CRIB

March 16, 2020 was the date....I don't think I blogged it until a month later in April but, that was when our world started shutting down. That was the weekend that my brother and family came for a visit that got modified because of CoVid. Unfortunate for them but great for us....me in particular. On that trip Shawn and Adele helped design the cribbage crib, as I like to call it, for the bus.

                                             

This is a crude screen shot of the 3D modeling that they did

                    

And this is how it all turned out

This side is the metal inlay with acrylic top

                                        

And this side is the crib board....yet to be used for the first time.....perhaps soon??

Of course no matter how much I plan, there always seems to be some snag, as Robert Burns said, "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men". I designed one of the crib cabinets to house the subwoofer and also the crib table. Everything looked great until....

it seems I forgot to account for the retention pin knob. The only way the table will fit into the cabinet is to remove the knob and pin prior to stowing it away, and THAT will never work for me.

 But thankfully I was able to  trace the path of the knob placement on the table, then using a  forstner bit and the router to create an insertion channel. This is not the finished product but already allows the table to be stored, in its entirety, in the designated area as originally designed. 

A series of firsts

Another day another first. After some contemplation I decided to get some work done on the bug(stereo) and I maaaaaaayyy have had a little mishap with the buses rear view camera which required a trip into Calgary to see the professionals at ARA automotive accessories  Thankfully they could take care of both issues on the same day. I just had to get both vehicles to them. It would be the first time to test the whole tow-car concept. I must say it worked like a charm!

 

Oddly enough, not to far away I came across a GF brewery that has some delicious wares to sample. First one in western Canada, and a first time for me being there. Good thing Fillmore has a fridge!

Shortly after, we got the kids ready for their first time "alone" in the back country. I give the quotation marks because they have been camping, they have been alone(without parental units) and they have been in the back country. But they have never had the trifecta. It was a first for them.

So the three amigos set out hiking and camping on an envious quest.

So Michelle and I got inspired and shortly after dropping the kids at the trail head we packed up Fillmore and headed out on an adventure of our own. We hit spray lake for a little kayaking. Once we got there we explored the campground and found an open site to which we slipped into.

It was another first for us, I may not elect to drive Fillmore down those roads again, but I would definitely go back to that lake!! 

A little here a little there

All of us just want to get out for a little fresh air and exercise. A week or two ago we hiked prairie link, a section of what we rightly or wrongly called powderface trail for many years. None the less it was a beautiful day with some great friends......and Fillmore of course.

Alberta has a lot of things to offer, beautiful mountains, glacier fed rivers and lakes, but warm hunid nights are not on the list off assets. So being from Manitoba where you can sit outside on a patio until the wee hours of the night is not an option unless you bring layers of fleece and down. So I decided that we needed a fire table to extend the comfortable evenings on our deck. After some research and going to the showroom, I decided I could build a fire table. Michelles dad was here and we cut down an old Oak wine barrel formally used as a rain barrel for the base, then I constructed a temporary fire pan and table top. Well the prototype fell short of a few key elements. The base was perfect, but my fire pan was flimsy and my table top was...well....combustible. Not good qualities when your talking about a table with open flames and heat for hours. So with some cajoling motivation from my baby brother, i decided to pour a concrete table top.

Jeff and I made the form from 1"  wall foam board. 

In an effort to keep the table top thin(and therefor as lite as possible) I used a specialty concrete with shredded fiberglass fibers in the mix. We spent a lot of time vibrating the pour to make the surface as smooth as possible.

It was our first time doing this but we were happy with how it turned out.

                        

After some sanding and de burring, the surface finish was smooth enough I dont even feel like we need to make a slurry to fill holes

I can see many a late nights by the table coming up....

Savor the moment

Simply put life is short. We should live each day like there will be no more tomorrows. Its a cliché but its true. It's not like the world is going to end  tomorrow (although the pandemic makes us think so) but there will never be another today. You will never meet the same person in the same place, with the same state of mind.....so savor the moment!

Anna went out with her buds on Canada Day a few weeks back and they did just that, they laughed and loved and goofed around. Anna's girlfriend Poppy(@wildpoppy.photography )is a very talented photographer who was part of the gang and she captured the spirit of the day.

So much love....so few words....

While I live vicariously through the kids I do manage to get a little something done here and there. This is some trim for the counter in the galley kitchen. Been a long time coming, but the time is right.

While I play with shiny metal, Jeff undertook a job of redoing the exhaust system on his buddy Pete's car with slightly less clean shiny metal. Enlisting the help of Pete and Anna, music blaring, it did my heart good to see the three of them achieving a pretty darn good job.

My trim turned out well as well! Now on to the other side!

Just like I am savoring the moments with the kids, Michelle and I are savoring the opportunity to get out and see our own back yard as well, Nihani Ridge....

And some good together time on Prairie Mountain!

The back of the bus is turning out to be the place to be these days, we even installed the artwork!!

Beauty

After the discovery of the warping of the crib table I needed time to process the problem. I needed to figure out what went wrong and what ,if anything, could I do differently. So in my way, I put the problem on the shelf, on the proverbial back burner to let it simmer and reduce the issue to a smaller more manageable issue. What better way to mull things over than to sit in the screened in porch with a hot cup of joe and ponder.

