Repairing a riding boot

 I have begun making more and more out of leather in the past years. Part of it is for our little company, where I change zippers in riding boots and occasionally make other small repair jobs on shoes and boots etc. 

Gustav had an old set of riding boots where the sole had come halfway off, I have kept them in the workshop for about a year, with the intention of one day taking them apart and see if I could use them as template and make a new pair. But in the mean time I got inspired to try and fix them myself.

First the sole was removed by means of a set of pliers. 

The insole needed to be replaced as did the midsole. both of these were made of some cardboard like material. Kind of surprising actually that a set of decent boots are made with such crappy materials.
Another thing that was surprising was the fact that the insole and the uppers weren't sewn. it all relied on glue to hold the boot together. 

I made a new insole form a piece of vegetable tanned leather and glued it into place. Then I used an awl with a hook to sew it in place. The steel stiffener was glued in place and the voids were filled with some small scraps of leather. I had tried to make my own filler putty of of some PVA glue, sawdust and a bit of latex paint. After about a day I decided that I didn't trust that enough, so I removed it again. In addition to being difficult to remove, it left an ugly white deposit on the lower part of the boot. (So much for that experiment).

The next thing to come on was the midsole that I also made out of a piece of vegetable tanned leather. With that in place, the underside was sanded using a sanding wheel. This was done to get nice flowing curves and make sure that it would fit the rubber sole that was also going to be glued on.

I don't have a heel press for shoes and boots, so all the pressing of the contact glue was done by means of a hammer.

Finally the boots got some long needed black leather grease, and now they will hopefully last a couple of seasons more.

The damaged boot.

Closeup of the damage.

left to right:
Sole, inner lining, midsole, insole (with the metal stiffener on top)

New insole glued in.

After the sewing (not very pretty)

Voids filled with leather scraps.

Midsole glued in place and sanded.

Boots ready for service again.

Stuff our company makes

2 years ago, Gustav and I started a small company called Hest & Hus ApS.

Our primary plan was to buy and renovate a small house that is to be rented out. We are nearing the completion of the renovation, and it has been a thorough round with new electric wiring, new plumbing, insulation, new floors, new kitchen etc. 

But in addition to the house renovation, I have been able to actually make money in my workshop! 

The biggest customer group we have is horse people, and since a lot of the stuff associated with horses is quite expensive, it is worth to repair. 
In the shop I have 2 leather sewing machines. A Singer patcher and a Singer class 7 (saddlemakers sewing machine). The patcher is used for repairing stable rugs (horse blankets), and other small articles such as girths etc. Once in a while something will be made out of such heavy fabric or heavy leather that I use the Singer class 7 for the repair job. 

Repairing things appeals a lot to me, and there is a need for people who can do repairs on horse rugs at a reasonable price and within a reasonable time. It isn't the most exciting thing to do, but it is honest work and it generates a pretty steady income.

Once in a while I also get some jobs repairing saddles. It is mostly the girth straps that need to be replaced, and that on the other hand is a task that I find really interesting and challenging. It is almost completely handwork to do these repairs. On the odd occasion, I can use the class 7 to stitch something at the bottom of a saddle flap, but mostly hand sewing is needed.

We make something called "event inventory" (directly translated from the Danish stævneinventar). It is stuff that you can bring with you to a horse event and use it for holding your equipment like saddles, saddle blankets, headstalls and halters etc. 
We also make these things for tack rooms, where the customers decide on the size they want. Those things are all made out of pine that is stained and varnished. The saddle blanket holders and the headstall holders are made with leather straps that are used to fix the items to the front of a horses box in an event stable. 

Saddle blanket holders in the workshop.

Headstall holders and saddle blanket holders in an eventing stable.

Close up of a headstall holder.

Headstall holder. The wooden hooks are made with splines for strength.

Headstall holder with 4 hooks.

Headstall holder with 3 hooks (plus a curious horse)

Saddle holder for 3 saddles for a tack room.

Bit holder for a tack room

I bought an engraving machine to make name tags.

Logo on the bit plate.

Started a business today

 After thinking about it for many years, I started a business today together with Gustav.

The business is called Hest & Hus ApS, meaning Horse & House ltd.

