Logging

 Our place is 3 1/2 acres, heavily wooded with jusr the area right around the house cleared. I have been slowly cutting down a few dead trees here and there. mostly they become firewood, although there was the one incredible Maple stump that was so incredible that I have been turning it into custom wood furniture.

My neighboe up the road has a little sawmill. He specializes in furniture grade dimensional lumber, fence buards and trim. He is well known enough that the local Home Depot sends people his was if they need more cedar than the store stocks. He has 40 acres, so he has been selectively cutting trees on his place for 20 years..

When out in the yard this summer I looked up and saw a big cedar, standing there dead. So I went out in the woods to check it out and started looking close at thetrees. There were a bunch of dead cedars out there, So when I ran into the neighbor, I asked him if he wanted to come down and fell the trees. He could have the logs in exchange for the work, as it required putting in a road and clearing some land to get in to the trees. We ended taking out 17 trees, plus he took down a couple of other dead trees. Two Hemlocks, a couple of small maples and one sizeable  Douglas Fir. I had a couple of the douglas firs cut into two inch slabs, so I can cut them into whatever size I nees.

I akso asked him to cut me six 2X6s X 6 foot to make a trestle style base for a dinng room table I am working on.

Most of the cedars were rotten in the center at the bottom, so all that wood will become firewood.., plus all the stuff too small to be cut into lumber, plus the hemlock, doug fir and maple. In all it will account for probably three cords of wood. (for the uninitated a cord is a stack 4' x4' x8'. or 128 cu.ft.) I already have about 6 cords of firewood in the wood shed and under tarps behind the garage. I al running out of space..

If I do any more, I might have to sell some. At the prices firewood is going for, I might make enough to make it worth my time.

Once More into the breach

 I have fought with depression for many years. Starting in the Fall, I spiral downwards towards the pit. I always go to the doctor and request an anti-depressant.

They are of some help, but most of them have side effects. The question becomes when do the side effects become more difficult to handle than the benefits.

I have a condition called Familia Tremors, which causes my hands to tremble. It is a genetic condition inherited through my dads siide of the family. It interferes with my ability to do fine work. As my current favoriite creativity is woodworking, I have to be careful. Sharp tools and trembling hands do nor go together very well. Almost every thing they have given me tp try makes my tremors worse. 

WWellbutrin worked OK except that I hd big problems with impulse control. I would go off before I even thought about it. So that was a no-go.

Prozac my hands trembles, fluoxetene same,, BuSpar I turned out to be allergic to. Broke out in hives. I hav tries three or four others. None were a good fit.

Right now they are trying Cymbalta, which seems to be working with no bad sided effects.

 The kicker is that it can be hard on your kidneys in some people. I hae stage four kidney disease, brought on by my diabetes and long term pain problems. I used Ibuprofin like it was candy to manage my pain for years. That and my hobby of home brewing along with my djabetes wrecked my kidneys. Being in pain 24/7 is no fun, so they have me on Percocet. J hate it, but it does an efective job of handling the pain. I use as little of it as I can, but with arthritis in my neck, sholders, thumbs, hips and lower back, if I want ti do anything I need to take some. Currently I use about three a day.

So although I seem to have found an antidepressant that works well, It will pprobably be too hard on my kidneys fot long term use.

So around and round and round she goes.

Political Ethics

I have spent considerable amount of time trying to understand the current political situation.
I am a Liberal. Although that term has been used as a term of disparagement by the ultraright it is actually a compliment.
I have family and friends that are conservative. Some of them are even intelligent, have degrees abd everything. So I really do not understand how they can be so fanatically devoted to the ignorant piece of slime that currently occupies the White House. He isn't capable of making a coherent statement, is completely ignorant of History, world politics, and other peoples feelings. He has abused or mocked women, minorities, the disabled, anyone from another country, anyone who is not white.
How can relatively normal people forgive the many flaws of this egotistical flawed narcicistic moron.
I meanI have actually thought about this.
I have come to the conclusion that they lack empathy. They are incapableof puting themselves in someone elses shoes, of seeing things from someone elses point of view. People fleeing from political opression and worse are "drug dealers and criminals". Women are rated by their looks and if they should dare take him to task are "nasty women", and if you are famous you can "grab them right by the pussy".
The rest of the world looks at us and says "Is this the bes they can do?"
I wonder the same.

