The Last Day - 2019

We quickly got ready on the cold last day of the year to drive to Utah County.  we left at 8:30 this morning and met Robert a little before ten at the Harbor Freight.  I have three $50 gift certicates.  I had planed to use to buy a drill press and a lot of wood clamps.  The chuck lifting spring on my drill press is broken.  It looked identical to the spring on the new one.  It looked like I would be able to by the part and fix mine.  I ended up buying a twelve inch disk sander which will help me in some of my wood working projects.

I dropped Carol off at Sam's Club and I went to Home Depot.  I had $75 in gift cards.  I bought a battery operated circular sand a battery.  It took all of the gift card plus  another $60.  Carol was finished at Sam's Club.  We then went to a house good store in Orem.  She didn't get anything then.  We then wen to Nyleen and Miles Batty's home.  We visited and Miles cut my hair.  All of us went the home of Gary Peay, Carol's brother.  We visited there for a while.

We then went to the Orem Golden Coral for lunch.  Left to right:  Merrill Johnson, Nyleen Batty, Gary Peay, Miles Batty, and Carol Johnson.

We stopped for gas in Nephi and got home about 4:30.  I unloaded the car.  It was two late to set up any of the tools that I bought.

Comments and questions are welcome.

First Take Down

As soon as breakfast was over and a little TV news we started to 'take down' or put away then Christmas decorations that are inside the house except our Christmas tree.

The nativity pieces is only symbolic of putting all the decorations away.   We got all of them put away by mid-morning which was about 10:30 this morning.  We have a large tote and a large box for the nutcrackers.  The small nutcrackers were put in the bottom of the tote and the large ones at the top.  The rest of the large nutcrackers were put in a large box.  There were other items that had their own box.  All of these boxes were put in the master bath closet.  There is a tall and large box for the wrapping paper.  There is enough there to last for fifty years.

I worked in the garage on rebuilding the workbench.  After lunch I helped Dustin Smith start the shredder.  There were some hemp plants that were inferior and had to be destroyed.

I went to Fillmore to pay the insurance on our house.  I also, bought a drill bit to make a hole a little smaller than the threaded caster.

As soon as I got home I started working on the workbench.  I made one leg of the bench 26 1/16 inches loon out of two 2x4's.  I screwed them together.  I made a dado in the leg for a piece of oak which will hold the caster securely to the leg.  I made it with a piece of scrape 2x4.  It took several trials to get it right.


Comments or questions are welcome.

Last Sunday 2019

The coldest morning of this winter.  Remained below freezing all day long. Attended church meetings this morning.  Had lunch after church.  Watched different TV shows most of the day.  I guess it was just a lazy day.

About One Half Inch of Snow

Light powder snow fell most of the day.  While it was snowing I worked on the new workbench, or I should say I began to rebuild my workbench.  It is made out of a heavy door.  Presently it is setting on a pair of sawhorses.  I started the design work yesterday.  Several new ideas came to me during the night and changed the design while I was building it.  I didn't get any pictures.

Around lunch time it had stopped snowing .  I cleaned off the snow on the driveway and sidewalk.  It had melted some.  I used the old snow shovel.

After lunch I continued on the work bench.  I made two rails witch each was built with two sixty-five inch 2x4's.  It was quite dark in the garage so I didn't take any pictures.

I drove to Fillmore for a couple of items.  There was no snow on the road, but they were wet.  I have a bunch of caster wheels that I wanted to put on the four legs so I could move the bench if needed.  There wood screw inserts to put in the legs and then the caster will screw in to it.  None fit.  I designed a way to do it.  I need a different size bit.


Comments and questions are welcome.

The Day After Christmas Visitors

Just a dusting of snow during the night.  

After breakfast  I swept of the snow with an old broom  I also pushed what snow there was off the driveway.

I built a small table a couple of weeks ago.  I varnished the top and painted the legs and sides black.  This afternoon I brought it into the house.  It looks really good.  I will get a photo tomorrow.

We are expecting Robert, Jeanne, and Sadie for lunch.  We didn't have enough carrots.  I lifted off the bed of carrots the poly cover and pulled a nice batch of carrots.  I recovered the poly.  It has done well in protecting the carrots from freezing weather.

After lunch, Robert and I walked through houses, two, five, and six.  I had Robert take this picture in house two.

Jeanne used my phone for this picture.  This light blanket with different pictures of the kids and our grandchildren.  Robert, Jeanne, and Sadie went home after this photo was taken.

Sadie went out by herself and toured the greenhouses.  Her picture was taken by the automatic security cameras.  She didn't tell us that she caused the cameras take the picture.

Later I got a call from Dustin Smith asking about the girl.  I took several screen shots because he took pictures down.  There was a conversation chain on Face Book about who was it and did she steal anything.  

Comments and questions are welcome.

