Dad’s Weekly Report

18 January 2009

Dear Family,

We are having sunny weather and we can’t wait for it to be over and for the rain to start again. As usual when we get sunny weather in January, we are getting strong freezing cold east winds. I hate wind and especially cold wind.

I finished the shelves out in the garage. I had them all complete before Christmas except for the doors. With the blizzard that we had, it wasn’t possible to get the masonite for doors. Anyway here is a picture of one of the shelves. Sandy suggested that I closed them in on the top so that dust won’t settle in from the top. So they are all enclosed and should keep things clean inside. One nice thing about them is the bottom is higher than the old shelves which gives me more clearance on the workbench. It would be good to mount a light under them.

The shelves take up less space than the old ones which gave me room to buy a new toy. So here is a picture of my new bandsaw. I found it on Craig’s List. Tuesday Sandy and I drove down south of Portland and bought it from a guy who is starting a farm raising chickens. He bought it to rip 2X4’s. It is not strong enough for that and so he sold it to me for $100. I think that it will be just great for what I want it for. I have started mounting wheels on it so that can pull it in and out when I need to use it. I also added another electrical outlet so that I don’t have to keep swapping plugs.

We have been on a buying binge lately, spending the year end bonus. Sandy’s sewing machine broke recently after three weeks we went in to pick it up and it wasn’t ready. They were having trouble finding a part for it. So I convinced Sandy to buy a new one. She got a real fancy one with lots of different stitches. It will even sew letters, so that she can sign the quilts that she makes.

Then on Friday Sandy and I bought a new TV and recliner. The TV is a 40 inch LCD flat panel by Samsung. I haven’t yet figured out how to work it well. It will be fun to play with it. Its picture in HD is remarkable. However I don’t have HD yet. I still need to work on that. The recliner is to replace our old brown one which is now over 20 years old and pretty worn out.

During the past couple of Saturday’s, at the fort, I have made spoons. Here is a picture of them next to a regular teaspoon. The black one is the one that I made yesterday and hasn’t had the scale cleaned off. The youth in our ward are going on a trek again this year, and I thought I would make up a bunch of spoons to give to the adult leaders who go with them. I’ll stamp their names on them and they will have some period spoons to use on the trail.

Several couples in our ward who are empty nesters have been started a Family Home Evening group. We’ve been meeting about a month and using the missionary handbook as a study guide. Not tomorrow, but the following Monday, we will be meeting at our house. Tonight Sandy and I will work on the lesson as will be responsible to teach the lesson as well.

Well that is all the news. I hope all is well with you. Give us a phone call when you can.

Love,

John

Dear Family,

Happy New Year! I am writing this from Salt Lake City. I flew here last Monday morning. Wes and April asked me to come to help them install a new floor in their apartment. The floor is all installed and I fly home tomorrow. The floor is a very light bamboo. It comes in 6 ½ foot long planks and snaps together with a tongue and groove on the edges. The top bamboo layer is about 3/16 inch thick.

I started measuring and cleaning and moving furniture on Monday when I got there and got most of the front room done on that day. Tuesday I spent all day working on the little area, the hallway in front of the bathroom and the linen closet. Wednesday I did most of the bedroom and then Thursday finished up the bedroom and the large bedroom closet. We had to shift furniture from one side of the rooms to the other and that made it take longer. The apartment is still a mess because as soon as the floor was nearing completion April bought baseboard and door molding. Wes has installed most of the molding I just helped by holding the boards up as he sawed them. My brother Paul contributed greatly by loaning us his miter saw and small table saw.

Several months ago Wes replaced the cupboards and counter-tops in the bathroom and kitchen. There were several spaces between the cupboards that needed to be filled. Friday I cut some pieces and attached them to the cabinets. One problem was that the spaces were not parallel; they were wider at the top than the bottom. When I measured there was only ⅛ inch difference over the 30 inch difference but it looked like a lot. It turns out that your eye can see errors in parallel lines very accurately. I used the table saw and cut some tapered boards to fill the spaces then mounted them. I think that they looked pretty good. It was a trick to cut tapered boards.

Loyal invited all the family to go bowling on New Years Day, so on Wednesday, Wes and I took a couple of hours off.  Paul and his family came.  Cynthia’s kids, Michelle and Allison, came with their families and Nicole.  It was nice to see everyone.

Today I spent most of the day with my sister, Cynthia and her family. Michelle and her family were there and Nicole was there. I also visited Dan’s new house for a few minutes. I had heard horror stories about the house but I think that it will be a great place for them; there is just too many stairs. They definitely need an elevator.

Sandy and I finally made it to Pullman after Christmas to deliver Allen’s and Brent’s Christmas presents. Two days after Christmas, on Saturday the weather changed and it warmed up so we drove to Pullman. The roads were mostly okay by then. Ruth was able to come with us. When we were 40 minutes from Pullman, we got a call from Brent. He was in terrible pain. Allen was outside digging the car out of the snow so that he could drive him to the hospital. So we got to spend the first 3 hours in the hospital while he had a kidney stone. We were happy that it didn’t last too long but I am sure that it was WAY TOO LONG for him. He just told me that he thinks that it finally passed completely out. Besides that we had a nice, but too short, visit with them before heading home after church on Sunday.

Well that is all the news.

Love,

John