Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

13 June 2016

Good Morning Everyone,
I'm getting a head start on this as I have an appt early tomorrow morning. I spent most of the weekend putting in drip and micro-irrigation in the new flower beds around the house for the LOML. The rest of the time was celebrating my birthday with my family. My customer brought me another chair to model good parts from for the chair project I'm still in the middle of. Thanks for woodworkers that live near by, I was able to get 3 pieces of mahogany to make the new pieces from. My hope is that I don't mess up turning these as these are the only pieces I have onhand at this point in the game. So here's to hoping for a successful remake of the parts once more.

That's it for me, so what did YOU do this past weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Robby Tacheny]

One corner of my basement shop had huge rolls of insulation and a steel tub left by previous home owner (and other misc junk) that I have wanted to clean out for years. We finally got that junk cleaned out this weekend. It took 2 loads in a dump trailer. Getting that cleaned out opens up a lot of space I had never been able to use. We also cleaned a trailer load from our storage shed.

It seems like an easy thing to do, but with no truck and trailer, and only easement for backyard access it is harder than it sounds.

Robby

[Charles Taylor]

I've spent a few weekends and weeknights lately installing permanent ductwork for dust collection, an evolutionary project that will eventually get me to a cyclone but for now still employs the 1-1/2 HP JET bagger I've had for years. Saturday evening I had it complete enough to draw air through the ducts for the first time. The current DC is definitely underpowered, but it does well enough to get by for a while.

Running the new ductwork involved disturbing quiet corners of the workshop where scrap lumber has been allowed to thrive--and apparently breed. After knocking over some propped-up collection of shorts a few too many times, I resolved to gather up all of the non-hardwood scrap and haul it away. Any sheet goods smaller than about a quarter sheet, and nearly all of the construction-grade scrap, got taken away in the pickup on Saturday morning. It was a little more than half a pickup load, an amount that surprised me.

Sunday after church, I connected the table saw to the new ductwork. Then I made a modification to the workbench where the miter saw sits--necessitated by the new ductwork and by lessons learned from the first attempt at a dust-capturing enclosure for it.

My wife also put in some small-area irrigation lines and heads in a couple of her beds this weekend, and I provided an occasional helping hand with that as well. She was thrilled with her results.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, aside from working at work on substation maintenance, I watched a show on PBS Buffalo about the gardens at Buckingham palace, which was timed with the Queen's 90th birthday celebration on Saturday.

The PBS show was very well photographed, I hadn't realized when I was there in 2013 that the gardens were that extensive, or beautiful.

regards, Rod.

[Mike Ontko]

Making progress, bit by bit, on my bunk bed project (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/album.php?albumid=872). Spent the bulk of the weekend cutting mortises and tenons for the bed ends, then fitting and adjusting the dry fit sub assembly. Most of the mortises have been too deep for a router bit to reach, so I've been digging them out using a Forstner bit and chisels.

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[Adam Herman]

We picked up a hood for our kitchen, and this beast, it will get a vfd control.

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[Jim Becker]

Busy weekend...mowed Friday night as we were "scheduled" for some hellacious storms on Saturday...that never showed up. :) Put more stone "mulch" in the landscaping and pretty much exhausted my supply so I'll be ordering another 8 ton today or tomorrow. Sunday morning, Professor Dr. SWMBO and I went out early to pick up another honeybee colony from a master beekeeper in the next county over. We now have three colonies and two of them are "local" bees which are theoretically better adapted to our area. Of course, we've had to "name" the hives..."The Italians", "Bucks" (for Bucks County) and "Montgomery". (for Montgomery County) LOL The remainder of Sunday was spend in the shop making more beekeeping woodenware...Professor Dr. SWMBO has dubbed me "assistant beekeeper and maker of luxury bee condominiums". D What I constructed was a pair of smaller boxes and accessories called a "nuc" (pronounced "nuke") which is used for a variety of things including splitting colonies, starting new colonies, overwintering small colonies and re-homing a swarm.

Still to be painted...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/a-j-adopt/BeeKeeping/IMG_7778_zpsogetb16n.jpg

[Rod Sheridan]

Nice Nuc Jim.

Are you producing much honey from your hives?

Regards, Rod.

[Jim Becker]

Nice Nuc Jim.

Are you producing much honey from your hives?

Regards, Rod.

We're not worried about honey this year since all three colonies have to build things up for surviving the winter. The first colony ("The Italians") was from a package in mid-April and has had some queen challenges--not unusual, unfortunately. The second one ("Bucks") is from a NUC from early June, but is working hard to expand and build out comb on the frames that were not part of the nuc. (super queen in there!) The third, ("Montgomery") also from a NUC just just getting started (acquired this weekend) and has a queen with hearty local pedigree. They should do well. Being new beekeepers in their first year, there's a lot of comb to be drawn just for the colonies. Next year should bring a little less bee-work in that respect and more focus on honey during the flow. I built the wooden nuc so we would have one if it's needed. But I need to make a few more mediums as we only have a few spares now and "you never know"... LOL (We are standardizing on all mediums going forward for simplicity)

Here's "her royal highness" of the "Bucks" colony...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/a-j-adopt/BeeKeeping/DSC_1508_zpsvufepbrg.jpg

[Mike Heidrick]

An Award Podium for a client.

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