Visiters and a Haircut

After breakfast and a little TV news I started to clean out  the garage.  There were tools everywhere, woodchips and saw dust on the floor.  I began to put the tools away and clean.  I blew sawdust off the tools, benches and other places with shop vacuum.  Beneath the top of the table saw, there is a large space for the motor and where sawdust accumulates.   I cleaned all of it out.  I put the sawdust in a large trash can it was nearly half full.

I used the shop vacuum to suck out the rest of the sawdust.  I backed the car out of the garage and with the large blower I blew it out of the garage.   While doing this Carol said the Miles and Nyleen will be here any minute now.   She went into the house and a few minutes later they drove up the driveway.

We visited for a little while.  Miles went out to the car and got the clippers and cut my hair.  My hair was quite long.

It was a little after one when we drove to Carl's Jr. in Fillmore for lunch.  I had chicken nuggets, some fries, and a diet Coke.  I tried a selfie, above, but couldn't get the four of us in the same picture.

So I just took a picture of Nyleen and miles when they weren't looking.

Following are two photos of the statue.   Carol's brothers and sisters bought this sculpture for us.

I posted the two photos and wrote the following on Face Book:  "We thank you for your love and prayers at the death of our son, Eric Leslie Johnson.  The Plan of Salvation gives us much comfort. The statue, "Behold Your Little Ones, will remind us of the good person that he was."


Comments and questions are welcome.

Finished, Stool # 3

During the last couple of weeks I have been building stools.  The idea for stacking stools came to me about a month ago.  The You Tube videos were complicated so I came up with my own plans.

This is the first one.  I made a lot of mistakes and had to take it apart several times and put it back together.  I put the rail flush with the plywood seat, which gave it an unfinished look.  I didn't chamfer the outside edge of the legs.

The second stool went much better, but again I made several mistakes.  I was able to complete it much faster.

I had a four foot 2x2 left over from the second stool.  The four footer was only long enough for three legs.  I cut an other short  piece.  I then ripped the face of all the piece until the dimensions were right.

Here the pieces are ready for sanding.

I sanded the longer piece and then the shorter piece with 40 grit sand paper and then with 120 grit sand paper on all four faces.

I put a chamfer on the edge with a router.

The same on the longer piece.

 Here I am cutting the legs to length. It is easy to cut them with the table saw sled.

The four legs are about fourteen inches long.

I applied glue the corner of the plywood seat.  And then I pinned it three time with my nail gun.  I did the same for each leg until all were glued and pinned.

I used a new eight foot furring strip and rough cut it into four strips about fifteen inches long.

With the stool is upside down, I put a line of glue on the seat.  I then put some glue on each end of the rail.  

I put the rail in place.  I clamped the rail to the bench. which is not in the picture.  I pinned through the leg into the rail.   I did the same on the rest of the legs.  The fit of the last rail was so tight that I didn't put glue on the ends of the rail.  

He it is.  A finished stack of stacking benches.  The rails are nearly fourteen inches long.  I didn't make longer legs because I wanted to test it to see if it would work.  It did work and I am fairly pleased at the results.


Comments and questions are welcome

Stool Number Three

The same routine most mornings.  Shower, shave sometimes, watch news, breakfast and more news.

I started by making the legs.  I ripped a four foot 2x4.  I set the width at 1 3/4 inches.  I ripped a 16th of an inch off both sides.  Then I ripped off the last side so that all side were the same width.

I had a short piece which I ripped the same as the one above.  I cut the four legs which were 13 7/8 inches long. 

I clamped each leg in the vice.  With the orbital sanders, I sanded all four sides.  First with 80 grit sandpaper.  Then with 120 grit paper.   The last thing was to chamfer one edge which would be the outside corner edge.  I did this with a router.  

 I ran into all kinds of trouble attaching the legs to the stool top. I glued two legs and the rail to the plywood seat and pinned them with my pin gun.  Then I discovered that I had the chamfer edge toward the inside.  I had to take it apart.  I used a pry bar to take them apart.  It took needle nose plyers to pull out the imbedded pins.  