Our major plan is to invest in a house that we can refurbish and then rent it out. But given that we are now officially a company also means that we can legitimately sell labour such as in carpentry jobs or woodwork projects or leatherwork projects. 

The idea is that since we both have a regular income, we are planning on letting all the money we make in the company stay there for further development of the company.

The hardest thing for me is to accept that I am helping financing the Danish society with all its flaws. But so be it..

16000 woodworking plans, almost too good to be true... (It probably is too good to be true)

 It is nice to find out that someone apparently have noticed that I have started to blog again, though I much prefer regular readers and comments from those instead of all those fake comments that once in a while seem to flood in.

Today I had 37 comments, all pretty much using the same words, and all completely irrelevant to the blog post where the comment was posted.

It seems that Ted McGraths 16000 woodworking plans have changed its name to woodbex. I guess it is the same scam, and I sincerely doubt that all the plans are some that he made himself.

Here's an earlier warning about the site from woodworkweb. 

I guess I'm not alone in once in a while seeing something nice and wondering, wow, I'd like to know if there is a plan available for that.  But I think there's a much better chance of finding that out if people ask in the comments field about it - rather than forking out 67 $ to a scammer and risk that maybe that plan isn't part of the 16000.

If you want to make chairs there are several well respected chairmakers out there who has got plans for sale, heck I think some of them even wrote a book about making chairs. Get those plan in a legal way instead of being part of a scam.

The same goes with a bunch of other stuff. Popular Woodworking and Fine Woodworking all have made great plans, if you haven't got the issue and can't borrow it at the library, well, then pay the amount of money the publisher would like for a back issue, and then go on and build a set of barristers bookcases with a good conscience. 

Truth be told, I didn't read all those 37 comments today, I kind of stopped after reading the comment that was posted on my post about building a coffin for my dad. 

That comment read something like: I built something similar with help from ... 
Hmmm, I bet you did! 

Stay safe for New Years Eve, don't drink and drive, use safety glasses and DONT support the scam sites 

All ready for Christmas Eve in Brooklyn

(Would you buy a used woodworking plan from this person??)

Are woodworkers generally a conservative bunch part 2.

 Almost 3 years ago I wrote a blog post wondering if woodworkers generally were a conservative bunch. 

I started that post because Popular Woodworking Magazine had made some changes to their homepage which I didn't really like. And I ended up thinking that I would just have to wait and see if it was indeed a change for the worse.

A couple of days ago, I visited the homepage again, for the first time in maybe a year or so.  I have to admit that I was utterly disappointed. The once vibrant community that followed most blog posts there seemed to be dead and gone. 

Earlier there would be maybe a banner ad for Bessey clamps or Forrest blades etc. But always something woodworking related. 

Now when you go to the blog section, half the page is filled with clickbait links advertising for stuff like "ecological Viagra" and "You won't believe this video - watch it before it is banned" 
I let my subscription lapse some years ago, because the quality of the magazine took a hefty dip. And I have to say that looking at the homepage wouldn't make me think about subscribing again.

I hope that the magazine has been able to attract some new readers, because I would guess that they have managed to push some old readers away in the process.

Moving on

 Right now I am nearing the end of a 10 day long Covid quarantine in a Norwegian hotel. Lots of time to think and contemplate over different things.

I have been looking at my blog a few times, and it has made me sad every single time because it reminds me of my dad.

So I have decided that I just need to start writing something, to make sure that the first post that will meet me isn't one that will make me sad.

Since my dads passing away, my older brother and I have started clearing out our childhood home, It is tough to do, but luckily we have tried and succeeded in making it a cozy thing by making sure that we get coffee or tea and something to eat whenever we are down there.

My parents both loved collecting antiques, so there are loads of stuff, and since it is mostly all really nice stuff, we can't just throw it away. We would like to give some of it to charity shops, but due to the pandemic, they are all closed, so that kind of sucks.

We have sold some of his tools, and that was actually easier for me than I had imagined. I guess mostly because my dad gravitated from using tools to collecting maybe 25 years ago, so since he didn't have a regular go-to set of tools it wasn't too hard selling some of them. We managed to find some youngsters who wanted to learn about woodworking, and we sold a bunch to them, actually cheap, but I know that my dad would have liked for the tools to go back into circulation again.

