Dot`sThoughts

Thursday, JUly 17, 2008
Just another day. Had intended on doing a little grass cutting, but I pulled and pulled and still the lawn mower refused to start. I watched my son give the mower a foot push forward as he pulled the cord, -one problem- he is longer legged and can push it farther away from him. I gave up and finished all the trim cutting around the house, trees and other things with the cord trimmer. Now it feels too hot to work outside. Supposed to be even hotter tomorrow and Saturday. Saturday we are having the large Family July Picnic which we usually have the first Saturday after the 4th. . I first thought they might forgo the picnic this year due to losing our oldest brother who owned the farm where the yearly picnics were held in the past. This year it is one of my younger sisters turn to handle the doings, so she decided to hold it at her home which is down the road from the farmhouse. Everyone makes a dish or a desert to bring to share, so we always have lots of extra food there. This year most of my family will be working and unable to attend. Youngest sister told me most of hers also had to work. So there will be less attending, plus every year our large family keeps getting smaller. Only one Uncle and two Aunts now left in the family and one lives too far away and the other 2 are in poor health so won`t be able to attend. Only a few cousins left also. I can remember when there would be well over 150 attending. Hope there is a breeze and no rain as the weather might be way too hot to stay outside all day long. Feel sorry for the one who will end up doing the outdoor cooking this year as it sure will be hot enough without the heat from the cookers. (Walker, hope your big cook-out has a cooler day for all your cooking. Of, course that is probably just wishful thinking on my part since your weather isn`t too much different from mine.)

I also spent part of the day cutting out the frame boards for the new cupboard I hope to make and add to my kitchen. Seems like we never do have enough places to put everything. When I first started to cut the boards, I had plugged in the saw , but nothing happened when I pushed on the start on the floor. I have a cord connection that goes between my table saw and the plug in on the wall. This connection has two push places-- one says start and the other says stop on them. I like this connection because if you have both hands supporting a board you are cutting, you don`t have to remove one hand off the board to hit the normal on/off switch on the saw itself. This connection sets on the floor, so to stop it you can just step on the stop place without removing either hand off the board. I feel it is so much safer and there is less chance of the board being kicked back towards you if you don`t have to take you hands off it. . You can`t accidentally step on the start place as it sets deeper into the connection platform and to push the start place you have to push it by hand.You can just use your foot for a faster shut off of the saw.

Well, to get back to why the machine didn`t start when I had plugged in the cord and pushed the floor start by hand. You might have already figured out why. You see my youngest son used the table saw last when he was cutting treated lumber to build the larger back deck for his sister who lives next door to me. He is a construction worker by trade, which sometimes comes in handy. From habit, he has shut off the saw by pushing the on/off switch on the saw. So, once I turned that switch back to on, the saw started up ok. Glad it was nothing wrong with my saw to worry about. But all this treated lumber cutting seems to be dulling my saw blade, or it could be just adding gunk onto the blade that needs to be cleaned off. Before I do any more cutting, guess I better unplug the saw and try cleaning the blade. If that doesn`t make it cut better, then I will have to give in and go buy a new blade. This blade sure does get a lot of use since others also find that mom`s shop tools come in handy.
My bandsaw and router tables are on wheels so I can keep them back to the wall out of the way until I need to use them. These wheel bases have a way to drop the machines down solid onto the floor when the wheels are released to make them sturdy when being used. I wouldn`t feel safe to have the wheel frame under the table saw, so I have to move that one the harder way, but it isn`t real heavy to move. I finally cleared off the large bench and hung the double florescent light up over the bench. Still haven`t decided where I will end up hanging the smaller double light. I have a double length overhead light with double long lights on each section that lights up the whole shop. I even hung most of the tools off the bench on the pegboard hooks on the pegboard end of the bench. Now, I have the bench top cleared to work on. Next is to decide just where I want to add the bench vise where it will be handy and still not in the way while working. Always something waiting to be done.

Now for some exciting news:
One of my granddaughters phoned me yesterday to tell me she might have her baby on my Birthday in Sept.. She is so excited about having it then. This baby will make the 17 th great grandchild. Boy, just writing that makes me feel old. 17 grandchildren and soon to be 17 great grandchildren. Boy, how Walt would have loved seeing them all. He never saw his youngest granddaughter or the last 10 of the great grandchildren. He sure would have felt proud of them all. Wish they all had been able to know their grandfather. The ones he did know were all very close to him.

Guess I should stop playing on the computer and go water the garden plants and the flower beds. Still keeping my eyes open in case my unwanted guest is still around some place ( the snake, that is). Brought in my first batch of yellow string beans this morning. Green beans are taking longer. Tomatoes and green peppers are getting larger and the beets and carrots in the containers seem to be doing well also. Saw my first teeny cucumber on the vine this morning. Already eaten a lot of lettuce and the lettuce head style, plus the cabbage are both getting larger. Zucchini has loads of blossoms on them. Hopefully there will be some vegetables to freeze and can to help with the food prices this winter.