Building my Dream

[David Johnson]

Glorious build. Congratulations on not loosing your sanity in the process. Contractors can and there workers don't care, but you can't do everything yourself. Again congratulations on a ery nice looking one with beautiful wood work and views.
David

 

[Rennie Heuer]

great looking building - well done. Thanks for the update and pics!

 

[Rick Prosser]

Brent: Were you playing the pipes? - Yep. that was one of the reasons for learning pipes - so I could play for family weddings and funerals.
I have been able to play at two family weddings and my grandmothers funeral.

 

[Rick Prosser]

... So with all that done, what kind of projects do you have on the horizon in your shop?

The next big project will be a Roubo style workbench made from Southern Pine fresh off the sawmill and ready to dry in my kiln. I still owe the better half an extreme birdhouse, and I need to create and build a unit for the large screen TV to sit on. Looking at options for strawberry boxes to put in the orchard, and so many other things... (I have an excel spreadsheet to keep track )

I just finished a wood-related project that I will post here soon. (A charcoal retort to convert my scraps into charcoal to use in my blacksmith forge.)

 

[larry merlau]

looks great rick even with all the troubles,, how is your pecan trees doing and how many rattlers did you deal with since you last posted remember that one you showed us that pretty big..

 

[Rick Prosser]

looks great rick even with all the troubles,, how is your pecan trees doing and how many rattlers did you deal with since you last posted remember that one you showed us that pretty big..

The pecan trees have been disappointing , but we did get to harvest three (yep - 3) nuts this season, and two were good to eat. I think we have figured out how to manage them in the sand land, so maybe will be better going forward.
I don't remember if I told you guys about the orchard or not - a mix of apple trees, peach, pear, plum, blueberries, blackberries, and kiwi. It is doing better than the pecans, but all were neglected during the house build fiasco. Getting back on track for this coming Spring, I hope.


No more rattlesnakes have shown their face - and I have seen surprisingly few snakes over the years. A couple of rat snake now and again.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Quite the adventure, glad you're finally through it and can get on to some more fun things.

I recently built a small charcoal retort as well, but its at a friends place so I'll try to make sure to take some pics and make a post about it when we fire it (presumably sometime after the snow drops below 2' heh). Looking forward to seeing yours. I based mine off of a design used by a lot of japanese bladesmiths dumbed down a bit (55g drum sideways buried in a hillside with a front firebox and a baffle setup). I was surprised to learn that a lot of them use pine as the charcoal burns really hot (short but hot), so I'm interested to try several different woods. I think the first burn is likely mostly cherry trimmings from my buddies orchard (its also at his place).

Mine is kinda like this one except the "fire box" is some concrete blocks and I buried the whole thing to retain heat better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3QNrWAODsk

 

[Rick Prosser]

Quick update from previous post:"So, I got my dream shop (paid for) and we have a new house with our special design (with a mortgage but should be able to pay it off in just a couple years.)"

Update - Paid off the mortgage today, so we did get to the debt-free goal!

 

[Don Baer]

CONGRADULATIONs.........that is a great accomplishment...

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

That's awesome, Rick! Congrats!

 

[larry merlau]

congrats rick, now kick back with some sweet tea and look your accomplishments with your wife as a team

 

[Ted Calver]

Fantastic! Wish I were in the same boat.

 

[Darren Wright]

That's awesome, maybe someday soon ourselves.