Our version of retirement: Living a childhood dream

Took a break from furniture to knock out some tiny abodes

However, my lady is in dire need of another bookcase

So, putting my semifinished goods on the shelf for a bit

I've actually got enough inventory for awhile

finished goods.jpg

Gonna put these guys on the shelf

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The last one I completed was a tad too plain
Soooooo, added a little placard

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I built costume cabinets for a few years. We got planks of different wood from lumber yards and Kansas City ( for exotic woods/cuts. ) Sawing those frames with the bark on must be tricky...you have a secret? Mill? Couldn't have been just a table saw?
 
To me, it has sort of a nice knotty pine paneling look to it.
Just cedar fence boards.
5 1/2" x 1/2" x 6'
I dig for the knottiest

Drown them with linseed oil
Then lightly brush on some dark stain here and there and the croners
Seems to bring out the color

The live edge is pine
linseed oil has little affect on those
So, i hit 'em with light and dark stains
 
I built costume cabinets for a few years.
Well, a carpenter I'm not
Just a self taught wood butcher

Sawing those frames with the bark on must be tricky...you have a secret? Mill? Couldn't have been just a table saw?
It is tricky

Learned a couple tricks the hard way
Be generous when cutting the 45s to sneak up on matching the live part of the live edge.

Notice the corner is not matching on the very tip
Rather jigsaw puzzley

Best to work slow

corner clsoe up.jpg

Ridgid Sliding miter saw
 
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I had them all from the very first softcover edition and had to finally let them go.

I read and reread them so often that I more or less absorbed the information that they contained.
Yeah, the first few years of their editions were full of the good stuff.
Then.......they went commercial.
Switched to a new rag, Backwoods Home
Then....they went commercial.....
 
curious,do you glue the roof on?
No glue

Just screws
Predrilled cedar shakes

My buddy in Wyoming and I exchange our creations.
So far, he's put himself on the short end

However, he's a bit of a purist.
Painstakingly takes apart my tiny abodes, screw by screw, and runs 'em thru his vacuum varnish tank.
Then reattaches it all with better screws. A black roundhead.
Buys 'em speical outa McMaster Carr

Me, I'm sticking with what works for me, the coarse threaded sheetrock screws
Home Dopey stocks 'em for me.
 
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When do the black tail deer shed their antlers?
Further north of us, the coastal blacktail seem to shed various times, if I remember correctly.
Down here (southern Oregon, east of the Cascade Range) seems to be middle of winter.
But that rack looks pretty healthy.
He's prolly the buck from last fall, with half a rack

I'm more attune to the muleys up at the cabin
No sheds around
They migrate down to Christmas Valley in late fall thru winter
 
Daughter in law thinks my decor is odd as I use antlers on my book case or behind stuff.
Yeah, I've got a few antlers around
Along with badger claws and bones of various critters
I have yet to figger something original (weird) for them

Friends tend to make knife handles from their antlers
I've traded antlers for things
Not really into trophies so much
Sticking with wood, mostly

Might make a necklace
Bear claws
Badger claws
Bear teeth
...my teeth

Might trade it for something with the local natives

Heh, when we first bought our cabin parcel, we attended some native get togethers
An ol' boy had this washtub container of 'floating rocks'
All about the size of a man's hand
Wife and I bought one
$2.50
Quite the prize we thought
Got back to our property
Everywhere you look, there's 'floating rocks'
Just chunks of pumice

A lad up the path from the cabin has a rough forge situation
Makes crude knives
I traded antlers for this railroad spike creation

Mounted it

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Calling this Eye of Wood
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So, this morning, as I'm sipping coffee, warming the shop, I'm looking at this wood, looking at me



Glad I knocked off when I did yesterday
I'd totally miscalculated how many fence boards I'd need for the hutch project.
aaaand, I need to trim the frame a bit.......got too much in a hurry

So, today is regroup, go slow, think, scratch my hind end, rethink
Then trim/fit boards

Gonna crank up some ZZ Top
 
I'm glad to hear that Mrs. O' is hanging on to her collection of TMEN.

I had them all from the very first softcover edition and had to finally let them go.

I read and reread them so often that I more or less absorbed the information that they contained.
I used to get them too. Once, we made mead as per Mother's recipe... it's honey wine. My nurse friend got me some IV tube to vent the gas through the cork and into a glass of water. LOL!
 

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