Lapstrake dory

Last fall my wife and I were in Sweden. Sweden's capital Stockholm is very beautiful and set on a dozen or so islands. There are hundred's of boats of all types docked around those islands and within easy strolling distance of down town.

We saw these boats being built.

It wood is nasty looking softwood and the fit kind of rough. I was told that the wood swells and the bottoms and cracks are filled with tar and paint and the boat is put to work.

Opa Can't Fix Everything

My Grandson is a small but barely controlled whirlwind and as you know whirlwinds are hard on the world around them. Kieran is small enough that trailer parks are still safe but toys, aren't.

One of my roles in his life is to fix broken toys and make things for him. (he sleeps in a crib that I made for him) At 16 months Kieran's vocabulary is limited but the message is clear when he comes to me holding wheels in one hand and car in the other saying, "Opa, Opa." He usually then goes to the door that leads down to the work shop and we take the damaged toy or toys down stairs and put them on the bench.

I then explain that Opa and his helper Elves will fix the toy overnight and it will be waiting for him in the morning. So far I have been able to deliver on that promise 100% of the time. Lets face it being Opa/Santa is a serious blast.

This morning however I am sitting in a coffee shop writing on my netbook because Opa can't fix everything. I am waiting on the garage to change the oil etc. etc. etc. on the family car. I suppose I could do the oil change, I do it on my motorcycle, but I'm not even remotely interested in working the car. I have never been interested in fixing cars, the only machanic's tool I owed for years was the small plastic card shaped tool.

That being said, we have a great local garage that does super work for reasonable money and I trust them totally. Why mess with a winning combination??

One day Kieran will learn that Opa can't fix everything and there are lots of things he doesn't even want to fix. But... the basement Elves and I are committed to fixing the boy's toys for as long as we can.

When not in the Shop

When the cold wind blows and the colder snow snows, thats when the chicken hearted gets on an airplane and goes.

We have gone to the Iberostar Cuzumel 5 times in the last 8 years and loved it every time.

A Fish Clock ?

Lets face the truth. The clock part in incidental. The spalted wood is the star of the photo. The challenge with the spalted wood was some of it was so punk that I had to harden it with Minwax harder first.

An Unlikely Shop Tool

Above is one of the least likely shop tools you can imagine. In a shop with dozens of knifes and chisels, all of which can sharpen a pencil to a pin like point, this is the "go to" tool.

Why?

How many times have you been holding something in one hand to be marked and reached for your pencil with the other only to find it needs to be sharpened. In my shop the pencil that falls most easily to hand, is nearly always dull, or broken; in other words not adequate for the task at hand. So... I use the pencil holding hand to jam the pencil into the electric sharpener and Shazam, sharp and useful.

A wonderful shop tool left over from my Office Manager Days