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Praetorium Honoris

Monday, April 13, 2020

Trying to stay busy! (and, more important, Sane!)



Well....It was a pretty good week, all things considered.

Managed to score pretty high in the Grocery Shopping Lottery on Wednesday.


TP AND Bleach! Haven't seen the likes of those two in quite some time.



Even managed to find a bag of sugar.  Mrs J's friends were very happy!

As to the "Project".  When last we spoke, this was the state of progress.




Easter Morning we were alerted by a Tornado Warning.  But, by the time Mrs J and I actually started our chores, AKA walking up to the barn and feeding the Horses, the Day had become quite nice.  This was the view.


Yes, we have windows and soffits.  Plus, it was a beautiful morning.


The back of the house.


Looking out at the Back Porch. And another.  (I think we're going to spend a considerable amount of time there.




The view from Mrs J's Office.

Great day to be alive!

So, what else did you learn this week, juvat?

Well...Sarge...I did learn a very important lesson.

Did you know that pressure treated lumber purchased from the box store is wet?

Did you also know that when you run out of room to store it on the floor that putting it on top of your table saw is a "VERY bad idea"?



I do now!

About 3 hours of rubbing and the better part of a can of WD-40 later, I had learned my lesson.


With just enough of a reminder not to do that again.


But, I am 3/4 of the way through with this project.  One more Adirondack Chair and I'm finished.  Yes, that wood is on the floor of my wood shop.  Fool me once....


And yes, I thought they were good enough to brand.

 


Mrs J and MBD decided to fly kites, it being a bit breezy outside.  Two little (6") Biplane kites provided a bit of diversion while waiting for the Brisket to smoke. 

 After displaying their aeronautic skills to my discriminating eye, they decided to decorate sugar cookies.





I thought they did an acceptable exceptional job.

Such is life in the Coronaverse nowadays.

Hope y'all are doing all right and have a blessed Easter Season. 

60 comments:

  1. Glad to see the progress on la casa de juvat. Looks great. And nothing like a bright spring day in the Hill County. How are the wildflowers this year?
    My table saw has been at the beach house for quite a while now, and although kept inside, the overall humidity is such that I have to keep its surface oiled and even then occasionally have to get the OOOO steel wool to it.
    My compliments to the cookie decorators - awesome job!
    Storms rolling thru central and eastern NC this morning - under tornado watch until noon.

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    1. Thanks, Tom.

      Actually the wildflowers were a bit subdued this year. Don't know why. (I'll blame China...I mean, why not?) I need to take a turn around the Willow City Loop to see if it's just local or not. Stay tuned.

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  2. There's GOLD in that thar shopping cart! And that in itself is a sad state of affairs eh? Local mom & pop down the road has had TP and paper toweling available for some time now, big stores not! Perhaps a tarp over the saw might help should you need it again. Furniture looks good as do the cookies, almost too good to eat........ almost.......:) Oh...... between five and six inches of snow yesterday and 25 above now, up to 32 today.......:(

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    1. I usually keep a plastic drop cloth over it, but....got in a hurry, wood was heavy, head was up my....

      Winter ain't over til it's over. Woke to low 40's this morning but clear and a million.

      Thanks.

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  3. Oh, properly drying lumber would, like, take time and cost money, so we can’t have that.

    What the heck do they cut that stuff from, banana trees?

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    1. Must be. I don't know what I was thinking...oh...wait!

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  4. Construction in general is proceeding, and the timber framing above the back porch looks great.

    I'm in awe of the skill and artistry shown in the sugar cookie painting. I'm good at a lot of things, but artistic talent like that is way beyond me.

    Rust. Good corrective actions, and the amount of elbow grease used helps to drive home the lesson. Keep an eye on the surface, and at the bottom edges of the miter grooves because you might have to do a chemical treatment to neutralize any rust that's in the pits. Some wire brushing may help with that.
    I've had success with Naval Jelly, (Don't go there Beans) when I wanted the rust gone. Other derusting chemicals remove the rust, and leave a dark primer behind for the expected painting.
    I bought a gallon of evapo-rust for a derusting project, but I haven't gotten around to that project yet and I cannot report on how well evapo-rust works. I just went to the basement, read the container, and it has a process for derusting large projects.
    Consider using your random orbital sander with a dry sheet of emory cloth. A few passes might leave you with an attractive engine turned finish. (dry because you don't want to contaminate the sander pad)

    The branding iron worked nicely.


