Wednesday was spent making a template, then practicing making a cross out of scrap lumber.

April 15, 2016 - Thursday

29 degrees/clear/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I don't want to say this too loudly, but I'm fairly optimistic that spring has sprung. Today's high is promised to be in the fifties. Couple that with bright, sunny, skies, and it looks to be a good one. In fact, the ten-day forecast is just as favorable. Saturday is to peak in the low seventies. Put me in coach, I'm ready to play.

Wednesday was a busy one on Pentoga Road. Most of it was spent in the shop, the first half in an attempt to make a template of a cross for Sheri's great grandpa's grave, the second half spent practicing, cutting it out from scrap lumber.

I wish I could draw. You know, be one of those people who scribbles a few marks on a piece of paper and suddenly comes up with a Rembrandt. I'm a stick figure kind of guy. Oh, I also make kick butt happy faces, the result of years of practice from grading kiddies' homework. 

A side note: happy faces die hard. I found I automatically drew them on my graduate students' research papers in my later teaching years at the university.

I tried sketching a cross by making a grid. That didn't work. Freehand proved as worthless. Suddenly, I had a rare moment of clarity, a deep thought if you will. Why not trace the outline of a shadow? My shop is about as lighted as any small room could be. What would happen if I turned off all but one overhead light, adjusted the cross (one I repaired earlier this winter) so it cast a shadow onto the freezer paper I was attempting to draw on.

I had the scrap wood needed to make a stand and with the porcelain cross perched on it's back overhead, I began tracing.

I cut the cross from the freezer paper and there was my template, a pattern from which I could work.

The next step was cutting two pieces of the cross from a pine board on the band saw.

It was going well until the top wheel threw a tire, the rubber band on which the saw blade sits.

Thankfully, I had a spare and was back up and running in no time.

So the afternoon went. Two pieces were cut and eventually, fitted together to make the cross.

I learned quite a bit. First of all, my cuts need to be much smaller and more precise where the arm fits into the vertical piece. My bandsaw cutting also needs to be smoother and not as choppy. For the final cross, I'll use a fine tooth blade. It just takes practice and practice I will. I don't want Sheri's great grandpa not liking his grave marker and coming back to haunt me in the future.

The final cross will have a broader bottom, then extend into a piece of foot long concrete that can be buried to keep the marker upright.

It was late afternoon and knowing I wouldn't get to spend any time with Sargie in the evening, I decided to drive to Iron Mountain and ride home with her. Today is the last of Home Depot's spring sale and I think I'll pick up a few more things, mostly landscape timbers. At half the normal price, it's too good of a deal to pass up. With all the landscaping, gardening, and building I do around here, treated timbers are like love, you just can't have too many. (I just read that to Sargie. She smiled, nodded her head, and as she walked away, said, "Now that's deep.") 

I'll be heading back to Iron Mountain this morning, but hope to make a quick turn around. One of our local grocery stores is having a one day sale, so I've been instructed to pick up butter and eggs before coming home. I hope to spend the rest of the day working in the greenhouse. There are petunias, pansies, moss rose, lavender, and Sweet Williams to transplant, plus the tomatoes, peppers, and cabbage have all sprouted. It's that time of year.

It's time to listen to the news and think some deep thoughts. Oh, wait... I already did, that thing about landscape timbers and love.

I'm not surprised. After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...