Busy Day

This busy day actually started on Saturday, when I spent the day here stacking lumber that had come in during the Christmas season, but because I was focused on getting orders out on time I did not take the time to put the lumber away, just left it stacked on logs in the driveway and covered with tarps. This stack is a little over 500 board feet of fresh sawn white oak. I had another stack the same size of red oak, all in all I moved and stacked a bit over 3 tons of lumber. Green (fresh sawn) lumber is full of water and much heavier than the same lumber once it’s cured out.

After breakfast I went out to the lumber stacks to get a detailed count so I could receive it into inventory. This lumber will be ready to use in about 2 years. Before my breakfast break was spent doing the weekly bookkeeping preparations. I came in early (4:30 AM) to get a handle on the quarterly payroll taxes. I had everything ready for Marie’s review and signature before she left for the day, so it worked out well.

After inventorying the lumber I checked Mike’s walking stick; the finish was looking good so I mixed up a batch of epoxy glue and performed the final assembly. To be sure everything stayed tight while the glue set up I put a bar clamp on it, but with a light touch. No need for a lot of pressure, just enough to hold both ends in place. This stick is equipped with a convertible foot; it has a rubber foot for general purpose walking, but that screws off to expose a short steel spike for use when navigating snow and ice. I let the epoxy set up for a couple of hours, enough to get good and stiff, then inspected it and packed it into a shipping tube for delivery to Mike. Hope he likes it.

While the epoxy was setting up I sanded and oiled Karen’s bag handles. She chose to mail a check as payment, so I’ve been waiting for the check to arrive. The handles arte from on-hand stock, so the just needed sanding and oiling. I sanded them to 180 grit and applied the first coat of oil. It will take 4 coats to achieve the semi-gloss sheen she specified. We have plenty of time though because with personal checks we have to wait a week or so to allow the check to clear her bank before we can ship the order.

I filled out the morning by cleaning off the dock; rearranging the lumber shed and making room for another lumber stack resulted in a lit of odd bits being tossed on the dock for sorting and cutting up into firewood.

After lunch I started picking through the walnut planks I brought in last week for Gary’s cradle. I have some wonderfully wide planks of walnut – quite unusual really – that I’ve been saving for a special project. I guess this is it. I chunked it up into rough blanks and marked them for each of the pieces I’ll be making from them and stacked them next to the oak parts I’d done the same way last Friday. These will need to sit for a bit to be sure they aren’t going to have a tendency to warp after being cut.

I filled out the afternoon with some odd chores and small projects in the shop, then headed home. It’s been a long day already.
See you tomorrow.
Doug