Winter is upon us! What to do?

Roger Tulk

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St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
As i"ve mentioned before, I have to shut down my woodworking shop (the driveway,) once temperatures drop below 5ºC, and wait for the return of spring. The way my shed is packed with tools now, I can't even go in to use the drill press once there's snow on the ground, because I can't shift all the stuff in front of my work bench outside.

Winters kill me when I don't have to go to work every day, so I think I'll try making wooden ship models during the winter. It's some thing I can do in a relatively small space in one of the guest bedrooms when we don't have any guests, and will keep me occupied with an interesting project when it's -20 and the winds are howling outside. I spent a lot of time building wooden flying models when I was young, so I have some skills, and some tools, to apply to the projects. I just found a site with more than a hundred ship models, at various skill levels and prices. I'm not ready to take on a $400 model of the Bounty, but I might try some entry level projects below $50 to start. It'll beat spending all my time on the internet, or watching daytime TV, anyway. I'll still have the honey-do lists to contend with, but the Memsahib seems to be running out of ideas.
 
First thing I thought of was Scrimshaw! I've been eyeballing some tagua nuts for another project and will have to do something with the residue.

I've also been working on getting enough interesting knots together (in my head that is.. they have to be ones I really KNOW how to tie) to do an actually interesting knot board.

The model ships sound pretty darn interesting to, can't wait to see some results.
 
You not the only one Roger. This year i plan on carving in the basement. We will see how far i get. When kids were younger it was hockey and that's a great get the family out event. Used to drive me crazy because at the time i had a nice heated shop specifically for the winter reason. Life aint fair.

I also want to see if i can get a drawknife bench together and do some wood shaping but that's more of a wish than reality given the time left. I do think its something i could get put together with handtools in the basement though.
 
Ship building is fun, I started a wooden kit of the "Bounty" years ago. Never finished and now I don't even know where I put everything so I could finish. It wasn't a difficult kit either, can't remember where I ordered it off the internet. I made the one pictured from scratch. It is a model of one I had plans of building, had the full set of plans and everything, but back then I didn't have the patients for a long term project. Plus I hate sanding epoxy! I would now but don't have the money! I sold the plans. It is called a Weekender and as far as boats go an easy build. Bunch of pictures of them here.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=weekender+sailboat&qpvt=weekender+sailboat&FORM=IGRE

Anyway I did accomplish building this model of it and it was fun. I used the same construction design as the plans.

With winter upon us, I don't mind my shop is heated in the summer and cooled in the winter because it is in my basement. My only problem with it is it is too SMALL!

IMG_1805.JPG
 
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You do what you have to. We are living in a 36' triple slide 5th wheel . We were living in an apt & managing 2 apt. complexes 56 units in all in 11 buildings for 17 years. LOML's health went down & here we are. We have never lacked for anything we needed. But I sure do miss a shop. All house hold stuff & the equivalent of 2 wood shops of tools mine & my Dad's are in a 5 car storage area . In another post I'll show what is coming up this spring for me & what I am starting to get ready for now.

Title a possible new job.
 
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Know your pain, Bart. Living in the MH is just fine. Not having a working shop is not fine. Hope your wife is doing better, and I hope your new venture works out for you.
 
Yes winter is coming, think I'll plant some tomato's and a few other crops.....:whistling:

:rofl:

Loml and I were just talking about that yesterday. I had a garden when we met and I lived in Phx... A lot of what is summer produce here was winter crops there... although I did mostly do tomatoes as a summer crop (I had a shady spot for em).
 
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