Why I Oughta...

Remember the post from back in November when I showed off one of my neighbor's poor Ash trees that had been ravaged by the Emerald Ash Borer?   When I posted the photos (with patterns caused by the larvae), I mentioned that since we burn so much wood (and I buy it all!), it might be interesting to see if I could score any of it for free. From that post : Maybe I should go talk to the builders and see if we can harvest some of it for firewood? I have to think that the larvae are long gone, right? We're only moving it 100 feet (so no cross-border movement!) and I would be seasoning it for the better part of a year before we got to burning it next year. Maybe it is something we could burn in out outdoor fireplace exclusively? All wishful/hopeful thinking of course. Welp, wishing and hoping turned into some reality recently.  I happened to be home on the day that the tree company was on site cleaning up the dead trees and managed to talk the crew into dropping some of t...

Back at the end of July, I posted a photo of the wall-hung workbench that I had selected to build first in the garage (garden bench) and then down in my shop (once I got the hang of it!).  I pulled down some plans from WoodSmith Plans and got started ripping down the lumber to make all the pieces.  But there was a part that I got hung up on - these angled brackets with notched cuts at the bottom that I've circled above.  The plan calls for these supports to be notched and attached to a ledger board (that gets attached to the wall).  But, my little, amateur woodworking brain couldn't quite figure out how to make those cuts.  I took a sacrificial board and drew all over it to get the angles right.  I even took it over to Nat's Dad's house and had him mark it up so I could figure out the best way to make the cuts.  He showed me how to use my table saw to get most of the wood out, then a saber saw to make the final cuts.  But then I got home an...

Via Firewood Victoria Just like the various versions of my shop workbench that I've posted about (and dreamed about and finally settled on ), I've done the same with a firewood storage shed.  Above is the latest 'dream' firewood storage shed that I've come across.  The photo above comes from a Canadian Lumber Company's site .  You can find the original source image here .   Last year, you might recall the pile of wood that I chopped myself and stuck on a rack that I had outside our backdoor.  Here's the 'before/after' photo collage . And in early January, I posted a photo of the face cord that we ordered and had stacked .  You'll note that the face cord was stacked in our screened porch and it was too big for the metal rack that I had on hand.  We blew through the face cord of wood before the season ended and I did one check-in (February) trying to document the usage .   This season there are some new dynamics to factor: ...

Back in November, I posted a before/after set of photos of the pile of wood that I had partially chopped and stacked near our back door ahead of the winter season.  That pile of wood was made up of a series of logs that had been left behind by our tree guys when they cleared out a bunch of dying/scrub trees.  Think it was a blend of Walnut, Ash and Maple trees. As the weather turned, we started to use the fireplace in our family room.  And use it.  And use it.   We went through the entire stack of firewood by Christmas.  So, I had to order some. It is funny, the whole idea of ordering firewood make me felt pretty manly.  You know who else is a man?  I'm a man . I hunted around for providers and settled on one that had a good mix of wood, plus they delivered and stacked.  Yeah...stacked. I have fond memories of going over to my friend Matt's house on Saturdays during the fall when his Dad would be receiving his wood delivery....

I guess this is more after/before than before/after based on how Google Photos organized the two photos in this collage.  Thus...On the bottom of this photo collage above, you can see a pile of wood that I harvested out of our backyard in it's mostly raw state.  When the guys came to clear out some trees before we built in 2016, I think they left behind a bunch of these cut up chunks of trunk/branches in the yard.  They're mostly Walnut trees with a few Maple pieces.  I picked up this metal log holder from Menards and decided - because we now have a wood-burning fireplace - to pile the stuff up close to the screened porch.  And, I'm glad I did.  Because as I was collecting the pieces of wood from around the yard, one thing that was consistent:  they were all wet.  And by laying on the ground, they weren't able to dry out at all.  But, a few weeks of laying in this rack, which is underneath the eave of our roof, and they've mostly dried ...

The Babe gave me this classic wooden yo-yo from Treehopper Toys for Christmas and she couldn't have been more proud of herself for picking it out.   This was the first year where the Babe nosed around the Christmas Renegade Fair with her momma and they came home with this yo-yo, a bear HopperJalopy for the Bird and also a set of transportation MatchStacks which she's taken to playing with at the dinner table most days. Both of the products are wood and really well made.  I'll quibble a little bit with the finger loop on the yo-yo as my pudgy digits have a hard time wiggling through there.  (Those hipsters in their skinny jeans at Renegade all have tiny fingers, I guess?!?)  I haven't picked up a yo-yo since probably junior high but I've had a lot of fun playing around with it the past few weeks. The site says that Treehopper is located 'outside Chicago' but they don't quite say where.  If you're in the market for a clever, US-made kid toy yo...