I still managed to do some woodworking at home, also related to the clearing out. I made 6 large glass door cabinets that will be used for storing nails and screws etc. They are hung on a large French cleat in the room where the metal lathe is. It is a project that I discussed with my dad before he died, and the glass doors are extra windows from the old windows at my parents house. (As usual I forgot to take any pictures of them).
They are made with adjustable shelves, and have a total height of 75", the width is 27.5" and the depth is 7.5", so there is a lot of storage in the 6 cabinets all put together. 
I didn't do any fancy joinery or anything with the cabinets, I decided that they were meant for storage and they were simply glued and screwed together and the wood was thickness in the planer, but I could live with a less than perfect surface. I intend to paint them white at some point, but it has to be when the temperature is not below freezing anyway.

My long term plan is to do a bit of clearing out in my shop as well, and throwing stuff out that I never use. Also I would like to use the shop as a workshop, and then I can use these cabinets for storing stuff instead of keeping it in the workshop. 

Having to clear out also prompted me to start doing the same in the barn, and I have already made a lot of progress, there's still a way to go, but at least I have started, and that is the main thing.

Mette riding Bent in the forest

RIP dad

I would like to say thanks to all the very nice and comforting comments on my last blog post. 

Normally I try to answer all comments, but as you can probably understand, my mind was a bit occupied.

Monday the 14th of December we had a meeting with the doctors from the hospital, and they told us that there was nothing more that they could do. 

So later on Monday my dad was transferred from the intensive care department back to the neurological department where they would keep him covered with morphine so he didn't have any pains.

Since he was now officially dying, it was possible for all our families to come and see him, so I called home with the sad news and told Mette and the kids that they should prepare themselves and that they should drive to Aarhus so we could all say good bye to my dad.

We gathered around my dads bed one family at the time, and we sang a few songs for him. He looked just like he was sleeping, and he was breathing calmly.

We then said good bye, and Mette and the kids drove home. 

I stayed in Aarhus at my brothers place, and we went back to the hospital from eleven to one o'clock in the evening before going back to his place to sleep.

The next morning we went back, and we could hear on my fathers breath that it was not getting better at all. So we sat and comforted each other and held my fathers hand till he passed away.

The next days I used to complete the coffin, and I brought it with me home to my parents house where we would plan the funeral with the priest and the undertaker.

Building the coffin brought a lot of tears to my eyes, but it was still a very good experience, and I thought a lot of my dad while building it. Most of the hand tools I used for the build were given to me by him, and I even made the pins first as he liked. When I had to drive a screw into the wood for holding the handles, I only used 1st gear on the Makita. My dad didn't like it when people used 2nd gear for driving screws, as he believed they would loose the feel and drive the screw too long into the wood. So to honor him, I did it the way I knew that he would like.

I spread a 4" thick layer of the shavings from the thickness planer over the bottom of the coffin, and then covered these shavings with a linen sheet.

I filled a pillowcase with shavings too, and put that on top of the mattress.

The lifts for the handles were turned from my parents old sycamore tree, and Gustav turned some small plugs that would be used to secure the lid. These were made of sycamore, apple and hornbeam. 

On the end of each of the small plugs I burned either JJJ or 3xJ as my fathers name was Jens Jørgen Jensen, and he often joked that some kids he knew when he was a teacher had called him "triple J"

On the lid of the coffin I had made a cross that was inlaid with ebony. After sanding it and turning the rest of the lid grey, I reasoned that it was probably better to plane and scrape it all once more which I did.

Finally I gave the coffin a couple of layers of shellac, and I had to accept the fact that the build was over.

We held the funeral service Tuesday the 22nd, and though the pandemic made it somewhat different compared to what we would have liked, it was a good funeral and it gave us all peace.

Jens Jørgen Jensen

26-05-1943

15-12-2020

Ebony inlay

Shellac finish

Triple J

Complete with handles

RIP dad

Decorated with Scandinavian flags 

Making a coffin

Since my last post, my dad has been through a lot.