Life's a Riot

Living out here in the woods of the Olympic Penninsula, I have become more of a spectator than a participant. And for the most part that is fine with me.
The present state of things has been a long time comin'. Under the current administration, the reality of racial inequity has become all too obvious. I w that good can come from all this turmoil. There are valuable lessonsoleheartedly approve of the protests, but not the riots and looting. Although it can be hard to separate the two since they happen together, it is neccesary to separate the two.
Back in the dark ages of my teen years, I marched in civil rights marches, got tear gassed, and really thought I was part of the solution. It saddens me that things have not changed all that much. Sure, the whites only drinking fountains are gone, and the black vote has become a political f wind up dead at the hands of police for imaginary or minor offenses. The protests are appropriate. Unfortunately the criminal elements of society use the protests as a platform for riot and looting.
That's only half the equation. The response from authorities is the other half.  The response of the police is is either nonexistent or disproportionate. The authorities must recognise the right of the participants to demonstrate, and ideally demonstrate solidarity with the protestors. Too often the response of the authorities creates an atmosphere of us versus them, The key is communication, on the street level. Listening to stuffed heads spout platitudes isn't going to get it. Person to person, one on one communication is what it will take to  get people to recognise their similarities, not emphasize their differences. I don't know how  that looks, but there are much smarter people than me out there that should be able to  figure the details out.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have the incident at Forks.
A racially mixed faminly traveling in a converted school bus, travilled from Spokane to the Olympi penninsula to go on a little camping trip. Some moron in Forks decided they were ANTIFA activists com to riot and loot. The total lunacy of this escaped them. So thay hazed them out of town. The family set up to camp for a couple of days, A group of  misguided teens with chain saws and felled a bunch of trees so they could not get out.
It is an embarassment to everyone who lives out here. The whole thing sounds like a cheap episode from some second rate made for tv show.
It is possible that much good can come from this. If people do not recognise the legitimacy of the protests, the next ones will be more violent, so it is in out own best interrest to act now.

Goin' to the dogs

Been a rough weel.
We have this Brussels Griffon dog. He is my wifes constant companion, walking buddy and confidant. He is a very good boy, yes he is.
He is also a financial drain and a lot of work.
He has cataracts, so he really cant see well. He walks into things. he will also walk right off the bank and into the ditch. He is an insulin dependant diabetic.
Somewhere or the other the last week he walked right smack into something sharp. I suspect it was a blackberry vine. So we took him into the vet and he had an eye infection. So on top of his insulin injections, he has four eye medications.
Then he developed the shhits and pukes. took a stool sample into the vet last Friday. They were closed for the weekend, so we had the weekend ffull of cleaning up puke and crap. Nor a whole lot of fun. He couldnt hold anything down, so we were tring to keep him hydrated with pedialite. he was worse on Saturday, worse on Sunday. We werent sure he was going to make it, neither one of us got much sleep. Carol was crying and i was trying to be the strong one.
By Monday when the vet opened we were a mess, and we handed over Monk not sure we would ever see him alive again.
Turns out he had giardia, which is a parasite from unclean water. Don't know where or how he could have picked that up. He is an inside dog, and when he goes out, he is on a leash. Untreated it can be fatal.
They took him in and rehydrated him and treated him for the bugs, and he is much better, About $500 better.
Still, having to seriously consider  life without the little bugger, iit is a relief to hear him warn us about the UPS driver, or a truck driving by, or a jet flying over, or another dog barking in the distance,orr...............

Procrastination.

