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All moved in and getting set up

It has been awhile since I have written anything. My wife and I bought a house back in February, moved in March, and have been putting a lot of work into it. And, timing what it is, in July I got laid off from my job. Since it is around Thanksgiving, I will say I am very thankful to have a new job, new house (to us), a workshop in the house, and a ShopSmith that I got from a friend who’s step-dad passed away a couple of years ago. I actually had time the other day to go down and turn it on – and blow the circuit breaker. So I guess I am not doing much with it until I can get at least an outlet or two re-wired for 20 amp service. Sigh. I painted one wall with the blackboard paint in a big 3 x 6 foot blackboard. I did it to draw plans on while working so I didn’t forget things but my nieces like it so much there isn’t much space for me to write on. That paint is really cool and I highly recommend a nice wall of it in your workshop, if you have a blank wall. A little square of it by a door would be nice to write notes for kids also.

Every year for the last 10 years or so my wife and I have made Christmas ornaments for family and friends. This year we are cutting up a piece of cedar off a tree at our house (can’t give more away in case any of them read this). I am definitely going to need some dust collection in the workshop.
One of the first things I did after we moved was to dig up an area next to the fence and plant a small garden. The tomatoes went crazy! We had load after load of Roma and a grape tomato. The rosemary, basil, parsley, zucchini, summer squash, and butternut squash did well. It may sound like a lot but it isn’t. I like to have a lot of different things even with a small space so plant 1 of a lot of things. The Swiss chard did ok, not great, and the beets and carrots didn’t amount to much. I don’t know why I never do well with them. I am trying the tomato cutting experiment again. If you read the blog you know I tried it before and it worked ok but when I planted the cuttings in the spring they were pretty spindly and the stems ended up breaking when I planted them. I also dug up a few of the Swiss chard and put them in a good sized pot to see what they will do in front of the sliding glass door this winter.

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