Day 143, "Every picture has a story"
This is the first of the 3 cribs I made. It went to Mary and John when Henry was born. It was the spring of 2003. John and Mary were expecting a baby in late summer. I, perhaps, was a bit crafty and really NOT all above board but the story is this! I knew that I would be retiring in the next few years and at that time I would want to do more woodworking. I had a Sears table saw that had seen better days but it still worked. As Gail and I talked I suggested maybe I could make a crib for them. Oh, that would be a great idea. Well I knew if they said "yes" I could come back and say well I will need a new table saw for that project! It was agreed on! Mary and John gave their blessing and it was a done deal. I mail ordered a Powermatic 5 hp table saw that came in a couple of weeks.
It has remained the staple of my wood shop for the last 16 years.
I would say the crib turned out OK but I would say with each one I made I improved my skill in making them. This is the only one that had a side that raised up and down. I think it worked most of the time! Amy and Aaron's was the only one that was eventually made into a full size bed and the crib for Cynthia and Mike, I would say it was the nicest of the three.
If I were to get a new table saw (which I am not planning to do) today I would get a Sawstop for safety reasons. I have been lucky/blessed/careful as I have used the saw year after year after year with no serious injuries but there have been times that it has been kind of a close call. I would say the first item in safety is "do not work with power tools when you are tired'
The long story is I think all 13 of my grandchildren have used a crib that I made. I have never really thought about that before but now, as I think about it, that is pretty neat!
We are now into the last of the two weekend days. Terry and I remembered to set our clocks last night before we went to bed. I finished the book, "The lost Girls of Paris". It was an historical fiction and very sad but a great read. I am now into a book that is one of those where you can stop, start, stop, start and not miss a thing! I will finish that today.
Yesterday I put out the lineups for my tennis team for the last 2 weeks. I did not get one of the guys in to play except for one match. I went back and forth if that was OK. Finally I decided that he is on a 2.5 team and plays a lot so it was OK not to play him much on my team. I did not intend to have him play at all on the team but just before the season started he asked if he could be on the team. He said he liked the friendship he experienced and the parties. Well I have had NO team practises and there will be only one, end of the year, party but each year is different I guess.
AND
It was early summer of 1963. I had finished my sophomore year of HS and was not looking forward to the summer. I do not know what other classmates did but for me it would have been rare to ask Dad for the car on a Saturday night in the summer. I did not have any special friends at the time so it looked like a LONG summer on the farm with Helen, Mom and Dad. I mean I certainly loved my family but to spend ALL summer at home, not something to look forward to. I had made my 90 yard one hole golf course in our yard the summer before. I had so much fun making it and then playing on it but I needed MORE. I knew the summer would be long as I missed my high school activities. Football would start in August, a week before school but in early June that seemed to be way way far off! MANY years later grandson Henry would say, "I idea"! Maybe he coined that from Grandpa as I had a super idea for the summer of 1963. Bert, our neighbor to the north, used the land between ours and his home as a pasture. He would let his cows out into the pasture early in the spring and by early summer the pasture would be BARE. I could go up into his pasture and make a three hole golf course. How about that. It would be easy as there would be no grass to cut so all I would need to do is make some flag poles and then have a way to make holes. Before long it was a done deal. I found 3 old broken handles from pitch forks and sharpened the ends. I found 3 Folger coffee cans in the junk and I was in business. I also found 3 old farmer handkerchiefs that Mom probably had forgotten about. One afternoon, when Dad was away for some reason, I took my broken handles, my coffee cans, a shovel to dig and the handkerchiefs and I was off to make a golf course. Did I ask Bert, of course not as he could not have cared less and besides his cows were already being put into his pasture on the east side of the road because his main pasture was so bare. It took me the better part of the afternoon to pace off the holes, decide where they should be and then to dig the holes for the cups. When I was finished I looked west, north and then east and proudly thought to myself, "Nice job Carmen, now have some fun!" I do not remember how often I used my new golf course as my favorite was still the 90 yard course at home. I did find that my 3 hole course had some hazards that I had not figured in. One was the cow pies! Even though the cows usually were herded south and then east over the road to the second pasture they often left their "sign" behind them and a ball landing in that was not so good! Bert also had a trove of gophers and as anyone knows they make holes all over the place. I lost more than one good ball in the gopher holes so that kind of dampened my spirits for the course. BUT it was a grand adventure and one that brings many smiles as I think back. "I IDEA" and lets do it!!!
The FP is gone and it looks like the blog is finished for the day so it is on to a book.
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