I am a world class procrastinator. This blog is a perfect example of that.
I have started to make an entry into my blog several til
mes his tear, but find that I don't like where it is going, or find I am not ready to talk about things or just lake immagination.
So like this is about start six or seven.
2019 was a difficult year for me. My mom died. I have always been a nit of a mamas boy, so it hit pretty hard when I finally came to the realization that I could no longer just pick up the phone and talk to her. This was a PERMANENT change to the fundementals of the Universe. It just wasn't fair. It made an already cold universe just one minescule degree colder. So you hunch your sholders against the cold and march forward.
Then Keith died. It's not like Keith was that close to me. He was my daughters significant other. He was my friend. Having to watch hims fade away and die of Pancreatic Cancer was a terrible experience. He went from a very robust strong guy to a walking skelleton drifting through a world wnere pain was the main feature of the landscape. It just exposed that the universe is indeed a cold and uncaring place where we stumble along doing the best we can whils things crumble around us. The universe became just a little bit colder, but what can you do?
You hunch your shollders and march fotward in the hope things get better around the bens.
So woth new years, I approached the new decade with the sincere attitude that things will improve.
Man did the universe drop kick my ass.
It is not ver ofter in life that yo go through an experience completely out of your control that illustrates to you just how insignificant you fruely are.
This had been one of those times when you know, when you are absolutely sure that things have just changed forever. In terms of my personal life, not as significant as the other two events, but somehow more pervasive because it doesn't just efect me, but all of humanity forever. It is a journey where we have no idea what things will belike when it is over, but are aware that things will be changed forever for everyone. What this looks like in the real world, I have no idea.
One can hope that this experience will show us all how fragile our place in the world is, and therefore make us a little kinder, a little more considerate, a ;ittle more helpfu.
OR. The big or. We beome more insular, more selfish, less empathetic. HEY! I might NEED those 370 rolls of toilet paper and to hell with the little old lady that has crones disease and just crapped her Depends. I NEED that case od hand sanitizer and to hell with the caregivers for whom it caouls be life saving not just for then but for all the people they come in contacht with.
So we hunch our sholders and march forward, not quite sure that the place we are bound is any better than the place we are right now, and may be a whole lot worse.





















p

Where to start

Haven't been around here much lately. I really don't know why.
It's not like I don't have anything going on. It's also not like I don't have the time.
I do happen to be a semi-pro procrastinator. I'd go pro, but can't find anyone willing to pay menthe salary I so justly deserve for my years of experience.
Life's hard when you won't compromise your standards.
So, we bought a new vehicle. A Jeep Wrangler Sport 4X4. Paid cash, so no car payment. So how does this relate to proceastination?
Our Chev HHR was getting old, It was 12 years old and things were starting to go wrong with it
We were on our way to  a doctor's appointment in Port Angeles when the battery light came on.
Then the car started acring weird. I mean posessed by the devil weird.
The traction control light cme on and went off, the brake warning light flashed, and the doors started locking and unlocking all by themselves. The car died, then restarted itself. It stoped, and I pulled off the hiway.
The doors locked themselves.
The alternator had died, so the car ran off of the battery until it ran totally down. then quit.
I had put off buying a new car as long as I could.
So we decided it had reached the point of no return.
We love the new Jeep.

So long Keith

Tough day yesterday.
I drove my daughter, Elisa, over to Seattle to see Keith. Keith is her significant other. A nice gut, a talented carpenter, hard worker. A guy that was footloose and an adventurer, he had spent the last nine summers mining gold in Alaska. He didn't get rich, but always made wages, with a little left over. Kinda like a couple of month vacation for free.
Last year I grubsteaked them for a grand, with the agreement that they would pay me back with an ounce of gold. Overall, they broke even, with a little eft over.
Keith had no problem finding work, as he has an excellent reputation as a talented carpenter and a hard worker. Everything was going according to plan.
Then he started having abdominal and back pain, and one day his eyeballs turned yellow.
The diagnosis was devastating. He had pancreatic cancer that was inoperable. The cancer was pinching odd the bile duct on his liver, so they installed a stent to allow the bile to drain, but there was nothing to deal with the underlying cause.
So since November we have had to watch him decline.
He steadily lost weight, and went from around 190 down and down and down.
When I saw him to say goodbye yesterday, his chart said that he weighed 123 pounds.
He looked like he had just been freed from a concentration camp.
He faded in and out. Sometimes he was there, sometimes not.
I got to say goodbye and get some sense of closure.
It is very difficult to believe in a God who tortures people to death slowly. No man could have devised a nastier way to kill someone.
So I told him I would see him on the other side, and shed a few trees.