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    1. I've applied a coating of TopSaver which had good reviews to slow the return of rust. We'll see. I had good result with a 220 grit sanding sponge. Enough grit to remove the rust, and malleable enough to get into the miter grooves. Because it was hand powered, I wasn't too worried about ruining the surface.

      Thanks

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    2. What did I do? What? Why is everyone picking on me?...


      ;)

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    3. We only pick on those we like. Trolls are ignored and automatically rerouted to HuffPost.

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    4. Moles and trolls, moles and trolls, work, work, work, work, work...

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    5. Molds and trolls, Beans, Molds and trolls.

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  5. The new seating looks fantastic! Nice work! Also, I love the Peter Rabbit and Hummingbird cookies- fantastic decorating work. Cheers to a great week!

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    1. I've been married to the Lady for 38 years. I had NO idea! And MBD is equally talented. Praying that the travel restrictions get lifted shortly. Hang in there!

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  6. The casa is coming along nicely. Incredible artwork on the cookies, Bravo Zulu to all hands.

    Love the brand!

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  7. Oooo....Adirondack chairs are the BEST!!

    No, wait...those cookies are fantastic!!!!

    Obviously, ya'll had a very lovely Easter!!!

    And, yea, nothing ever sits on the top of the table saw...unless, that is, you are LOOKING for an upper body/arm workout...

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    1. Thanks, Suz, got the plans and cut list for the Bench and Chair here". Pretty easy to construct although I did find it took quite a bit longer than "30 minutes and 3 tools" to construct.

      Yes, we did have a nice Easter.

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  8. I like the touch mark. No misunderstanding, there. It is simple, and loud. Very nice.

    Like, John, I've had my share of rust remediation. I've used evaporust on a lot of stuff. It leaves black iron from the iron oxide all over. A scrubbing with scotch brite usually cleans it off. If you decide to to the saw table, make sure you do it all, not just the rusty bits. It'll leave a more uniform finish that way. I know how you felt when you moved the wood, too. That 500 fpm sink in the stomach is hard to forget.

    If you find some time, send up a prayer for me. I bonked my head last week, and found out I have post concussion syndrome. It is neither pleasant nor welcome. Current order is dark room and little reading or other brain food. And my brain doesn't like diets. Thanks in advance.

    I'm on here, cause I gotta keep up with the neighbors...

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    1. We're praying for your speedy recovery and relief from the headaches and all that may accompany the syndrome. Bonking is a surprise thing we never want. Makes you really aware of where you're moving - looking out for stuff that could hurt. I'm sorry that you have to get away from reading and brain feeding. It's what we are depending on to keep us sane sometimes.

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    2. Get well soon STxAR. Prayers on the way to Sky Six!

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    3. Thanks STxAR,
      As with the others, you're in our prayers.

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    4. Yikes. Concussions are no fun at all. The only one I ever had was from slipping on a moldy wood deck and went backwards. Fortunately I only mildly concussed, but the first 24 hours was much as you experienced. Sucky. Very sucky. And me being macho-miserly (both too stubborn to go and too penny-pinching) I did not go to the ER like I probably should have.

      All the hits in the head and my moldy back porch got me. I think someone was trying to tell me to wear a helmet on moldy decks. Or maybe clean moldy decks. Dunno, I was concussed at the time.

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    5. Well, Beans....That certainly explains some things. ;-)

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    6. juvat beat me to it! :-)

      Sympathies on the concussion, STxAR - no fun at all. I was never impressed by people claiming headaches were disabling them, they should be able to just power through them, I thought. Well, that line of thinking was quickly dispelled when about 20 years ago I experienced some barotrauma on a dive trip which left me with migraine-type headaches off and on for about six months. I was totally incapacitated when I had on of those episodes. So hope your symptoms pass quickly and you get back to normal in a hurry.

      PS - head injuries are nothing to play around with. The number of people who die each year from 'simple' head injuries is not insignificant. The damage can seem minor, but the sudden sloshing of the brain inside the skull can cause bleeding that is hard to detect except by CT scan. I'm especially sensitive to the concern since I'm on blood thinners, which can exacerbate the problem.