 

Really it a wonderful way to pass an hour....but I can't sit still for much more than that. Thank fully I had another shared project with my lovely daughter. You may remember a previous post where Anna and I milled some slabs from Applewood from a tree limb that came from her grandparents house

Well, we worked away at making a jewelry box, a little keepsake that she will have , that no one, no where in the world will have.

A beautiful little piece, she did fantastic!

Oh the horror!

So not to long ago I did the final step on the cribbage table and was quite happy (and apparently prematurely proud) of how well it turned out. It wasn't until I was getting ready to mount the table into the bus that it became apparent I had a problem. I mounted the table on a test piece to mimic the bus wall and the faux wall of the cribbage nook to ensure I had adequate space for the table top to rotate. As I stood back to admire my work......I saw it.....something wasn't flush. I felt a warming in my neck and face as my breathing shallowed and quickened.

 The front isle side corner of the table has warped up.

I employed my usual stress management technique and packed it up an put it away for a few days. I was heartbroken that I had come so far only to be thwarted in the final stages. I spent time on the phone talking with experts trying to figure out what I did wrong. As Alexander Pope said "to err is human, to forgive divine" Knowing your mistakes helps you learn, if you refuse to acknowledge mistakes then you can never forgive yourself and you will never learn from them.

After replaying the steps I had taken I made two seemingly small but vital errors. When laminating the table top I was focused more on the aesthetics of the top rather than the direction of the end grain. As such one board was faced opposite to what it should have been and as such would be more prone to cupping. Second is my stress reaction when I did the acrylic pour.  I had a small leak, and I panicked. When I discovered the leak I had visions of the whole project being ruined. The only variable I could change at that point was the ambient room temperature. Naively thinking it would speed up the setting process and stop the leak, I cranked the room temperature to close to 27C. The whole issue with acrylic pours is controlling the heat so you don't get excessive contraction shrinkage, the ideal temp to cure is 18C. By upping the room temp I sealed my fate and I caused the warping .

I've got about a 3/16 variance of the table. Both Michelle and Anna say lust leave it......but I'm pretty sure I can't live with that....Now to explore my options to remedy the mistake.

Grad 2020 Style

Where has the time gone? It seemed like just a few short years ago these kids were born and, as my parents, my inlaws and friends all told me, in the blink of an eye the time flew away. Mid march hit and caught us all of guard...we put things on hold....but not really. The kids toiled away at school with some complaining but way less than I would have. Anna finished second year University and Jeff finished grade 12. The oddest part for Jeff was there was no huge build up to Grad. No pre grad parties, no grad dinner, no walking the stage in front of friends and family.

But the school, to their credit, managed to organize a drive up grad. You booked an appointment, then at "your time" you and your family could drive up and walk the red carpet.




















It was short and sweet, but it was at least something. There were a bunch of teachers there plus the admin team. Jeff broke some rules and hugged his favorites. After we shares celebratory margaritas at a great taqueria.

I am proud to be dwarfed by my children, I am nervously excited about what they both will become, but regardless of what that may be I am proud and humbled to be called 'dad' by them.



















Just as life and school moved forward so does progress on the interior of Fillmore. I have come across an oil based product called OSMO it is a oil/hard wax material. Easy to apply, easy to care for, looks great and enviro friendly!

While I get a few coats on the wood wall, it was time to scribe and cut the cap. Having a little rebate in the wall to play with is always a welcomed challenge.  Not to worry the screw hole covers, the wood plugs are trimmed flush to the wall. In this pic, I was playing with a plug that sat proud and was rounded.....but my brother very quickly pointed out that it just looked like a nipple.....and that kind of ruined it for me....flush it is.

Back Cabinets

As summer roles in, I take the opportunity to roll out with the boys on Monday nights for a little mountain biking. This particular shot was taken only moments before the rain....and then hail....then gail force winds....only to be trumped by the grizzly by the path.

When I got home from this ride.....I went straight to the tub with a healthy pour of scotch and warmed up from the inside and out.
BEFORE

You may remember back in Feb, I finished the remodeling of the back wall overhead cabinet. Before it stood out to far and you hit your head on it if you tried to sit back.

DURING

After it was complete the cabinet was great but the whole back wall was far from finished.

I started framing in the electrical , got a face plate on it....

But it was a temporary fix at best. What I needed to do was spend some time on it and get it all matchy matchy with the rest of the cabinetry.

I decided that maple cabinet door rails would give me the best durability and finish, the door panel was a simple spruce G1S 1/4" ply. I saved you from pictures of the usual rant about the beauty of using cardboard templates to scribe onto....but trust me they were there.

I wanted cabinets across the back wall, or at least on either side of the back wall with perhaps a feature spot in the middle. Once again, after a fair share of filling and sanding, I employed the ever versatile paint sprayer for some smooth shiny results! 

 It is never to early (or late) top learn a life skill....like wiring! I mean what 19 year old doesn't need to know how to wire a 110V plug into a panel.
AFTER

A job well done, my feature wall is only eclipsed by the beauty of my electrician.