Now that's what I call a buck.
Luke sent the picture of this deer shot in my former stomping grounds, the big woods of northern Maine near the Quebec border.

November 30, 2017 - Thursday

36 degrees/cloudy/windy... again

Pentoga Road

I see the temperatures in Siberia are already reaching -70 F and lower. Ordinarily, I wouldn't care except it appears the winter of 2013 could be about ready to repeat itself.

We experienced the Polar Vortex in 2013 where the cold arctic temperatures wound their way east and plummeted down into the Midwest and East Coast. That was the year feet and feet of snow fell on Boston. 

Despite this week's warm temperatures, it's time to batten down the hatches and get ready. I have a feeling winter's about to arrive.

Wednesday brought one frustration after another. After arriving home from my walk, I began printing the last three pictures needed to complete the Christmas puzzles only to find the first was printed on the wrong paper.

With pictures finally in hand, I headed to shop and discovered I was out of laminate flooring, the material I use for backing with the puzzles.

I wasn't in the greatest of moods. What I needed was to stand in front of the lathe and turn something simple and fun, perhaps a Christmas goodie, a piece that would get my day headed in the right direction.

A snowman slowly emerged from the hunk of pine fence post mounted on the lathe. Just as I was separating it, I made a stupid error and my chisel snagged causing gouges in his base, hat, and head.

Needless to say, Mr. Snowman was cremated this morning in the wood stove.

Retirement is supposed to be fun, carefree, and relaxing. I needed to crawl out of the funk I'd put myself in. 

It was time to regroup. Start over. Think positive. Get away from the shop and Pentoga Road for a bit.

I drove to town in search of laminate flooring, hopefully, an open box that might be purchased at a huge discount. 

First came a quick visit with Yooper Brother Mark. It appears the four of us will be going to LasVegas again this spring in March. Since none of us drink or gamble to speak of, we go to people watch, walk around, gab, shop, sit in a hot tub, and soak up the warm temperatures. It's a wild, party-filled life the four of us lead.

Bidding Mark and Ann goodbye, I made my way to the lumberyard. As I was explaining why I was looking for an inexpensive, open, box of laminate flooring, a customer who was standing nearby said he was redoing his laminate floor and had all the old flooring I could ever want. He continued by saying that if I'd follow him home to Crystal Falls, I'd be doing him a favor by taking it.

That's exactly what I did.

My newest BFF in the world, Joe, helped me load enough flooring to make several lifetime's worth of puzzles. He thanked me for taking it. I thanked him for giving it to me. 

My day had finally turned around. It was time to get busy.

The rest of the day was spent in the shop. I laminated two pieces of walnut from which I hope to turn a Christmas present. 

The corners will be rounded today and the piece mounted to the lathe. It's going to be a challenge turning the very hard hickory on a mini lathe, but I'm up for it. Working with spinning hard wood is like turning a rock. Seems I have to sharpen my chisels every few minutes.

I could feel the shop vibes turning in my favor late Wednesday afternoon. Alan Jackson was crooning on the radio, it was cozy warm in the shop, and there were still a couple of hours before Sargie pulled in the drive.

Why not turn a birch bowl?

I discovered after removing all the bark that the birch was almost too spalted, soft and pithy in a couple of places. There's a point that turning soft wood is like trying to shape a roll of wet toilet paper. It takes a delicate hand with a slow approach.

The wood finally began to take shape. The pithy place was turned out of the middle and the bowl appeared to be solid. 

It was over an hour later when a coat of beeswax was applied.  

I didn't even attempt to buff the bowl last night, but rather set it aside so the beeswax could dry. I'll buff it later today to a high gloss before applying several coats of poly.

All I can think of is how much fun it will be to turn larger items once I purchase my full-sized lathe. This bowl is a bit over five inches in diameter. I can hardly wait to turn ones that are twice that size or larger.

Sargie and I had a quiet evening last night catching up on recorded programs on the DVR. She closes the Vision Center tonight meaning another solitary drive home in the dark through the north woods for my girl.

I'm heading to the shop in a bit. Yesterday began on a bad note, today will be much better. I can already feel it.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...