He was transferred from the nursing home to a hospital and back and forth a couple of times. Until at last the hospital admitted that they didn't know what was wrong with him, and had him transferred to a university hospital in Aarhus (Skejby hospital). He was assigned to the neurological department, and they were optimistic in the beginning that they would be able to sort it all out and get him back on his feet again. 

About three weeks ago, he slipped into a coma, and he was moved to the intensive care department. He was attached to a respirator, but he has stayed in a coma ever since. 

Last Monday my older brother had a meeting with the doctors, and my younger brother and I participated via a telephone. 

The doctors admitted that they didn't know what was wrong with my dad and that they were running out of ideas about what it could be. And while the clock was ticking away, the damage on his brain as they could assess via MR scans had worsened.

They said that they would give him a week more of treatment/trying to find out what is wrong with hi, and if no progress/luck, they would switch to palliative treatment. 

With that information I applied for a leave from my ship, and headed home to be with the family.

Due to the pandemic, my older brother is the only one who is allowed to visit my dad as long as he is in intensive care. If they move him into palliative care it should be possible for us all to come and visit him and say good bye.

In order to keep my thoughts at bay, I have started making a coffin.

I hope and pray that he won't be needing it for long, but I am beginning to feel less sure about it.

The coffin is made out of pine, and every time I cut or plane a board, the smell reminds me of when I was in the workshop with my father as a child.

I am not rushing the project in any way, and there is a great deal more sighing from my side during the process compared to whenever I normally make a project.

Take care y'all

Making a handrail for my dad

My dad was in a bad car crash last year. For some inexplicable reason he suddenly found himself in the wrong side of the road, and with an oncoming truck, it is a miracle that he managed to swerve the car to the right, so that instead of getting hit head on by the truck, instead it smashed the left side of his car.

He was incredible lucky to survive, and he had remnants of orange paint on his jacket from the truck, so a few more inches and he probably wouldn't have made it.

He was hospitalized for some time, and they discovered an internal bleeding in the skull, but the doctors believed that it was so small that it would stop on its own. He ended up getting pretty much back on his feet, and all was fine until the summer.

During the late spring and the summer his balance got gradually worse. And it culminated when my ship was going to Aarhus for the Tall Ships Races. My dad wanted to come on board and see the ship, but he got ill while waiting for us to berth, so I went to the first aid station and picked him up. When we walked the short distance to the ship , say maybe 250 yards. I became aware that he was constantly pulling to the left. I supported him and was afraid that there was something wrong, since it was like he had absolutely no power or control over his left side.

When we got to the ship, I got the doctor to check up on my dad, and he couldn't really find anything wrong, so we all decided that he was perhaps just tired and needed a nap to sort of digest the incident with getting ill and getting help from the first aid helpers of the arrangement.

A couple of hours later I woke him up, but he was confused and not better. So after consulting the doctor again, we decided to call for an ambulance. 

With the help of the police, the ambulance was able to get through the massive crowd of people to where our ship was berthed, and he was then taken to the hospital. 

At the hospital they first gave him some pain killer to ease of the fever that they discovered that he had. They then did a scan, and it turned out that the bleeding inside the skull hadn't stopped after all as the doctors on the other hospital had expected. So they kept him for a couple of days to get him ready for an operation to relieve the pressure on the brain.

They drained approximately a quart cup of blood out from inside his skull. No wonder that this treatment did a lot of difference. Now he could suddenly feel the left side of his body again.

Over the last two months, his health has suddenly started to deteriorate again. He lost his balance and his appetite and has begun to become a bit confused. He had a scan, but according to that there is no signs of an internal bleeding in the skull again. He has been checked by his own doctor and he is going to a specialized department at the hospital this week and seeing a neurologist next week. So I really hope that they will be able to find out what's wrong with him.

He now has such a bad balance and health that he has been temporarily assigned to a nursing home to keep him out of harms way by falling at home and maybe breaking an arm or a leg. This just happened over the course of one week. 

He voice sounds like he is drunk when I call him on the phone, and it is really not a good sign as far as I know.

A week or so before he was assigned to the nursing home, I visited him to help him mow the lawn and clear the trimmings from the hedge that he and his neighbour had cut a few days earlier. He had fallen a few times at that point, so we decided to make a hand rail for the stairs leading from the scullery (back door) and into the kitchen. 

