Wrapping Presents

We spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon wrapping presents.  Most of our children and grandchildren is getting a card containing some cash, and a large candy bar.  Carol was really tired, but she kept on going until she was finished.

I had to take all the seed boxes off the table.  It is in Carol's bedroom with the presents.  I took the picture after we were finished.

This picture is to help me remember what I did today.  I filled the bird feeder.  The birds so showed up.

I worked a couple hours on the lumber rack. Most of the pieces will be used to space the shelf supports and the others are for the shelves.  In reality there are no shelves,  the first board becomes a self for those above it.  All that is left to do is to make eight, eight foot posts that will be attached to the wall.  All the lumber comes from benches in the nursery.  Could be called: reclaimed wood.

The ice pile has grown considerably since the first picture.  It is freezing every night and most of the day.

This tomato plant with a salsa type tomato.  I took two cutting and they are in a window in the house.

Comments and Questions are welcome.

Warm First and Wind &Storm Second

Saturday, Robert and Frank were here.  They thinned the plants in three of the raised beds.  Here most of the plants were removed.  A few were transplanted, and bunch of onions were pulled.

 

These don't look like they have been thinned, but they have.

Today, I tried my hand at building some Christmas wreaths.  I cut off branches of yews, pinion pine, ponderosa pine, red dogwood, and arborvitae.  I started to make the wreathes in the house, but I changed to greenhouse three because of the mess I would make in the kitchen.

 I watched a YouTube video that showed me how to do it.  I made the first one and it just didn't hang right.  I watched the video again and found my mistake.  Using a different method of tying the cuttings to the arbor, I made the second one.  It hung really well.  I took the first one apart and rebuilt it.

 Here is where I took it apart.

I drilled a hole between a couple of bricks in the pillars on both sides of the porch.  The wreath on the left pillar.  And the wreath on the right side.

Here are both of them.

With the wreaths finished and cold weather approaching, I moved the tractor for house five to house three.  Earlier this morning I started the compressor, but it was too cold.  I tried again this afternoon and it started right up.  After the tank was full, I pulled the compressor to house five where I put air in the tractor tires.  It start right up.  The bucket was on the tractor so I hauled five buckets full.  to a new garden west of house five. I don't know for sure what to plant there.

Then I drove the tractor to the north door of house three.  I had to cut branches off two different trees to make to the door.  I filled soil on both sides of the threshold in order to drive in.  I moved a few things in house three around to make room for the tractor.

The weather has really cooled.  I turned the water on so pipes would not freeze and the water to ice creation.  We will watch it grow as the freezing weather continues.

The birds were eating the sunflower seeds that fell to the ground.  The feeder was empty and I was going to fill it tomorrow, but did so today.

Comments and questions are welcome

Tilling and Staining

I worked this morning in the garage.  I sanded the legs for the Viking stool.  I clamped one in the vice and sanded one third of it.  I then turned it a little and clamped it again.  I continues this until it was completely sanded around the leg.  I was able to sand faster by closing the vice a little.  I held the leg over the vice with my left hand and sanded with my right.

I cut a slot in the top of the leg for a wedge.  I then tried to make some wedges out black walnut.  I made a couple of wedges, but they were not the right size.  The photo below shows the vice, leg, and the wedge.

This afternoon Jeff Whatcott tilled the garden.  He was here two hours and ten minutes. He did a nice job.

While he was tilling I sanded two small stools and the pedestal. I used the orbit sander.  I put new sandpaper on it.  I sanded the top, legs, and the bottom.  The pedestal had not legs, I sanded on top and underneath.

I then stained them with a walnut stain.  I had some left over from something I made over a year ago.

This is the pedestal with a Christmas ball on top of it.

There are a lot of song birds in the trees in our back yard.   I fill up the bird feeder quite regularly.

Questions and comments welcome