MeltedSocks

I'm getting near the finish line. Just some painting and outlet covers. I sprayed the baseboards and quarter round before installing it, but the rest needs paint. My semi-retired, 70-something year old HVAC friend who only works when he wants to work blew me off two days in a row...no show, no call, no text. Luckily, I had a gut feeling he wouldn't come through, so I ordered an installation kit from Amazon ($150). It was pretty straight forward. Lots of videos on youtube on how to install these mini splits. I ran another 230V 30 amp circuit for this, too.

I spent today making an attic access door. I think you'd call it a single hung door? It took all day figuring stuff out, but tomorrow, the second one should be quicker. These will be airtight like exterior doors, and insulated with a few inches of rigid foam insulation. The door itself is just doubled up 3/4" cabinet-grade plywood.

I finished the flooring, did a little trim work, then pivoted to installing the mini-split. I need to get that room cooled off before I do much more work in there. I have a friend who is a semi-retired 70-something year old HVAC pro who is going to cut off the flare fittings on the indoor unit and silver solder the the lines together (more reliable) and do the vacuum/gauge stuff. The garden is producing nicely. I love the whole farm-to-table thing. Tonight I'm making an arugula salad, sauted zucchino rampacante, blanched and sauted green beans, and a protein to go with them. Maybe cornbread.

I'm doing the LVT flooring today and hope to be finished tomorrow.

Nah. It's flat.

I painted on two coats of flat on the slant. That fixed the problem. Very happy with how it looks now.

Well okay. I learned something new. Unless you do a level 5 finish (everything skim coated), the mud will always show under the paint. The light from the window and door grazes the surface, making the difference very noticeable. Bummer. Now I have to spray orange peel texture. I've sprayed texture before on my own DIY projects, so I know how to do it, but I was wanting to skip this step due to time constraints.

I'll fabricate some matching cedar trim for the drywall-wood transition, but will do that after I'm done painting. The drywall gal did a great job. I paid for level 3 but she basically did level 4 (she just can help but being good). I used an inspection light and did a couple rounds of touchup mud and sanding. The result is almost as good as the level 5 drywall on this old Victorian remodel I'm working in. The dried mud absorbed the primer differently than the paper on the drywall, so you can tell where the seams and screws are, but that should go away with a couple layers of paint. I found a few imperfections after priming the drywall, which I'll take care of before painting, but otherwise, it looks really good. I'm glad I didn't have to texture it. I found some LVT at Lowes that compliments the ceiling. Hopefully, I'll get that done this week.

Almost finished the nickel-gap ceiling today. I'm happy with how it is turning out. $150 for the cedar pickets.

Thanks, Larry. I haven't planted a garden in two or three years because I was waiting for whatever forever herbicide that was in this compost I spread all over my garden to be diluted down enough to not kill my plants. I tried a garden last year, but the plants shriveled and failed to thrive due to the suspected aminopyralid contamination. I got a late start this year, but decided to try all these seeds that had been in my shed for two hot summers. Things are going great, so far. From left to right, I've got a row of Seminole pumpkins, a row of zucchino rampacante, then a row containing cucumbers, arugula, Chinese cabbage, and cilantro. Next is a row of green beans (bush), then a row of okra, then a row containing tomatoes, an eggplant, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, carrots, radishes, and sorrel (only one seed out of a 500 germinated ). I didn't intend to plant the row on the far right, but all these okra plants started sprouting from the ones I planted last year (tilled under a few pods), so I planted more arugula and put pine straw around the okra plants. There are also a couple of pepper plants that popped up, too. Lastly, I've never showed off this garden hoe I made a few years ago. I copied one I saw in an advertisement. It gave me the opportunity to do a forge weld, too. This is one of my favorite homemade garden implements. Lay it flat to skim the weeds off the top. Use the point to surgically remove weeds. It works great. Here are the stained cedar boards I'm going to use for the nickel-gap ceiling. Drywall gal is doing her thing as I type this.

I haven't had time to do any blacksmithing for a long time. I'm too busy with a huge cabinet job, and I'm also having to convert the space above my workshop from a finishing room to a living/work space. My 63 year old worn out, limping, and hurting body hauled 18 sheets of drywall up a flight of stairs, installed it, then started taping/mudding it. I called a drywall gal who is a master of her trade to get an idea of what she'd charge me to do the hard part. The electricians could butcher up drywall by moving recess can lights, switches, and outlets, and this gal will come in and in a single day and make it perfect, including the texturing. I knew of her from all these remodeling jobs we work on. Eight hundred dollars, cash, for level 3 finishing. She's coming Monday and Tuesday with 20 minute mud. In and out quickly. I'll do the texturing. I'm pretty good at that. In the meantime, I jointed one edge of, cut to width, and planed down 45 cedar fence pickets. It was the cheapest way to do a real wood shiplap ceiling. I'm going to do a light grey, semi-transparent stain on the cedar, paint the walls light blue with some unopened paint I scored for free five years ago (hope it's still good), and install a grey-ish/brown-ish LVT floor. Last thing will be a mini-split system. I'll install it and let a friend of mine do the charging. He's kind to me when he presents his bill. It's 12' x 24' approximately with a 90" ceiling height. When I ordered the trusses, the rep suggested raised-heel attic trusses instead of standard trusses. So thankful for that advice. The florescent lights will be replaced by can-less recessed LEDs.

