Back to work today, and it was uneventful. The highlight was buying some food for lunch, and packing it into my cold lunchbox. I got strawberries and bananas, a couple of apples, and of course some cheese and heavy cream. I also picked up a summer sausage and some pistachio nuts. It could have been cheaper, but it will last through tomorrow as well. I will work on making a cheaper lunch purchase later in the week. But the key here was that I am looking for healthy, fresh food. Honestly, I snacked on the food all day. Especially the pistachios. Several of the bananas are gone too, along with half the sausage and half the cheese. I feel I got a healthy load of energy from it all.
When I got home, I soon visited with the neighbor and bought a bale of hay off him. He says he needs the rest of what he’s got, so I am cut off. That is fine. I would like to scythe the hay going forward and have the summer for free. Well, for labor.
I gave him his choice of wooden mallets from those I made from the walnut he gave me. He took the big one, I assume for his needs. I told him that it was my favorite as it fit my hand the best. I did not mention that the large end of the handle makes the balance such that it eases the strain of swinging. I also forgot to mention that it was finished in boiled linseed oil, should he want to recoat it. I’ll have to either remember to mention it later or offer to replace it if he wants when he wears it out. Well, it is a beautiful mallet, and a good choice, so I am glad he picked it. I wanted to thank him for the walnut wood he gave me that I made if from.
I did not work this evening because of the visit with the neighbor and because I was so tired. I did not sleep well last night and really felt it by the time I got the kids from the bus stop. I did not work in the woodshop either, though I would have really liked to have. I need to bring the two boards I am preparing for glueing to come into line a bit better. I have the ends apart at the moment, though I am pratty happy with how the majority of the joint is coming along. I finally realized last night that I don’t have to make them perfectly straight. I just need to make them match. And if they don’t come into the exact same plane, no big deal either as they are two and a quarter inch thick, and by the time I plane them to a smooth surface, they will be corrected. I expect to take a quarter of an inch total off the top and bottom. I also plan to scallop the bottom, which is to say I will plane it to fairly flat with the scrub plane. The top will get the fine finish. When it is done, I expect to have a three foot by six-and-a-half-foot top for the kitchen island. It’s not too fancy, as it is poplar, but it is wood I can easily source and mill here. I’ll also be happy if it is used directly as a cutting board. I want to be able to re-plane and finish it in a few years anyhow. So, I will be okay if that’s what happens to it. It needs to be like my workbench top in the shop. The kitchen is a shop!
Right! I see an early night coming on. I would like to catch up on some lost sleep and I would like to do a full day tomorrow working for money. I feel like I am somewhat caught up financially from last week’s earnings, and I would like to find that balance where I cannot just stay caught up but get back ahead. I guess by “get ahead,” I mean paying down some debt rather than carrying the minimum payments.
Oh, also, I practiced some of my Shakespeare today. I am old enough now not to recite iambic pentameter in rhythm, but to interpret the lines to feelings. I wish I could have figured this out earlier, but I was so taught that I thought the rhythm was the most important part. Obviously not! There is so much more to be expressed in emotion! Not just in the sonnets, but also in Julius Ceasar. Romeo and Juliette is often delivered when I have heard it anyway in a certain rhythm, too. Worry less of that, and more of expression!