Proof of concept for some shoe boxes I’m making for Rachel.
Posts in: Workshop
Woodworking notes 2/14/2023
Finally completed the stool (using this Steve Ramsey video). The build was delayed first by illness and then because I decided to redo the legs. I picked up a shop vac this week but my problem now is finding an adaptor to connect it to the dust collection port on my table saw. It’s proving more difficult than I would have imagined. Next up: a small bookcase.
Woodworking notes 2/6/2023
Over the weekend I completed one side of the trellis on the grape arbor. I’ll put up another on the opposite side. The rabbet is exposed on the ends at the top and bottom; I’ll put some wood putty there before Rachel paints it. Another thing: if you’re going to put up trellis like this and you have a table saw, don’t buy the frame pieces they sell with the trellis.
Dana O’Driscoll writes about “The Way of Wood”—about humanity’s interaction with wood, the loss of that interaction, and ways to find our way back to it.
I finished a wooden mallet today with some scrap leather on the ends. It’s very amateurish but I am an amateur.
The now-time of the hands
Caroline Ross: When we cannot touch, cannot be held, do not regularly make things with our hands, work so hard that we do not have time to press seeds into the ground in a garden, nor to sew the button back on our shirt, which is so cheaply made we throw it away rather than invest our precious finger-tip-time, which anyway we must keep sacred for our devices… We no longer settle into the never ending now-time of the hands.
Happy winter solstice! I went into the woods yesterday intending to cut a larger Yule log from a downed tree but working with a hand saw lowers your expectations. 😂
I’m making fire cider in an attempt to beat back all the sickness going around right now. Unfortunately it won’t be ready for a couple of weeks. Anyone ever tried this stuff?
Floofy Pie
Rachel and I made Julia Child’s “Fluffy Pumpkin Pie”—which will forevermore be called Floofy Pie in our house. Rachel used Julia Child’s pie crust recipe and it was outstanding. We used fresh pumpkin instead of canned and this, I believe, was the source of the only problem we had: too much liquid. The pie did firm up but the bottom crust wasn’t as dry as we’d like. Cooked, not raw, but also not dry.
The best hot chocolate
Makes two servings of rich, not overly sweet, hot chocolate. You’ll never use those packages of hot chocolate mix again. 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup dark cocoa Pinch salt 1/3 cup hot water 2 cups milk (I use oatmilk) 1 tsp vanilla (Optional) Large glug of Disaronno, Cointreau, or other liqueur Mix sugar, cocoa, salt, and hot water in a sauce pan. Stir frequently (and into the “corners” of the sauce pan because the cocoa will want to clump there) until mixture comes just to a boil.