Other than knocking the dust out of them, there's not really any ongoing maintenance. I try not to drop mine too often and not leave them out in the rain. Some of my tools are "My Precious." My Festool track saw, dust collector, and Domino machine get loved on. My Paslode nailers get gently stroked. My green 3-plane laser gets cradled like a baby. The rest of them, I just give them a dry place to sleep and I don't abuse them.

Decided to fly to San Francisco in June and drive a rented Class-C motorhome back with daughter, et. al., following in her car. We're staying at campgrounds in Barstow, CA, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Amarillo, and Jackson, MS. It will be at a minimum a more expensive drive and a Book of Eli/Mad Max adventure at the very worst. Either way, I'm getting my daughter back home. After a two or three year hiatus from gardening due to the compost contaminated with persistent herbicides that I amended my soil with, I'm trying a garden this year. I hope some of my 2-3 year old seeds germinate and that whatever chemical was in the compost has been washed away or broken down. The best thing is I got to use my two forged gardening tools. I can't wield a hammer for a few more days. Got a stent last Friday. They went in through my right wrist. I refused sedation so I could be fully aware. It was a fascinating experience, talking to the dude who is inside my heart. He said it was an outstanding outcome, as good as they get. Cool!

I used to wear white ankle length socks with my sneakers. My wife always pointed out that "no show" socks were the way to go. I resisted. I wore my ankle length sock defiantly for many years after aging out all my calf length socks. Then one day she announced that black socks were "in" and white socks were definitely out, and that I looked ridiculous in my white ankle socks. I again resisted, but she finally broke me when she bought me black socks for Christmas. I happily wore black ankle socks for several years, appreciating the practicality of black fabric hiding stains better than white. This past Christmas, I got both black and white ankle length socks from her. I have to admit I was very confused, but she told me that both black and white socks were in now. I got angry because I had also been wearing charcoal grey ankle length socks, which I thought would thwart any future attempts by whoever it is that announces these decrees to make me change sock color. But age has worn me down some. I seamlessly incorporated the white socks into my sneaker/cargo shorts/tee shirt haute couture. Hefty, you really should watch the movie. If you don't, you are depriving yourself of some really good entertainment. It might also scare you given how much of that movie came true.

My daughter loved this! One of my first projects.

Beautiful, Alexandr!

little garden shovel

I like my dexterity. A skinned knuckle every once in a while is an reasonable price to pay. Even a dumb donkey will eventually learn to quit leaning up against an electric fence. Eventually, I'll learn to pull the workpiece out of the fire if I walk away even a few feet.

My wife thinks bamboo shoots taste like the smell of Band-Aids, and almond extract tastes like the smell of a squished coachroach. I sorts get the latter. I burned one side of a tongs project. Walked 10' to get my ear muffs, came right back, pulled a sparkler out of the fire. Made another and managed to make a useable set of pickup tongs for small parts, like little drifts and small pieces of round stock. I set my glove on fire, and sanded a nice little divot out of a knuckle. But it was a good day in the smithy. I needed these little pickup tongs for making my next hammer.

My wife has sensory weirdness, too. She smells things I can't smell, tastes things I can't taste, and hears things I can't hear. Nothing wrong with my sense of smell or taste, but I have severe high frequency hearing loss, so I give her that one. I made redneck pasta carbonara using smoked hog jowl instead of guanciale and Manchego cheese as a substitute for pecorino Romano. I've had the real thing in Italy, but this was really, really good. Wife said it tasted like goat. I had no idea what she was talking about. I couldn't detect it, and I love goat cheese.

When I was kindergarten age, my parents went over to some friends' house for a cookout. After everyone ate, the adults retired to the living room to tie one on, while we kids went out back, left on our own, unsupervised. A kid and I thought it'd be a neat experiment to pour gas on the dying coals. I held the Solo cup while the other kid sloshed gasoline all over my hand while filling up the cup. I slowly drizzled the gasoline onto the coals. All it did was smoke a little bit. Then it burst into flames engulfing my hand. I at least had the presence of mind to cover my hand with a towel or someone's coat. Only second degree burns and a newly discovered fascination with fire, which I explored all through my childhood. My excuse is that I was six years old.

I would love to visit Russia, but the flight to and from Rome from the east coast of the USA was just about the limit of what I can take at my age.

I see these hand-forged herb choppers, and yes, they look neat, but I've never seen a chef actually using one. We watch a lot of cooking shows on TV (Hell's Kitchen, Chopped, Next Level Chef, etc), and I watch a lot of cooking videos on YouTube (Chef Jean Pierre, Fallow, etc). I've never seen anyone chopping herbs with anything other than a chef's knife. The herb choppers seem to be awkward to hold and uncomfortable to use. I use my Hexclad Damascus Nakiri knife mostly, but I still employ the rocking motion to chop herbs. It is "my precious."

I didn't fire up the forge this morning because today we were going to spread my mom's ashes. I'm sitting around waiting for time to leave when I rechecked the text from my sister. Good thing. It's next Saturday, not today. Too late in the day to get into tong-making. So I piddled in my workshop. Not only did I clear off my workbench, but I sanded, cleaned, and applied a coat of BLO to the MDF surface and a coat of Trewax to the table saw. But, the entropy thing will kick in the moment I open the door tomorrow morning. While spraying a 60" long mantle hood earlier this week with my Fuji system, I decided to go ahead and do this upgrade I've been contemplating for a couple of years. I added coasters to my anti-tip thingy and bungies so I can pick it up and move it around one-handed. No more kicking it around my shop either.

Idiocracy is one of my favorite movies, not only because it's brilliant, but because it is also prophetic. Team America: World Police is equally brilliant for other reasons. Freedom cost $1.05.