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

Let's see ... over the course of a number of years of woodworking I've built solid body guitars, hollow body guitars, a couple of mandolins, a banjo, several small furniture items like quilt racks, outdoor furniture, ice chests, a backyard swing, several picture frames and any number of other things ... but not once have I ever built anything that used a joinery method called a "dovetail".

Dovetail joinery is actually a very common and very old way of joining two pieces of wood at a right angle. (you can of course use dovetails to join wood at other than right angles but the common usage is for drawers and cabinetry) In the "old days" and even now many craftsmen consider "handmade dovetail joints" to be a mainstay of fine craftsmanship. These woodworkers accomplish this magic joinery with nothing more than a hand saw, a pencil, a ruler and a practiced eye. Modern day woodworkers typically rely on "jigs" and either a router or a table saw to create the joint. I on the other hand have managed to avoid using this particular joint because of the many articles and books I have read that contend that the setup of the jigs and power tools are beyond the skills of all but the most accomplished woodworker.

A few months ago ... ok ok ok ... about 3 YEARS ago I was in the local "Harbor Freight (HF)" store ... HF is the home of cheaply made, cheaply sold pacific rim tools that one can almost always count on to fail when put into actual use ... but also the place wannabe craftsmen like myself are drawn because of the low prices and ever present "sales and coupons" ... and jumped at the "sale" being had on the HF version of a "half-blind" dovetail jig for routers. (Dovetails come in two flavors basically ... "half-blind" and "through" ... without too much technical detail just know that a quality "through" dovetail router jig from a well known manufacturer (Leigh) will cost $400-$500 ...) The $29 for the HF jig was too good to pass up. After getting the jig home and then reading several woodworker forum posts about how hard the HF jig was to set up and even then how poor the actual fit of the joint ... I quietly stowed the jig in a far corner of the shop (unopened) and promptly resumed my avoidance of the mystical dovetail joint.

Recently, I decided to start a fairly ambitious project for an anxiously anticipated new grandchild and needed to secure lumber for that project. At the same time I came to the decision that I wanted to continue the tradition started by my dad of building a "toy box" for the grandchildren and delivering the toy box on Christmas morning when the grandchild has reached an appropriate age. Zach will be seven this Christmas and it is time to build him a toy box. I visited a saw mill in East Texas and bought white oak for the other project and "aromatic cedar" for Zach's toy box. I recalled that as a boy most of the toy boxes I was familiar with had lots of "knots" in them (cheap pine I suspect) and felt like cedar offered a similar look. Aromatic cedar is more often thought of for "cedar chests" that would hold blankets or clothes I suppose but I believe that this will look great as a toy box as well.

I had located a "plan" for the toy box that gave me an idea of what I wanted to build and the amount of wood required. Once I had the wood at home I examined the plan more carefully and realized that the plan was sketchy on construction details but what was clearly noted was that the "dovetail joints need to be carefully laid out and cut to assure a proper fit ..." ... well thanks a lot bucko ... I considered looking for a different plan but ultimately decided to cowboy up and learn how to execute this troublesome piece of joinery.

I read everything I could find online about using the HF jig including a set of fairly detailed setup instructions posted by another hapless woodworker that had been suckered into the $29 jig sale and forged ahead with its usage ... his assessment was that it was in fact possible to accomplish an "acceptable" joint if extreme care was taken in the jig and router setup. In general woodworking, a 1/16" accuracy is typically acceptable ... but not so in cabinetry ... in that case "perfect is almost good enough ...".

So armed with the additional setup instructions and the instructions that came with the jig ... which were clearly written by someone who's 1st, 2nd and perhaps 3rd language was NOT English ... I dug around in the shop for the box with the jig. I found it under a pile of debris covered in cobwebs, dust and mouse droppings ... opened it up and heaved out the 20 pound Harbor Freight Half-Blind Dovetail jig. I spent about an hour setting up my first test cut using some scrap lumber and dove in ... when finished I fully expected the fit to be "half-assed" having been created by a "half-blind" craftsman on a "half-blind" jig ... but it turned out not to be "half-bad" ... in fact it was far better than I expected.

So ... armed with a new found confidence and again being very very careful with the setup measurements (those changed every time you change wood stock dimensions) I reset the jig to fit the actual cedar I had very carefully cut, jointed and planed to the exact dimensions I wanted for the toy box.

The results are in my opinion very acceptable ... I hope that in the distant future when Zach has passed the toy box down he will remember the story of how G'Pa learned how to dovetail on his toy box.

I have included a few pictures of my progress to date:

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

Regardless of the immense pain in the butt having our flight canceled last night and having to DRIVE from Dallas ... we had a great time (as always) in Cozumel.

In total we did 10 boat dives and a short shore dive and spent over 10 hours underwater for the week.

The weather held out for us in Cozumel and while we were gone we received 4.67 inches of blessed rain here at the house over the week. So everything is green and needs mowing.

Thanks for reading ... hope you enjoyed the web log ....

Next up ALASKA ....

... and I KNOW this because ... we just did it. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

When we got to the airport in Cozumel, we checked in and managed to change our flight out of Dallas from leaving at 10:40PM to leaving at 8PM .... improving our layover in Dallas from about 6 hours to only a little over 3. This you would think is a good thing ... WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got to DFW from CZM with no problem at all (in fact a little early) ... had a bite to eat after getting thru customs an rechecking our bags on to San Antonio and then sat at the gate ... there was what appeared to be a small thunderstorm that passed thru pretty quickly but we were advised that the flight coming from Detroit had been rerouted to Oklahoma City would refuel and be in Dallas a little late ... no big deal ... then about 8:30PM (flight was to leave at 7:55PM) it was announced our flight had been canceled ... no explanation just "tough" .. there are 150 passengers on this flight please line up at the desk so we can confirm you on a flight tomorrow ... the two later flights tonight (the last of which we were initally scheduled for and changed in Cozumel) are booked solid but we will put you on standby for those ... "good freakin' luck".

So ... we went to the desk (waited in line) and got confirmed on a flight for Wednesday morning ... btw ... American Airlines will NOT pay for your hotel BUT will get you a reduced rate. ... THANKS A LOT!!

So we boogied over to the rental car complex and started looking for a car to rent ... 1st price we got was $200 plus tax .... NOT .... finally got an AVIS car for what we thought would be $165 ... so we drive the giant gas guzzling Grand Marquis ... the 4 hours to San Antonio airport, arrive about 1:45AM ... it requires three passes to actually get INTO the airport because of poor signage and construction ... we got to the AVIS rental place surprised to find they were actually open at that ungodly hour only to be told the cost was $213 .... NOT .... turns out they had made the car reservation to be returned to San Diego .... we'd have to drive pretty damn fast to make that in 24 hours.

So .. got that straightened out actually paid $157 for the car and are now trying (to no avail yet) to get a refund for the DFW/SAT leg of the airfare.

Got home about 3AM ...

Other than that how did you like the play Mrs Lincoln?