One year ago today: March 14, 2024, mild legalese.
Five years ago today: March 14, 2020, art appreciation.
Nine years ago today: March 14, 2016, another near-miss.
Random years ago today: March 14, 2007, sigh, the bowling alley no-go.
My VPN thinks I’m in Yuba-Sutter, Oregon. Up to the sounds of some very contented birdies, we are off to the south end get some lumber on sale, coffee first. It’s a glorious morning and I have to spend it buying supplies. That Trump, he’s a cunning businessman. He’s maneuvered the Democrats to where there usual threat of a government shutdown will accelerate their downfall. And all using what Trump does best, that is, control the money supply. With cold hard cash, we see where the true loyalties lie among the enemy. Now that was a good coffee.
The photo I wanted to show you got accidentally deleted (a Panasonic trademark) but remember those old toy wag needle multimeters from the Frenchie swap meet. The ones useless for anything more than detecting a varying signal? Well, they are for sale at the lumber yard for $27.88 each. Shown here is the $32 in lumber that will fix half my kitchen. They had regular treated but these are special ground-contact. I paid the extra $3 each. I found a source of bolts for half-price, the trade-off today is just buying this lumber and loading the van put me at my limit, despite ten wonderful hours of deep and restful sleep.
Here’s a better view of the yaki-sugi work in progress. This is over unplaned lumber and it still brings out the grain pattern. I’m experimenting here and like the results. I stained a the smaller box in this photo later to see how it works on smoother wood. The articles say this was used by the Japanese to preserve wood. It’s another aspect of building these boxes that is plain fun. I will take regular breaks tomorrow and see about finishing some of the box interiors with this method and promise to get you some pictures.
It seems impossible to get a selling account set up without a phone number, and it has to be a smart phone. The Reb to the rescue again, it is a wonderful thing having somebody that is 100% trustworthy on your side. The more so because the American system is set up to take advantage of the fact most people do not. I haven’t provided her the details yet, but she is much more amenable to selling than investing, kind of the counterpart of myself.
Having said that, I’m the one who watches the books and I foresee a future where an Internet side-hustle becomes less of an option and more of a standard. My advice is you do it if only to become aware of what a headache they have turned that into. You should know it before the day when you may have to. Beware if you DON’T get the runaround, it just means they’ve already got you on file. The Internet is far more concerned with your vitals (name, birthdate, bank account) than in providing you with any service or convenience. I have an established system to deal with all of this, most people do not.
Rabbit Hash general store.
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Here I am conquering the world and I need an afternoon nap. I also found some excellent scrap lumber. You have not really seen the accuracy to which I cost items, but I know to the third decimal point. The best startups are those that pay meticulous attention to detail. I cannot find anyone with an Etsy account, much less anyone who wants to share. Am I once again on my own? I’ve mapped out five articles I can build for cheap, and a list of the required tools and inventory. Storage and packing space must all be allocated. And I just know Etsy has some surprise they ain’t tellin’.
Here's one of the smaller boxes from weathered lumber. I decided I had the energy after all, and I got to applying the poly finish. You can see the boxes beginning to pile up in the photo, these are the design I’m looking to market—a process that is far from the “instant setup” the purveyor class of Internet liars would have you believe. Oh, that’s right. They were raised around it and don’t consider it lying, pardon me. The “free download” bunch.
I parked the van across the front of the house to block the view of the removed siding. This town has not gotten any better for nosy building inspectors whose real job is to enrich their contractor buddies—but only in the White parts of town. I didn’t unload the van, I was too near the coffee maker for that. Admittedly, I can’t keep up the pace these pics and paragraphs may suggest, rather my work is well-interspersed with breaks of lighter duty. That means I was able to sort out some excellent raw pallet lumber that I know will take this yaki-suki finish well.
You know what a fake-out carpentry website is? Where the guy tells you something is easy and demonstrates it on his $35,000 worth of shop tools. The one tool that epitomizes that to me is the wide belt sander. Have you seen the prices on those suckers?
ADDENDUM
We now have eBay experience and know that is not what we want. Here, in any order, are my thoughts on how to get a laser cutter. (The cutter will also emboss, etch, and label.) There are several people collecting pallets, but I could handily dominate the market by offering them 50ȼ to save them for me. Both on-line and in person I find no evidence that any of the local unsophisticates, even if they have a web account, know much about operating it at a profit. These are the three recent projects that got my attention. I am a fan, incidentally, of the Bearded Viking, the “adda-dabba-glue” guy. The prices reveal something I ran up against when I was only 8 years of age.
That was how, no matter how hard you worked, you could never compete with others who did not have to make a living at it. Now the roles are reversed, I’m the one that doesn’t have to pay the bills. Instead of working to survive, I can work to get ahead. And it sure took long enough.
To recap, I have a complete setup to dismantle and clean pallets. Plenty of sheltered lumber storage and all the tools needed, although I have a planer and a proper router table and such on my wish list. I see that shipping charges as high as $55 are not uncommon, shopping habits have really changed behind my back. Check with me in a week, I have a floor to fix.
ADDENDUM
Downtown for some more 2x6s found me just a mile from Kooter’s. I dropped in for a couple on Karaoke night. It was dead except for one noisy table. Brian got me up to sing “Folsom” and “Guitars, Cadillacs” which contrasted nicely to the mournful dirges. My prepared and rehearsed stage show has a lot of polish and this lady gets up, facing me singing with her back to the audience and proceeds to peel off her top. You know, for fifty-some years old, Brian and I agreed, they were not that bad.
As for the lady, I’ll stick with hauling 2x6s.
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