Random Facts About You!.....# 52

I've been out setting utility poles at the site where my band has music festivals. Evidently, it was decided that the poles needed to be moved about two feet. They're poles for this huge structure we built over the area in front of the stage and running all the way back to the sound booth. That way it's all shaded. So we had to tear it all down and reset the poles. Now we have to put it all back together again.

Also stopped by the mill and rotated the Walnut I milled last weekend. It's drying nicely. So far, so good. No warping at all and only minimal checking on the ends. Can't wait until that stuff is dry. I look at that stuff and think....damn...that's perfect!

 

So a little while back, I brought home some smaller Walnut boards that I cut a long time ago and kind of forgot about in the kiln. They didn't dry very well and bowed in some spots. Just to see what it would look like, I cut out a section that was almost flat, planed the hell out of it and used a sander on what the planer wouldn't fix. It was actually quite a bit of work for one small piece of wood.

I was amused with the finished product but....it was only one small piece of wood. I'm not going to put that much effort into salvaging the rest of it so I wanted to think of something useful that I could make with just that piece alone. Then it came to me.....a Jenga game. I made a 40 piece game...all uniform and finish-sanded evenly by hand. Tomorrow I will stain it but we played it this evening. It worked perfectly. A Jenga game isn't hard to make at all with perfect materials but...if you start with what I started with and end up with 40 uniform pieces capable of playing that game with....pretty cool.

And I was able to take one small piece of twisted up wood that most people would have thrown away and create a fun game for the family. My wife and daughter are quite amused with it and we had fun.

 

That's really green of you, Wiz!

Now, what can you make out of the bowed pieces....?

 

Boat braces...

 

A camp fire!

Actually, I'm just going to hang on to them in case I want to cut some smaller pieces from them for something else later. They are bowed a bit but you can still do lots of stuff with them. For instance, you could cut strips from the straighter parts, glue them to similar pieces of a different colored wood and then turn that on the lathe for some interesting features. Or maybe you can use them for darker wood in a small checker pattern for something. So they aren't useless but they aren't good for building much with. It's mostly just because I forgot to take care of them in the kiln. That's why I'm going to build a smaller kiln at home. I can really stay on top of it that way with no traveling.

 

A checkerboard patterned cutting board or hot plate!

 

Sure. You can use it for lots of stuff like that. You can also use it for finer detail on other larger things. I'll hang on to it.

On a different note, I just got off the phone with my grandpas wife and she's pretty much on the bus with moving to my town....assuming she remembers the conversation. I don't think she's so bad that she won't at least remember with some prompting. She told me to make the case to grandpa when I see him this weekend. She doesn't like where they live now and has wanted to move for a while. She agreed.....if anyone is going to convince the old man to move....it will be me. He just brushes off what anyone else says. I don't know why but 5 different people can suggest the same thing 10 different ways and he'll ignore it all. I'll say the same thing one time and he'll say "You think so? Well, I'll be damned! That sounds like a good idea. Let's do that!" No idea why. Maybe he just likes me more.

 

That's cute that he likes it when you say it.

 

Honestly...he's an old guy from an old time and gender roles probably mean something different to him. I'm basically his only descendant. I have a brother but they haven't talked to each other for maybe 20 years. My brother is kind of childish with his ego and values. Too bad for him. It will be too late when he realizes his mistakes. I've tried to tell him plenty of times. He doesn't talk to our mom either.

 

So...Walnut Jenga...pre-stain. My wife wants it stained. Our daughter wants it left as it is. I'll let them debate it.

 

Tell your wife to leave it unstained and it will absorb the oils off the 3 of you.

 

let the wife stain them brown...


use your imagination


turn into a game to see how many she can stain at once lmao

 

Bbad!

 

I don't think she's into natural brown staining.

 

Although trees are important enough, this seems even more true in a metaphorical way. A great society can not continue if the people in it are mainly investing in things they harvest the fruits from and are less willing and thinking of investing in things that we ourselves will have nothing to benefit from, but only the people after us. In fact, we live in a great society (relative I suppose) for a large part because of the people before us.

 

utility poles for the stage?....we went another route lol....old tv towers....note the tie dyed stage drop and the peace sign flags atop....this is one of 2 bands setting up some gear....one band is 3 brothers from Collingwood Ontario....young guys that knew a shitload of material.....the other band was a bit more slick......

note the stage too...I helped build it but another stagehand buddy had all that gear in one of his barns

 

one of the dudes that played the party

he did all kinda old carl perkins and hank stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY0PRYFrV9g

 

One of the pagan festivals that was held at the pagan campgrounds had set up huge tarps to cover the lawn between the stage and the vendors. I don't know what they used for poles but it was super nice. I don't even remember if it was raining or not. That's how nice it was.

 

2 nights in a row now of decent sleep...i feel tons better than usual (except for the pollen headaches)