Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....

[Dennis Peacock]

15 December 2008

Good Morning,
Only 10 days left until Christmas. Are you ready?

I have the kitchen table top all sanded on the underside and ready to turn it over now so I can patch holes and cracks with inlay patches so that the top will have a flat smooth top so the neighbors wife won't holler at me every time she wipes off the table top. The wood has cracks, a few holes and some other defects in it, but I'm trying to work it all out where I can use some of those for a opportunity to be creative on the final outcome of the table.
All the M/T's are done and ready to be fitted into each leg and assemble the overall table skirt and legs. My dig deal is that I've got a LOT of sanding to do. These are the times I wished I had a nice drum or wide belt sander to do the job quicker. Maybe I'll make it, but more than likely I'll be after Christmas before final delivery.

Worked some very long days at the day job last week, but I'm just glad at this point in our world to have a job. So I'm not complaining about that. I'm just hoping that the economy will turn around one day soon.

Woke up this morning not feeling well and this is the last thing I need is to be sick when I have a table to finish. Also went to bed last night with the temp outside being 60º F and woke up this morning to 31º F with temps not getting much warmer than this the rest of the day. No wonder people are sick this time of the year.

Well, that's it for me...so what did YOU do this weekend??

Best of weeks to you all.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Friday night and Saturday we baby sat our little 29 month old great-granddaughter Riley. She was in a happy mood like we've never seen her before and she spends a goodly amounty of time with us. She was teasing PaPa. And he was enjoying evey minute of it!

Saturday, I managed to do some turning of some small Christmas gifts.

Sunday...just chilled....literaly and fuguratively. Last night it got down to 14º F.

I hope to take today off and do some more turning....deliver some Christmas gifts and start packing for our upcoming trip!

[Jim O'Dell]

Sat, we delivered what is the most beautiful Irish Setter that has ever been through our rescue program. I would not have been ashamed to have walked into the show ring with this one. Really sweet boy. It was sad to see him go.
Sunday fixed the outlet that quit working when I wired in the ceiling fan in the "Pink Room" remodel. Chilled most of the day, well actually sweated some...it got up to 79 degrees! We are at about 25 right now!! Found some scrap and did most of the build on a rack to hold the 12 Bessey clamps I ordered in the last week. Still need to do some edge trim work on the Oak ply, and stain and seal it. I used my SCMS, TS, and BS. Yes, I actually fired up the BS!!
Then watched the 'Boys defense play a really good game. Offense is still a little iffy.
Have a great week everyone!! Jim.

[Joe Mioux]

Sat, worked at work.

Sunday, chased some pecan thieves away from our pecan trees, spent three hours picking up pecans.

At $7.50/lb, the thieves have been working overtime. It is awful that people just assume they can take pecans. Some of the pecans fall on the easement between the sidewalks and curbing and they assume that those pecans become public property. They don't realize that I pay for the fertilizer. Sorry for the rant.

also, on Sunday, Jennifer (my 7th grader) had her Christmas Concert. she plays a Bass Clarinet.

joe

[Herbert Wallace]

I took my wife to Baton Rouge to watch Pete Sampress and James Blake play a charity tennis match. It was to celebrate our 39 th. wedding anneversary. Had a great time. She even let me buy a new PC belt sander on the way home. This stuff works guys. Try it.;)

[Mike Hess]

Friday - went to our office holiday party w/ the wife. Had a free dinner, shook a few hands, and made a hasty exit. The engineers were all expected to make an appearance, but I really didn't want to stick around too long.

Saturday - hunted deer. It was a long day. Nobody from our party had any luck, but the weather was decent.

Sunday - Ran some errands, did some chores, and then turned a wooden bowl. It was my first try at turning a bowl, and it came out pretty well. Seemed to take forever (4 hours), but I think a lot of that is just my inexperience. Pretty enjoyable overall though. I can certainly see how people get hooked on lathe turning.

[Gary Elore]

Been working on a rocking horse from an old Wood Magazine plan for the past 2 weeks. Made good progress this past weekend and it's almost ready for finish.

I'm making this for a couple of little girls (sisters) who are new to the neighborhood and who are somewhat disadvantaged. This type of "just because" project is something I haven't done nearly enough of to this point in my life.

[Rod Sheridan]

Sat, worked at work.

Sunday, chased some pecan thieves away from our pecan trees, spent three hours picking up pecans.

At $7.50/lb, the thieves have been working overtime. It is awful that people just assume they can take pecans. Some of the pecans fall on the easement between the sidewalks and curbing and they assume that those pecans become public property. They don't realize that I pay for the fertilizer. Sorry for the rant.

also, on Sunday, Jennifer (my 7th grader) had her Christmas Concert. she plays a Bass Clarinet.

joe

Hi Joe, pardon the ignorance of a Northener, however do pecans have an outer husk like a chestnut, or are they like an acorn?

I would never have guessed that nuts would be worth that much money.

It's pretty sad that people have no idea about what ownership means.

I always remember the stories my Mom told about the depression, when men would offer to perform work for a sandwich. My mom would make them a sandwich, they had to sit on the front steps and eat it, and they were always grateful. She always commented how embarrassed and polite they were, and that nothing ever was taken from the garden.

I guess we live in different times.

regards, Rod.

[Dan Gill]

Friday afternoon, my wife called to say Chewbacca, my Chessie, was throwing up blood. We took him into the vet, where they x-rayed him and did bloodwork, and still couldn't find the problem. We left him there overnight.

Saturday early I got up and drove to the spot where I hunt, and sat in a tree stand for a while. The wind was swirling badly, and I had three does under me, but the first one got spooky and spooked the others (and any buck hanging around). Back home to check on the dog.

Brought the dog home, and he looked so bad I thought he was dying. He wouldn't respond, and was breathing very slowly.

