but I don’t let debts languish on my credit card. If I did then I’d have to go work for someone else full time, and go back to commuting every week, and see my family far less than I am currently able. If I live modestly and within my means, then I can avoid all that. Seems very worthwhile to me to stay out of debt, and have a less constrained life because of it.
Good gracious, I’m a bloviating blatherer of platitudes today. I must be hungry. It’s ten thirty, and I still have things to do today! Thanks for reading along. Ciao Bella.
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 