Category: Wood Turning

March Has Arrived, Spring Comes Soon!

It is snowing lightly today, and too cold to be outside for just about anything unless it is urgent or necessary. This morning one of the kids messaged and asked if he could come down and use our driveway to change his oil. He said the car was running funny and he thought it might have to do with him neglecting it. I asked how long it was since he last changed it, and he said 8,000 miles. Well, I don’t know if that is why his car lost some power coming up the hill, but I am pretty sure it will be much happier about its life in general for him changing it! Okay, he went way too long, but it was good to see him do the job all on his own, as it was the kind of work he never took interest in when he was younger and still living at home. Better late than never. It was especially good to see him at it rather than me! Oh sure, I handed him the ratchet, and helped him find a few tools, but he was the one on the ground, in the snow and cold.

It struck me as funny that it was only this morning that I checked our truck for its due date for the next oil change, and I was excited to find out it was not today! I have got some 800 miles left, which I’ll bet I can stretch till spring, and warmer weather! Suits me right down to the ground!

Missus asked me to go get her drum carder out of the craft cottage this morning. I don’t know what she has planned for it, but while I was out doing my chores, and helping the offspring keep on eye on his oil as it dripped out during the oil change, she cleaned it up and made it look nearly new.

I was also assigned the job of making a few more of the wire coilers she needs to wrap wire on to make chain male loops. They consist of a rod with a small hole at the far end, and a handle that helps her grip and avoid pain in her hands. I drill a hole in the rod and give it any finish work required. Then I make the wooden handle on the lathe, and drill a hole in the end of it for the rod to fit down into, tightly. Done right, it does the trick and when I am done, she will be able to make different sized loops in her wire. Good enough! I made a handle two weeks ago, and can put it to task on this job, and it will be fun to make some more.

This week is fairly free for me to work on the business. Where it is too cold to do anything outside, I can do some computer work, and things in the house. A nerve is pinched in my shoulder and hurting all the way down my left arm, so it will likely be computer work for today, though even that hurts. Painkillers first!

It is coming up time for the clocks to spring ahead. 2A.M. on Sunday morning, March 10th is when to set the clocks ahead one hour. I guess that means that where I have been noticing light in the mornings when I wake up to take the kids to school, we will not have that anymore till the days get longer still.

Late in the ten-day forecast the temperature guess is 50F! That’s short sleeve weather here in Cache Valley. I am hoping this year it will also mean I want to mess around with the cameras and make some YouTube videos. Maybe watch out for that. Meanwhile, I will surely be enjoying the warmer weather, as I have looked forward to it because of how low our firewood started out this year. This house does not really need a daytime fire going when it is sunny, and the temperatures go above 35F. Open the front door to the porch, and enough heat comes in from there to take care of everything for the day. 50 will certainly exceed that and make the whole experience more pleasant. I can switch off the wall heaters, and that will cut the electric bill. No more worrying about if the pipes under the house will freeze. Shop days and milling days will be unrestricted if the rain and especially the lightning stays at bay. But even on a rainy day, that does not slow the shop work down! None of this is to show any sort of enthusiasm on my part, at all. No. None. Not at all.

My tractor is already approaching 500 hours. Seems high. I wonder if the meter reads correctly. It seems crazy that it has gone that high. I should dig out the old stopwatch and give it a test. It probably is correct though, as I have always held to the idea that if I was going to spend the money to buy such a tractor, I best use it. I can’t imagine how high the hours would be if I could plough with it!

Before I call this post done, I thought I better mention that the chickens have started laying again. I think it looks like about two of the birds that have got going. I will have to collect all of the eggs then set up a reminder to do it each day to get them fresh. I’d like to make some serious changes to how we raise chickens here on the farm, and really get selling the eggs. What we do with these old birds is just the beginning of figuring it all out. I need some more time out in the coop to come up with some ideas, and to figure out how to set up for a free-range flock to keep the costs down and the health up.

Late Summer Projects Update

I have finished most of the fencing for the old llama pens in the side yard next to the house. These pens are conveniently located and make life easy daily, but especially in winter, for feeding and caring for the animals. I have two goats in the pen I am looking at keeping the calves in for their winter feedings, and I have let the calves out into the pen, too. The gates are in where I want them, finally allowing access to those pens for things like the lawn mower, and hopefully one day a tractor large enough to lift out anything that dies in the pens. It happens. Best to make it manageable. The only bit of fencing left to do there is along the east side of one of the pens where there is electric fencing at the moment.