      So everyone, if you get a hard bonk on the head, please go get checked out!

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    7. Thanks, family. I appreciate the prayers. Sending some of mine to the crew of the TR as well. Monitoring....

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    8. Tom, I did not think about the effect blood thinners might have to a head injury. Since I'm on them, I'll discuss that with Mrs J over a beer. Just in case. BTW, someone in the health profession advised me to laminate a list of meds and supplements taken and tape it to the back of your Drivers License. You've always got it with you to remind you and if you're incapacitated in an accident, the trooper will see it when he gets your license. Can't hurt and might make a big bit of difference.

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  9. Juvat. Thanks for including us in your ongoing house building thing. It seems like it is going up so fast. The place will be beautiful once it gets done. I love the roof line.
    As far as the cookies go. Are there any left? They are looking pretty tasty and festive!
    The branding is cool. Good thing I don't have anything to brand here or I'd be looking for such a thing.
    Today is a great day for reminiscing about the great things that happened for us yesterday.

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    1. It is going up pretty fast, the plywood is going up on the roof as we speak. (I'm about to make an inspection run AKA feed the horses and take a look)

      MBD took the majority of them with here. She had a face to face meeting with her team this morning, so they're going to be happy.

      I'm having a hard time deciding to eat them. They really look awesome!

      Yes, it is a great day for reminicing Dave!

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  10. The house is looking great. I'm sure you have thought of all of these already but I learned from experience to have twice as many electrical outlets as usual, and four times as many in your office spaces and the kitchen. Have outside outlets for both the front door and patio (for Christmas decorations if nothing else). Hose bibs are handy on all four sides of the building and near the garage. A wash tub in the garage comes in handy. Now is a good time to run cable to all rooms just in case. It is also a good time to think about securing a weapons safe. All of these are lessons learned the hard way.

    And to our host, a well chosen masthead. I watched ROUGH RIDERS last night and l thoroughly enjoyed it. I couldn't help but think of the irony that the hero of the story was selected by his Regular Army colleagues to write a letter requesting relief for the troops who were being overcome by malaria and yellow fever. History does indeed repeat itself.

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    1. My son-in-law, Big Time, is in TR's air wing. Currently he's holed up in a one man hotel room on Guam.

      Cases from the ship have passed 500. One sailor has died. This stuff is scary and is no hoax as some tin-foil hat wearing maroons are claiming.

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    2. Add in my two cents.... make sure you have enough capacity in the service panel and it doesn’t hurt to have sub panels, except in the wallet.

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    3. Thanks Dave. Just last week we did a walk through with the Foreman to discuss electricity. I hadn't thought of hose bibs, but I will look into that. Cable (as well as Cat 5) is already in the plans. We didn't even have to request it which I thought was pretty cool of Tilson.

      That is an interesting coincidence isn't it. May have to look into the movie.

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    4. Big Time added to our prayer list, Sarge.

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    5. Mayhaps the ex-skipper should have avoided Corona-Vietnam. So many mistakes made on all sides of the issue. Dangit.

      Well, at least the old TR skipper is now in charge.

      Hope everything goes well on the boat/ship.

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    6. Great movie and we are overdue for a rewatching.
      I suggest watching "The Wind and The Lion" also directed by John Milius.

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    7. I love the Marines in that movie.

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    8. Oh yes, they're awesome. Great movie!

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    9. Ok, Three thumbs up. Added to list.

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    10. (Don McCollor)...'Rough Riders was amazingly accurate. It was probably one of strangest units ever put together, and so essentially American. Roosevelt had been asst secretary of the Navy. There were congressmen and governors, Sioux that had actually fought Custer (not that long ago), Apache serving under Col Leonard Wood, who had received a CMH in the campaign against them. The nephew of the richest man in American, and the son of an outlaw who had ridden with the James Gang. And yes, Stephan Crane was a war correspondent in Cuba...

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    11. (Don McCollor)...'Wind and the Lion' has so many great lines. Roosevelt's counteroffer for a ransom 'I want Pedecaris alive or Raisoli dead', and the American Council (after the palace was stormed by US Marines, and the Marine officer with his sword at the Bashaw's throat) 'I am no longer making entrees - I am making threats'...

