I’ve been working on other projects, like my lathe, lately, but I’ve also been slowly building more bookcases. I think with this most recent batch, I’ve passed the halfway point in the construction.
It’s nice to be able to unpack more of my books, but it’s always a slow process, since almost every box of books contains at least one book that I want to peek inside before I put it on the shelves.
Ah well. As long as I keep making progress, my sweetie is okay with me dawdling a bit.
As for the progress pictures, this is likely to be the view for all of them in the future. My iPhone’s camera can just barely capture them all if I stand with my back against the opposite wall.
We’ve been busy painting the past couple weeks. Well, my sweetie has been. I’ve been moving ladders and drop cloths and stuff that doesn’t involve going up and down ladders.
She got a new coat of stain on all the wood trim on our house. I don’t think the previous owners ever did that, and the wood was in pretty rough shape.
The bench that sits in our portale also needed a refresh. I knocked it together in a couple hours for a Fourth of July picnic in 2017, then coated it with a couple coats of leftover house paint. But it has been used as a workbench and saw horse over the past year, and it was looking pretty rough, too.
I rounded off the corners of the bench, removing the worst of the damage. My sweetie sanded it lightly and put on three coats of some new enamel paint we bought (40% off at Sherwin-Williams, and still $25 for a quart). We both think it makes the entry to our house a lot more appealing.
Chamisa grows pretty well in disturbed land around here. It’s blooming now, and fairly pretty, but it’s related to sunflower and goldenrod, and makes my allergies go.
When it gets big, as the one in the photo above, the lower branches will break and fall to the ground. We’ve been cutting the more overgrown chamisa out of our yard, and the layer of dead branches, dusty pollen and flowers can be a few inches thick.
But if they’re trimmed regularly, they don’t flower as much, and they look better. We’re not sure if we’re going to let them grow back or not, but we’ll figure it out over time.
At least the county transfer station now takes them in the “weeds” pile, which gets composted, rather than requiring you to throw the chamisa in the trash.
We’ve been planting a lot of plants in our yard, trying to get the area around our house looking better while still keeping it somewhat natural. One of the plants that volunteered was this broom snakeweed, which is pretty while it’s flowering. And it seems to hold some of the more noxious things that grow around here at bay.
The only problem with it is that like so many of the other things growing around here, its flowers are yellow. Glad we’ve got a bunch of tahoka daisies with some purple at the moment.
Another one for the “it’s pretty, don’t kill it” file.
Mix ingredients thoroughly and knead until the dough is glossy. Let proof until it has doubled in size.
Knock the dough down, shape the loaf, flouring the outside if it’s too sticky, set on a greased pan and let rise until doubled in size. Bake for 23 minutes in a 425F oven. Interior temp of the loaf should be 190F when it’s done.
They’re cute little #birbs, and it was fun watching them, mostly because they’re just heavy enough that when they land on the plant next to a flower, the stem bends down, and they end up hanging upside down trying to get their lunch.
A strong cold front came through last night. Around 40F for my walk to the mailbox, with a 20mph wind. Pretty chilly. But the wind is from the northeast and brought clean air. I can actually see the mountains around us, and can see details on the hills to our south instead of just a hazy blur.
One of my ongoing projects is building bookcases to hold all my books. I’ve now built 3 XL cases, 12 large cases, and 5 medium cases. I’ve got another dozen medium and a “whole bunch” of small cases to build yet, but it’s nice getting books unpacked and organized.
I expect I’ve got another month or two of building cases remaining, plus at least one more trip to town for lumber, but over half of the boxes are unpacked, and it feels good to know that the end is in sight.
Once the bookcases are done, I’ve got more shop furniture to build. I have a brace till (for holding bit braces) which needs seven drawers built to hold the various drill bits I have. I want to make a 50-drawer hardware cabinet, and have some wormy chestnut arriving this week for the drawer fronts for that. Plus I need another bench to hold the forge and associated equipment.