The new driveway is serviceable to some degree now! It is rough and could really use a smoothing out. I have been hoping for years to get a tractor to do this sort of thing, but one never comes. The resources to do so may come soon, finally. If so, I would like to level it out and push a little out to grade and give it a smooth transition out to the road, rather than through the shallow end of the borrow pit, as is there now.

I have all the hay stacked in one place now, rather than sitting in a trailer. I need a lot more hay for over winter. I’ll have to have help loading it all, as there is too much for me to do on my own. I have about 75 bales now and need a total of around 300. So that’s an ongoing project. I also want to get a feeder to help keep the hay off the ground in the pen, though I have seen one farmer who successfully feeds on the ground in a field all winter. It is an opportunity to get one, and I probably should, though. It will serve more than just these cows.

Firewood had had a moment of pause as I have worked on the fencing and focused a little on getting hay. I have a decent pile in the Service Yard that I brought home in spring. It needs to be cut to length and split and stacked before I will really know how far I am from having enough for this winter. I do need a bit more, I am sure. With the summer being quite as hot as it has been, and the heat knocking out a good portion of working hours, I don’t think I am ready yet, at all, though I am close, and I would really love to be ahead or next year.

As I write this, we had one day of reasonable temperatures. There are more autumnal temps coming, too. Now is the time to act! It is time to boot the projects that need to be worked around the weather forward. Those include hay gathering, wood gathering, and things like getting up in the attic and running an electrical wire that needs putting in for the outlet I installed in an awkward corner of my den. The high temps are forecast now for two mid 80’s and the rest to explore the whole of the 70’s for the next ten days. There is also rain in the forecast, which would be a very welcomed relief from the dry summer we have had. Although, when I checked my weather records on our station, it was surprising to find this year was actually not the driest recorded. Quite the opposite! The summer months have recorded quite a lot more rain than in previous years. August pulled in 3.44 inches, while previous years have hovered closer to less than one inch, for example.

There are other projects to tackle in the cooler weather, as well. I can get back to the shop, where I can work on the lathe, and candle making. It needs a little clean up in there. I’d also like a proper workbench for wood working. In addition to all this, there is the apparently annual cleaning of the barn that is required before the snowy season starts. The granary has some things stored in it that should not be there. I want my cast iron out! The woodstove will need a servicing before the burning season begins, as well as the chimney cleaning out. I also have some firewood that wants splitting to use in the woodshop. There will be a period when the autumn is too cold, and the shop will be too, and it will want a little heat to keep it, till the winter sets in properly, and makes it all too cold to do anything in for more than a few minutes. That will be the time when I will have to transition any light work into my den, and I can make candles and do leather working in there. All of that must be arranged for.

So that’s where things are as of September 10th, 2022. Let’s see how much we can get done before the end of the month!

Summer Stuff

My daughters and I went down to the city dump yesterday to pick up some firewood for winter. We got a pretty good amount already cut down to length, and I cut some more to size also, so it’s out of trailer and right onto the log splitter. There were some birch pieces at the dump too, so we picked up a bit for me to try on the lathe.

I think we got a cord and a half or so . I need to get everything split and stacked and see if we have got enough to last all winter or not. Hopefully we do. We’re certainly a bit closer!

This morning I could not sleep from 3AM, and finally at 6AM I gave up and got up and went out to the roadside with my scythe and cut down a good two or three days’ worth of feed for the goats and the llama. My process is to cut a bit then pull it up in a couple of days to feed. At the moment it goes right from the ground and into the feeder. I am not storing any in a pile anywhere.

This afternoon I worked in the herb garden, putting down mulch and finishing beds, boarders and all. I cut the grassy paths, too. I hope that the work in there will help Missus catch up on what she wants to get done there and make the garden into what she is dreaming it to be.

This evening would be a great time to top up the water troths while I feed the animals, as well as get some of that firewood split and stacked. The herb garden is not finished, but the progress on it has been substantial enough that I won’t feel guilty for doing something else for a spell.

Wood

It’s a cool morning here on the farm.  The storms that flooded Yellowstone north of us barely brushed by and touched our little home on the valley floor.  The greatest effect here was cooler weather with a dash of wind.  Cooler weather is good for splitting firewood ready for winter, and so I did yesterday, with the help of the girls, stacking it while I gathered a new piece, and hefted it to the splitter, then ran it through.  We did a little more than half a cord yesterday, before being distracted by anything that was not work. 