Merry Christmas

I was up early as usual.  I composed a Christmas message on Face Book which took most of my morning time.  Richard spent the night with us.  We prepared breakfast of toast, bacon, fried eggs, and juice.

After breakfast and all the dishes were cleaned up.

The tree and presents this morning before we opened our presents.

It was hard to get a good picture because of my shaking hands.  I didn't want to pose any one.  I took several of carol and this was the best one even it is a little fuzzy.  When there is a lot of light, I get better photos.

Richard looking at one of his presents.

Richard went outside.  I thought he was driving up the canyons looking for deer.  Instead he was out shoveling snow of the sidewalk and driveway.

The dish was covered with snow this morning.  Richard and I went out to clean off the snow.   I used a broom with a long handle.  I removed the snow.

I showed Richard the shed and wondering how the shed looked after a snowstorm.  

I photo looking across the raspberry patch and the hen house.  The back of the garage is visible in the sky line.   To the right is the patio and my bedroom which can't be seen because of the snowy trees.

Richard drove up Maple Canyon.   He turned around where the snow was up to his knees.

Children that called:  Melissa two times, Lisa, Eric, and Elizabeth,  Robert didn't call; he is coming tomorrow.  Richard didn't call because he was already here.  About five Richard decided to go home.

Comments and questions are welcome,

Finished Shed

This morning I paid some of the bills.  I use bill pay.  I schedule the payments for the first of the year.  That took awhile.  I shredded all of the envelopes and unimportant papers.

This is a picture from yesterday.  This is how the shed looked when I went out this morning.   I cut a small piece of plywood to fill in what looks like a door way.  The opening is thirty-five inches wide.  I cut one that was eighteen inches tall and screwed it into place.  I found another piece that was nearly four feet tall.  I cut off a defective edge at the table saw.  I screwed it into place.  I needed one more piece.

It was cut to fit the slope of the roof.  The top edge was not straight.  I cut a straight edge at the table saw. I got a piece of wood and screwed the edge to the plywood.  I run it through the saw and ended up with a plywood piece that fit the space perfectly.  I drove in some screws.

On the other side of the wall, it shows the that stud was on backward.  In the above photo, the stud at the back is on right.  I had to remove it which was more difficult than I thought.  I took out all the screws and removed the top plywood piece.  I removed the screws that held the stud to the base plate.  The bottom of the stud was loose, but the top was not.  I pounded it with a heavy hammer and it still wouldn't budge.

This is how it looks from the inside of the shed.  All of the studs are on the right way.

Outside I removed more screws from the plywood.  I discovered that there was a screw into the rafter holding the stud in place.  I removed the screw and then removed the stud.  I turned it a round and began to put it in to place.  I had to make the notch large ant then was able to get it into place.

This is how it looked after I got all of the pieces back into place held securely with screws.

Here it is all finished except for the corrugated roofing.

I rolled on a tube the extra poly that was cut away from house four.  I put it away in house three.  

The tomato plants in house six are doing really well.   I tied them up a couple weeks ago and they have really grown.  I tied them up again.  Didn't get any pictures.

The weather has been really nice for this time of the year.

This evening Richard came by.  He will go home sometime on Thursday.

More Power & Shed Work

Monday morning is always wash day.  After breakfast I wrapped two of Carol's presents.  The You Tube video made it look easy, but it wasn't.   We put clean sheets on Carol's bed. She had a late Christmas card she wanted to mail.  I went with her to the post office.  We then took a lot of garbage to the dump.

Shane need more power at the greenhouse.   Trucks from Flowell  Electric were soon in front of our greenhouses.  They installed a larger transformer near the top of  a new power pole.  The next pictures are from different angles while they were doing it.

It is amazing how the could do this with out turning off the power.

They are removing the top wire from the pole.

It looks like there are four people there.  Two in the bucket and two on the ground.

This is the final photo.

Now back to the shed.  One of the studs was to short.  I started to stack some short pieces of 2x4's.  Drive screws through the bottom one into the sole plate.  The through the next on to the one under it. I had planned to use pocket screws to hold the studs in place.

Instead I used the short top plate as a sole plate.  The photo illustrates how this is done.

Here the four studs are in place.  I was much easier than making one long solo plate.

I found some good pieces of 7/16 plywood by the shack..  They were quite heavy, but I carried them to the shed.  I had to stop a couple of times, but I made.  I put some screws in the treated wood footing.  One on each end below the plywood.  I rested the plywood on the screws and singlely handed I was able screw it to the studs.  I then put screws through the plywood into all of the studs.

An inside look.

I had to cut the other piece of plywood at an angle.  It fit perfectly.  I screwed it to all of the studs and two the rafter above it.  Tomorrow, I will cover the part that looks like a door opening.

That is all that I got done today.  Our house phone quit working.  I spent some time trying to find out what was its problem.  I called the phone company several times.  The phone company uses automatic answering systems.  I was most irritated.