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  11. How can you eat that art you misnamed as cookies?

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    1. Good point, but it is an excellent deterrent against elevating my blood sugars.

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  12. I concur with STxAR about Evaporust or some other de-oxidizer. They even make gel versions for things that can't be dunked in a small bucket, unless you are a freak like Abom79 and have a converted palletized tank to soak parts in.

    (Yes. Tool rehabilitation videos are one of my secret pleasures. I love watching youse-tubers do all sorts of things from just fixing 100 year old coffee mills to complete tear-down and rebuilds of complex machines. Handtool Rescue, Make Everything, Fireball Tools, Veradona and so many more. There's even people who take dead toys and fix them. Guilty pleasures, guilty pleasures.)

    After de-rusting, buffing with a decent car paste wax is a good thing.

    As to PT wood. Yeah, the new(ish) non-copper chronium-arsenic stuff is very very wet when bought from stores. If not using it right away (like back of pickup to project right NOW!) your best bet is to put it on the floor on top of some scraps with some air space between each board, almost as if you were stacking it for air drying (youse-tubes of people running sawmills and sawing big trees in their yard, yes, also another guilty pleasure. Fall Line Ridge, Matthew Cremona and others....)

    Best bet is to put it on the side of the building that gets sunlight and let the sun bake some liquid out of it.

    Glad they are finally putting a roof on the casa. Weird to see windows in place and no roof. But, again, different teams and different schedules. Hopefully it will stay dry long enough for the roof to be at least waterproofed.

    Those ladies, very artistic. Mrs. J, MBD, or both?

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    1. Definitely, both. And, quite obviously, those genes were not passed down from my side. Although...Mom was pretty artistic, so it must have been one of those every other generation things.

      Yeah, the wood for the final Adirondack has been on the floor for a couple of weeks now. Which was why the floor wasn't used. I changed the construction order at the last minute in order to have seating for 5 for the weekend.

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    2. Regarding wet PT wood, it isn't surprising it's wet given the process they use to PT it. A couple of my pre-retirment customers were wood preservative/PT customers, and they took me for a tour of the plant. They essentially load a huge autoclave with stacks of lumber, close the door, pull a vacuum and then pressurize the chemicals into the wood. Here's a good short video about the process. (Hope this isn't TMI) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzUsDKkCE7Y

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    3. Cued up and ready to watch, as soon as I find time in my busy schedule. Ok, ok, gimmee a minute to cut and paste the address. 😀

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  13. There is product on the market called KDAT. (kiln dried after treatment). It is not widely available but the beauty of it is, no shrinkage! (It also does not weigh a ton!) Cost is approximately (x1.6) the price of standard dimensional lumber. (My area is central NC) The trade name is Pellawood. I would not build a ship out of it but for smaller projects, it is good stuff.

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    1. I think I've seen that, or maybe an ad for it. I'll look into it the next time I'm in the box store. (Which is soon). Thanks for the info.

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  14. Great looking house, nice looking cookies and where does one buy an F-14 target angle 0 brand? :)

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    1. Yes....well....I’m going to blame a small typo on that question. Say by an order of one,(Larger being better), That having been said, I saw an ad in woodworking magazine. If you sent them a black and white, thet would send you the brand. Was built in China and took about 3 months (supposed tobe a Christmas gift, arrived in March). Nicely done and heats well with a butane bottle.

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  15. Great post juvat. Beautiful day! Quite cold up here, looking like single digits tonite. Guess ut is still April. Cookies are beautiful.

    All these years I thought rust was a preservative!

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    1. Yeah, Mrs J and I sat out on the porch this evening for our pre-prandial glass of wine. I had to put on a light jacket. Somewhere in the low forties but about 20K of wind. So coldish!

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  16. Glad things are moving along... And those cookies look too pretty to eat! Congrats to the ladies!

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  17. Sorry to be late to the party, I tend to read this late at night or even the next day when I get busy. We had a blown water heater that I was distracted by, tankless going in today. Beautiful house, and I I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures from that room in the finished product.

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    1. I feel your pain, Tuna. I finally got tired of taking cold Navy Showers and Saturday had a replacement water heater put in. New house will have a tankless heater in the Master Bath. Regular for the rest of the house.

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