Tag Archives: shelves

Things I Would Like to Make Soon

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1. I have been thinking about coffee ice cream.  I am ready to make it.  I just need a little time to whip together some cream and sugar and milk and eggs and coffee, and Voila!  Frozen confection.

2. Tomato corn chowder.  We have lots of corn left over from last night and I need to use it ASAP.  And now we have tomatoes.  Save a little of that cream from making the ice cream, add some fresh herbs and some other tasty bits and Voila!  Soup for a royal family.

3. Some bookshelves.  We have tons of books and I love to read and the good tomes are all still packed into boxes.  A post and beam home has one drawback–much less wall space.  That means less room for art and for furniture and for shelves.  So our books sit unread.  With a little creativity we can fit in some bookshelves.

4. An orchard.  Well maybe not an orchard on the scale of, say, one that sells fruit to markets, but a small one, with lots of trees to give us peaches and pears and apples and maybe even something more exotic, like walnuts.  And some more blueberry bushes.  And maybe some grapes.  That might mean a lot of work, I understand, but apple pie and peach ice cream and grape juice…

5. Some poems.  My writing has been limited to blogging and work, at least for the most part.  I should be tossing out some more creativity.

6. My wife happy.  I know one can’t really make someone else happy, but let’s face it, someone trying sure can make a difference.  Not that she isn’t happy, but one of my favorite things in the world is to see her face glowing with joy or laughing with abandon.  Seriously.  Seeing her happy makes me happy.  I love that woman.

7.  I also want to make some kindling.  Winter will be here soon enough and having a big stash of kindling on hand makes things a lot easier.  If I can make it soon enough that it will dry before we need it, I will be ahead of the game.  For years we had an supply of dry leftover lumber bits but that ran out two winters ago.  Now I have to gather and split to get the fire going.

8. A will would be good.  We have put that task off for too long.  We did talk with a lawyer at one point but then that morbid responsibility fell off the list.  Time to put it back on.

9. I need to make myself stronger.  I have been running and biking and that just plain old feels good.  I need to keep that up, and then get to a point where I can really get out there and fly.  Who doesn’t want to fly?  A long run, or a run in the middle of a snowstorm, or a zoom down a tree-lined path, those are like flying.  I want to fly.

Making things is about being creative.  And isn’t creativity a form of flying?  That is really what I want.  I want to fly.

Shelf Project Underway but Not Finished

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Lower Shelf Installed, Upper Shelf Waiting

Lower Shelf Installed, Upper Shelf Waiting

While this will not be a surprise to anyone in the Champlain Valley, it was raining again this morning, with showers forecast all day.  So much for painting the house.  It would be, however, a good day to work on the shelves I wanted to build in the garage.  I was stymied a couple of weeks ago by my missing level.  I did finally find it, hiding behind the paint cans.  How it got there, I can’t say.  I found it when I took a trip to basement with the children to see what paint we had that might be acceptable to paint their rooms.  Another project.

I am glad I had the level.  Someone made a comment on my earlier post that I could just measure from the floor.  I was tempted.  The level was key with the imperfect lumber I had, however.  I was determined to use the lumber I had on hand and not to buy any.  So far so good.

I would have finished both the upper and lower shelves, but I had to take my daughter to the doctor.  She got a cut on her hand a couple of weeks ago and today it was clearly infected.  She and her parents tried to clean it and bandage it but it got the nasties anyway.  She was afraid to go to the doctor.  She didn’t want anyone to poke it and she was afraid the doctor would want to look at her throat.  She hates that.  I’m not a fan myself.  She had no throat inspection, however, just a confirmation that it is infected, a recommendation to come back in a few days to make sure it doesn’t need to be lanced, and a prescription for Amoxicillin.

By the time we got home it was a little late to keep plugging on the shelves.  We had to stop to get the prescription filled (they didn’t have what we needed in stock so had to find a substitute) and shop for a few things to go camping at a state part tomorrow.  I agreed to take the advice of a store employee and use the self-checkout.  That was a bad idea.  I have not had much luck with that approach.  There seem to always be issues.  The system doesn’t like when people bring their own bags, and the slightest shift on the scale sends it into a fit over the fear that one might be heisting some chewing gum.

We paid for the gum.  I am chewing some now.  The shelves wait for me.  Maybe I’ll get to them after our little camping adventure.  Or maybe I’ll just paint.

Missing Level

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I had this crazy idea of putting in some shelves in the garage today.  The previous owners had planned to do that and graciously left some boards for the purpose.  They never got to it.  Neither had I.  Today was the day to make it happen.

I had all the materials I needed and I gathered all my tools.  I pretty much just needed to measure and cut and assemble.  Great.  But I couldn’t find a level.  A level is pretty much a must have tool when installing shelves.  I guess I could have just eyeballed it, but I would likely be ruing that decision every time I went into the garage.  Cockamamie shelves just won’t do.

I searched the house to find one of the two levels we own.  We have a newer one and we also have an old one that belonged to my grandfather.  Neither was where it should have been and I looked every place either of them might be.  I looked and looked, searching places two or three times.  I even looked in places it probably would not be found, but where it just might fit, like in with my pants.  You never know.

I was unsuccessful in my quest.  I was even going to try the mini level on our square, but I couldn’t find that.  I kept going out to the garage and looking at the shelf that is there, a makeshift particle board jobber.  That thing is crooked and falling down and unsturdy and ugly.  We keep crap on it anyway.  I want that gone and some solid shelves instead.  I’m not looking for perfection here.  I plan to use the lumber I’ve got on hand.  If I can make this happen, however, we will have more shelf space and stuff won’t slide off every time I shut the door too hard.  Apparently, however, my tools to get the job done have disappeared.

So I have no new shelves.  I did manage to install some hooks to hang our snowshoes.  They have been piled on a shelf (a different one, way up high over the firewood) the past couple of winters, so that at least feels like something.  Summer is well underway and the year, as of today, has entered its second half.  I need to get cranking if I want to get much done this summer.  But first I need to round up all my tools.  I would prefer not to spend the next couple months searching for them.