John Morris

Good Monday morning! Good Monday morning Patriot Woodworkers! What did you get done over the weekend, and what have you planned for the week ahead! Inquiring minds want to know. Please tell us what's happening in your shops, your life, and any events going on with you. Thank you for being here folks! Welcome new members To view our newest members and welcome them to our digs, please see our Members Page, you can "Sort" by join date and click on their names and be taken to their profile page where you can leave a message of welcome. Thank you for making our newest folks feel welcome. Featured topic Our Featured topic by @Mark Wilson will also have been added to "Our Picks", this is a page for content that has stood out and been chosen for a special place in our community, and for a limited time showing on our Home Page for the world to see. As you all can see Mark built a wonderful cubby storage for his mothers kitchen. We are honored to have Mark with us once again and showing off his work, Mark is special Alumni in our community, Wounded Warrior, and a site challenged woodworker, yet he builds some pretty wonderful items and crafts in his shop. Have any of you wondered what it would be like to work in your existing shop, virtually blind? Well Mark does! He has the power machinery that we all have, and through special techniques Mark has learned to use the Tablesaw without losing any digits, and all the other mainstay powered equipment you'd expect to have as a woodworker. Job well done Mark! And it's great to see ya around here Mark! Featured link Our featured links are website links added by staff and members, add your favorite links today at "Links Directory". Please add your favorite links today! If a category is missing, just tell us, we'll install it and away you go! E.C. Atkins Saw Blog submitted by @Grandpadave52. What a wonderful place to go do some research on your saw. Thanks Gramps! Featured download It's rare that a member shares a download with our community, if you would like to share a plan, a file, or even a drawing schematic, please do so at our Download department. Featured image Gunsmith: David Cooley (American, Pennsylvania 1790–1856) Medium: Wood (curly maple, ash), steel, silver, brass David Cooley's rifles have an uncluttered appearance and feature crisp, high relief carving, fine engraving, and elegant overall architecture. This is perhaps the most refined of his few surviving works. He was strongly influenced by his proximity to two important schools of gunmaking: the Emmitsburg School, to the south in Maryland, and the Chambersburg School, to the west in Franklin County. Source: The Met150

That's how it is here in our district too Al, but our State won't let it happen, I don't how hard it can be to put proper precautions in place, but, rumor has it at least in our area, school will be reopening next semester, right after the Holidays. Can't wait, I know our son can't wait. And I know parents who were duel income before all this, but had to have one parent quit work in order to stay home with their child, they will be thankful too. Fortunately for us, we made a decision when we were married, mama would stay home with the kids, I'd work and bring it in, and she'd spend it. Thank God my wife is able to be home without it effecting our income.

You know there is an old saying bosses like to use in the trades. You wanna whine? Hit the road, cuz someone better and more motivated is always willing to take your place. I bet there are a whole bunch of young healthy motivated college grad teachers who would love a job today and would be willing to take the minimal risks a classroom environment has.

NOOOO! I don't know what the heck it is, but it aint a paint scraper Dan! Silly.

You know I have mixed emotions about our teachers in this predicament Larry. Since we still have a child in school, I see firsthand what this is all doing to our kids. I am hearing anecdotal stories of suicide among our teens coming out from our son as well. I never heard a single story of suicide from our boy in all the years he's been in K-12, and just within the last month we have two stories of suicide coming from him, he heard through the grapevine, and we verified the truth behind it, and I can't help think this seclusion we are putting our kids through by not allowing them to head back to school has much to do with it. Our own boy, we can only do so much, all his friends have drifted apart from each other from not being on campus, we can only do so much ourselves, but reality is, the kids need that social interaction with their peers, this is all very hard on our youth, I have seen mood changes in our son who is a really level headed guy, but this is all becoming too much for even him. Surely he'll be fine, but I am thinking of the kids who live in dysfunctional families, where alcohol and drug abuse, and child abuse in all forms exist, and the only escape these kids had from it all was going to school, and in many cases I believe, the only way the proper authorities find out about the abuse, is through teacher and student interaction and observation, our teachers are often the front line observers in a child's behavior, and proper help can be received through the school as they report the abuse to authorities. I believe the risk to our teachers, is far less than the risk of keeping our K-12 children out of school, especially since the science does not support that there is a high risk environment of virus transmission from children to adults, the teachers are far more likely to catch Covid from their peers in the teachers lounge, than they are kids in the classroom. If we can allow Walmart to remain open, Target, Marijuana retailers, and many other retailers and types of businesses to be open, why can't we figure out a way to bring our kids back to school, they need to be in school. Bottom line of my diatribe is, I see our teachers as first responders, I lump them in with firefighters, police, and healthcare workers, they need to answer the call, mask up, and get back in school, quit whining, and quit the drama, I know it's easy for me to say sitting here, but at the same time, I'm working every day, I am interacting with people outside all day long, I trudge through homeless encampments in my job as we clear land for improvements, I come in contact with all sorts of risks, all day, every day on the job and deal with bags of excrement and urine hanging off trees and falling near my person as we clear the way through these camps to make way for a new road, and of course the automobiles that come within inches of our persons as we are working in the roads, and of course the heavy machinery that drives around us all day long, there are many professions out there doing their job with risks, we are all taking a risk when we report in for work with our co workers, drive out to the job in close quarters of each other in the same trucks, we've had folks fall out due to Covid at my own job, but we still keep going because we are public servants, we build roads, bridges, and streets, and the funding isn't going to wait for us, we have to build it. As a public servant we took an oath by default of being hired, that we will be there for the public in times of emergency, crisis, and disaster, I can be called in to do a job out of my area of expertise if a disaster were to hit us, my oath and obligation dictates that if a Police Officer wants me to maintain a road block during a riot, or a flooded road, I have to be there. Just as the teachers are public servants, they need to get back in class, and get our kids back in action, my very humble opinion here, not directed at you Larry, even though I mentioned your name in the first sentence. EDIT: PS, I see Gunny posted something similar to my long winded here, I started this before Gunny posted, and left to fix wife breakfast in bed, returned and finished, just wanted ya'll to know I wasn't riding Gunny's coat tails.

I don't know about setting up a shop, but eating donuts and drinking coffee, I got plenty experience in that!

Hey Al, thinking out of the box here, I am thinking plywood may have a rough time outside, maybe. You I am sure probably have a plan for protecting the ply from sprinklers, rain, etc. But I was wondering, what about a solid wood log base? Here are a couple ideas, not sure what the motif of your garden is, perhaps a log may not work, but it would last a loooong time! You could also take a log and shave it down to the the shape you want. Not too mention the time it would take, no finish, only one or two cuts to size, and yer done!

Gunny, you got a seasonal cat there my friend, I bet he loves Halloween!

Thanks Artie.

I bet he has a perfectly fine cat bed, but prefers this box over it?

Hey Al, perhaps these may help, not sure but give it a try?

Well looks like he got it out of the box! I bet @Artie can relate to the day this gent is having!

Juniper was chasing a feather toy for 20 minutes, she's out.

I love it when folks can get their hands on a brand spankin new Smith! I feel really happy for them and I just wanted to share here. Over at the FB Shopsmith Owners Group I belong too, Chad got himself a brand spankin new 7! Congrats Chad! If he has images of the unboxing I'll share them here too.

Yer getting your license sooner than you know, mama and dad need someone to go to the store now that you're sister is working and doesn't have the time.