May 27, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 27, 2024, my peach tree in bloom.
Five years ago today: May 27, 2020, the same air.
Nine years ago today: May 27, 2016, [Unavailable]
Random years ago today: May 27, 2022, I’m no mechanic.

           Here’s two days output and it was a strain. My work area is comfortable. The moment you have to step outside, not so much. I cannot take five minutes of the blast furnace. I slated moving these twelve boxes for before 9:30AM which only helped a bit. This is the first day the boxes go on sale, so plenty can still go wrong. Business-wise, this is as close as we’ve ever gotten in this part of the world, so check back later. How’s this for a classic photo. Aren’t there supposed to be twelve boxes?

           Yep, but that is the process. One box had a small defect and was sent to re-work, another needs another cut on the neighbor’s saw but not this time of day, and the third Imy propane torch went dry. So let’s get going over here. It is now past 10:00AM. Three hours later I would be home flat on my sore back too exhausted to move. As often before, it was not the activity that got me, it was keeping it sustained for so long. (That explains the delay in today's posting, for any who ask.)

           I was in to the clinic to see about an MRI and it seems there may be a problem with my insurances. While in that part of town, I picked up supplies. Time for me to take inventory. I have produced 14 boxes. Twelve are at the swap meet, two are given away as samples. Five trips for supplies has put 104.7 miles on the work van, as the Hyundai is to be written down. I bought propane which is now over $6 per canister, so I may track that. Payday is at the end of the month plus four days, that’s next Wednesday. The deal is I get paid my share for all that are not there to count on that day.

           There is enough lumber to built eight more boxes, including all supplies except glue. I’m switching to Titebond because the buttjoints are end-grain. On the return leg, I stopped at Catfish County for the lunch special. Could not finish it. I also found some rare 150W bulbs for the work station at the Thrift. While there, I saw a windless wind chime. Nobody knew how it worked so I showed them. Sadly, all the adhesive had deteriorated.

           So what can we find to write about on this nothing day in May, 2025? There’s not many choices, but I did have fun playing rich kid for an hour. That’s where I worked because I felt like it and could not for the life of me see what the big problem was for other people, the way they complain and always want more money. Why can’t they all be nice like me? Of course, I have no rent to pay, no payments, and the wolf is not at the door, but that’s not my own fault others don’t have it all. Yep, rich kid. I built a couple boxes passing by the shed for something to do. After 40 minutes, I quit for the day, make a cup of hot cocoa, and slept half the afternoon. Rich kid.
           Here’s the three boxes I made. The design is still evolving but most of the features are now standardized. I’m about the point where small improvements here and there are offset by other inefficiencies. Thusforth, what you see here is pretty much a final product. A side effect is the accumulation of seconds, that is, boxes with some defect that I keep here. This means I have just as much junk in my shed as the next guy, but mine is so neatly organized in nice boxes.

Picture of the day.
Wrecks at Scapa Flow.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           After siesta, we teamed up at the neighbor’s to watch the second half of “The Big Trail”, having run out of good Festus re-runs. I don’t care of old B&W movies, I’m more of a CinemaScope kind of guy. But we both instantly recognized the scene with the Snake River canyon, so we looked up data on the story. Indeed, it was one of the first filmed on location. The desert is just the coast rain shadow. It says the film was from 1930, when John Wayne was 23, a football player who could not act. So that means I watched a movie that was 95 years old. I see now it was real ground-breaking work for the time, even if the acting was barely adequate.

           On the way back I got caught in a downpour. I stayed in the shed watching the water, as my habit of only really working in the shed when it is nice could change. Carefully looking at every corner, I found numerous leaks I’d otherwise ignore. The reality is the white shed needs a whole new roof. Confirming none of the tools would get wet, I repaied a a few boxes, part of my growing collection of rejects. I keep those for shop use. Here is a box being clamped because or wood cupping and another just missing staples.

           I have a prescription for another MRI, once again running into the problem of finding a place that accepts my insurance. The old Obamacare lie of “you can keep your doctor” rears up again. The first try was my old motorcycle clinic, to discover Big Loretta left shortly after my appointments ended. My system has adapted to the new “arthritis” medicine and I still get slowed down at times. The connection here is the boxes are all build continually standing up and walking around. The good news is, although it would slow me down, that could be remedied with a couple work stools. The two main processes are the cutting and assembly which are separated by a narrow corridor.

           The power tools were placed in the safest and driest positions, as there was no work flow to consider in the early days. What am I considering to speed things up? There are several presumptions in play here. One is that if this box sells at one location, it will sell at others. Another is that if anything else is built, its basic shape will be that of a box. I have two chop saws and the box requires two cuts of two boards each. Right now I cut and mark each individually.
           The bottleneck now is the need to cut and custom fit those bottom panels, if you examine the video you can see me tapping these into place as the final construction stage. Often slight variations mean that final piece has to be shaped using the hand power-plane with the piece clamped in a vise. I have a third chop saw and some other tools in Tennessee which are returning here next trip. That one has a precision setting which I have high hopes for.

Last Laugh