I have not updated the blog for a few weeks because we had not done much on the build for a few weeks. I had a business trip to Providence, Rhode Island for a week. Then Tina’s sister came down to visit us and give us an excuse for a much needed break from construction.
So what does a married couple that have spent every free minute for the last year doing heavy construction, do with their time off? The answer, of course, is we go punch cattle!
Our friend Eve owns a cattle ranch about 3 miles from M. T. Acres. She invited us to help out with the spring round-up. We were involved with her round-up last fall as well. So now that I have both under my belt, I think the fall round-up is a lot more work. But the spring round-up is harder physical work.
We were done this time in three days, whereas last fall took a week and a half. Part of that was due to the fact that one of the “cowboys” (I use that term loosely in this case) last fall had a slightly difficult personality and caused a great deal more work than was necessary. But that aside, there is quite a bit more to do in the fall than in the spring.
Rounding up cattle is really hard work. But it is good work. When the day was done, we really felt like we had accomplished something worthwhile. Hopefully Eve will continue to invite us back for many round-ups to come.
We did get started back up on the house build yesterday.
Prior to our break, I had gotten two of the three sections for the built-in bookcase for my office glued up. But I ran out of plywood so I could not get the third one done. Tina also got the insides of them varnished. (More on that in a few paragraphs.)
Yesterday, we started by getting the two completed carcasses moved into my office. We had to take them in through a window because they will not fit through the door.
A problem quickly became evident.
Because Tina varnished the insides (but not the outsides) about 2 weeks ago, the plywood for the sides warped like crazy. The one on the left of the photo above is the worst. The sides in the middle are full inch narrower than they are on the top and bottom!
I had a few ideas on how I could fix the problem, but they more “work-arounds” than a good solution. Sometimes it is better for me to just think on a problem for a while so I decided to spend the rest of the day building the third carcass.
I got the sides machined first. As with the first two, I had to do all of the machining by hand because they are too big to handle accurately on a fixed machine.
I was very pleased with myself because I was able to get it sanded and glued the same day too.
Today, Tina needed to use my workshop to finish the inside of the third part of the bookcase. So I could not start cutting the wood for the face frame as it would raise too much dust. So I decided to get as much of the baseboard moulding installed in my office as I could.
There are still two more pieces of baseboard to install but those cannot be done until the bookcase is complete.
While I was doing the baseboards, I was hit with the inspiration to solve the problem of the warped sides on the bookcase. I decided to make a cabinet jack.
Pictured above is just a prototype I cobbled together in 10 minutes just to prove the idea worked. I drilled it with a hand drill so the holes are not straight and it was a bit of bugger to get it fit well enough to push out evenly. But it worked!
So I set about building 3 more, this time taking my time to get everything straight.
These babies are going to work great! They are still not perfect, but they are close enough that I will be able to glue the face frame on and make the final adjustments with clamps.
Tina has been busy the last few weeks getting her gardens started.
We do not have time to do anything permanent for a vegetable garden this year, so she is just using the cloth pots we bought for the rental house. But the potatoes are doing well, as are the peppers and tomatoes.
The neighbor even gave her an old rusted out stock tank which will work perfectly as a planter!
So adios until next time Acre-Heads!