Plant Racks Part Two.

 Personal Updates  No Responses »
Oct 012017
 

Last year we made some racks for the Hosta prison (and for the porch) to keep the pots off the ground. Last weekend I replanted a hundred trees and with in 2 days squirrel had already made a freaking mess digging in the pots.

So it was time to assemble some more racks.

I love making projects like this using scrap lumber. I picked up a ton of scrap wood from a friends shop a few months ago and got the 2x4s from the scrap cutoffs pile at a local construction site.

Day one – Cut

Day two – Assemble

Day three – Stain

Plans:

Adaptable Messenger Bag Design – The Brown Bags Project

 Making Stuff, Personal Updates, Sewing  No Responses »
Sep 242017
 

Over the last few weeks stress has been high and I’ve gone looking for some of my old outlets for all that excess mental energy. Woodworking is probably my favorite, but sadly right now there is simply no space for that. Next would be sewing.

 

Brown bags project is now “mostly” complete!

(may add Pencott Badlands and some more Realtree options)
The bags are my standard Adaptable Messenger Bag design. In this case with the “office” internal design. And a removable carry lid (lid adds a grab-n-go handle, something the original design is missing).

The bag itself is pretty large, designed to carry my 17″ laptop. The front zippered pocket holds a file folder, pens, paper, flashlight, multi-tool, razor knife, spare mag and misc hygiene kit. The main pocket has a laptop \ file folder pocket. And two large divider pockets on the rear (holds a portable drive, battery backup, and a pair of gloves). The opposite side has three large pleated pockets with drawstring closures (holds glasses, body-spray, 2 pairs of flex-cuffs, first aid / boo-boo-kit, misc chargers, tools, and thumb drives). The lid has three zippered pockets and mainly holds small items (spare batteries, etc).

These bags are built like tanks! They are overbuilt in everyway possible. Yet, they are quite clean design-wise.

Color \ Pattern options in this build.

The brown part of this project includes 6 coyote brown, 2 Multicam (one with coyote accents, one with Multicam accents), 1 in Realtree Advantage Timber, 1 in Realtree Advantage Classic, 1 in Atacs (classic). The green part of the project is still on hold.

The Multicam bags are amazing looking, but honestly a little useless in the forest around here. Since they are intended to carry work home and back that shouldn’t be to much of a problem.

Why so many bags?

Originally the project started as a set of car kits. A grab and go bag I could keep in the car\Tahoe containing seasonally appropriate supplies. I like having a change of clothing, emergency supplies, gloves, etc. Coyote bag for fall\winter, camo green for spring/summer. 3 cars x 2 seasons, then I decided to expand the project to include a few EDC bags, then it continued to grow and suddenly it got out of control.

Out of control or not, I’m really happy with how it is coming along. A new pattern for every day of the week, hah.

Well onto the pictures, here ya go!

Trees, lots-o-trees

 Personal Updates  No Responses »
Sep 172017
 

When I moved into this house there were some wonderful trees growing around the property. Trees may be an overstatement, more like large bushes. They are a type of Euonymus, though I’m not sure of the exact species. Very similar to Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus), but without winged bark. They are a great privacy bush and mature plant’s leaves turn bright red in the fall.

They produce copious berries in the fall and seed well. We have hundreds of them popping up all over the woods around the existing bushes. Sadly they never get more than a few inches tall and are easily choked out by other plants or become feed for the assorted animals that forage in our yard.

Last year we dug up about 130 seedlings from around the yard and potted them up in small pots.

As its getting to fall again they were replanted in bigger pots this year (not really necessary yet, but they will have a better chance of overwintering in bigger pots). While they are extremely slow growers they have done a lot better in pots then they would have in the woodland. Our goal is to plant a privacy hedge in the front. I suspect they will be plantable sized in perhaps another 2-3 years.

Re-potted Plants

Adult Euonymus Trees

Driveway Madness! 60 Tons of Parking.

 Making Stuff, Personal Updates, Yard Work  No Responses »
Sep 172016
 

One problem in this old house is we have had a lack of parking, particularly in the winter months.

Plus, year round I have a Tahoe that gets parked on the lawn killing the grass (well weeds really). When the grass dies it turns into mud, when it rains the mud washes away and the cycle begins again. This is one of the many fun things you learn about when you live on the side of a mountain. Or as the locals say “in them there hills.”

