My rainy day project By JR (Read 526 times)

[JR]

Well with spring just around the corner and winter starting to ease a bit my spring list is starting to grow. The last two days have been better with the temps in the 50's and nice sunshine so I've been able to start a few things such as pruning my fruit trees and grape vines.

Here's what I've got ahead of me even before I start plowing for the first early spring crops.

Trim fruit trees, must be done before the start to bud, early spring, over all I have 30 trees to prune. As of today I have done 16 of them, hope to finish this weekend.

Trim grape and muscadine vines. I added 10 new seedless grapes to the vineyard this past year which brings the total to 18 grapes and 4 muscadines. Haven't even started.

Get all mowers and my garden tiller serviced which includes new blades for my big husqavarna, ordered them off of ebay today.

Got to do some general PM on my 250B put a new battery on her and fix a minor oil leak in Zack's Bali 150 on one of the oil cooler lines. Service the scooters for warm weather which also includes putting a new back tire on mama's scooter.

Get my boat and fishing equipment all serviced and ready, and yes I'm going to do some spring fishing.


Have two large brush piles to burn, going to try to do one tomorrow between basketball games with my two grandkids.

Need to do a little thinning in the strawberry patch.

Got 20 new tree seedlings to plant that are just put in the garden right now and need to be transplanted soon.

Two Boysenberry plants to plant.

Now I wouldn't have as much to do if I had not been down with this foot for awhile but now that the doctor has released me even though at this time I'm still slower I've got to catch up or I'm going to get real behind with my garden.

I have got my shop clean and organized and my wood working things all set up because when I get the machine servicing done and when it's bad outside this is something that I've waited a long time to start and I actually got a few pieces cut yesterday.




This is a bundle of cedar lumber and to me not just any bundle of cedar. There are 100 boards here minus the ones I've cut on and they are 1/2" X 4" X 4' long. Every one of these boards was cut by my father about 9 years ago in his own saw mill he bought to cut his own lumber on. He passed in 2006 but he gave me these a couple of years before because just like him I have a lot of wood working equipment and am good working with wood.

His saw mill was the band saw type and it would cut lumber so smooth you didn't even have to plane it or sand it if you didn't want to.

Now here is what I'm going to build with some of this lumber:

extremehowto.com/build-a-porch-swing/

In case someone wants the directions I've made it into a PDF too:

Build a Porch Swing

This is going to be my as I said rainy day project until I get it done, I've already got the bottom seat runners cut:



Cut these with my vertical band saw and I'm going to change the swing a little, one change being I made these seat runners 24" long instead of 20" like the diagram to accommodate my larger behind!

Can't wait to sit on the front porch on my new swing and it also gives me a lot of pleasure to know I'm building something out of the very boards my father had his hands on.

Even now I miss him and wish he was here to sit in it with me.

JR

[wolfhound]

Beautiful grain to that wood. And priceless since your dad milled it. You are a fortunate person.

[terrilee]

hey boss

nice to have a ton of plans
BUT SLOW DOWN
go easy on that foot
you may think its getting better, but you dont wanna over work it.

[JR]

Thanks Terrilee. So far so good went to a basketball game today and got up and down the bleachers ok, still slow though. Got home and done one of the brush piles and fixing to leave for the grandsons' game in 15 minutes.

Yes Wolf every time I sit in my swing it will remind me of dad, a nice thought.

JR

[madcollie]

JR, good to hear you're getting around better. Sorry I haven't been able to say it sooner but pc problems had me off line.

I love cedar wood and think it will make a beautiful bench swing for your porch. The fact that your dad had a hand in it I'm sure will make you truly treasure it all the more. Have nothing left any more of my father but the lessons he taut me and an understanding of why he blamed us boys for his grey hairs.

Listen to the Doc and please don't push to hard. We want your yearly posts on the garden to be great not "I pushed it and now laid up" kinda thing.

M/C


Hey Jack, maybe an inscription on the bench "In loving memory of ..." or something to the effect?

[richardthescooter3]

JR, Glad your starting to get around making a list, that should keep you busy, I also love that kind of cedar wood, I think it smell sooo good My grandfather (passed years ago) use to make porch swing also. I use to have a pretty big garden myself until we had that tomato plight, (got me discouraged, so I didn't plant anything for the last couple years) my Dad passed a couple years ago and left me his rototiller, so maybe I can get busy this year and have a garden (nothing like fresh veggies), but here I got to wait unto end of May

[JR]

Richard study up and go to your local county farm extension office or local farm co-op. Not only do they have things to get rid of the blight but can give you good advice of how to manage it. Also a good rule of thumb is rotate your crops around by planting things in different spots in the garden each year.

Got one of the huge brush piles burned this weekend and just went and chunked it up to finish burning. Put some aluminum sulfate on the blueberries because we have rain in the forecast Thursday and the PH level is still too alkaline, needs to have the acid levels raised. Aluminum sulfate over time by applying it to the ground around the plants will raise the acid level to the 4.5 range I'm looking for.

Got a few more fruit trees pruned and have a little more time left before I pick up the kids. Just had to take a break here for a few minutes. Yes Richard cedar does smell very good and if the rain moves in this Thursday I'm sure I'll get to do more on it that is if my lawn mower blades don't get here before then, if so then I'll service the big huskie and then work on the porch.

JR

[fflintstone]

Hey JR,glad you are up and about and getting ready for spring--like they all said ,don't push it and you can be around for the long haul..and I love that cedar wood ,reminds me of our high school projects in wood shop....our teacher had us making cedar chests from seasoned lumber,started with gluing small boards together and planing and then smoothing the plane marks with a scraping tool,before hand sanding--no rotary sanding on lumber--I think we used a linseed and something mixture to bring out the grain color--was it turpentine ?--mercy,been a 100 years seem like since that project..we were taught to do everything by hand,like the sanding ,staining if needed,applying the lacquer or varnish and finished by rubbing with pumice stone and rotten stone and linseed oil...seemed like work then ,but that old chest still exists in my brothers house..as for my scoot,it is ready and pawing at the ground ,rearing to go..I go out to the shed and check on it and keep the battery charged ..it may need a little wash job but it is ready to ride---good luck with the recuperation,ride on,fflintstone

[richardthescooter3]

Thanks for the info JR, I'll check into my area for those local farm co-ops, I always had I garden and enjoyed being outside, my gran daughter help me plant corn a couple years ago, and I love to grow Lima beans the kind that vine, they are my favorite, and love those potatoes, and of course tomatoes, What I haven't made in few years is Dried Corn (love it) cook about 5 doz ears of corn, cut it off cob onto a flat steamer that goes on top of the stove, takes about 6 to 8 hours to dry it, but it is so good, (pack it away for winter)