Comments and questions are welcome.

No Pressure

Each morning when I get up, I turn the thermostat to 72, weigh my self and drink full glass of water.  I let the water run until it gets warm.  I don't like cold water.  It takes too long to drink.  I can drink warm water quickly.  There was not much water pressure and it took a much longer to fill the glass.  There wasn't much water pressure when I showered.

I read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then a chapter in the New Testament.  Carol started water for her bath and noticed the same lack of water pressure.  The thought that came to me was a water pipe had broken in one of the greenhouses.  I started my mush and then went under the house to see if one of the water pipes had broken.  The water pipes were okay.  As soon as it was light after breakfast I walked out to the greenhouses and found water in house three and water spraying in house two.  The door was locked and I couldn't get in to shut it off.

Back in the house I called Adam Remkes, no answer.  I left a message.  Carol told me to call again and again no answer, and again I left a message.  He lives four or five blocks away, so I drove to his house.  I could see them through a large front widow.  Adam came to the door as soon as I rang the bell.  I came home and went back to the house two.  He had opened the door and shut off the spraying water.

We loaded the car with presents, and food in a two coolers.  We were going to Eagle Mountain to a family Christmas party.  Everyone family was two bring some soup.  Carol made a large slow cooker full Taco Soup.  It is served with sour cream, cheese, and corn chips.  It was about 8:15 when we left.  We had to make several stops on the way.  The are listed without comment as follows:  Payson Wal Mart, Sam's Club, Bed Bath and Beyond, Miles and Nyleen's house,  Linda and Merrill Slater's home, and then Eagle Mountain where April and Eric Johnson were hosting a Christmas party.  Following are some photos: There was not much light so some are out of focus.

We had a good time.  We brought Christmas Presents that we delivered to our children, grand children and great grandchildren.  We even picked up a few for us.  We then drove home.  On the way home we stopped in Orem where Robert and Jeanne lives.  We left some present them.

We then headed for home.  Our last stop was at Wal Mart where we filled the car with gas.  There were a lot of people lined up for gas.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Finished West Wall & Started East Wall

I got an early start this morning.  The first thing that I did was to go to Fillmore.  I needed some two inch grabber screws to drive through a 2x4.  While in Fillmore I also filled the car with gas.  When I got back,  ground was still frozen.  I was able to walk to and around the shed without getting mud on my feet.  But it didn't take long to change the frozen ground to cold mud.

It is difficult to see, but the 2x4 header stuck out beyond the corner post about 3/8's of an inch.  I got my hand saw and slowly cut it off.  

I measure wrong for the placement of the studs.  There was nothing to attach the next sheet of plywood.  I scabbed on several pieces of 2x2's.  It took three of them to get close to the rafter.

I was able to attach the last sheet of plywood.  This is the look from the inside of the shed.

Carol has wanted me to set up the bird feeder for several weeks.  I got out the ladder, took the empty feeder down, filled it up with chicken scratch.  I then hung it back in the tree.

The west end is finished and I started on the east end.  I took a sixteen foot 2x4  and laid it flat on the north and south header.  The tail of the  north end was about four inches longer than needed.  The south end was way to long.  I marked a cut line.  I marked the width and location of the notch at each end of the rafter.   I then to it back to the patio where the miter saw was located.  I worked there because the power to run the saws is close.

After the rafter is notched and cut to size, I brought back to the shed.  I put it in place and it fit perfectly.  I fastened the sheathing by driving screws into the rafter from the top.  The rafter was twisted a little and bowed to the west a nearly and inch.  I straightened it out and screwed it in place through the top.

I toenailed the header to the rafter from the bottom.   I used a pipe wrench to remove the twist.  I started a screw in the sheathing on top.  I screwed with my right hand and held the pipe wrench down with m left hand.

Sometime in the mid afternoon, I let out the two hens.  The went scratching through the orchard and by the shed.

With the rafter in place it was time to work on the footings for the south wall.  The weather has been a little bit warmer and the pea gravel in the blue tube had thawed a little.  I got quite I bit.  I will use it to level the 4x4 treated footings.  

Doing the footing was a challenge.  I had two eight foot 4x4's.  The length was 128 inches.  Of the two I got two pieces 64 inches.  I used the pea gravel two build a level base for the footings.  I drilled holes.  Two in each side.  Earlier a cut in half two pieces of rebar.  I drove the rebar through the holes to keep the footing from moving.  I pounded them in and took them out several times before I got it right.

The next piece in was a 128 inch sole plate.   I finally got it straight and level.

I screwed the sole plate to the footing in both end and other areas in between.  

I put the level on and it was perfect.  You can see the bubble in the right place.

The last thing was to mark the location of the four studs.  I then measured the length.  I going to use pocket screws to attach them to the sole plate.

I put all my tools away in the garage and stacked the scrap wood on the patio;


Comments and questions are welcome.