The photo above shows somewhat of an improvement in connecting the legs to the seat.  I laid the legs flat on the bench.  I put glue on the ends of the legs.  I the put the seat in in an upright positions making sure that the chamfered edge was at the corner of the seat.

I pin gun ran out of pins.  I found some that were much longer and could go through the leg and into the rail.  I pinned the legs and pinned the rails a little off center.  I cut the rails a little larger than the space between the legs.  I trimmed a little of the rail until it had a snug fit.  I glued it and pinned it the legs and rail.  I did that for the four legs  I clamped until the glue set.

I put the stool in the wood vice and sanded the top.

The two stools make a nice stack.  I think that I could stack the third one.  Making that tomorrow.  Larry, Carol's brother, and his wife have been in St George.  They stopped by on their way home.  We had a nice visit.

I took four cutting from the purple plum tomato plant in house six.  They are now in the kitchen window.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Another Stool

I was a good day at the temple.  A group of us enjoyed lunch in the cafeteria.   We came home and stopped the Top Spot in Salina for ice cream.

After a little relaxing I started another stool in the garage.  The one I built yesterday was not very square.  I was going to make some stacking stool.  I checked on You Tube for some videos showing how it was done.  They were all to complicated.

 I started a little bit differently today.  Again I got to evolved with the building, I forgot to get some step by step pictures.

I started by making a square piece of plywood.  The first plywood square was pretty old and ugly.  I discarded it and made a new one out of a better looking piece of plywood.  It is about eleven inch square.  The legs are fourteen inches long.  I trimmed the rough sides of the 2x2.  I cut out the knots of the 2x2.

I thought for some time about connecting the legs to the plywood top.  I didn't want to use screws or pegs.  I turned on the compress.   I put glue on the top ends of the legs and used some pin nails.  I put a weight on top to hold it a little more secure.  

Here is the finished piece.  I glue each rail to the top and the legs.  I clamped the rail to the tom and pinned it with the pin gun.  I toe nailed the edge of the rail to each leg.   The glue has set and it is pretty sturdy.  It is a little short for an adult to sit on, but just right for a small child.  It is a good place for a plant.

All finished except for sanding and staining.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Back to Normal

Monday morning is the major wash day.  That is started the first thing this morning and finished after breakfast.    I took some picture later yesterday afternoon of the whoop house that colapsed because of the weight of the snow.

I took to more photos at midday.
I looks like the tee post bent.  

The snow messed up the poultry wire.  I will remove it when the snow melts.

I have a short stool by the desk top computer in my bedroom.  It is uncomfortable to be low and hand up high for the key board.  The stool in the kitchen is twenty-two inches tall.  I tried it for a little key boarding.  It was more comfortable.   I made one using weathered 2x4's.   I cut two last Friday.  I cut a couple more this afternoon.  For the project I used the table saw, miter saw, table top sander,  and three battery operated drills.

I have built numerous stools before, but always forget the sequence of cutting the parts, drilling holes in the legs and attaching the skirt or some call it the rail.   The legs are screwed the rails.  some are glued and some not.  The legs become very slippery when clamps were applied.  Without the glue it was much easier to keep the legs in the right place.  I sanded the legs and made a soft edge with the router.


Comments and Questions are welcome.

Lisa and Elizabeth & Snow

22 February 2020 Saturday
I watched most of the wood working TV shows.  I was interrupted  several times to do short odd jobs around the house.  Lisa and Elizabeth were coming.  I thought that they would be here sometime this morning, but they didn't make it until 1:30,   We waited until they got here for lunch.  We spent most of the afternoon visiting and then drove to Fillmore for lunch.  We decided on CostaVida for lunch.

We were surprised,  There was not line and only a few customers.  We ordered and selected a table.  The food was good, but way to much.  We took the left overs home and put it in the fridge with the food, that others have brought to us by our neighbors.  

Lisa and Elizabeth stayed with us.  they are going home tomorrow afternoon.