It struck me as a bit sad, since it was the first time in ages that I did some woodworking in my fathers shop, and now I was suddenly making a handrail because he is getting old. 

It wasn't a super fancy or striking elegant piece of work, but I had to make do with what I could just find, and besides I had come down to visit him and talk with him, not to immerse myself in some high end woodworking. We found a piece of dry ash that could be made into a nice handrail, and my dad had a couple of brackets for attaching a it to the wall. 

It worked great for that coming week, and I really hope that he will get well again so he can return to his own home and then continue to use it for many years to come.

The remnants of my dads Renault Clio

Rounding a piece of ash

The installed handrail

A year suddenly went by.

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog entry about the sudden disappearance of blogs.

I guess that mine is pretty close to fall into that category by now.

What is interesting to see (for me at least) is that my blogging is so closely connected to my job.

Back when I was employed in the offshore supply industry, I had a decent Internet connection, long uneventful night watches that allowed me to do stuff in the workshop and there was very little social interaction on board the ship save for meal times.

When I started on Statsraad Lehmkuhl, it became clear how different a job place this really is.

The Internet connection is crappy when we are sailing. 
There are no night watches. And there is an incredible social life on this vessel. 

So instead of having to sort of occupy my own mind I suddenly found myself in a group of people where playing either board games cards in the evening was the norm. 

A supply boat can often feel like a ghost ship, people will gather for the meals, and after 15 minutes people will wander off to their own cabins and watch TV or computer by themselves.

Out here that isn't really an option. There is a TV in the aft mess room and a projector in the fore mess room.

No TV signals while at sea, but it is possible to watch a DVD. This isn't done very often though, since most people will gather in the aft mess and have a cup of tea/coffee, and play cards or sit and read a book or just talk to one another.

So I found that I didn't have the urge to build something on board anymore.

And I have generally always had a hard time pulling myself together to blog while at home. One week took the next and those weeks became months etc.

Now I'll have to see of I can make good of my intentions to blog from home once in a while.

It will probably be a difficult starting time when I go home in 10 days, since it is high summer and holiday season etc.

But lets see how it goes.

Statsraad Lehmkuhl details 3, the Boston Teapot Trophy

The Boston Teapot Trophy is a trophy that is awarded to the sail ship that covers the greatest distance over the course of 124 hours.
Why they have chosen that time frame I have no idea of, but as it happens, Statsraad Lehmkuhl has won the trophy 8 times.

Our ship is the current holder of the trophy, and due to that, the actual trophy is sitting on a shelf in the CEO's office.

The trophy itself is a copy of a teapot which was made by Paul Revere (yes, that Paul Revere!). Whenever we hold a meeting in the CEO's room, I find myself drawn to the box that holds the trophy.

Today after the meeting, I quickly snapped a few pictures of the box. I tried a little bit to remove the teapot, but I couldn't see a proper way of doing it, so I stopped before breaking something. While writing this, I got to think of that I think the correct way is to lift out the upper part (the teapot itself), and then remove the base.
I tried to pull a bit at the middle shelf surrounding the teapot.

Technically the trophy isn't part of the ship, but this is my blog, so I decide that it is OK anyway.
According to a link I found, the Trophy was established in 1964

You will be able to find some pictures of the teapot itself in the first link, but here are a couple of other pictures of some details of the box.

I can't see how the box itself is constructed, I mean if it is with secondary wood and veneered shell -or solid wood with blind dovetails. But the overall size of the box is something like 16" x 16" and 8" deep and inside it is lined with some dark blue velvet.
Neither of the screws are clocked which I find a bit strange, after all I am certain that the box was made by someone professional.
The original silver plate on the right hand door has nice engravings, whereas the new silver plate inside the lid has got some not so nice machine type engravings. This is to be expected,as engraving is not something that any goldsmith can do anymore as far as I have understood.
The bracket holding the top of the teapot in place is clearly made with a Forstner bit. I think that is the one detail that look the most out of place to me. Using a Forstner bit is OK to remove the material, but it wouldn't have taken much to take a spade bit of a similar size and ground it to a round shape. Then carefully rounded the bottom of the hole.

