Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

23 Nov 2020

Greetings,
No real time in the shop this past week as the day job required too much of my time. The LOML and I did get gutters cleaned out and leaves chopped up with the mower. Got my new bass guitar in and I'm really loving the 5-string Yamaha bass. I had to set the intonation and adjust the action just a bit but it does play very well. Nice tone and very good action on it. Spent a bit of late night effort of going through old family photos and throwing away pictures and slides that didn't have people in them or people that I didn't know. Also a word of advice for anyone passing old photos down to surviving family - Please, Please....write names on the back of the pics of the people that are IN the specific photo. If you also know the Year that pic was taken write that on the back as well. This alone is a significant help to those going through old family pictures that no longer have anyone around to tell them WHO that is in the picture.

COVID aided in closing the church we were attending. No that it's permanently closed, we've spent the last 2 months looking around at local churches and we found one that is a sure "fit" for us to attend. We are happy to select a local church for us to attend.

I won't get to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving - So I'll do it now:
Happy Thanksgiving To You And Your Family!!!

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

Best of weeks to you all!!

[Jim Becker]

Sounds like you got some stuff done, Dennis, and I'm really glad you are enjoying that 5 string bass...that extra string on the bottom can really "thump"!!! Sad that your house of worship had to close, but happy you found one that's comfortable. I'm not religious, but do appreciate that having a "connection" is very important when it comes to a congregation.

My week wasn't nearly as productive as I intended it to be. This time of year, I often get a little stiff as the colder temps come along, which doesn't help. I did some work in the shop on my current bass guitar project, took care of cleaning up three downed ash trees and did a few other odds and ends.

Tree service is coming tomorrow to take down several large, dead ash that are near the house...not something I can tackle myself for a variety of reasons. ($$$$ unfortunately) So this week I'll likely be dealing with the logs since that saves me money. Hopefully, there will be some worthy of getting milled.

Finally, today (literally, 22 Nov) was our 15 year "Famili-versary" of the day we were in court in sunny Siberia adopting our two daughters. It seems like just yesterday, but both girls are now fine young woman. In the spirit of a popular social networking thing....

How it was then...

Family-22Nov-2005.jpg


How it is now...

Family-22Nov2020.jpg

'Hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving holiday, even if it's quieter than normal.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

Jim, you're an inspiration! Going to Siberia to add to the family! At least our two adoptees were already in our homes.
Dennis, you had ongoing medical issues, and it sounds like workplace from Hell was on your mind earlier. I hoe tings are better for you.

I've taken a short break from the shop, building my new cabinets; I ga few minutes at a time.
I bought a shooting plane, so I've been carefully building a ramped shooting board, mostly by hand, an In the meanwhile, I've taken the opportunity to clean the shop. I've been selling off some of my construction stuff I have duplicates of, and under-powered or generally disliked power tools at a price to get them gone.
Years ago when my Mom passed away, I kept her electric wheelchair figuring as my sis., or wife, got older, we might need it. Tuens out after a 3rd party assessment, its too ancient, and an ad in Craigslist brought no response, so it's going to the salvage yard.

[Lisa Starr]

Dennis - hope things ease up for you this week, both at work and otherwise. Jim, I understand the weather affecting your joints...mine too. Still sounds like you got lots accomplished, just not that much in the shop. Aaron, you'll appreciate the "new", clean shop when you get going on the cabinets again.

As for me, I cleaned up the loose ends of the shop rearranging/cleaning/re-fitting. It has taken me literally months, but I'm ready for the Hammer A3-31. I thank modern medicine every day that I'm alive, but the side effects of it all sure changed my life. I've managed to build up to 3-4 hours of activity most days, but it sure made the project take along time!

Today I'm making Thanksgiving Dinner and tomorrow I'll be making "to-go" packages to deliver to those we would normally share the holiday with. Later in the week I'm hoping to get in the shop and make some small mouldings I need to finish the stairway in our home.

Hope eveyone has a great week.

[Charles Taylor]

I'll add my Thanksgiving best wishes to everyone. Ours will also be on a smaller scale than usual.

As far as projects in the workshop go, I've been pretty much coasting and puttering since my last significant project a couple months ago. Made a couple of utilitarian boxes and a small shadow box out of scrap wood. On Saturday, though, I picked up lumber for a couple new projects. I'll be building a cabinet and hutch to replace a store-bought rolling cabinet that sits in our kitchen, and my daughter will be building a table for her room. She's done a few small things in one of her classes at school recently, but this will be her first project in my workshop.

A few weeks ago I put beadboard on the ceiling of our back porch. On Sunday I made an attempt to hang a ceiling fan there as well. In the 1980s my dad bought several cast-iron frame Hunter fans for the house renovation we were doing at that time. He used all but this one, which has been waiting patiently ever since for a place to be used. I was stymied by the lengths of pipe I have on hand to connect the fan motor to the hanging bracket: either too long or too short. I can resolve that problem with my next trip to the big box store.

Also on Sunday I smoked a chicken and made something new to us called collard chowder for the family's dinner. That yielded an excellent meal.

I'm still working my day job for at least a couple days this week. Wednesday I'll be smoking a turkey--we may be scaling back our Thanksgiving plans this year, but not the part that involves overeating!

[Paul F Franklin]

Happy Thanksgiving to All! My wife and I will give thanks at home; will miss seeing family of course, although we'll do a zoom get together in the evening. I picked up a half turkey breast and some thighs to make. Mary will make some "mini" pies in muffin tins; pumpkin for her, apple for me. Neither one of us needs a whole large pie right now!

I got a fair amount of shop time in this week, now that outside chores are mostly wrapped up. I did spend an afternoon putting the skid steer in winter storage. I made a lumber yard run and picked up 250 BF of cherry; added to what I had on hand it should be plenty to finish all the office furniture. Worst part was carrying it down to the shop and then un-stacking and re-stacking the stickered pile to put the new material on the bottom and the acclimated on top. I took the better part of a day to clean and tune the bandsaw, jointer/planer and table saw in preparation for the milling to come.

I got all the pieces-parts for one desk pedestal milled to final dimensions and got a good start on the joinery; should be able to get to dry assembly this week.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving all!