What’s more, my secondary access driveway has started overgrowing with weeds again. And the 5 truckloads of shredded tree we used to keep it driveable has broken down enough that heavy rains are now washing it away yard by yard. Clearly, something needs to be done.

So one morning while leaving for work and thinking about the fact that they are grinding up the local Rt. 340 I gots me an idear. A few phone calls later I had scheduled 20 tons of asphalt millings on the way. 20 tons seems like enough to cover a little driveway and cover a landing for parking. Heck, if anything I may have too much. Well if you’re not on the side of a mountain that’s probably correct! But I wanted to level the landing and suddenly it needs to be 20 inches deep on one side. And that access driveway could be wider, so we leveled a slightly larger area and before you know it 40 tons is not nearly enough. As a matter of fact, as I type this another shipment is trucking its way to me!

Incomplete Asphalt Millings Parking Area: Before and After
Asphalt Millings Parking Area

Incomplete Asphalt Millings Driveway: Before and After
Asphalt Millings Drive Way

More Pictures from the Job:

Porch \ Yard Plant Racks

 Making Stuff, Wood Working, Yard Work  No Responses »
Jul 062016
 
Racks Stacked and Waiting for Paint.

While driving home a week ago I saw that my buddies work was throwing out a bunch of wood scraps. Mostly bits of plywood that are too small for them to use, but still big enough for a project so I loaded up the old Tahoe with what I could.

I always have woodworking projects waiting for me at home, so I figured it would be used up quickly. Turns out I was right.

We always have a lot of plants on the porch, hostas, peppers, etc. The problem is the pots ruin the deck and stain the wood. Plus its best to have the pots raised for better air flow and drainage so I have often built racks to keep the plants off the deck.

We have some racks I made a few years ago but they are looking ratty and are in need of replacement. Also, in the hosta prison the ground is not completely level and the pots occasionally fall with the help of squirrels looking for places to hide food.

PlantShelf

Seems like a good project for all this free wood. I drew out a plan to make the best use of the wood I had on hand and got to cutting. In the unlikely event that anyone wants to make a few the plans (drawings) are included below.

Jess helped me staple them all together and it took two weekends to get them painted (2 days of drying between coats).

I was going for a “moss” colored paint, but I’m pretty new to tinting paint so it came out a bit lighter then I had hoped.

We ended up making seven racks, and perhaps if I see more scrap wood I’ll make another seven.

I think they came out pretty good, don’t you?

-Brian

4th of July, 2016

 Everything Else, Making Stuff  No Responses »
Jul 042016
 
Bottle Rocket Racks

Another 4th of July has come and passed. This one brought with it a lot of fun little projects and new accomplishments.

This was also the first year that I have ever been able to legally buy flying fireworks in a state that I live in. Woohoo! About time.

I may be the worlds only bottle rocket enthusiast!

…A connoisseur of fine Chinese gunpowder.

So now that bottle rockets are finally legal I ordered up a few cases and we went a little crazy. For the last few weeks, we have been flying bottle rockets whenever time permits (even when time doesn’t permit, lol). This weekend we made up some nice little racks to fuse up a few hundred at a time and let them rip. I even dug out the old Crackerjacks tested bottle rocket racks (angry hornets nests. …because the rockets… oh never mind).

Jess and her firecrackers

Jess and Fwub with a big Firecracker

As you probably already know Jess is a fan of firecrackers so I ordered up a case of 28,000 crackers, and at the fireworks stand they had this really cool pack of 8,000 firecrackers so we had to pick that up also. Jess made a few impressive celebration strings that had the neighbors hooting and hollering for more.

Holly crap did we make a big mess.

The big finale this year was one of Jess’s cracker piles with 20 or so fountains fast fuses all around the fire pit. Somehow none of the fountains lit (Doh!) but the crackers went off with a bang (sorry.. how about they were a blast? .. wait where’s everyone going..)

All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good fourth!

Hope yours was a huge success also!

-Brian

Need a fire pit!

 Personal Updates, Yard Work  No Responses »
Mar 272016
 

Level Three of the Paverstone Fire Pit

Paverstone Fire Pit

Almost every year we have a guy come to our house and pressure wash the decks and handle whatever laborious tasks are on the to-do list that day. Among the endless list of to-do-work was to build a fire pit out of paverstone retaining wall stones.

