I finished my first project in the new shop; I wanted to give Laurie an upgrade to her mini-greenhouse, and so I grabbed a cold frame kit from Amazon, and then built a little cart for it to ride on out of Cedar and some casters

The shop is doing nicely now, although there are a zillion smaller things that need to be done there; I got my dust collection setup operational, and finalized where the tools are placed (for now). That, of course, required at least one re-do, because the first time I tried to use the cross-cut saw to cut down a board for Laurie’s cold frame, it bonked into then storage rack, and I didn’t have clearance. I was able to finesse that, but that meant I had to pull a few things apart and move them around — and to be honest, I like the updated layout better.

The best aspects of the shop at this point is that (a) it’s easy to keep clean and get stuff put away again, and (b) the pile of stuff that “has no home and I don’t know where to put” has shrunk radically. There are still some things I need to sort out, and as I start using it, I’m sure I’ll be changing things, but while it’s taking a lot of thinking and work and re-doing, I think I’ve hit that place where I can work in the shop and not spend all my time stopping to look for something or needing to make room for the project.

One sad reality: I finally convinced myself the lumber storage needs to be in the garage and not in the shop proper. Not really a big deal, and I' also have a three bay shed that I plan to use for lumber storage as well (and ultimately, a drying kiln when I get to that point), but making that call made everything else fit together nicely and work. So next project: a mobile lumber rack, something I expect every woodworker tackles at some point or another, right?

Down the road, I see two additions to the shop/project space. One will be my lathe (that thing that started me down this path in the first place, and a 3d printer. I do have actual projects I want the printer for, so it’s probably next, but I want to finish up a few things first. I’m still waffling between going with a midi-sized lathe or a full-sized one, but leaning towards the mid-sized while I re-learn skills I haven’t used since high school shop. That’ll limit the size of the bowls I can turn, but I think that’s okay and if/when I outgrow it, I can look at an upgrade later.

And now that I have a shop, what do I plan to do in it? I mean, other than build things for the shop… I sat down spent some time thinking about that, and I’ve already got 9 projects on the to-do list, including at least three with “future christmas present” attached to them.

I do plan on doing a full tour and discussion about what choices I made and why soon, so stay tuned.

Vertigo Update

I’m happy to say that the vertigo has settled down after a few weeks of the new treatment (not unexpected that this can take some time). I can sit at the computer and work for a few hours without discomfort again, finally, and I can work out in the shop without worrying about getting dizzy while large spinning sharp things are aimed at my fingers. I know that I’ll have rough spots at time, but the current treatment regimen seems to be working, finally, after close to a year of chasing these gremlins. We’ll see how long this stays stable, or if they’re just off planning a new set of challenges off in some dark corner of my brain as we speak.

Tripping

Nothing scheduled, but I do want to get out for another 2-3 night try to see if it goes better than Oak Harbor did with the vertigo. Currently thinking of heading out to the Gray’s Harbor/Ocean Shores area for some spring birding, but nothing final yet.

The spring birds are arriving; our American Goldfinches are here, and for better/worse we’ve had a flock of siskin’s arrive. I’ve heard the first calls of a Western Flycatcher (formerly Pacific Slope Flycatcher), but no signs of any Tanagers or Grosbeaks — and very few reports of them anywhere in the county yet. The swallows are arriving as well, saw my first barn swallow this week, too.