Winning With Weed

Lately I have been seeing a lot of posts on facebook about Weedstock, which is my term for the feeding frenzy developing around the possible financial gains to be made around the legalization of Marijuana.
Reminds me of the idiocy surrounding the .com frenzy. People who have no idea what they are doing are presented with an "opportunity" that sounds good and should in theory should make a bunch of money without doing anything.
Is there an opportunity to make a ton of money in the marketing and sale of legalized weed?
Hell yes!
Are you going to make it investing in every two bit grow operation?
Hell no!
Out of the thousands of small businesses will still be standing when the smoke clears, which ones Will still be standing is something no one can predict. It would take a lot of research to sift through all the hype to figure out who actually has a product or service that actually have value.
My money is on Big Pharma. They will find some way to control supply and distribution. Or some legal doorstop to keep it all in house.
Take your hard earned your money and buy some boring solid investment that has a guaranteed return over time.
Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

So Long MOM

a week ago today, my Mom passed away. She Had been in poor health for the last year or so.
She Had been in and outof the Hospital several times recently.
Each time she came back a little weaker. She set up a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order,
She crashed about three weeks ago, and the family made arrangements for a Hospice worker to visit. Then we set up the deathwatch, so that one of her kids was with her tenderfour/seven.
Since I live three hours away, I was not able to participate as much as some of the other family members that live closer.
I went in and stayed Tuesday night and Wednesday with her. Not one of the easiest things I have ever done, but not that bad either, since she was mostly unresponsive.
When I showed up I went in and stood at her bedside and let her know I was there, for a brief moment her eyes focused and she smiled at me.
She was a great mom.
Growing up when I saw shows like Leave it to Beaver, I thought that was the way all families were. Dad Worked, mom ran the house, and the worst that happened was that somebody picked on you at school or you got In a fight, but home was this comfortable safe place. Stable. Loving.
It wasn't until I got out in the world that I found out that we were the exception.
We were never beaten as children, but Mom was the possessor Of the dreaded wooden spoon. The spoon was more of an insult to your dignity that pain.
All seven of us siblings (Three boys four girls) is an intelligent, stubborn, independent person, ans keeping us all under control must have been a lot like herding cats.
But we all turned out fine. No drug addicts drink or criminals in the lot. Not to say we never  got into trouble or stretched the boundaries.
My favorite memory is the Fall we spent canning Peaches. Dad had gotten some super deal on fresh peaches. We spent several days blanching peaches, sterilizing jars, cutting up peaches and spooning into jars with a little syrup water. Spent a lot of time talking and joking and making light of the work. We canned 13 boxes of peaches, which turned into over 100 quarts in the jar..
She always loved going berry picking, and made wonderful Freezer jam. Blackberry was her favorite. When I moved out to Sequim, I saw a few blackberry bushes, so I started looking around for more, and soon found enough here and there to make jam, so for the last few years I have been her source for home made jam. She always appreciated it, because she understood the time and effort it took to get the berries. And the love that it was made with.
So from now on, when I stop and make toast and blackberry jam, I will be thinking of her.
Not a bad way to remember your Mom.

Snowmageddon 2019, Sequim

On a Friday about six weeks ago I had an appointment in Silverdale to go to the Pain Clinic. The appointment was for 9:20. Snow was forecast for afternoon
I needed to make a decision about which car to drive  The HHR gets around 30 mpg on the open road. It has front wheel drive and pretty good tires. Or the Dodge which had four wheel drive but gets about 10 mpg but has brand new 23 inch mud meats.
I figured I could get to my appointment and back before the snow get bad enough that I would have any problems. Valley Road, a dude in a Pickup truck came to a compete halt in the middle of the road. Once I lost momentum, it was all over.
A kindly neighbor eventually came by and pulled me up to the top of the rise. I eventually made it the last mile home, but there was no way for me to make it up the driveway. Our driveway is about fifty yards long and uphill all the way. So I parked the car at the foot of the driveway and walked.
The car remained there for two weeks. I managed to move it to the side enough that the Dodge could make it past. Richard, my neighbor came by woih his excavator and cleared the driveway.
But even if we could make it to the road, the roads had not been plowed.
After about a week, the roads got plowed enough that the Dodge could get around, and we could do some shopping.
We had gotten 32 inches of snow. Paths had to be shoveled out to get to the cars. to get to the woodshed, to get to the greenhouse, for a dog run, and last but not least the driveway.
After 10 days, Carol decided that the roads were clear enough that she could make it to town to get her haur done. About the time she put down the phone, it started to snow It wasn't sticking much, so she set out for town. Ten minutes later she was back. She had gotten about a mile from home and the snow had gotten  bad enough thet the car started sliding, so she wisely came back and got the chauffeur (me) and made it for her hair appointment.
The truck had no problems.
We still have about 12 inches of snow in the yard.
The melting snow ripped the gutters off the garage, but the house and awning have come through fine.
Snowmageddon HAH!~
We will rebuild

