Country Seat

[Kirbstone]

Friday 13th April happened to be my younger daughter's 38th birthday. All of my children are now over half my age and will remain so for the forseeable....

shortly after dawn I trundled a specific load down to her Studio beyond our lake via the scenic route muttering to myself those immortal words of Fanny Craddock's 'This is one I prepared earlier'.

Rs Friday 13th April 2012.jpg

sixteen well placed screws later and she had on her West-facing stoop one two-seater for watching the sunsets. She's into sunflowers, so they were the main theme. Just ten days ago it was a few short residual 9X2 rafter lengths in our woodshed and it's amazing what a planer, biscuit-jointer, router, jigsaw and sander will do, plus a splash of yacht varnish. The little elbow tables are ply, of course.

Jessica's Country Seat Rs.jpg

As a reward I'm invited down there tomorrow to Sunday Lunch. (The MM is off down in Kerry entertaining other grandchildren on their Easter hols.).

Tom K.

[crfriend]

Tom, that is just too splendid for words. I wish I had a tenth your chops when it comes to woodwork!

I spent the day fixing a low stone wall, turning sod in our garden, and cutting two lengths of lumber -- somewhat incompetently, but at least with hand tools -- for an experimental "pallet pot". And my back is out again.

[Kirbstone]

Ah Carl!....the dreaded back! This is where you must learn to delegate. I flatly refuse to dig in the garden at all. I'm left handed and that hand must be at the rear end of any handle I use. A new enemy by the name of of Arthur-Itis seems to have taken up residence in my left wrist joint, making it painful to shove a shovel/fork/spade into anything resistant, e.g. soil, so digging is a no-no for me now.
Fortunately to date it doesn't affect my rowing or piano playing, for which I am grateful. I had a knife & fork job done on my lower back on June 14th, 1996, a date I'll not forget. But that has been a great long term success, T.G.

Tom

[crfriend]

Ah Carl!....the dreaded back!

I blame the chimpanzees for pushing early hominids out onto the plains and making them need to stand erect to gain advantage. Global warming may be revenge.

This is where you must learn to delegate.

There's nobody to delegate to! (Unless, that is, I'm willing to take a hit to my wallet.)

A new enemy by the name of of Arthur-Itis seems to have taken up residence in my left wrist joint, making it painful to shove a shovel/fork/spade into anything resistant, e.g. soil, so digging is a no-no for me now.

I am sorry to hear of your new companion, but I am most fortunate that I can operate either righty or lefty. Too, given recent experiences, it's not the resistance when driving downwards (using foot-pressure, mind) -- it's the lack thereof that gives me the willies.

Fortunately to date it doesn't affect my rowing or piano playing, for which I am grateful. I had a knife & fork job done on my lower back on June 14th, 1996, a date I'll not forget. But that has been a great long term success, T.G.

That is very good news all the way 'round. I was commenting to Sapphire earlier today that it might be time that I consider submitting myself to the folks with knives to -- hopefully -- shore up what's left of my spine before it all collapses.

Pics, by the way, of my fun with my little stone garden-bed retaining wall should follow in a couple of days' time when I can deploy another computer to slurp the imagery from the camera. (It wasn't the digging in the garden that screwed my back today, it was lifting 6-pound wall bits. The digging just got me winded, proving without a doubt that I am completely and utterly out of shape.)

Getting old sucks, make no bones about it, but it beats the alternative. (And, yes, I am at peace. Finally.)

[Since1982]

I think we've all had some run-ins with Mr. Itis. I try to be less formal with names and just refer to him as Arty Itis...

[sapphire]

And I do appreciate your work in the garden! Sorry that whenever you try to do nice things in the yard, your back goes wonky. Please know that I do appreciate your efforts!

Tom, your woodworking skills amaze me.

To all, I understand the A-right-is. Got it myself. An unscheduled somersualt on skiis did my back no favors and I was born with cartiledge problems. My left knee keeps luxating and the ankles are shot. Frustrating.

[Kirbstone]

Down deep in an inconspicuous little clump of reeds on our boating lake a certain Baldy-Coote has built HER little Country Seat and to date has laid two lovely speckled eggs in it. I'm busy watching that space, but daren't get too close, of course.

Garden May 2012 Rs 001.jpg

Garden May 2012 Rs 002.jpg

...and Further to the First, my MM has suggested I do it again for a couple whose wedding we have been invited to in June. It will make at least an unusual present, and cheap, too.....Work in progress.

Garden May 2012 Rs 003.jpg

Tom K.

[Kirbstone]

I'm afraid the Coote's two eggs in her nest were taken by some predator, possibly a magpie. I expect they weren't concealed enough.

As to the 'Wedding Seat', I certainly won't go into production as my MM has suggested. The man hours invested in this sort of thing balanced against what you could probably sell one for doesn't begin to square up with fixing peoples' faces.

