Doings At the Aerie

Nothing much going on around here the last two days. We enjoyed some lovely 70 degree weather on Thursday bit the wind shifted and brought rain and colder temperatures overnight. The rain ended early on Friday and the sun eventually made an appearance in the afternoon but the temperature never got above 54 degrees. Tonight's sunset was spectacular! Bright reds lit up the western evening sky for almost half an hour.

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Not much new on the birding front. Thursday we had winds out of the south-southwest and skein after skein of geese and Tundra Swans were taking advantage of the favorable tail winds. to head north. Every time I stepped out on the deck there were three or four that flew overhead. We still have the same old birds at the feeders however. The Pine Siskens, Chickadees, White and Red Breasted Nuthatches, and Tufted Titmice don't seem to have decreased in number. That can't be said for the Goldfinches. While they are still pretty numerous, there seem to be a few less than a week ago. Perhaps they've started to look for other sources of food and/or nesting areas.

I'm going to go out tomorrow and hit some of the better birding areas in the county. I need to build my species list for this year before I fall too far behind.

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I didn't mention it the other day but Terry is down in Louisville, KY for an executive board meeting of the Embroiderer's Guild. She's a regional director and a member of their finance committee. She says things are going smoothly and they may even finish a day early.

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I spent a few more hours in the workshop straightening things out and got the paint situation pretty much in hand. I put a set of shelves under the stairs and managed to get (almost) all the pan and stain cans on it. That alone freed up considerable room.  The majority of the plastic drop cloths along with rollers got put into a box. Brushes got sorted and some chucked. What I'm going to do with about eight or more paint rollers and trays is yet to be determined. I think the bulk of them will end up being taken to the dump. (If I ever have to paint walls I will NOT have to buy much but the paint..and even that is doubtful if I stick to white.)

I may rearrange the position of the one work benches and the bandsaw so the sawdust from the sander and router is kept under better control.

I should be able to get back to building stuff next week. I better hurry up and get some birdhouses outside and clean up the ones that are already out there. Very little in the way of cold and snow in the forecast for the next 15 days.

Woodworking 102

Having seen Phil's forecast for more winter, I shuffled off to the workshop to do a little fixing up of the joint.

I mentioned previously that there were three exposed stud walls that I felt needed attention. One was the back of the basement bathroom and the fiberglass shower surround was exposed. Another was the short wall for the utility room. It wasn't in much danger of being damaged as the inside of the utility room was sheathed in plywood but it was a tad unsightly. The third was the wall that formed the stairwell from the first floor. It was sheathed in sheetrock and could easily suffer damage should I lean a 2 x 4 against it or make a quick move with any piece of lumber. Besides, the back side of the sheetrock is black and dark gray sucks the light right out of the workshop.

I actually started on Saturday to put up a tongue and groove wall on the studs behind the bathroom and nearly finished that job before taking Sunday off. It took just a few minutes to cut the last two rows to fit around the drain pipes from the upstairs baths and install them to finish the wall this morning.

The bathroom wall. Several courses of T & G had to be shaped to fit the pipes.
The light wood is a big improvement over the dark black
of the rear of the shower and the sheetrock.

Then it was on to the very rectangular utility room wall. This was the easiest of all since it was a rectangle and every piece of T & G was exactly the same length. I only had one electrical outlet and the thermostat to worry about. A couple of drilled holes and some work with the jigsaw and I was in like Flynn.

The utility room wall (center) was nice and rectangular,
which made installation a snap.

The stairway wall was a bit trickier because of the angle required on one end. (I wanted to leave the area under the stairs open. If I had enclosed them to make a closet or storage area, the job would have been as easy as the utility room wall.) Even so, it took very little time to get everything cut and installed. The angle required was a 45 degree one and that made using the chop saw and its fixed stops much easier than some random angle might have.

The stair wall had to have a 45 degree angle cut on one end.
The top two rows were installed after the picture was taken.
You can see the difference the light wood makes versus
the dark, dark backside of the sheetrock.

I can already see the difference in the amount of light in the workshop and the walls aren't even finished. If I paint them with a white enamel or simply verathane them, the amount of light reflected off the walls will make the room considerably less dungeon-like. I still need to get some dust control machinery for in there. Something to collect the sawdust at the tools and an air filter to help me breathe a little more comfortably when I'm working.