Things Fall Apart

I haven't posted on a quite a while, mainly because I never took the time to sit down and do it. I guess I have fallen out of the habit. I need to set aside a specific time every day and just do it.

Things have not gone well in the last week

First, I had gone in to town to pick up a few things, like lacquer for a table I am working on. As I was coming back, going up third ave. I downshifted and a loud rattly clatter, clatter, and the truck quit running.

I managed to get off the road. I got out and raised the hood. A small wisp of smoke drifted up from the engine by the exhaust manifold. On closer inspection there was a hole about the size of my fist in the block. I have been wanting to get a different truck for a couple of years, but was having a hard time selling the idea. Guess I get my truck. It was kinda weird because although the truck had the correct amount of oil and water, neither one spilled on the road. So now I am looking for a used 4 X 4 truck. I am in no hurry.

Then our daughter Lisa's fiance' Keith came down sick. We all had a cols at about the same time, but he just kept getting worse and worse. Then he started having belly pain. And it kept getting worse. On Wednesday his eyes turned yellow, so he went to the Hospital. He had a mass on his pancreas that was blocking the bile duct on his liver, so they shipped him off to Tacoma for surgery. The result was not good. He has inoperable cancer of the pancreas. At this point we don't know how much time he has or what he wants to do. He implied today that he wants to go back to Missouri where his mother is, but we don't know anything yet. He will be coming back here tomorrow, and I guess we will have to figure it out from there. I feel so sorry for Lisa. She finally found someone who is perfectly suited for her, and she is going to lose him.

Spalted Maple Table

End of the Alley

When I was n the Army on Okinawa from 68 to 70, I helped start a nightclub.
There wasn't a lot of decent entertainment there. Tittie bars, strip clubs, and a few pitiful music clubs attempting rock n roll. On the weekend we would wander around looking for something different.
Bt we, I mean the enlisted personnel of the Psychiatric Service Clinic in Sukiran.
Sukiran had no nightlife, but Kadena was right down the road.
We were exploring the bars and ended up in a little hole in the wall bar having a drink when this chick strolls in with a guitar. Single white women were a rarity, and a chick with a guitar had our interest.
We asked her to play us a tune, and she did 500 Miles. Cool.
I played and sang, so it was suggested I play a tune. I pointed out that I played left handed, with the strings backwards. She said "In case you didn't notice, this IS a left handed guitar."
Holy Shit! What a convergence of stars.
So I played a finger pickin' version of Don't think twice. She countered with another folk tune, I played Portland Town.
Back and forth. The place slowly filled up until we had a pretty good audience. Then another guy walked in with a guitar, and he joined in. We were having a great time, drinking beer BSing and trading tunes and tunings. When I came time to leave, the two Okinawan ladies who owned the place cornered us and said "You come back Tomorrow, yes?"
So we did.
They had set up a small stage and a mic. and a couple of speakers. Word had gotten around and there was a pretty good crowd. We had a blast.
This was a weekends only thing, but every weekend we put together an open mic night. They owners expanded the stage and the bar twice, and Saturday nights it was standing room only.
It became too much BS and I dropped out after a while, but for a while I was a part of something great.
Funny how things slide in through the back of your head and pop up in you consciousness.
Here's something that popped into my head today

                                      Moose Goosers

Then moose goosers ain't they a gas
sneak up on them moose
an goose 'em in the ass
Goosin' them big moose
goosin' them tiny
sneak up on them moose
goose em in the hiney
You can be a moose gooser
ain't nothin to it
SNeak up on that moose
then you goose it.