On Monday we got 17.8 nanoseconds of sunshine, which I anticipated and hauled said seat out onto the lawn for a photocall.

Wedding Seat 2.jpg

Wedding Seat 3.jpg

Oh, I forgot to mention that my Sunshinenanometer is of Irish manufacture and the 17.8 nanoseconds is a wild guess by yours truly, as it went right off the scale (which has a max. provision for 10!)

T.

[couyalair]

Good work !
Lucky recipients.

Martin

[Kirbstone]

Today we attended the lavish wedding of the couple for whom I made that wedding seat. Apart from several of the guests arriving kilted, we were stunned during the meal when three of the 'waiters ' produced cordless mikes and some very upmarket backing music came over the sound system to which they sang well known operatic arias.
We initially thought they were just miming, but it rapidly became apparent that they were genuine first class operatic soloists, singing to piped orchestral music and they did a floor show between courses of the meal. I had never experienced quite that before and it was wonderful. I later learned that they are an Italian troupe who do this for fancy functions and cost the Earth!. I'm not normally into opera, but what they produced was seriously uplifting and they left to an entire room full of standing people!

T.

P.S. My MM informed me at the end that I will have to make two more of those seats for guests who saw the wedding present one. Perhaps I'll get rich!

[skirtedMarine]

Nice Job on the seats Tom!,
I envy Your skill, and that You have time to do things like that, all I can add to the conversation is that a work buddy of mine and I were complaining about all the aches and pains associated with getting older (We're both in our fifties) and He commented; "You Know... getting old ain't for woosies!"
Scott

[Kirbstone]

Hi Scott,

Yes, I'm into woodwork a bit, mainly structural, so my fine joinery looks like the interfaces have been prepared with a chainsaw. Considering that for my work I operate every day using a microscope, the woodwork is right at the other polar end of the accuracy scale.

As to keeping aches & pains at bay my formula is simple... frequent regular controlled violent aerobic exercise, coupled with moderate stretching. In your 60s you'll hit the loss of muscle mass syndrome, so moderate weights are the antidote. My weekly personal torture takes some willpower to keep up, so when I get in from work I tog off and do about an hour of aerobic to a given heart rate on my monitor. Not all in one go. 30 mins & a rest to allow the heart rate to drop from 160 to 100, then off again for a further 15 mins, pulse creeping up again to 160. Rest. then 3 times round a light weights circuit, lasting up to 15 mins. The glow after my shower is endorphin-fueled, and my MM knows to the minute when to put something appetising on the table.

That fuel is also very important for keeping the muscle mass there. I'm currently just 4Kg/9lbs short of my young man's fighting weight, which isn't too bad at 70.

I then attack my old Bechstein, usually with some purpose in mind. Right now I'm putting in hours honing a hymns and anthems programme for our upcoming Harvest Festival on next Sunday. I attack the Church organ like the piano player I am, so the congregation had better not lag behind! I have to point out that I only play occasionally when asked.

I've no time for watching TV. I can't tolerate jingles & adverts, so I watch videos & dvd's in our home cinema. MUCH better!

T.

[the_scott_meister]

Nice work, Tom. I too enjoy a bit of woodworking every now and then, but nothing of that scale, or skill. Mostly consists of small projects such as Pinewood Derby cars with my Cub Scout, or some functional shelving. Ah, to dream of having a planer or biscuit-jointer, that would be awesome. But then I'd need somewhere to put it.

[the_scott_meister]

You attacked your old C. Bechstein? What, as in tickling the ivories or with power tools? I've done both with mine. I used to hit the ivories but now I just use tools. But once I'm done with that then I'll be able to use it again. Actually, quite a good deal of my woodworking happens to be in that area. Although it's not a C. Bechstein because that's mostly a European brand, don't see too many of them in the desert Southwest.

[Kirbstone]

Hi TSM,

In my post of the 19th I at first eulogised about the elegance of chain-saw joinery, certain power tools &c. I then waffled on about torturing myself through physical jerks, then I briefly alluded to eating, which none of us can do without. Lastly I mentioned my Bechstein, but went on to talk about preparing for organ bashing in our local God box on Sunday (tomorrow).

I attach a pic. of my 'concert hall', where I play my music. Anything that needs doing to the piano is done very professionally, as it is to put it mildly a very specialist field, piano technics. Fortunately I have a tame tuner who can and has undertaken regulation of the keyboard action and voicing, i.e. precise honing of the hammer pads so they meet the strings just right. The result is that my 125 year-old instrument is a joy to play and listen to (in the right hands of course,.....not mine.)

Rs Piano & Drawing room at HW..jpg

Rs Kilt %26 Tails at Pianoforte.jpg

Pic. shows the place BEFORE' Hello' Mag. brought round the flower arrangements!

T.