Come to fruition

 What to do what to do......life is tough when the world is your oyster. Some may say that living in the country you limit your access to various things. I disagree. Perhaps in a rural school you don't have enough bodies to do a huge number of  non mainstream sports and arts programs. I will grant you that. But in a rural school you do have all the mainstream sports and arts programs, with the added benefit that if at 16 you want to start a sport (with perhaps the exception of hockey) they welcome you with open arms. Especially if you are athletic and driven.

 Jeff loves Volleyball, but he has always longed for the opportunity to channel his inner beast.Volleyball, although requiring its own set of tremendous athletics, is a game that requires a very strong mental game and not much latitude on the allowance of celebration and physicality. More specifically you can celebrate but when you do, you cannot look at your opponent, no (official) talking to the opponent, no touching your opponent.

 So to say it was a departure is an understatement but not a surprise to me. It was much to the chagrin of his mother of course....that Jeff REALLY wanted to play Rugby.  Being from a rural school this means he has the opportunity. It's everything Volleyball is not. Running, tackling, verbal, and physical with your opponent. And not to my surprise...Jeff is excelling at it and loves playing. And I will gladly stand in the rain and cold windy weather to watch the smile on his face at the end of a game. Just like Anna and her dance, the look of satisfaction and contentment in who they are and what they are doing is worth every moment as a parent.

 But not every day is spent watching the kids and their endeavors. There come days where there is nothing on the docket. No lawn to mow, no wood to split, no dishes to do(cause I did them already). So I get to brew a pot of coffee, turn on classical music and play in my work shop, made only better when it's cold and raining outside cause that removes guilt as well!

On today's wish list is the pull out pantry. I have in my mind what I want  after researching pre-made pull out pantry designs from companies like Richelieu. I decided that for a fraction of the cost....but perhaps a significant more amount of time, I could make my own. Using 5/8" Baltic birch plywood I constructed the overall skeleton or framework.














Then moving to a 1/2" Birch ply, I made a couple of movable shelves with a sturdy shelf base rebated into the sides and end.

The test fit was trial by error. Meaning , where I put the shelves was decide by the arm load of groceries I stole from the house to see what room we needed. Cereal, Kraft dinner, spaghetti sauce, peanut butter....you know the basics!After a coat or two of tung oil things are looking pretty good.

 And they are moving just the way they should. The good news is my vision of the pantry seems to have come to fruition, but because of my unconventional design the heavy duty slides pose a problem at the final install stage of the install....but I have a plan. Fingers crossed!