The wood is still wet this morning, as is easily seen by the flies gathering on it to drink where the fresh splits were placed yesterday.  There was a little water around the top of the aircleaner colver on the log splitter, which reminded me that I needed to cover it before leaving it overnight, which I obviously had already done.  It is a a splitter we bought a couple of years ago, before the company that makes it redesigned it and put on a new cover that does not drink all the rainfall if can, and fill the carburator, and then the cylendar.  When I started it yesterday morning, the piston barely would move as I pulled the starter cord, but move it did, and I could hear the water squeezing out the exhaust valve.  I dabbed up any remaining water in the carb with a paper towel, then pulled the cord till the pison moved freely, and finally dumped some gas into the carb, and pulled again and again till it finally started. 

It is not an ideal situation.  The solution is not great, either.  But it solves it, and with much less effort that pulling things apart.  So I’ll take it. 

I took a log from in the way in the shop yesterday and mounted it to the lathe and made it into a scepter for my daughter for when she is ruling her “army of darkness,” also known as the barn cats. It is not a particularly useful project, but it is practice, and the log was not what I would have wanted to build something from, and it was just in the way. There is another one out there, so I may do one more.

Writing is done on the front parch these days. I have put on a tab with YouTube open, and Debussy playing. Debussy and the sounds of the birds chirping outside; could anything be lovelier? Maybe the same situation with hand tools on a bench in the shop, working a piece of wood into a chair? That’s the goal.

I have a reading date with my youngest daughter in a few minutes. We are working her through Rascal, about a boy in Wisconsin a century ago, who took in a raccoon. She is having troubles reading, so we are working on getting her some daily practice.

Spring 2022

Times are tough these days, with inflation high, and everything else that is going on withing the United States, and without. One of the biggest bug bears on our farm is the price of animal feed, and especially hay. Two years or so ago I was able to secure some grassy alfalfa mixed bales of hay from a neighbor for a mere $60 a 1,200# bale. This year he’s not growing hay, and I have had to go looking elsewhere. What I have found is the same bales, only more pure alfalfa, selling for anywhere from $200 to $360 a bale! I got my scythe out and sharpened it on the same wheel I use for my lathe tools and got a great edge on it! Now I am cutting grass from the roadsides and anywhere I can grow it without it being required as pasture by another animal, such as the horse or any of the pastured llamas.

It is still a lot of work considering the condition I am in at my age, but I think of the money it is saving us right now and keep on cutting till I have enough for a day or two. Once I have that, I try to leave it for three days till it dries and is time to feed, but I have had to put green grass in for the goats and llamas, which I sort of regret as I remember it is not that great for the ruminants.

I have a load of firewood that needs to be cut and split. I need to get off my lazy backside and do it! It’s honestly the other labors that slows me down, along with my bad hips and legs. I’ll push through it, but I may need to get a new log splitter soon as ours has pushed the maul right out of the track enough times it has now broken the rather industrial welds on the side of the track. I am hesitant to work too hard with it right now as I may break it and have to repair or worse, replace it, and cannot budget that just yet. To pick up an equivalent splitter with a better design looks to be just shy of $2K. Yardmax looks good to me. It doesn’t look like it would have the issue of water getting in the carb, nor the channel that broke on my Champion splitter. Without the channel, there should be less clogging, too. There are other features, too, but the biggies are the inherent weaknesses of the channel, and that leaky carb cover. Yardmax looks like the push pieces that separate a stuck log from the maul are replaceable, rather than just breakable like on the Champion. That entices me! All it is missing is a lift arm to put the heavy logs on the table for me! Maybe I should hunt one of those splitters down!

I am raising meat chickens this year, for the first time. I need to pick up a second batch. I bought 15 originally, but the brooder was too cold on the last chilly days of spring, and 9 of them died due to lack of oxygen while huddling too close together. I do need to fix the brooder, or just plan on raising such birds in the summer only. Since the weather has warmed up, the birds have been fine, even out in the cage next to the egg coop. They are larger now, but they still have a little way to go till they are full size.