Arthritis & Stuff

As I get older, the accumulation of damage I have done to my body over the years adds up.
I have bad arthritis in my neck. When it is bad, in addition to the pain in my neck, I can lose feeling in the thumb and forefinger of my right hand, or ring and little finger of my left hand. This is the result of multiple rear end accidents in the car. Not me hitting someone, but someone hitting me. I used to say I ought to just paint a bullseye on the back of my car.
My left shoulder is messed up from my time in the Army, for which I receive a small disability pension. When it is bad, it feels like my arm is going to fall off. I strained it the other day splitting wood, so I have an appointment at the Orthopedic Clinic on Friday to get a cortisone shot. Cortisone to me is a magic bullet. Immediate relief.
Did I mention my appointment is on Friday the 13th?
My neighbor up the road has a small one man sawmill. He also has 40 acres and sells custom cut cedar lumber. He is down to making 2 X 4s because he has used up all the larger stuff. I had asked him to take a look at a tall dead Douglas Fir I want to take down. He got real excited when he saw some of the cedars on my property. I have some large cedars that are close to four feet in diameter. Prime cedar of that size is getting hard to find.He has suggested a couple of ideas of mutually beneficial plans for him to get his hands on some of my trees.
Of course he wants the largest trees, and those are the ones I don't want cut.
I would like a small road put in around the perimeter of the property just so I can get to the areas with my pickup. He has a backhoe.
I want siding for the greenhouse. Cedar would look nice.
I want to build a wood shop. A combination of fir and cedar would work well.
Lots of possibilities.
The neighbor is off fishing in the Colombia for  walleye.
We have agreed to get together and come up with a plan when he gets back.
Until then I have handrails to cut and peel for the deck.

Sledding Hill

When you go to the end of our driveway and look to the south, the pavement ends in about a hundred yards. On the left side of the road, there is one house about a quarter of a mile south. On the right there is not another house. There is National Forest and Olympic National Park. The next house would be somewhere around Hoodsport or Shelton.
The road goes up. Then it goes up, then up from there. I have heard that the uphill is constant for seven miles.  I have heard that the grade is 14 percent, which is pretty steep. I have driven to the top once.
Around a half of a mile up the road is a steel gate, which is always open. Another half a mile up the road is another pair of gates, which are usually closed except during hunting season. One of the roads goes across the side of the hill, the other continues up.
There is very little vehicle traffic on the unpaved road. Especially when it snows.
Where the road changes from paved to gravel, a road takes off to the West. There are several houses on that road. It dead ends about a quarter a mile in.
This makes the hill an excellent sledding hill. The snow compacts well, and the road ends up very slick. The last time it snowed, we had to rescue three vehicles from the ditch. A fourth truck made it out without our help. Three of the four were on the same 40 foot stretch of road.
You need to have a sled that steers, because the road is not straight. Not a lot of sharp turns, but enough that you will end up in the ditch or maybe over the embankment. I think I need to invest in an old runner style sled.
If they open the upper gate, the sled run is 7 miles long, and I have heard you can reach speeds of 40 mph.
What could go wrong?

Deck

About two years ago, I decided to build a deck off of the front of the house. Being the kind of person I am, It would not be like any other deck around.
I didn't want anything that was available commercially, so I figured I would build it myself from timber I made myself, harvested on our property, milled myself.
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to mill my own dimensional lumber. So I did some research and found the Alaska Mill, which attaches to a chain saw. I would need to upgrade my saw, so I bought a Stihl 362C, approximately $820 with a 24" bar., Alaska Mill to attach to it $320.
I selected two cedars for the decking. Felled them and cut them into two inch thick planks. Set them aside to age for a year' Also felled a fir tree to make the supports with. Set it aside.
Last fall, we decided to build a small greenhouse, eight by sixteen feet. For the work surface I removed the little existing deck from the house and use the Trex to build a couple of workbenches, so I decided that meant it was time to start working on the deck/
We dug out the cedar and fir, and bought the pier blocks, layed out the boards. They had a lot of saw marks on the so I used my hand held electric plane to work out the saw marks Half of the dedck is now fastened. After the weather breaks, I still need to do a little finish sanding on the deck so I can put on the weaatherproofing (clear Thompsons Water Seal.)
I will have to cut down another cedar to make the boards to close out the deck.
The upper part of the cedar I will use to make posts for the deck, after I peel off the bark. I will use peeled cedar poles for the handrails. Use maple branches to fill in.
As you can see, the boards are all 16 foot, and of various widths by two inches thick.
You can't buy the boards at Loews or Home Depot.
I guess I am about halfway through with the project.

