As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we hosted the Guild meeting in our shop last night. Today was clean-up day, to move the metal chairs back into the storage area in the shop, and to gather up leftover water bottles, empty soda cans, and clean up cookie crumbles (yes, we do have munchies at our gatherings).
After cleaning up I headed to the Simpson & Sons saw mill, just outside town. I needed a few cherry boards for an upcoming project. As usual, Dustin, Lori, and the rest of the crew, were extremely helpful, climbing the stacks to hand-pick boards and hand them down to me. Back in the shop, I took a few minutes to handle a couple of phone calls; I cannot remember when I last sat in the open area in front of the table saw, but it felt great – it is a most unusual happening, but one I might practice more often:
Just back from the saw mill.
Not only has all the snow melted, but we have had two rainy days – actually, drizzly days and flooding of the Platte River. I make it a practice to bring lumber into the shop, to let it acclimate for a few days. To help it along, I lay out the boards and cut them to rough length; then they sit in the shop for a few days. I make sure to inspect every board carefully, marking areas I will avoid due to cracks and other defects:
Start layout on cherry boards.
In the morning I will do some preliminary machining of the cut pieces, just enough to get them flat, but nowhere near final thickness. This will allow me to check for stability much better, as I will be able to detect even the slightest cupping or twist.
On a non-woodworking note, our 5-year old granddaughter, Emily, has started using “her Mommy’s Facebook”, and sending Sandy and I messages. Last night she did it on the Facebook chat. Today I found a message from her on my Wall; and I noticed she had also written on Sandy’s wall. When I asked her tonight how she wrote on our Walls, she said “…I found ‘Al’ on Mommy’s Facebook, and wrote you a note. Then, looking in your Friends list, I found Sandy and wrote her a note, too…”
I was unable to contain my laugh. It was a pretty special day, thanks to Emily. She will be six in April.
— Al Navas
Postscript: Emily wrote on my Wall: “hi papaps this is emily hau r you?”
About Al Navas