I have been practicing a few things in the woodshop. I finally got a jig to use on the sharpening wheel and accurately sharpen my lathe tools. That is going to take a little working out as far as how to do it correctly and consistently each time, especially based on my preferred cutting edges, which have yet to be determined. But I have used firewood to make a couple of little stools, each a little more refined than the last. I only added glue to the stool I made yesterday, as the previous have been assembled without. All are holding together just fine, by the way! Yesterday’s stool can either be a garden stool for Missus, or a little seat for our grandson. I’ll leave that up to Missus! As I get better at this, I want to lead up to building a chair, then another and another, till I have a few for around the house! Maybe then it will be time to try a table! Whatever the case, the little stools are a good way to get started on an easy project with some of the required skills.

So that’s a summary of the things here that require my attention now. There are many more things, both house related, and family related, but those are for another space besides this blog. The best to you for now!

18th Century Beeswax Candles

Over the past few weeks I bought a candle mold from Townsends, on of my favorite online shops. I used some beeswax I bought before, and some wick we had in the candle making box, and made some candles when the mold arrived. Quite happy with the results, and aware of the size of the candles, I then turned a stand on the lathe from a piece of firewood. Again, I was thrilled with the results. I had a period-like piece that I could proudly display. Better yet, I could burn it with the satisfaction of knowing that I could recycle the wax, and I could make more candles.

That whole process was fairly simple and straight forward to me. I showed it to Missus, and she thinks I should try selling them on Etsy. Only seems logical. I might as well make some more for practice on the lathe and sell the results after I have a supply of sundries to keep me happy.

This weekend I ordered 25 pounds of beeswax, and two molds for short colonial candles, again from Townsends. I may get one more tall mold, if I need it, or if I worry about the one I have breaking and putting me out of business for a few days. I got some firewood on Friday, and hopefully have a couple of pieces I can work with in the next few evenings when I want to pass the time away.

So, with that, I can explore some online selling to help support the farm or my woodworking habits or whatnot. There’s no harm in trying, and certainly no harm in seeing what comes of it! Missus provided me an old crockpot to warm the wax in, and I have a space out in the shop to work happily in. I have got to pile on the firewood this spring, and while I am out, I can find as much wood as possible to turn.

The best bit about turning candle bases is that they are easy, short projects, that give opportunity to try different shapes and yet I have a completed item that is useful, and maybe even sellable when I am done with it. The next best thing is that even if none of them sell, I will have a lot of candles and stands, which I love, and since the candles are all made of beeswax, the house will smell lovely!

Emptied the Trailer

Yesterday was momentous! I got the trailer hooked up to the truck and went down to the thrift store, only to remember then that the thrift store here is not open on a Monday. I wasn’t going to waste the time or the fuel, so I went over to the salvage yard and began sorting the stuff in the trailer onto the ground there for the big electromagnet to pick up and put to use in something new. One that was done, I went to the dump to take care of the rest of what could go from the bottom deck of the trailer! When I was done, there were only a very few items left that I knew Missus wanted saved, and that I was not quite ready to throw out myself. After I got home, I rested from the chores a bit, then took out those few items, and emptied the trailer out once and for all!

Why is this momentous, you may ask? Well, the trailer deck is much lower than the truck bed, AND the trailer has a ramp leading into it! This is something worth everything when one is loading in firewood! It has been tied up with this load of ‘not sure what to do with it’ stuff for ages now, and with this done, I can now easily get firewood (as compared to hefting the wood into the bed of the truck) as well as get more if I should decide to heft wood into the bed of the truck. I might have to plan a trip to fetch wood this week! It would be good to top off against what we have used this year so far and it never hurts to pile up against next year. With our plans in flux and the hot summer we had, this year did not see the accumulation that I wanted, but it is still not too late. On top of that, I need to get wood that will be ready to turn on the lathe come warmer weather, or when I can get the shop heater cleared away from for burning.

The dogs left only one bomb overnight yesterday morning, and I got ahead of them and thought that we may be onto getting them trained to go outside only. Then yesterday evening, they spotted over four places and left two bombs. So much for progress! So when I woke up at 4AM this morning I got up soon after and stayed up to be ready when they woke, that way I could walk them straight away, and probably a couple of times (as it is still early now) to try to get them out enough to not have excuses to mess. You ever have such things running around making noises, and sometimes walking by sniffing as they go? It does not help one’s trust. I feel like the dad in some sitcom, or worse, in A Christmas Story as he looks over his newspaper to have just missed the neighbor’s dogs running through his living room on the way to the Turkey in the kitchen. What’s that smell? My imagination? Good! Incidentally, they spotted once that I could tell, but did not bomb overnight last night! Good doggies! I think it might be progress of a sort.

