Early this morning I decided to hunt for the first time this season ... I had done enough practice to be confident of a 20+yd shot which is typical for bow hunting around here.  So up just at day break ... camo clothes on ... about 55 degrees F ... perfect weather, I climb up in the tripod and wait for the sunrise ... not too long after ... two 4 point "smallish" bucks are eating at the feed block and I decide one of them is small but "ok" ... I stand up, bring the bow to full draw and %^&*(*&^&*(* what the hell??? I can't see my sighting ring!!!! I had practiced over several weeks and KNOW the bow is properly sighted but for some damn reason ... I can't see the ring ... meaning I'm not on target! ... I hunch my shoulders shift my weight ... and finally "see" the ring ... and put the pin on the buck's shoulder and release ... only to see my arrow cleanly miss the deer (too low) by almost a foot ... again I think ... $%^&*(*&^%^&*(* what the hell????

OK off the stand ... deer have vanished of course ... I pick up the arrow ... walk over to my target range ... draw the bow at the target and STILL can't see the sight ring ... CLEARLY something has caused the bow to be knocked out of "sighted" ... crap ... ok ... it's a pain to sight this bow so I'll do it later ... into the house and off on regular Saturday errands we go ...

time passes ... it's late afternoon ... still plenty of daylight ... I've done several other things ... I'll see if I can sight in the bow ...

Out to the target range ... draw the bow on the target and ... there JUST LIKE IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE is my sight ring ... I release on the target and hit dead on! ... nock another arrow ... draw ... sight ring is good .. release ... two arrows in a 1 inch group ... what the hell???

The three deer that have been feeding at the block all this while have been observing my skill with a jaundiced eye ... "... he ain't bothering us ..." ... I draw a third arrow on the target ... release and now have three arrows in a 1 inch group ... so what was the problem this morning???   I mean ... what the hell ????

I walk over to the target, extract the three arrows, look up and not 15 yards away the three deer have now split off a bit ... two have "moseyed" about 10 steps from the block and one doe is still holding her ground at the block and eying me with a bit of what I considered a haughty attitude ...

Ok ... I set two of the arrows in the quiver and knock the third ... I walk all the way around to the front of the big deck ... up on the deck ... walk across 30 or 40 feet of acorns crunching like snap crackle pop cereal all the way watching the doe ... she's still at the block and now proceeding to munch away clearly not concerned by me and my bow (and it's very fickle at this point sight ring) ... I think to myself ... what the hell! ... I'm NOT in camo, I'm NOT on my tripod 15 feet in the air I'm NOT up wind ... and I have clearly been seen by this animal ... if she's that damn dumb or indifferent ... what the hell!!  I'm taking a shot ... so ... once again I draw my bow to full draw and the sight ring at first isn't anywhere to be seen then as I relax a bit... it settles into place ... I release the arrow and see a clean kill shot on the animal ... naturally she jumps and runs into the brush away from me as expected ... I wait ... go into the house change into old clothes and start to run the blood trail ... easy sign all looks to be a good shot with easy to follow trail ... and then ... it happens ....

I hear kids ... LOT'S OF KIDS ... and other people .... LOT'S OF OTHER PEOPLE ... all laughing CLEARLY having a party ... and as it turns out ... sure enough there is some sort of birthday party in full swing in the back yard of my neighbor (the Bakers) ... understand we rarely ever hear or see the Bakers ... like maybe once in the last 5 years ... and NEVER small children ... their property is separated from ours by dense heavy cedar and brush ... there is easily 100 yards from the deck in my yard across my property of dense cedar brush to where the Bakers have their yard and tennis court ... so .... here I am hot on a fresh blood trail when I come up right at the property line and smack into some sort of birthday party ... with maybe 30 people all tolled ... bunches of small (4-5 yr old) kids playing on the tennis court ... people laughing ... having a fine time ...

I stop and think to myself ... "What the hell?????" .....

So as quietly and stealthily as I can I back track to the our house ... cursing my luck that on THIS DAY of ALL DAYS ... the Bakers are having a damn party in the back yard ... and I KNOW right there close by is a dead deer I REALLY need to collect and get to the processor ... Carolyn is sympathetic but wants to go look for the deer now ... I'm of a mind that I really don't want a bunch of little kids crying because I shot Bambi and their mother's and father's telling me they are sure I have broken some ordinance or other and they are gonna have my ass thrown in jail .... so I tell Carolyn we will wait until the party is over ... maybe even tomorrow ...

About 7:45PM .... I walk outside and listen ... it's dark and I don't hear any revelry from the Bakers' backyard ... so I tell Carolyn the party is over and she wants to go look for the deer ... (btw when I first made the shot I advised Carolyn to call and see when the processor over in New Braunfels closed for the day ... they accept deer for processing until 9PM ... ) ... so with flashlights in hand we begin Ninja Deer Stalking in the dark ... always a fun evening ... I found the blood trail pretty quick and we started following it ... remember we are in THICK cedar brush at night with flashlights and basically right up against my neighbor's back fence ... when ...

