I have quietly been saving my change, putting 1 dollar here, 5 dollars there back since I found out the show was coming. I planed to go tomorrow, but a friend at work called in a favor, so I have to work a double this weekend, so 48 hours at the station is my plans for the weekend. So friday was my day to go. My friend Bubba D (Pyromedic here) wanted to go also. Well, this morning I took the change out of my drawer, went to the bank and cashed it in, pulled a bit of money out of my savings account to a grand total of $110.

As I got ready to go, my wife called and said that she was having a hard time to figure out what to get me for christmas, so she said that I could take out $200 of the checking account and buy my own christmas presents. YEAH!!!!! The only catch was that they had to get wrapped and go under the tree. NO PROBLEM MOMMA!

Well, we went, looked around, debated, hageld with the owner of the local Woodcraft store over the prices of some tools that Bubba wanted and we bought, and OH BOY did we buy. I will let Bubba tell what he got, but here is what I got.

An over view….

I was originally going for a digital fractional caliper and digital angle gauge….

I needed a drill bit set and some fortneser bits and found deals on both that I just couldn’t pass up…..$40 dollars for the fortneser bit set and 29 for the drill bit set…..

And the mother of all gifts, the one I only dreamed of…...

I also picked up some of the painter’s pyramids.
All in All, I think I did pretty good. Budget-$310 dollars, and only went over by about $17-20 dollars. And they are MINE….ALL MINE…..

Amazing…...wish that I had the time to do it.

I got a Second place for my cutting board and a third place for my serving tray. So a red and white ribbon and made $12. I guess that makes me an “award winning” wood worker…...lol yea right.

Kinnley won a third place (white ribbon) for her blue boat with pink sail…...she won $5 and boy is she stoked.

Again, I can’t thank you folks for all your wonderful support.

I got bit…..buy the plane buying bug. LOML wanted to run to the flea market to pick up some new flea’s. Just kidding, she wanted to pick up a new tree to plant in the hole in the back yard from the one that I planted last year that the dogs dug up sooooo many times that they killed.

Well we looked and wanted to walk around an talk about what we saw. So as we were walking and talking, I spied a table with 2 planes on it. OLD WOODEN BODIED PLANES. 1 was a what looked like a jointer plane and not sure what the other was, it had an narrow body with the iron cut and sitting at an angle. Looked like a shoulder plane. The guy wanted 28 for the jointer and 12 for the “shoulder” plane. I stood there and thought about it, touched them, and tried to love them. The magic just wasn’t there. They had been abused and were REALLY worn. Both were wood bodied and the wood was checked, split, and cracked. He asked me what I would give for them and I told him that I would walk and think about it, and we walked away.

Well, as we wandered further into the flea market, I was thinking. HMMMMM…..how much to offer?, do I want to put THAT much work into them? and on and on.

Well, as we walked, we came across an old man sitting in a booth, with some new POC (piece of crap) tools and some older tools. I spied a plane. I walked over and picked it up. Hmmmm, was that a spark/tingle I just felt run thru my arm? The only markings on it are “Made in America”. It looks like my bigger Groz or a Stanley. It is really worn, rusty, and the blade it BENT TO CRAP! And to top it off, the blade/chip breaker were put on backwards and now I can’t get it apart, wiggles, but won’t come apart. It is marked $8, the old man ask me what I will give him for it. I said $5, and he held up his hand. I tried not to get my wallet out to fast. I handed over my 5 bucks and he said that he wanted to get what he had in it. He also said that he worked on cleaning it up for 2 hours. I bit my tounge as I walked away, wanting to say “you shouldn’t have wasted your time”.

Here are some pics…....

That being said, with the encouragement and urging of YOU, I have actually started making pretty things, actually putting pen to paper to actually design things and have actually made money ($20). I have pushed myself (with your encouragement) to the point that built something I felt was good enough to enter into the 2008 summer challenge, in which I placed 6th in the serving class and 12th over all. WOW. I was impressed by the encouragement and support that I received.

All that being said, I took the serving tray that I entered in the summer challenge and a cutting board to the Wilson County Fair and entered them in the county fair. I would never would have imagined a year ago that I would be putting anything of my garage shop that would be worthy entering in the fair let alone having placed so well in a WORLD WIDE contest.

Thank you again for everything.
Adrian

My daughter (6) got to digging thru the scrap bin and she was hit with inspiration, she wanted to build a boat. After helping her build 2 scrap boats, she insisted on painting them herself.

what a ham, just like her old man.

My son, Ian (TennesseeFan—-a jock) did a couple of projects under my watchful eyes.

A squirel feeder to take back to his mom’s (they have squirels there)

A bird house for my wife Barbie (Pinkhandcuffgirl—-a jockette), his step-mom.

All in all, a great week.

Last week-Dryer tensioner pully went out

Saturday- Just after we get home from picking up the dryer at the repair shop Ian knocks a half case of gatorade off shelf and it lands on hotwater heater and bust a pipe.

Notice the messy but effective repair

Monday- Went out to car to head to work and battery dead. Hooked up the battery charger and went back in house. 15-20 minutes later I heard something outside and looked out window to find car on fire.

Can I go back to bed yet???????/