Now all this may sound as I am ungrateful for the Trophy which is not the case. Instead I would say that I find it intriguing that after having built stuff myself - I am able to see that not everything that was made 50-60 years ago was better than what could be built today.
Maybe the cabinetmaker tasked with the job had to work on a tight budget because the teapot itself had cost more than anticipated, so a bit had to be saved on the box. Or maybe it was someone who had never heard of clocking screws? We will probably never know.

Silver plate on top of the box.

The closed box.

Hinge stay, new silver plate visible inside the lid.

Description of the inspiration for the trophy. 

Teapot lid holding bracket closed.

Let's just use a Forstner drill, no one will ever notice..

Environmentally friendly or just a green car?

There is going to be an election in Denmark, and like most other places on the earth, politicians are competing with lies and grand plans of what they will do if they are elected.
One of the buzz-words of politicians is environment and all derivatives of this word.

I normally don't pay much attention to what they're saying, since it sort of gets old after a while, but people will often try to chat about all the good stuff they do if you are at a social gathering, and in those cases it is nice to have collected a few thoughts about what I do.

Some time ago I read that a study showed that the most environmentally friendly thing regarding cars was to drive an older car.
The new cars might use less fuel, but a lot of energy goes into producing the car, and a lot of raw materials as well. The funny thing is that I had actually used that reasoning earlier on but without the back up of an international study.

So this suddenly elevated me into being green and environmentally friendly.

Most of the time while at home I drive one of the Volvo Valps, and since they are both vintage cars, they are only required to go through MOT every 8 years.
This year I need to get the black one though MOT, so I started by assessing the state of the bodywork.

Not surprisingly, there is a bit of rust. Those of you who live in Arizona or California might never have heard about it, but rust it what happens to old cars to all of us that lives in a climate where the authorities sprinkle salt on the roads during the winter months.

The black Valp is a 1963 model, and was first abused in the Swedish Army by various hamfisted conscripts. Then by civilian rednecks and now finally by me.
After replacing a lot of rusted parts of the fenders, and a few other pieces of the body, I repaired a part of the frame and had the MOT inspection.

I don't really enjoy repairing rust on old cars, but it is still a satisfying thing to repair something and ensure that it can run for many more years.
In a couple of years, the green Volvo Valp will have to go through the MOT as well. That one still needs some welding, but both sides are OK, so basically it is only the front and the rear that still needs some work. I have earlier dedicated a couple of days in a home period for working on it, that way I don't feel like I am spending all my time welding and doing bodywork.

I saw on the news one day, that repair cafes were starting to gain popularity in Denmark, so perhaps there is a chance that it will again be normal to repair stuff instead of just mindlessly throwing it out and buying something new.
They can call that "environmentally friendly" or whatever they please, I just think it is perfectly normal to take care of the stuff that you have. (But I am as you know pretty old fashioned)

As you can see on the picture, the green Volvo Valp is still a hit with Gustav and his friends.
And I like to have a car that can handle having teenagers sitting on the roof without having to worry about scratches in the paint etc.

Ready to be driven to a party!

Top 50 woodworking blogs!

As you might have guessed I have returned home, and have taken the time to fire up a computer once again.

I'd like to thank Brian Eve for doing a guest post in my absence, and it sadly looks like the days of Atlantic woodworking blogging are over for now. Our Internet connection on board the ship is really limited, and it also has to be shared with a large crew, so it wouldn't be fair to slow everything down in order to blog.
However.. This time it was special since a lot of the time was spent crossing the Atlantic from Norfolk VA to Bergen in Norway. Normally we'll be in port a bit more frequently, and I can probably blog from there. I just need to get my act together and get down to it.

While I was out travelling in the old fashioned way, I got an email from a gentleman called Anuj.
He runs something called feedspot, and he informed me that my blog had been elected as one of the top 50 woodworking blogs on his site.
I just checked, and actually my blog is No 44.  There are some woodworking blogs on the list that I know, and some that are new to me.

