Today was weird. It was chilly and very windy! Tomorrow is meant to get below freezing in the morning. If it does, this will be the latest we have had frost during the year. Our previous record since we moved to Idaho in 2012 was June 11th. We will beat that by a week. I hear there is snow in Montana, and I believe it as we had a light dusting on the mountain tops here.
As the weather was cold today, I got some time in the shop and worked on the table I have been building. It is a little night table that I am working on after buying a video series from Mortise and Tenon. The video showed the principals of how to build so the wood worker could build any sized table they want. I am tackling a smaller one than in the video, but I am building from poplar and will prep some pine before I do another one. The idea of this project is not just to learn how to build a table, but to also build one quickly when I get the practice in.
I put the legs on the table this evening without any glue or screws or the like. The design in the video was to use wooden peg through the mortise and tenons. I am giving it a try. It’s not like I don’t know how to fix it if anything goes wrong.
Tomorrow our son is not able to come with to get wood, or to do work over here. That’s fine! He has been really helpful this year so far, and it is not big deal to miss a day here and there. He forgot that we were not planning to go out for wood tomorrow anyhow. The plan was to start building the woodshed. So, I went ahead and took out part of the old wood bunk. I am so done with tarps on the firewood! I want enough of a shed to hold the wood for the stove over winter, and a little one for the fireplace wood, which can be longer than what fits the stove. I’d also like to have a lean-to that will hold wood for the workshop.
The next step is to put some cinder blocks down to build the shed on top of. There is a fair few around here, so I will be using them. Then it is time to cut the wood required from that mass of logs I have out back.
That’s the report for today. I think I will be reporting the cold tomorrow. It feels like it is going to reach freezing by tomorrow morning. It is 9:30PM and already down to 42 degrees. Ten more to go, and the temperature dropped 2 degrees in the last half hour. Unbelievable! Good night!
Update: 16 July, 2024
The finished table looked like so in the end. It has a drawer and is a little tall, which can be remedied as needed. I will build another one, perhaps much like this one, perhaps completely different. That’s the whole point of this project! I can build to suit. None of the measurements mattered on this project. In fact, I took none. So I can build a table like this, or four feet wide, or half as deep. None of that matters. It only matters that I make sure it fits where I need it to go. That does not even require a ruler. Just a stick with a couple of labelled marks on it would do just fine.
Here is it mid-July. I have not yet even decided where to put the already built table pictured above. The best place I can think of for it is near my computer. But the space there is pretty hidden, and I am reluctant to hide it. But I suspect it would work there just fine. At the moment it is also very hot at my computer during the days and evenings. So I don’t use it much. That gives me till autumn to worry about it. That also gives me time to muster up and do another one, this time being more careful to decide beforehand where I want to put it!