I worked on several cutting boards and a small shelf for sale, and kept checking the dog. He perked up a bit Saturday evening and even ate a little. By yesterday afternoon he was getting pretty frisky and letting us know that he was definitely not getting enough food. He seems to be okay today. We still don't know what the problem was or is.

Also yesterday, in addition to church and Bible class, we watched our daughter in the church's youth production of A Christmas Carol. She had 6 parts, and it all went very well.

A real roller-coaster of a weekend.

[Rod Sheridan]

Been working on a rocking horse from an old Wood Magazine plan for the past 2 weeks. Made good progress this past weekend and it's almost ready for finish.

I'm making this for a couple of little girls (sisters) who are new to the neighborhood and who are somewhat disadvantaged. This type of "just because" project is something I haven't done nearly enough of to this point in my life.

Hi Gary, I made some more wooden rabbit pull toys for charity this year.

Giving back sure generates satisfaction doesn't it?

Regards, Rod.

[Thomas Knighton]

I picked up some Poplar for my Mom's new bookcase and a router, only to find out the 1/4" collet doesn't want to work. Go figure ;)

Tom

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Played lumberjack on Saturday, cleaning up a tree that fell - half into our yard, half into our neighbor's. Observations - Stihl makes a pretty damned good chainsaw; sharp chains are great, dull chains suck; chainsaws and inexperienced neighbors can make for dull chains :(

Sunday - played furniture mover. Just too much fun for me this weekend...

[Dennis Peacock]

Hi Joe, pardon the ignorance of a Northener, however do pecans have an outer husk like a chestnut, or are they like an acorn?

I would never have guessed that nuts would be worth that much money.

It's pretty sad that people have no idea about what ownership means.

I always remember the stories my Mom told about the depression, when men would offer to perform work for a sandwich. My mom would make them a sandwich, they had to sit on the front steps and eat it, and they were always grateful. She always commented how embarrassed and polite they were, and that nothing ever was taken from the garden.

I guess we live in different times.

regards, Rod.

Hey Rod,

A Pecan is much like a Walnut, Chestnut, and such as that. It has a semi-tough outter shell with a meaty nut inside, usually 2 halves joined at one end of the nut. Very desired for various deserts, topings, and such. If you ever get a chance to try a Pecan Pie? Oh Boy are those good!!!!!! :D

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Last summer I did a favor for a Creeker. I asked for nothing in return. He sent me some turning blanks he bought and some he had from his "place". He packed them in a box with some unique "packing material". My wife has made several pies from those pecans. Pecans.....the edible packing material!:D

[Eric DeSilva]

I spent, apparently, all of my free time this w/e drywalling the shop. My basement shop is about 25' x 30', with most of the walls being giant poly-backed insulation sheets power-nailed to the concrete. Doesn't give you much in the storage department, since you can't hang anything on the wall! So, I ripped down a bunch of the insulation, framed up some walls, ran electrical, and reinsulated. At this point, its only two of the walls I'm doing--figure I'll do it in phases--and the weekend was spent covering it all up with drywall. Looks like it snowed in there. I've got one bump out to cover, then its on to taping and spackling... Probably my second least favorite job (most least favorite would be the insulation thing).

I'm really wishing Festool sold their drywall sander in the US. Then again, given how expensive it is compared to a PC vacuum sanding pole, its probably saving me a lot of money that it isn't...

Sad part is that I really need the shop functional... Something about Christmas presents. I'm thinking they are going to be late...

Rest of the w/e was spent "parenting" the 9.5 mo old (I'm told its not babysitting when they are your own) while his mom did lunch and spa time with the girls.

[Joe Mioux]

Hey Rod,

A Pecan is much like a Walnut, Chestnut, and such as that. It has a semi-tough outter shell with a meaty nut inside, usually 2 halves joined at one end of the nut. Very desired for various deserts, topings, and such. If you ever get a chance to try a Pecan Pie? Oh Boy are those good!!!!!! :D

you said a mouthful, Dennis!!!!! :) Hot Pecan Pie and a scoop of vanilla ice cream beats Hot Pumpkin pie any day.

Rod, Dennis pretty much described the pecan. we have about $1000 worth of nuts up in those trees and that is only four trees. three of which are grouped together.

I picked about 15 gallons yesterday, the thieves have probably stole 40 gallons, but I will catch up.

joe

[richard poitras]

Made a cherry, maple, and black walnut cutting board for Christmas for my mother in-law (bonus points) :rolleyes:

[Matt Meiser]

Saturday Steve Sawyer and I made the trek to Charlotte to bring back a bunch of lumber and miscellaneous stuff that someone from our club was getting rid of as he is moving to California. We also spent some time pursuing the selection at Johnson's Workbench. Sunday we spent most of the day at my parents. I spent most of that time pulling the transmission out of my dads 1976 F150 in preparation for installing a new one next week.

[Jim Becker]

As predicted, I got no shop time, but we did have a great equestrian weekend (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=99157)...Nastia once again took Grand Champion for her division.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/a-j-adopt/HGF-12-08-066.jpg

[Don Bullock]

Last summer I did a favor for a Creeker. I asked for nothing in return. He sent me some turning blanks he bought and some he had from his "place". He packed them in a box with some unique "packing material". My wife has made several pies from those pecans. Pecans.....the edible packing material!:D

Ken, its' funny that you should mention that. My grandmother lived in Texas and had 14 pecan trees in her yard. Every Christmas she would send our package filled with pecans like people use styrofoam "peanuts" today. My mom would use them to make pecan pie.

Saturday I was at the AKC/Eukanuba Championship Dog Show. While neither of our basset hounds won anything this year it was a good day at the show.

Sunday we celebrated an early Christmas with good friends.:D It doesn't get much better than that.