I hope that being on that list will generator some sort of traffic, from people that otherwise wouldn't have visited my blog. And if those people then further click on one of the blogs that I list - maybe one day someone will find a topic that will be of interest, and that person might build something.

Once again I would like to thank people that either run a blog aggregator like Norse Woodsmith, Unplugged Shop, Top 75 woodworking blogs or keep a list of blogs on the side bar of their own blog.
The more places it is possible to find a blog the better the chances of someone finding just what they never knew the wanted to try out building.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

For some inexplicable reason we have a bit of teak on board this vessel.
The former captain who was on the ship when it was delivered from the yard in India thinks that it came on board at the yard.

So far it has escaped being thrown out as garbage due to its sheer size that makes it a bit awkward to move around.

I would like to bring it to Denmark and mill it on the sawmill, but my luggage allowances aren't that high.

So in a rare moment of sensible brain activity from my side, I offered it to my new ship, since I figured that they would have more use for it than an industrial garbage facility.

I haven't measured the actual length of the pieces, but a quick guesstimate is that there are two short pieces of 3' each, and the one long piece is 6'. All the pieces are solid 12x12", so technically it is something like 144 bf of teak.

Someone out here for some strange reason decided to crosscut about one foot of the length of one of the pieces. I have no idea why (and no for once it wasn't me who did it).

Is this trash?

Or is it a treasure?

Positive list

Once again I got inspired to a blog post by Bob the Valley woodworker.

He is listing up all the stuff that he has made during the year and compared it to what his plans had been.

Years ago I would often feel that I never got anything done, and when I went to sea, I was frustrated and irritated that I hadn't completed anything while at home.

I discussed it with my mom, and she told med that she once had the same feeling after a long summer holiday, but her way out of it had been to make a "positive list". This list contained all the things that she had done, some big and some small, but writing them all down had helped her remember that she had done things during the summer, though not all of them were visible.

One of the drawbacks of being a seaman is that about a week or so after joining the ship, it is easy to suddenly feel sorry for yourself because you miss your family. If you immerse yourself in that sorry feeling, it is really difficult to get the mood back up again.
I think that the same might be true for a lot of other professions/people, maybe people have great ideas and expectations to a summer holiday or a long weekend, and then come Monday - not all that was dreamed of was actually completed.

My solution to this has been to write a "positive list".
I generally write it one week after coming on board, because that makes me remember the time at home.

There are no limits to how small or big a project that can enter the list. If I deem that it was a positive thing - it will go on the list.

In the beginning it is easy to think that "nah - this is too silly, I can't write this", but it is your list, so if eating a hotdog on a Friday afternoon make you happy - it can go on that list.

Once all those little things are written down, there is suddenly a long list of stuff that you have completed - and you wonder how on earth you had the time to do all that. And then you might forget that you were feeling sorry for not completing one specific part of another project.

As an example, my list for July - August 2018 looks like this: (It is the actual list, not something I have made up)

• Washed Bent (horse) with a water hose.
• Riding in the forest with Mette.
• Sold the Lambretta scooter.
• Made MiniMax hydroplanes with the boys.
• Processed a little bit of firewood from the treeline next to the field.
• Distributed rodent poison.
• Installed new hinges on a door in the stable.
• Attended Vildbjerg Cup with Asger and Mette (4 day soccer tournament).
• Attended two FCM games with Asger (pro soccer games).
• Attended Danmarks Cup Kallehavegaard with Gustav (3 day horse tournament).
• Picked Up Laura in Viborg upon her returning from Interrail.
• Driven Laura back to her dormitory after the summer holiday.
• Visit from Jens in Japan (my younger brother).
• Driven a lot in the green Volvo Valp.
• Went to the beach with Bertha numerous times at Sillerslevøre (near our summer house).
• Visited mom and dad.
• Had mom and dad visit us.
• "Delivered" Gustav to his boarding school.
• Driven Asger and his soccer team to Lemvig for a match.
• Made apple cider.
• Changed the battery on the Wheelhorse and the ATV.
• Helped Asger to change a tire on his moped.
• Had a visit from my coworker and his family.

Often there will feature bullet points about food that I have made, or had morning coffee with one of my friends in his garage. 

The general idea is that all this is something that I feel have contributed in a positive way to me.

