MowryJournal.com   Life's Passions

7:30a: She: “Are you OK with breakfast in 5 minutes?”

He: “You mean you’re cooking?” Note to self: this could be a good day.

8:01a: With her breakfast burrito success thoroughly evaluated (and found exceptional), I confronted the chaos that is my garage current shop. Too much stuff in too little space.

8:25a: Stowed the Mrs M display pieces and Mr M inventory out of the way and began the real work of the day. I know the world has a lot of cheese. The world needs more cheese boards.

8:45a: I start to turn on my saw, but realize the time. Too soon.

9:05a: Dust collection up. Saw on. I have a bunch of new lumber to process, and its going to be a rough ride. The lumber is common grade with a lot of checking (which are cracks in the boards). Cherry, black walnut and ash are all mixed in the pile. Lots of odd sizes. The process begins in earnest.10:22a: # 1 daughter-in-law and # 1 granddaughter arrive. I’m in my hearing protection with dust collection and table saw running, and Payton walks to the middle of the driveway and begins talking to me. I shut down and lose the ear muffs: I need to listen. Of course.

10:37a: First cheese board lumber picked and processed.  Glue-ups could now begin … if there was a work surface available in the shop. There is not, nor will there be for a long time.

10:50a: Velda yells at me because she needs access to the garage refrigerator. To do that, she needs to cross into my garage woodshop. That woman has no boundaries.

11:000a: Little Girl arrives. She’s going to the Pumpkin Patch with Velda & Payton. And my camera.

12:43p: I lay out the 12th board of the day, which is dubbed the USC board, as it has purpleheart and yellowheart as the principal woods. It hurts me a little to make a board for the anti-Bruins … but it’s OK. I’ll just charge them more.

1:08p: The 16th board is also for USC fans. It’ll be end grain. And have a stiffer Trojan tax. I love it when prices go up.

1:23p: I discover that I’m much more out of control than I thought. After a few hours in the shop processing rough lumber, I glance at the dust collector, and see that not only is the lower bag full, it has now overflowed into the upper bag, which stands 50% full. This is a very, very bad thing.

See The Worst Job In The Shop. When I wrote that piece, the dust collector upper bag was perhaps 10% full. And that was bad.

This is worse.

I’m going to get really dirty … after lunch. Good plan. After lunch.

So, no dust collection until after lunch. I can still use the table saw and planer … but the dust will have to, uh, collect on its own.

1:45p: The ladies return with orange squash in hand. I am not offered my camera back.

1:53p: The 20th new cheese board is picked and processed, awaiting glue-up.

2:02p: Lunch. Thank goodness.

2:30p: I am invited to a Mrs M’s Handmade executive session to present the plan for this weekend’s big event: the Saugus High Boutique Fantastique. We have rented a double booth, 10’x20′, which is our biggest ever. We need a plan. We need more tables. We need more stuff.

3:03p: We review the plan, we review the calendar. We have a shopping list and tasks to complete.

3:12p: The ladies decide that Alley is the boss of me. In their complicated female logic, it’s found that Velda is not the boss of me (they got that one right), but Alley is. I do not comment on their conclusion. That is evidence of increased wisdom due to my experience in handling living with being around … sorry. I am mistaken. Alley is the boss of me, and I should just accept that without comment. Done.

3:24p: The ladies approve me to purchase a plunge router. I need that tool to make good juice grooves for cutting boards, and that is now in my future.

Because I need more stuff in my shop.

Oh, and prices will go up. I love it when prices go up.

3:29p: Back to the shop. And the worst job in the shop.

4:03p: Velda yells at me because I have lumber stacked in front of her freezer. No surprise there: I have lumber stacked everywhere at this point.

4:17p: I discover a rats nest buried behind the lumber behind the dust collector. And a dead rat. The. Worst. Job. In. The. Shop.

4:48p: Finish cleaning up the dust collector. One big bag of sawdust and five medium bags of sawdust are removed from the shop. Oh, and the dead thing, too.

5:03p: Reassemble the dust collector. Thank goodness.

5:22p: Empty the rolling cut-off bin where I put, uh, cut-offs. This stock is 2′ to 5′ long.  I remove the softwoods that I no longer have room to store here, and organize the hardwood. I find some great hard maple and a piece of teak that’ll be used tomorrow. I fill the bin with the common stock walnut and the new cut-offs from today. The cut-offs from the last 3 months will continue to be wherever I can stick them.

5:45p: Little Girl and Miss P go to the hockey game to watch E play. Side note: when Auntie Lauren was watching the Kings game this afternoon, Payton asked which of the players was E. Adorable.

5:50p: Christopher arrives. He begins to search for a tool I don’t use. Hahahahahahaha. He doesn’t find it.

6:15p: First glue-up complete.

6:40p: Shop shut down. Time for a shower.

Results, staycation day 1:

• 20 cheese boards picked & processed
• 5 cheese boards glued up