Bruce's Journal

[Bruce]

Where did you learn to do such work? Did you learn from others, learn on your own (trial-and-error), or something else?

Yes!
Lots of good stuff on YouTube though it didn't exist when I did the prior house. I have many books ... you know, those paper things with pictures and words

Start small and work your way up. My step-father gave us a table saw for a wedding present. DW had a jigsaw, I bought a sliding compound miter saw. And then more hand and power tools as I needed them. I need a shop the size of Mike's for all my big stand tools, but don't have it. Kind of crowded in there. If I had his space I could get even MORE tools!!

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Hubby needs to do the windowsills in the front room and den. They have been unfinished drywall for over a month now. Maybe I can guilt him into doing it after showing him your work. It looks really nice and professional.

 

[Bruce]

Just don't tell him that the rebuilt part of the house was done in 2013 and I'm just now getting to putting in trim

 

[Baymule]

I am in admiration of your carpentry trim abilities.

My son's house needs trim finished out. The last workman he had in there left his sliding compound miter saw. That was a year ago and he never answered son's phone calls. It's mine now. I reckon I'll learn how to use it and finish out the trim. But I bet next to your lovely trim work, mine will look like it was miter cut by a beaver on meth.

 

[Bruce]

Congratulations on your new saw Bay, you'll be fine! Get a new fine cut blade for it since you are doing trim. Use the existing old one for framing work. Remember, inside corners are coped, never mitered. If the baseboard is just rectangular board, it is easy, butt the pieces together in the corner. Outside corners are mitered. If you need to put in baseboard on a wall that is longer than the boards, cut the joint at 45°, easy to do with that new saw

One of the reasons I chose the "craftsman" design is because it is easier than "picture framing" the window. There is rarely anything in a house that is perfectly square and the 45°(ish) angles on the corners of the frame are hard to get right without visible gaps, especially if you saw is off by even part of a degree. The wider the pieces, the harder it is. When people are going to paint they fill the gaps with filler or caulk then paint over it. They are still pretty obvious and of course you can't hide the gap at all when you urethane instead of paint. I've never seen filler that perfectly matches, even if you make it from sawdust created when you cut the wood.

I also left it fairly plain, no detailing on the long parts since "too fancy" doesn't go well with 170 year old exposed beams and pine ceilings. Plus I don't have the hands to do all the sanding that was needed on the trim I made for the prior house. I didn't 45° there either, I made rosettes. Again way more sanding than my hands will do now, somehow it was easier 30 years ago.

 

[Bruce]

Got my first pullet egg from the 6 new girls today A MASSIVE 34 gram brown egg. I am GUESSING Nina since she has the most red comb and wattles. She laid it in the box under the ladder in the feed room.

Aurora also laid, she's been doing 1 or 2 a week even though she is moulting. Never had a hen do that before. AND her last 4 eggs have been on the floor of the coop. This from a girl that has been laying in the nest boxes for 2 years without a break. What the heck?

 

[farmerjan]

You can pick them up and check to see who is laying....

 

[HomeOnTheRange]

Incredible work @Bruce!!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Mr. @Bruce,

You have been posting regularly on other folks' journals (for which I am quite grateful), yet you haven't told us what you have been doing lately.

Have you worked in the woods any, getting out more firewood? Every time I watch the YouTube channel "Sawing with Sandy", I think of you, not so much when he is running his saw mill, but more when he is in his woods cutting down trees, skidding them to the sawmill and either making lumber or cutting them up into firewood. I don't know how cold it has been up your way, but I know you do burn wood for heat. If I remember correctly, you use 4 or more cords of wood each winter. Can you tell us about that?

Senile Texas Aggie

Latest "Sawing with Sandy" video where he is having to deal with a lot of blown down trees when a wind storm blew through a couple of weeks ago:

 

[Bruce]

Accessible blowdowns would be nice, less work! I've not been out in the woods since the fall when I hauled in the broken over tree. I added up to about 1.3 cords. That is for next year. I've used 3 racks of wood so far, just replaced the 3rd one on the porch landing this week. I filled the prior 2 with wood from the aforementioned tree.

Haven't been doing much exciting to tell anyone about. Working on making door trim. The outside door in the bathroom is as "interesting" to work on as the window was. I've got the fill pieces made, somehow confused myself thinking some sap maple was red birch so I have to sand and stain those pieces before urethaning them. Then sand, urethane and install those and the trim pieces. Will have to do that urethaning in the basement as it is too cold outside.

I have enough made for 2 door frames both sides and will definitely do the insides of the bathroom doors first. And I made some plinth blocks and about 32 feet of baseboard. Really boring stuff, just flat boards except the part that goes over the top of the doors. Not sure which doors I will do next but at some point, maybe within a week, the bathroom will be done. I made door and window trim for the old house but never did get the baseboards. It had baseboard hot water heat so with furniture the lack of baseboards wasn't all that evident.

8 year old furnace in the rebuilt part of the house (north end) stopped working on the 13th. finally got someone out the next Monday, he said he would be back the next day. Haven't heard a thing, called this past Tuesday, still waiting. Fortunately the makeshift "down draft" furnace system is working surprisingly well. Wood stove and furnace in the south building. Heat goes up the stairs and into the north building then comes down the stairs in that building, floor fan blowing back into the south building. Even without a furnace the north building is holding 65°F. Probably doesn't hurt that it has been fairly warm. Supposed to be 40ish today then drop continually. Will likely be about 0°F Monday morning. Not rising much during the day then back to about 0°F Tuesday morning.

Trying to get a new front tire on the rim for the garden tractor. Not working like everyone shows on their YouTube videos. I've done it before!!! Very frustrating. Supposed to get 5" of snow tomorrow. If I can't get the tire on, snow removal will be with the bucket on the real tractor again. I started with the GT last time we had snow a couple of weeks ago, didn't realize the tire was flat. Once I figured that out I understood why I was having so much weird trouble driving the GT It's never real easy with all the weight of the blower on the front even with weight on the back. But it shouldn't be THAT hard.