So if you ever feel just a bit down and sorry for yourself for not reaching all your goals, it might be worth trying to make a list like this. 

Just remember that nothing is too small to go on the list. If it meant something positive to you, write it down.  By keeping those lists, you can later look back at them and remember specific positive moments. Some of them might have been positive to others as well, like giving your wife a bouquet of flowers, or walking the dog etc.

Positive moment from November 2018.

Positive moment from November 2018.

Very positive moment from December 2018.

(Asger is taking the picture)

 

Time for a new job

I have worked for Troms Offshore for the past five and a half years, and I have had a great time. There have been plenty of nice colleagues and I have even managed to sneak in a woodworking project or two during these years.

One of my coworkers forwarded a job ad two months ago, and while I wasn't really looking for a new job or planning to change jobs, this particular job seemed interesting. 

I got so curious about it that I did a bit of research, and ended up sending an application. I truly hadn't expected to hear from the company again, since it was sort of a very special job with a high number of potential applicants who might have a better chance than I did.

I told myself that at least I had sent in an application, and I would be happy for whoever landed the position.

And since I like it here in Troms Offshore, all would still be well no matter the outcome. Actually I was pretty sure that the pay was lower in the new job, so it really didn't matter much.

To make a long story short, they called me one day in the end of November, and I accepted the job despite a lower salary.

Most people tend to move towards better paying jobs and newer ships. 

I on the other hand have done the opposite. In even manage to live up to my motto "Being old fashioned, the cool way".

My new job is as chief engineer on board the Statsraad Lemkuhl, a ship built in 1914. 

The ship is run by a fund, that has got the goal to keep the ship active, and I read somewhere, that it is one of the tall ships of the world that has got the most sailing days per year. That appeals very much to me, since the ship was built for sailing, and not for being in port like a museum ship.

It will be a new experience for me, but like trying out new techniques, it can't hurt to use you brain once in a while to learn new stuff. Another good thing is that the ship usually visits USA once every year, so that is a bit of an adventure on its own.

The ship is in dry dock prior to this years season.

Definitely prettier than an offshore supply boat.

Do you remember to help other bloggers?

Fueled by a casual remark from Brian Eve the other day, I revisited one of my old posts about blogging.

I read all the comments again, and I remembered that it was a long time since I had done anything in the respect of updating my blog link list.

The first new (to me at least) blog I found was by reading some comments on another blog. I held the mouse pointer over the name of the person commenting, and to my surprise there really was a blog to be found there.

A bit of looking at this blog too, and I found another one that I hadn't come across before.

The first blog is called "An Unplugged Woodworker".

The second one is "The Apartment Woodworker"

So I'll ad those to my list of blogs that are out there for you to read.

Pressing apple cider

I made my own cider press in 2006, based on an old model that I had borrowed from a museum.
The shredder is an old one that I was given because the bearings were completely shot, and the flywheel and gears were missing.
I cast some new bearings of white metal, mounted some grease cups, mounted an electric motor and made a new undercarriage plus enlarged the hopper a bit.

Ever since we have tried to make a batch of fresh cider every year.
We make around 60 L (16 gallons) which is just about what we manage to drink in a year. We freeze the cider, and take out a bottle every week or so.

Since we have a lot of apple trees, we could easily make more, but there is not much point in that if we don't manage to drink it, besides we also need some bottles for all the cider, and space in the freezer for it.

Usually we try to make it as an arrangement where friends can drop by to have their apples processed as well, but this year due to the warm summer, our primary cider tree had ripe apples earlier than normal.
So Saturday before going out to sea, we made the yearly processing of cider.

Gustav helped in the beginning, and he was later relieved by Asger who poured the cider into the clean bottles.
"Rather strangely" I was left with the task of cleaning the equipment and putting everything back in its place when we were done for the day..

I am still working on a handle for the Simpson backsaw, but there is not much effect in showing pictures of my progress with a file and a bit of sand paper :-)

Washing the apples prior to shredding.

Gustav shredding some apples.

Packing the apple pulp prior to pressing.

Pressing 4 packages of pulp.

Dry apple pulp after pressing.

Ecologically apple cider.

Bucket of apple cider.