Where Have I Been The Past Few Days?

Over the last couple of days I have been focused on making sure of the girls in their home schooling, and generally either hiding from the rain on rainy days, or splitting up some of the firewood on sunny ones. I have given the lathe a break while I wait for a part I buggered up on it, and a tool to repair the part it attaches to, which I could replace, if they were in stock with Laguna. Well, not a huge deal, but I will not turn on it till the part and tool arrive, because I don’t want it to turn into a huge deal.

Meanwhile, I ordered Missus her Christmas present, but it is the kind of present that one must speak to the recipient about before committing to buying it. Currently she has got a Cricut, and makes lots of things on it. In a couple of weeks she will have a GlowForge and will up her game with it, and hopefully with an Etsy store where she will be able to sell things made from those tools, as well as her handmade art. She’s looking to start a side hustle. I’m looking to see to it that the rug under her is a red carpet.

Since there is a GlowForge coming, I have been spending time in Inkscape learning how to layout in that. I may or may not get enlisted in the process of running this side hustle, or I may just be able to use it to design a few personal things, or a placard for any furniture I make out in my shop. Whatever the case, I need to at least lay out designs and do basic operations to be of some use in the business.

That’s the most of it over the past few days. Obviously there was Halloween!

The day was pretty normal for us. We did not do anything out of the norm for ourselves, but the kids watched a couple of Halloween themed movies during the day. By evening our youngest complained because we were not going Trick-Or-Treating. So I put my two red lanterns on in the dining room and library, and turned off all the other lights. Missus put together two baskets of sweets in lieu of hordes of candy, then brought out a book and once the girls were settled into their sweets, she began reading Poe in her lovely English accent. I thought it was quite a perfect spontaneous Halloween!

It’s soon time to get our winter hay paid for and delivered. Maybe today or tomorrow will be a good time to get set up for that. This weekend is our grandson’s time over. I still have firewood to split up out in the Service Yard. I could do with getting it all done before winter settles in. If it goes at the rate the last few days has, then that won’t be too difficult a goal to achieve.

That’s about where things are at. The Holidays have officially gotten started with Halloween past us now. Next up is Thanksgiving, then the big one. After that comes the long, cold winter. It’s getting time to button down for that!

Firewood To Furniture

Today I split firewood for about an hour, then decided I would be having a lot more fun if I were to take a piece of poplar I split into pieces, and turned those pieces on the lathe. I cut my firewood to about 19 inches, so it was obvious right from the start what I would make. It was just about right for legs for a stool. Maybe Missus could use it at her spinning wheel or loom, if she wants to. It has been a long time for me wanting to try one, and today brought me my chance. I wanted to try crating spindles and then recreating them a couple of more times. So that’s what I did.

A stool does not rock on only three legs. That is a four legged stool. So I wanted to make a three legged one, cutting down the number of legs I would have to duplicate. The firewood was split with the grain, so the legs would have the advantage of strength for going with. As for design, I saw Anne of All Trades on Instagram showing a stool she made, and the spindles were just the style I most love, old fashioned! The seat was natural wood, live edges and all. If it worked for her, surely it would work for me! So that’s what I set out to do, only in the three legged variety. Again, I am using poplar, so I don’t think mine will come out looking quite as nice as Anne’s did, and this is my very first piece of furniture, so that has lowered my expectations as well.

I did not put any real coves or beads. I don’t much care for them, honestly. Strange, for someone who bought a lathe, I know! The top 20% of the legs look like a pawn, and the bottom is long and slender, then flares out just before the feet, which are slender again. It’s simple, and they are a bit thick, but if it works out as a stool for Missus, I want it to be sturdy so she will feel secure on it.

I suppose the most exciting prospect of this little project is that if it works out, I will have build furniture from a couple of pieces of firewood! That’s about as free as the materials get. And if it does not work out, just the parts I have made so far have been an educational experience, and have given me confidence to try again. Another way it helped, I finally found the bevel on the roughing gouge. My goodness! I want from clip-clip-clip to slice-slice-slice, and the debris went from splintery little chucks to real slices. It cut a lot faster, too! I was amazed!

