Keeping Sane During COVID

[USUAggie]

Double post.  Sorry

Edited December 23, 2020 by USUAggie
Duplicate

[USUAggie]

8 minutes ago, Paul said:

Nice work @USUAggie. Did you cut the threads on the lathe or do you have tap and dies? 

I wasted a lot of wood learning how to hand chase threads.  It is so fun and addicting though.  I have basically just made a ton of small ring boxes the last little while to practice.  My problem is it is super hard to find hand chasers outside of 16 tpi.  You have to run the lathe super slow and use super dense wood.  It is a blast though.

[Basher]

Very neat Paul.
Aggie that is a talent.
Very impressive..... I’ll stick to cooking with fire and sharpening knives.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jon B.]

We switched from summer fun to winter fun yesterday.  I have three daughters, two are normal, the middle child has a screw loose!  She is a total free spirit.  We went snow skiing yesterday. 

Not the best conditions but still a lot of fun.   

[MacKenzie]

Does the middle daughter take after her father? 

[Troble]

@USUAggie those are really amazing. Thanks for sharing. Beautiful work!

@Paul you keep the lights on! I’d say it’s essential. 😀

[Jon B.]

7 minutes ago, MacKenzie said:

Does the middle daughter take after her father? 

No....she only has 2 grills 🤣

[tekobo]

Work has been full on all year.  So much so that I was kinda jealous of those people who had been furloughed.  That said, it was great to have something meaningful to do while the world around us further and further out of our individual control.  Visits to our allotment (veg plot) were allowed under our lockdown rules.  Looking at these photos make me hopeful for the new year. 

 

 

[MacKenzie]

Gorgeous shots of the allotement, inspiring me for the 2021 garden season. 

[Boom Boom]

14 hours ago, Paul said:

I've just been working my regular job and finetuning the house.

We did get some rain the other day and I used it as an excuse to work under the house. There's about 6' of headroom down there so I built a small workbench a couple weeks ago which is functional but, there's a post and footing in the way.

The post and footing was really bothering me and it was a tripping hazard. 

I have lots of scrap lumber so I built a storage bin around it.

I've got PVC parts in it now. I'm thinking once all the yard irrigation is done it can hold screws, nails, and such.

 

That is one sturdy looking bench and I love what you did around the post.

[Boom Boom]

12 hours ago, USUAggie said:

I guess I never really responded besides saying how jealous I was about playing Torrey Pines.

like many here I love to golf.  I was not able to get out as much during covid but enough to keep me sane.  
 

I also love to woodwork.  I have fallen In Love with the lathe.  Since then I have not done much flat work.  
 

cooking is what has kept me the most sane duty this time especially on my new Komodo kamado.

Here are a few of my woodturnings.

Those are beautiful!

 

[Boom Boom]

So sanity for us this year has of course been cooking and we have really gotten to know our neighbors. We moved into this house in 2019 and once things warmed up here in St. Louis we had social distanced happy hours in our cul de sac. We were also able to go to Lake Michigan this year which is a family tradition that has been going for about 100 years now. While we were there I brought my golf clubs and played Arcadia Bluffs which is a top 100 golf course. It has some of the same features as Torrey Pines. [mention]Troble [/mention] some of these pictures are similar but this is a lake instead of the ocean but from this height you can’t tell the difference. Wonderful course and my wife got to ride along and she really enjoyed it. We also bought a new Harley last year which has been a great diversion since it’s just the two of us and we can see what we want and stop when we want to.

Arcadia Bluffs 2020


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Troble]

@Boom Boom sounds like a lot of fun 

@tekobowhat do you do for work if you don’t mind me asking? And your garden is looking fantastic. I really want to start some asparagus but it’s in the 2021 plan for me

[tekobo]

6 hours ago, Troble said:

@tekobowhat do you do for work if you don’t mind me asking? And your garden is looking fantastic. I really want to start some asparagus but it’s in the 2021 plan for me

Hey there troble.  Work is a bit difficult to describe.  My last official job title was programme director but I now do freelance work for government departments, making stuff happen.  I was working on buses and in health when the pandemic struck.  Both have been busy and challenging in different ways.    

Thanks for the compliments about my allotment, I love growing stuff.  Asparagus crowns need to be in for about three years before you can start to harvest them regularly so get on with planting yours!  If you manage to get hold of Stewart's Purple asparagus or similar then plant it. It is delicious.  

[Jon B.]

1 hour ago, tekobo said:

Hey there troble.  Work is a bit difficult to describe.  My last official job title was programme director but I now do freelance work for government departments, making stuff happen.  I was working on buses and in health when the pandemic struck.  Both have been busy and challenging in different ways.    

 

@Troble Sounds like she is a female 007 secret agent ??????  Might not be safe to ask any more questions..........................    

[tony b]

[Jon B.]

22 minutes ago, tony b said:

"Freelance work for the government" and she "makes stuff happen" .........license to grill!!!!!!!

Edited December 24, 2020 by Jon B.

[Troble]

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ve quite taken to gardening during the pandemic. I’ve been spending about 10-15 hours a week gardening. I planted a fall/winter garden that I will pick next week and I’ve been slowly replacing some of the landscaping I wasn’t happy with in our project with more colorful succulents that are more my style 

Along the way I’ve picked up a squatter (Buddha) and I’ve planted 6 different avocado trees, Meyer lemon, lime, tangerine, orange, peach, pink lady apple, lucuma (Peruvian fruit), yellow passion tree, raspberry and boysenberry 

we have hard compact clay soil so I’ve also been trying to tend to the soil. If you haven’t seen the movie “Kiss the Ground” on Netflix I highly recommend it. Inspired by that movie I’ve been trying to change my soil with different organic matter. I started by going into the canyons by my house abs collecting 40 thirty gallon trash bags of wood chips that the city stacks when they clear for fire prevention. Then I got 40 trash bags of coffee grounds from my neighborhood coffee shop and spread it around the property. Finally I ordered 6 cubic yards of mushroom compost and shoveled it all by myself one day for about 9 straight hours. So now we wait for nature to do it’s thing. 
 
also started a worm farm at the house 

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Troble

[tony b]

Impressive! On your way to Master Gardener status! 

[Troble]

@tony b I’ve got a long way to go. I’m in year 1. But I’m 41 and have time on my side. But like you I’m pretty committed to doing things right so I’m investing in the garden, in the soil for long term. I make compost teas 2-3x/week and spray the trees with nutrients to help them grow. But I told my wife that it’s kind of like kids, baby them in the beginning then they are off and running.