Assembly

Finally, the chairs are no longer piles of parts cluttering up the workshop. I was able to dry fit them and then sand everything down, and yesterday I started gluing up the sides. Kind of stressful getting the right amount of glue in quickly enough. Got them pinned too. Fun to cut out the dowels with the new dowel cutter, although it's already getting dull. The posts seem to have shifted a bit as I am seeing gaps where I don't think there were gaps before even after all that drying time, but oh well. Not going for perfection here. 

Naomi had a busy week with a graduation dinner and a French party. She also spent some time exploring other options at NMU as she doesn't want to deal with her Trumpey boss more than necessary. It seems that the college of business has interest in her teaching skills, and although the topics are not her first choice, it could be a really good option for her. The colleagues would be much more professional, she could have more of a potential impact than teaching in other fields, and less time behind a desk would be a huge plus for her, not to mention a big raise. 

Looking forward to the birthday week! Naomi's first celebration is tomorrow, with my parents. Then the big day itself on Wednesday, followed by another party next weekend. All very exciting. Finally getting into the beginning of spring and the end of mud season. Still a snowbank in front though. No crocus yet at our house, but some at the girl's school and at my parents. Found a couple doors on clearance, so I picked them up and strapped them to the top of the car. Luckily I bumped into a friend at the checkout who was able to help me lift them up. All that glass is heavy!

Dad's birthday dinner, Easter dinner, and a great Easter fire!

Puddles are so fun.

Greenhouse door.

Garage door.

It fits!

New dowel making bits.

Both bases together.

The Lathe

Abigail and I had a lot of fun with the lathe this week! I still don't have one, so we went over to Neighbor Rick's shop. Abigail and I made a mallet for hitting chisels with out of a chunk of firewood. The next day I made some pins for the chairs I am working on. It will be good to get a lathe someday.

The girls had a half day on Wednesday and Friday was free, so on Friday my mom came up to get them. Naomi and I will head down to celebrate my dad's birthday and Easter. Hopefully we can have a big Easter fire! My dad has a big enough brush pile. 

Got the mortise and tenon joints all sized for the body of the chair. Time to start sanding. I want to finish these up as quickly as possible because the weather will transition out of mud season soon, and then I want to start working outside. It's a really time intensive build. Fun to work on and practice some new skills, though! 

Breakfast in bed!

Couldn't find a better dust mask.

Lots of sanding.

She even got a coat of oil on afterwards.

Window frame scraps from the NL.

Ready to be removed.

Wet Feet

Our snow is just about gone, so we figured it would be a good time to check out the melt on our land with our friends. Didn't seem like there was much more snow out there this year. But somehow there was! The road still had a foot or two. It was crusty on top, so we could walk okay, until we broke through. This happened regularly and lots of hikers lost boots, had to dig them out, and got wet feet. It was an adventure. Mostly fun. 

The girls had an art show at school on Friday. It was great to see what they made. Also impressive to see the artwork that the teachers put together! What a cool school. 

Made some progress on the chairs this week. Really slow going. The mortising setup is not working the best. Constant readjustments. Trying to get as far as I can before the weather warms up enough to get started on outside projects. What's left of the tomatoes made it out for the first time. Not sure why I can't get them to start here. It was so easy in the NL!

Great artwork!

Lots of fine tuning.

Bad news.

Beeswax.

Finished filtering and jarring.

Amélie's pattern.

Lots to explore.

Honey, Honey?

We started the week off with another snow storm! No school on Monday, so a bit longer 'spring' break for the girls! Grammie and Grampie were here so that timing worked well. They came up to get a new car, before the prices jumped! Somehow it was cheaper to get one here in Marquette than in the Fox Valley. That must be a first. My mom is really happy with it so far!

I built a new wood rack for the crawlspace which is a huge improvement. Now the workshop is cleaned up, organized, and where I want it to be for a while. Started working on the Morris chairs. Big project. The ash is looking good so far. I have some of the thicker stuff placed not far from the stove pipe just to be sure it doesn't crack or move any more, but moisture levels are good. 

Yesterday we opened up the beehive. Definitely no signs of life in there. Lots of honey though! More than we expected. Working on filtering it today. Need to buy some jars as we haven't saved up enough. Left a good amount in there for the new bees that are slated to arrive at the end of the month. They are hybrids, bred to have a better chance of making it through the winter. Hopefully they will!

The disappearing pizza oven.

New car day!

Collecting more greenhouse materials.

Ash that my dad and I sawed up.

More materials for the Morris chairs.

Amélie cleaned up!

Protests in MQT.

Another walk by the lake.

It was windy!

Thought it was mold at first, but it was wax.

Lots of honey!