.... there's another flashlight ... this one over at the Bakers' ... what the hell?? ... Dan Baker calls out "... hello who's there ..." and I reply "hey Dan ... it's Bade ..." (now Dan is a nice guy but I don't think he's a real fan of bow hunting in his back yard .. or in my back yard for that matter ...) ... Dan calls back "... are ya'll looking for a deer?" ... crap! ... "Yeah we are ... " ... "he's over there ..." and Dan helpfully shines his light about 10 yards from where we were standing ... "geeze Dan ... I was tracking that deer earlier when I came up to this point and ran into your party ... I'm REALLY sorry ... I hope the kids weren't freaked out ..." .... "no ... they didn't see it ... some of the adults did ... " ... "well ... I'm really sorry I didn't know there was a party going on ..." ... "yeah it was a surprise birthday party for me today is my 70th birthday ... " ... "well ... uh .... Happy Birthday!!! ... I'll get this deer outta here right away and again I'm really sorry it interrupted your party ... " ... "no problem ... I was sent out to look for a GameBoy ... " ... "ok well good luck and Happy Birthday again ... "

So ... I go over and pick up the deer and carry it about 50 yards back on my property ... field dress it as fast as I possibly can ... get it into the pickup ... it is now 8:24PM ... it's typically ... 40 minutes at best to New Braunfels ... gonna be tight ...

But Carolyn makes all of the lights but one and we pull into the processor at 8:59PM ... I'm not sure they were real glad to see me pull up at the last second .. but they took the deer and my deposit ... looking forward to some good dried sausage ... it wasn't a big doe but will make plenty of sausage ...

What the hell!!!

--
Bade
Like an old desperado ... painting the town beige

Well I got the new saw up and running this week and proceeded to finish dimensioning the wood for the crib/bed ... it takes a LOTTA WOOD!!!

From The Crib

From The Crib

So ... since THIS PROJECT ... isn't "due" until mid-March ... I'm setting it aside for a bit while I concentrate on Christmas presents ... "The shop is closed to visitors until further notice!"

First I have to state up front that I really DIDN'T intend to get a new saw ... wanted one sure, but times are tight.

Ok ... so I've completed the Toy Box and needed to get going on the crib ... gotta be done with that mid-March! So ... step 1 after having already purchased 100 board feet of prime rift-sawn 4/4 white oak is to dimension the lumber ... that is get it planed down to the appropriate thickness from it's rough "from the saw mill" state and get it cut to almost the final lengths/widths.

I spent a couple of hours cutting the 8ft boards from the saw mill down to 'near' the right lengths and then face jointing to smooth/flat one side of each board and one edge. The boards cut to length looked like this ... about 70bf more or less:

From The Crib

So ... having gotten that done the next step is to "rip" the boards lengthwise to get proper widths ... including some where multiple final width boards will be cut from a single wider boards as they currently sit.

I fired up my trusty Ryobi BT3100 table saw .. started the first rip and ... started feeling a serious bind of the motor and then smelling burning wood (due to the inability to feed the saw fast enough due to the motor slowing) and then the inevitable smell of burning motor ... THIS IS NOT A GOOD SIGN!! I swapped out the blade in the foolish hope that it was just a dull blade ... but when I fired the saw back up ... there were noises I don't generally hear ... and that ugly burning smell lingered ... C R A P !!!

I had worried if the small table saw I have enjoyed for several years would be up to the task of dealing with so much heavy hard wood ... I now had the answer ... "not so much!"

After seriously considering setting fire to the shop and claiming innocence ... I decided to start looking for a replacement ... I knew I needed something with more "heft" ...

I polled my internet woodworking buddies about a couple of ideas I had and one of them suggested I try to save some money by using the current "Live.com" offering that was going on ... save up to 30% of purchase price (limited to $200) ... now THAT was appealing since the saws I was looking at were beyond the budget I had in mind.

After much thought, deep serious (but fanatically fast due to the fact that the saw I wanted was only on ebay for a short remaining time and there was only one) ... I pulled the trigger on a "Cabinet Saw" (Grizzly G1023SL for those that care) and I saved (or will save after 60 days ... that's how the offer works) $200.

As for how the Live.com thing works ... and it IS worth learning about ... the following is a direct (lifted) quote from one of my woodworking fora ... give it a try it does work when they are running the promotion ...

You need to originate a search though Live.com that results in an Ebay hit that shows the "Live Search Cashback" symbol . The word "chisels" works for me just about every time. It doesn't matter what you search for initially, as long as it results in a hit that has that symbol that links you to Ebay.

Then enter Ebay thru the link from your Live.com search. You should see the "Microsoft" Cashback banner at the top of the page. Once you've got that banner, that session and the stated discount is valid for one hour....after an hour you can repeat the process to refresh it. Now you can search Ebay for any item you want, but it must be listed as a "Buy It Now" item, and they must accept PayPal as payment, and you must pay using PP. You'll see the Cashback banner at every step of the checkout process right up to confirming the purchase, so you'll know what your saving. Note that the discount is subject to change without notice....it has and will change but you won't know when until after. 30% is as high as I've seen it. You're allowed up to 6 cashback transactions per Ebay account...each transaction has a cap of $200.

Once you make the Buy It Now purchase, you'll receive an email from the MS Cashback folks stating that you've earned Cashback. It'll provide a link to set up a "Live ID" account with Microsoft. Your cashback will be available after 60 days, at which time you'll get another email with a link where you can request your payment. It typically goes straight to your PayPal account but I've read where others requested a check.

Well I believe "it is finished!" ... to borrow a phrase.

I put the final finish coat on Zach's toy box today and I have to say I'm fairly pleased with the outcome. Besides the aromatic cedar I used redwood from the old pool deck for the base and handles (which is the same wood I used for my big deck chair, my TV tray that I use every day, Carolyn's quilt rack and Carolyn's outdoor swing) so it has SOME family history in it's makeup and I used white oak that is part of the batch I will use to build the new baby crib for the lid and hinge reinforcements ... hopefully that will give it a little "heirloom" countenance in the future.

Here are a few pics of the finished product.

From Zach's Toy Box

From Zach's Toy Box

From Zach's Toy Box

From Zach's Toy Box