woodworking, etc

It has taken me about a year since retiring to finally "settle in" to being retired and living on South Padre Island. In the grand scheme of things, that doesn't seem like a really long period of time. I take things slowly. Don't try to do too much at once. Why rush things?

Finally, I got the garage in shape. Well, mostly. There is still a lot to do, but I finally have a good workbench and a couple of sawhorses. There are several more "things" I want to get for the garage, like different types of saws, but I have enough "stuff" to do a few things. 

So, one of the very first projects was to make a wedging table for the wife. She likes to do pottery, and a wedging table is where she works the clay until it's ready for forming and/or firing. She's been using a rickety folding table and it hadn't been working.

So, finally, I got around to building a wedging table. I used leftover materials, except for the wood screws and wood glue. The garage is half full of leftover wood from other projects around the house, so I used 3/4" plywood for the top, 2x4 wood for the underskirt and 4x4 pieces for the legs. Very basic. No lower shelf. One thing at a time.

After the table was built, we stretched a piece of dropcloth canvas over the top and stapled it into place. The canvas on top helps to absorb moisture in the clay. She's used it a couple of times now and says it's perfect. This is the first woodworking project I've done in years and years. Decades, even. But it's a great feeling to build something that actually works well for its intended purpose. 

Another thing we finally got around to doing was moving an upright piano from the wife's sister's house to the island. Got it moved last week and a piano tuner will be coming to the house next week to give it its first tune-up in probably 40 years. The thing was built in 1965 and was tuned a few times until the 1970's and then it just sat. Hopefully it is tuneable. Can't wait for that thing to be in tune.

It's sitting up against one of the two large, west-facing windows to look out to the bay.

Finally, I ordered two hammock stands to hold a couple of our hammocks. They will be awesome on the breezeway, but they are also portable so I can put them in the lot, or move them to the backyard, or even take them to the beach. 

Things are FINALLY coming together. Now, I suppose a hurricane will hit this summer and blow everything away!