Hammer & Thread: Growth Ruler

During some down time in the cabinet shop, Gregg followed a suggestion from a sister-in-law and made a couple of maple growth charts that look like a ruler from my pencil box of grade school days. He engraved each number and inch mark, and then painted the groves. We used to mark the yearly growth of our girls on the sheetrock wall. Now we can mark the growth of our grandchildren each year with this classy ruler.

These handmade growth rulers are for sale at our new etsy shop "Hammer & Thread" here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/89036097/wooden-growth-ruler

2009

2009-

Its been a very unusual year. Actually it started in Nov of 08. Our cabinet shop had a major fire that totaled the building. Fortunately the building, being of stout timber frame construction withstood the forces of the fire and remained structurally sound.

We decided it would be best to convert the shop into a 6-plex apartment building. At the same time we planned to build a new cabinet shop just north of the original. It has been over a year now and we are still not done. I did not think it would take this long! It has been a year of many challenges, for everyone involved. Brenda has been an unfailing source of support. My crew has stepped up to meet many new challenges and learned to do many new things.

I had to learn a lot myself too. I have a good background in construction so a lot of stuff was not completely new, but I was continually amazed at the unending decisions and problems that needed to be solved. It was very stressful. Not all bad stress though. It was very fulfilling to solve problems, to learn new things, to see a plan come together.

We bought a skid loader in the spring to do dirt work on the job and to use for snow removal for the apartments later. I dug a LOT of dirt with it. My brother Ross hauled approximately 50 side dump loads of dirt away. I have cleaned snow now several times with it too. So far I have learned that it takes about 2 1/2 hours to clean 6" of snow. Today is Christmas ......the 3 day storm system we are in has been called the storm of the 1/4 century.

It was a relief to have the skid today!

I was scooping snow around 6:30 this morning and a 3 car convoy of Mexicans got stuck on the road just east of us. I went and scooped them out and then they got stuck just west of us.

I had to get a chain and pull the lead car out of a drift. Feliz Navidad!

The new shop is very nearly completed. We need a spray room filter, some electrical hookups, a freight elevator and some creative storage spaces. The layout is pretty nice but with only 2/3 the SF of the old shop some things are tight. Things will need to be lean and mean in this shop!

Sometime ago we acquired the old bleachers from the old SC high school (see earlier post)

One of the first things we are doing in the new shop is cutting and milling that wood into millwork for the basement apartments. Also way back when...only several days before the shop fire we had purchased 3000 BF of quartersawn sycamore; we are now cutting that up for millwork. Since the day of the fire all that wood has been stored in our garage. It seems like that half of the garage is always being used for something other than a car. Now the plan is to park the skid loader there and keep my work truck in stall seven of the new garages.

That way when it snows I can just hop in and push snow!

This year we became grandparents! It seems babies don't let their arrivals be determined by fires or any other business in peoples lives...good thing they don't! Tobias is super cute and can really shriek. We went to visit Nate and Hannah at Tobias' baptism and had a nice time there.

Heather got engaged early this year to Jon. They plan to be married May 15 2010. Heather graduated from Dordt in the spring and started school in the fall at Creighton university in Omaha. She is studying physical therapy.

Holly has been very busy studying nursing at Dordt and St Lukes in Sioux City. She comes home with friends for dinner quite often and it is nice that she is around.

Both girls helped out when they could on the apt. work this summer and other times when the could. Heathers' Jon worked for me full time this summer and part time this fall and winter.

We did make it to SD a couple times this year. One time we shot clay pigeons. We had planned to go for Christmas but the weather was too bad.

Earlier this year I sang in the Sioux County Oratorio. We performed some selections from the Messiah. I really enjoyed that. I had wanted to do it for some years. I also sing in the church choir and really enjoy that.

I have been too busy to really spend a lot of time playing guitar. I look forward to the time I can return to a more normal routine.

Tobias Gerrit Vander Wilt

The Bleacher Project

Another mid-life crisis? Another project? We now have 5 sections of bleachers from the old community center/high school setting in our front yard. We are not doing this because Gregg is nostalgic about his high school years, or so he claims. For a few nights, they were a great place to sit and look at the stars. We're planning to recycle the wood into some beautiful pieces of furniture or use some in the spec house. After the bleachers are dismantled, we'll store the wood in the garage in hopes of using it soon.

Abundant Harvest

We were blessed with an abundant harvest of fruit from our trees this summer. We borrowed a fruit press and made gallons and gallons of juice from apples, pears, grapes, and plums. Gregg took measurements of the press in case he wants to build one for ourselves before the next bumper crop.

Land Speculators

Now that we are empty nesters again for the school year, we needed something more to fill our time and to use our brain power on, so we bought a lot in a new subdivision on the east side of town. It is about 2 miles from home. We are planning to build a spec house on the lot. Gregg would do the designing and the shop would supply the wood products. It might sound like we are going through a mid-life crisis, but we are not near old enough to be having one of those . . . yet. Stay tuned and see what develops.

Pahoja Camping

Holly talked us into tenting at Lake Pahoja for the last weekend of her summer break. It was beautiful weather. We took our new bikes along and made a lot of trips around the lake on their bike trail. We went swimming during the heat of the afternoon. We rented a canoe and paddled around the lake one morning. And Holly got our full attention because she was the only girl along.