Long time Comin'

Haven't been around here much lately. Just have been rel busy with stuff. Wood working, land clearing, lumber making.
I was out looking around the property the other day, and noticed a nice sized fir tree, maybe 80 feet tall standing there dead. Looks to have died fairly recently, like withing a couple of years, so it ought to be in pretty good shape.
My garage is getting pretty crowded with wood for projects, projects in mid stream and wood working tools and supplies.
If I have free wood, and the desire for a shop, it is a simple but time consuming thing to turn the tree into lumber and assemble a shed.
First thing is to decide where to put it.
There happens to be a fairly flat spot behind the wood shed. No big trees, fairly level, covered in ferns and salal.  I took the DR Trimmer mower out there with the toughest cutters and cleared out a 14 X 20' area behind the wood shed, and cut down some scrub alders. About that time my back gave out on me, and it has been slow to recover. Getting old pisses me off. I am always attempting to do stuff and my body just says "Whoa there dude, you are exceeding the design specs."
So at the moment I am having to take it easy, which grates on me.
Yesterday I spent part of the day cleaning the garage, but when I got bored, I went to build a raised bed box for the garden. I didn't last too long. swinging a hammer just wasn't in the cards.
I also have a request from Carol to build a greenhouse. That won't be cheap. Harbor Freight has one 10' X 12' for $650, but I need to figure out where to put it, level the ground. The fun never stops.

Updates

I have been awfully busy the last couple of months, hence no posts.
I cut down a good sized fir tree and made the structural components for my deck. It turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated. It was right at the upper limit of what I can do physically by myself.
I pulled a muscle in my back humping one of the beams out of the woods, so I have been limited a little in what I can do. But the bottom line is that the structural components are all done and under the eaves of the garage aging so they will be ready next summer when I go to build the deck. I have an adze on order to finish up the beams and work out any imperfections.
Besides the Alaska Mill work, I have been doing some woodworking. I just turned out an incredible live edge burlwood maple side table. I also have a really neat piece of skelotonized driftwood I and finishing. Don't know exactly hoe to describe it, but it has lots of interesting shapes and lines. I will probably post a picture of it when I decide it is done. That's part of the problem. When is something like that done. I guess it's done when I say it's done. I have thought it was done a couple of times, but found myself piking it up and doing "just a little more".
There is an area just to the East of the house that was overgrown with nettles and brush. I have been avoiding doing anything about it ever since we moved in here, but decided it was time to attacck the area before it got completely out of hand.
Fortunately I have a DR walk behind brush-cutter trimmer mower. Unfortunately it had not been started in several years, so I dug it out of the equipment shed and it took all morning to tear it down, clean it up and get it started. It ran pretty ragged until the second tank of gas. Unfortunately the drive belt was old and brittle. It didn't break, but pieces of it started unraveling, so I had to get a new belt.
I also ran out og cutting string. The best stuff I could find, was just not up to the task. I have ordered some of the right stuff from DR, but it won't be here for a couple of weeks. The stuff I found locally flys apart when it meets heavy resisstance, so I spend more time installing new string than working. At least it came in a 150 foot reel so I have plenty to work with.

Live Edge Free Form Burl Bowl

I made this live edge free form Maple burl bowl some time ago. I really like the way it came out, but had no good way to display it. I mean it just looked incomplete without a complimentary stand.
When I was working in the yard, I was removing an old diseased rhododendron and looked at the base where I had cut it down, and it just looked like what I was looking for to display the bowl.
A couple of hours of trimming and debarking and here it the result.
Sort of an entish star ship enterprise looking fluid look to it.
I love it when disparate elements come together to make a whole different thing.