And After the Seventh Week I Rested.

   It took seven weeks of hard work to complete the shop expansion and organize the machining area of the shop. Well I still have a few little things left but I can get back to building things.

  It is said that it took God six days to make our universe.  On the seventh day He rested.

Good thing it was Him because if it was left to me we wouldn't be here yet.

    It's too bad He didn't leave a few things until later. Annoying things like mosquitoes, rattle snakes, black flies, jelly fish, skunks, June bugs, Kuala Bears ......................

I asked, "Shannon, what other annoying things are there?".....(silence)....

 Oh, I get it. Men?.....wait a minute.......NOT ME!!!!!

Well, I'm going to put up some pics of my labour.

Here we go.

As promised some photos of the tidier machining area. Well at least it is now an organized mess.

  Lots of room to move around now. I made some new rolling cabinets for some more storage. Still need to put some doors on a few of them to keep the dust out. I can also roll the carts out and use them as little tables or double as saw horses.

 

  Here is the spindle sander that George Dunn built. A real feat of engineering if you ask me. The spindle doesn't even slow down at all when you put the wood to it due to his nice gearing work.

  Routers galore thanks to George. 

Some shots of the new area. This is about as tidy as it will get for now. You can now see the floor and all the bench surfaces finally. I added a ceiling fan in here, works very well to keep you cool.

 I kept the very best of George's chisels by the window in easy reach of my bench.

 This is the sharpening station. I need to add a little cabinet beside the other yet. That will come soon. You can see two wet sharpeners that are from George in this picture, the yellow one and blue on in the corner. I hung all the chisels here so hopefully they will be sharpened when they are put back in the rack.

Finally, a tidy place to keep all the fasteners.

  A set of garden doors for here were about 700 dollars. I have plenty of oak so I decided to make a pair of craftsman style doors for this opening. Better get started soon the weather is changing. They will also allow me to display my skills in door construction. Going to be awesome.

  Seven weeks and 92.5% of the job is complete. A lot faster than I would have figured. Thanks to Paul, Kyle and Jason for they're help. Thanks to Shannon for painting the siding and putting up with my desertion of the household.
   She is so understanding and none of this would be possible without her. I love her. We did get in a couple of nice bike trips during those seven weeks though.
  And thanks to the Somers' for the donation of the lighting fixtures and Alex and Jim for bringing them down to me. Also thanks to Steve Chapple for delivering that huge window. Thanks to John Kernaghan for the loan of the drywall lift and letting me use his aluminum break, he is always so helpful to me now and in the past.

  I had always planned on having a shop ready for retirement. I didn't think it would come together this early but a home was needed for George's legacy of tools and Shannon won't be annoyed seeing me sitting on the couch all the time.

  It will also serve well while I am going through this time of healing. Making things is very soothing. My fractured mind should mend much quicker with the mindfulness provided from the wood working.

   Like a Dojo, monastery, temple, church...... no better than that, it is my Keep, a place of last retreat like in the castles of old. Here I make my stand against depression. Depression can wail on the walls all day but I am safe in here. Once it is defeated having spent itself trying to break in I will come forth and vanquish it for ever more.

  Some day this place will provide me with part time employment and a reason to hone my writing skills. I would even like to submit some articles to magazines on some of my projects. I hope to some day write about my experience with PTSD and have it published as well.

 We will see what comes of the future. I am positive it will be good. I have many friends in the wings waiting to help me out when I call upon them. For that Shannon and I are very grateful.

As always, thanks for reading.
Keep smiling, to much work to frown.

Ken

"Hating is like taking poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die." ~~ Buddha