Well it’s been about 5 months since my last post, and so much has changed since then. In the spur of the moment we decided to move to a bigger house down the street, and thus madness began and of course life has changed quite a bit since then. In the process of selling our house.
The Backyard Farm:
The new owner requested that the back yard ( chicken area ) be re-seeded, and it became apparent that it was a good time for our chickens to find a new home. My wife has some great friends that are really into backyard farming, and were ready for some chickens of their own – so it was a perfect fit to let them have them. So, new home minus chickens.
I have to say, over the course of 6 years – building the raised beds, planting fruit trees, grape vines, berries, etc… it was a decent amount of work, that can only be realized when looking back and thinking of what it took to get where you were. The new home has a small raised bed constructed of railroad ties, a material I wouldn’t use for a garden for food. We may end up planting flowers there instead. Other than that, we will be starting from scratch. I don’t know if it is in the stars for me or not, I have so many other projects I would like to get to, and work is increasing becoming more and more demanding – so at this point our garden is on hold. New home minus garden.
The Workshop:
It took me quite a while to layout my basement workshop in the old home, and I had finally gotten some good lighting in there. It seemed like it would be a monumental task dismantling everything and moving it ( even though it was just down the street ). Anyways, the new home had a workshop, which was nice, though smaller than what I was used to. The prior owner did build out tons of shelving which amply made up the difference. New home has smaller workshop with shelving.
At this point, 3 months later I finally have my workshop just about setup and I’m starting to do some real work in it again, yay, boy I missed building stuff.
Photos of the new workshop:
The Ice Rink:
One thing that I loved ( and hated ) to do at the old home was to setup our little backyard ice rink each year for the kids ( and wife ). It’s one of those neat things that not many people have the opportunity to do, and it is nice to be able to skate whenever you want. When we first looked at the new home, it seemed like there was the perfect level spot in the backyard – I should have been more thorough though as there really are no level spots ideal for the rink in the new yard ( we still would have bought the house anyways ). So sadly, I may not build the rink this year – though it will free up a lot of time for other things. New home minus ice rink ( at least for this winter season ).
Other Updates:
So, prior to the move the lathe was really coming along and I had a nice 3-jaw chuck mounted and working well. It was really time to show off the machine. This year I submitted my lathe and paint can furnace projects to the Champlain Mini Maker Faire, and they accepted them. So, if anyone is in the Burlington, VT area on September 28th or 29th, definitely come by my table and checkout my stuff.
That’s about it for now,
Cheers,
Morgan