Tomorrow I will probably look for a log I can chop two inches or so off the end of, with a diameter right for the seat, and then turn it on the lathe like a platter. I intend to set it up with a mortise on the bottom, and a beveled gouge outside of that, which will hopefully provide a spot to drill holes to mount the legs into. The bevel should put all the legs at the same angle. Then I will wedge them in, and glue them up extra good! I may cut the tenons on the legs a little longer by turning them on the lathe again, and taking them down the shoulders at the top of the legs a bit more. That may be necessary to give added strength, and also because of the thickness of whatever seat I produce. That’s yet to be seen! But I have a plan if longer tenons are required. Right now my tenons are only about an inch long, which I regret, thinking about it. Nothing I can’t fix with a skew and a minute each on the lathe!

Speaking of eventualities! If it turns out to be too short, I may in the future put a hole in the middle of the seat, thread it, and put a new seat on a dowel with threads on it, and set it up with adjustable height. I guess just one way one can build and then modify one’s furniture!

Missus reminded me that she was looking forward to me making some Christmas decorations, too! She mentioned spindle icicles. I mentioned baubles with spindles, but that I am probably not quite ready for those just yet. I guess I had better learn my icicles! I also want to make icicles that are also whistles. I’d think wooden whistles would be fun! I have made several so far, but not after the fashion of a tree ornament.

I would be out in the shop working right now, but for the fact it is dark and I don’t want to go rooting around for the wood for the seat in the dark. I would rather see it with fresh eyes in tomorrow’s daylight!

When I finish the stool, I will cut the bottoms of the spindles as necessary to put the stool relatively level. Also, though I originally wasn’t going to do it, I went ahead and coated these spindles in beeswax that I received in the mail today. I was dying to see how the wax would come out. It wasn’t quite as I expected, but I think it will be a durable finish for now, anyhow. The wood was green, though, so I expect it to lose water out the ends, causing them the cheque and shrink. It may be bad, but it is a stool I can always remake, especially where I have got the experience now!

That’s all I have got to say about it tonight. I will be off to bed soon, eager to get up and get started on the seat!

Good Morning Wednesday

This week I have been bopping about on the place, doing different things, but never journaling any of them. So here’s a quick recap!

One of the best parts of any week is when grandson comes by with his dad. But when he was here yesterday, I realized that the toilette seat I bought so he could use our potty like a big boy was still in the back of the car. I ran out, got it, and showed him the box, and then opened it and showed him the inside. Finally I let him sit on it on a chair to see for sure what it was for, not to use, obviously. Then I promised him it would be on by the next time he visits. So I did that a little after he left. That’s the high part of the past few days!

There has been rain. We have been on the receiving end of all that rain that went through California earlier this week. It’s never rained hard or been very windy, but I did get new tarps to cover hay and to cover the firewood. I also got a handful of stretchy cords to hold things down, too. This weather may be a fluke, but there is the possibility that with La Nina setting up, and the jet stream waving north and south, we may have a pretty wintery winter. While it is always fun to see what happens, it is always better to be ready for it!

My light arrived for my lathe yesterday. The box was destroyed, the light was damaged, and pieces were missing. It seems like it would be a great light, bright, color changing. It’s real nice other than it looking like they mailed me out a customer return. I sent an e-mail to the shop I bought it through, and they said they usually get back in one to three days. I see…

I turned a couple of whistles on the lathe yesterday to see what I could come up with, and if Missus would like me to keep going at them to put on the Christmas tree and pass out during Christmas as noise-makers. She liked them. I’ll see if I can get them looking seasonable for the holiday. Yesterday was about making shapes, and putting lines around them using the welding wire I picked up this week. Burning the lines in is pretty neat. I have beeswax on order, set to arrive by Friday, I think. Maybe that will make a lovely finish to the whistles? Maybe it will taste nasty.

Those are the real highs of the week. The other is of course the unspoken of hum of happiness that is raising family and being together. I joined the girls in watching the original Star Wars Trilogy. They are carrying on with homeschool. Missus is still working from home. I make her breakfasts and keep her supplied on nutrients and caffeine as needed. I am preparing for winter. There is always a lot to do on that score. I have negotiated our hay for the winter, and will have to get it delivered soon. Aside from that, I try to sneak off to the lathe as I can to get to know it better, and how it works, and how to use the different tools I have. It is a challenge, but lots of fun!