That morning I called in an order to Home Depot, gave a drawing and some instructions to our friend, and headed off to work. When I arrived home a nifty, kind of falling over fire pit greeted me in the yard. The leveling was subpar and therefore the pit was a bit shaky. So Saturday morning I disassembled it and reconstructed it to be a bit more to my original plan, I also shrunk it by a couple of inches because 42-Inches is HUGE and I just want to burn yard waste and make smores.

After finishing up I opted to put a ring around the pit so that the dead zone (area of the grass killed by the heat) would not look so ugly. So another trip to Home Depot. They did not have anything that would cleanly make a ring around the pit but I hacked together a ring out of the wall capstones, its “ehh..” but can be replaced later.

I think it came out pretty nice, sure my Dad who is a stone mason will chuckle at this, but he is welcome to come down and show me how to do it right anytime…hint, hint!

We will forever miss the Fe.

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Aug 302014
 

Fe! in the yard (2011) - [3 of 6]

Fe! in the yard (2011)

Today marks the passing of one of my best friends Fe.

She was a great dog.

Her energetic dispossession and smiling face will never be forgotten. Fe was given the nickname “Fe-face” due to her complete lack of respect for personal space. She was literally always in your face. In retrospect, this was one of her most adorable qualities.

Fe suffered a long battle with epileptic seizures and the unfortunate side effects of the medications. Despite all of this she was always in good spirits, rambunctious and sometimes a bit mischievous. While she was more than smart enough to learn the house rules she seemed to spend most of her time finding loopholes.

This morning she was unable to fight anymore and passed to the other side.

She was unquestionably one of the most important “people” in my life. It’s painful to see her go but I’m thankful that she will feel no more pain and for the time we had together.

The DOGE floor!

 Making Stuff, Painting, Personal Updates  No Responses »
Jul 042014
 

We’ve worked hard for years to find a comfortable bed that Fe! will not trash in an instant. Unfortunately, it seems that no matter how strong the materials she managed to claw through them if given enough time.

The most recent design features a plywood frame with a 1.5-Inch memory foam covered with 3 (or more) layers of 100D Cordura nylon. This has proved to be a workable solution though it needs to be reupholstered every few weeks/months.

So I think its time for a more long-lasting solution. My best idea, a hardwood floor. Well, actually a Pine floor to start, we will upgrade to Oak if she gets through it.

Because I wanted it to look at least as good as the old bed I opted for painting it and giving it an internet-themed “DOGE” paint job.  The pictures below are after the pain work was completed, but before polyurethane was applied.

What do you think?

My Little Pony Office Supply Cabinet

 Making Stuff, Painting, Personal Updates, Refurbishing Stuff  No Responses »
Dec 212013
 
My Little Pony Cabinet after Stenciling

My Little Pony Cabinet after Stenciling

At work last summer we decided to toss this old grungy cabinet that was once a table for the fax machine. This thing was nasty, but it was a metal cabinet so I took it home and added it to my “to do” list of projects.

Just before it got cold I gave it a good sanding and a few coats of paint. Berry Pink, or so the can said. It’s a bright bubble-gum pink with a good gloss. I hired an artist to convert some sketches into a cut-able vector graphic.

Unfortunately, it then got cold, very cold. So it’s been sitting, just waiting for me to find time to finish it up.

Perhaps it’s a freaking Christmas miracle but its 65F outside today so we fired up the old vinyl cutter. After an hour of Jess and I trying to pick what and where we carefully applied the paint-mask and taped it up real good. The metal has a nice “rolled” textured surface which made the masking all but impossible and unfortunately a lot of bleed through occurred. When the paint sets I’ll go over all of the lines by hand to clean it up.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that I will get another warm weekend for a while and there is a lot of work left to do.

The mane and tail are going to get a coat of sparkly purple paint and then a few coats of clear-coat. Then I have some lights to install inside and we are tossing around the idea of a purple shag “ceiling” just to push it over the top!

What do ya think?

Before anyone asks; I’ve not yet seen the show, but the design here was partly inspired by Eric, Jess’s sister’s son who is a fan and posts a lot of pictures to his facebook.

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