Whoever designed the battery placement on a 2014 Chevy Malibu is a malicious, hate-filled demon. Just look at how much has to be removed to get to the battery! Two and a half hours and $300 later, my daughter’s car battery has been replaced.

Test run at hand-dipped candles, using old candle nubs and a can. Obviously greater volume of wax will be needed for proper length candles but I’d call the test successful.

I’ve often thought of @patrickrhone’s “master generalist” self-description. I may adapt it for myself as “master piddler.” At this moment, for instance, I’m in my garage writing this instead of working on the shadow box. Also, the greasy burger joint is about to open and I’m hungry. The box’ll wait.

I completed a spirit house today. Inspired by (but not intended to be exactly like) Thai spirit houses, this will be our shrine to the spirits of place.

One of my projects for next week’s vacation is to restore an old chair. The seat will need caning, and I plan to have an Amish shop do that part. I’ll do the cleanup, repair (if needed), and painting. I’ll be using milk paint for the first time.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that a neighborhood cat has taken up residence in our backyard. Today I built him a house out of (mostly) scrap. We put a brooder heater in there to keep him warmish over winter.

Repaired and refinished a cedar chest I picked up over the summer.

Before:

After:

Rachel has more or less finished the floor refinishing project. I think it looks wonderful! She also made herself a great reading corner.

Rachel continues to do great work on the floors. The living room is now done; we can start moving furniture back in by Monday. The floor is pine, which is notorious for rough grain and not taking stain evenly. Some people say it’s a mistake to stain pine but I think it looks great. Another thing about pine: it turns orange as it ages. In our case that means our stain—Minwax “early American” which is brown—actually ended up looking more red. Two coats of polyurethane as a finish.