23 February 2020 Sunday

We woke up to snow.  This is a photo out the front door and it looks as Lisa's  car was half buried in the snow.

I opened the garage door and took this above photo .

I stuck my four foot ruler in the snow.   Ten inches of new snow.  

Before Lizabeth and Lisa left, I got this photo.

I took some kitchen scraps out to the chickens.  The weight of the snow on the chicken wire caused it to collapse.  I will fix it wen the snow melts.  

The weight of the snow caused the pole beans to collapse.  Another job when the snow melts.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Vial Boxes

I took Elizabeth for a walk through the greenhouses that contained the second crop of hemp plants.  Later in the day I took Richard on the same tour.  I didn't get his picture.  Richard came home in the late afternoon.  Elizabeth made some pork and beans for supper which were really good.  Richard is having some upper back problems.  He was going to sleep in the front room.  When I got up this morning he was gone.  He went to the emergency room where he had an exam and received some prescription.  He had breakfast at the Garden of Eat'n.  He reported to us that he drove out to the hot springs west of Meadow.  He got the medicine in Fillmore and came home around noon.

We worked all day building these boxes for vials of medicine.  We, Carol, Elizabeth, and myself, were busy.  We quite for lunch.

It took quite awhile to get the rhythm.  I held the short piece upside down in my left hand.   I hooked the long piece and connected it with the short piece.

I built the piece in the above photo.  I put a completed box on a piece of plywood.  I cut some short pegs. I applied the glue and Elizabeth put them in place.   It will hold the long piece in place while the shot piece can be put in place.   Then the whole thing can be lifted up.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Finished the Vial Boxes

The first thing this morning while it was still dark, I removed the poster board pieces from the device that I made yesterday.  I started to put in the pieces to build another box, the device lacked two posts one each end.  I made them and glued them into place.  Around nine I began making more boxes.  I finally go a system going.  I could make boxes faster without the device.  The main reason for the failure is that the pegs were too large.

By noon we were finished making boxes.  Elizabeth and I went to Fillmore to get some lunch.  We got lunch at Carl's Jr. in Fillmore.  While there we stopped a Ropers where I bought a nice toilet seat for my bathroom.   

Later in the day I put the toilet lid on the toilet.

We have had several visitors bringing food and symphony.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Viewing and Funeral - Sad

17 January 2020 Monday

It was about ten this morning when we left home.  There were several place we wanted to stop before we got to Robert's house.  We stopped at Wall Mart and only bought two things.  Carol wanted some Excedrin, but they didn't have any.   Next, we stopped at Costco.  We took a small picture of Eric in his military uniform.    We wanted a larger print.  The ink for my printer run out.  I took the ink cartridges to have them refilled.   Costco didn't have any Excedrin either.   We had lunch at this Chinese buffet. in south Orem.

We drove down to the Utah lake.  Just before we got there, there was boat storage facility with different signs for gasoline companies.

We drove along the Geneva road.  It is unbelievable at the amount of new building on both sides of the road.  There are apartments, condos, and offices.

We then went to Robert's houses.  We were early.  A little later we went to American Fork to the Anderson and Son mortuary for the viewing of our son Eric.

I was a sad occasion.  But on the other side we net a lot of friends from American Fork.  The sad part was the difficulty April, Eric's wife was having and extremely difficult time.

For sleeping in a different bed, I slept really well.  I got up for the bathroom the usually amount of times. We watched one show on the TV that was in Carol's room..  Carol went to bed in that room and I slept in the bed in an other room.  It was about seven when I got up, shaved and brushed my teeth.  We had a quick breakfast.  We rode with Robert to Draper where the funeral was held.  

The following pictures were taken a the veteran cemetery.

 April is receiving the flag from one of the offices.

From left to right: Jessica, Merrill, Carol, Erica, and Briana.   We went back to Robert's house.  Elizabeth came home with us.  We stopped at the Red Barn for ice cream.  The sun was nearly down when we got home.