Tuesday 10 November 2009

Blogging and living

Already one month since my last post. But there is trouble in the air. It started in early September. At around 5.30 pm the internet disconnects and revival is around 8.30 am next day. Naturally, I complained at the Call Center but these peple don't seem bother, I could have "pissé dans un violon", could have pissed into a violin. They don't care as long as I keep paying my dues.

I might change the internet provider though this means my email address changes, too. The very near future will tell.

Instead of blogging I was working hard to construct a new gate and finally installed the thing. The installation alone took me one day from morning to evening. I am dedicated and enthusiastic but only moderately gifted.



This gate installed and being quite high, it might discourage people to jump over it within the framework of their municipal duties. This happened from time to time with the old gate; like the water metering man. The guy who looks at the water gauge in the garden and writes down how much we consumed during the year and how much we have to pay............

And that's not all. Our garden is gently inclined everywhere. In fact the place constitutes the ultimate proof that planet Earth is not flat but round. Come here and have a look and be convinced. Thus I decided to create at least one flat spot for a pleasant summer breakfast or dinner under three spreading birch trees.

Thus I started a week ago to flatten a circle of about 4 m (15 feet) diameter. Big job, it needed about 3 or 4 cubic meter (about 106 to 143 cubic feet according to Wiki and Google). Then, on top of this, I took grass from other parts of the garden to plant it on this food intake and friendship gathering spot . Thus it will be operational when heavy sunshine is back again, somewhere next year.



There is another project in the making. Have a look at this work bench. I bought the drawings in the USA (the economy is humming again thanks to guys like me) and now I am busy trying to understand the stuff and computing those inches into centimeters and millimeters. The wood is already ordered as well as a planing-surfacing machine and some special router dips. Last not least I bought an INCRA T-rule, from the USA as well (the $ is down, the € is up, thank you). All this will keep me busy during winter when the sun is shining exclusively on the upper side of the clouds.






All this to explain why I was not very assiduous on the blogging front. One post every fortnight, that should be cruise speed. Subject no object. The next post might be about science, astronomy and intellectual honesty. Could be some of my esteemed reader would prefer this to router dips and planing machines. Though, let me insist, there is not very much that gives so much pleasure as the achievement of beautiful precise woodworking. Nobody should miss this.

16 comments:

  1. The gate is closed? closed to visitors or solicitors? It is a lovely piece of work. Does your work bench always stay so neat and tidy? Mine has so many projects on it, unfinished of course, that It seldom looks so clean!
    I have a great love of woodworking too! so I shall be back to see what your winter woodworking has created!
    And you are correct the chickens don't eat the grass, just all the things IN the grass! thank you for the clear up!

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  2. Hi Sorrow,

    No, the gate is only locked when we are absent. But it is better closed so as to avoid roaming cows to enter.

    As to the work bench (two rickety old tables): a mess, probably like yours.

    Cheers, Sorrow
    Georg

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  3. Désolée que mon espace te paraisse compliqué, je fais pourtant beaucoup d'efforts pour "être claire" et j'indique tout dans la marge de gauche.
    Passe une bonne soirée
    Un bisou
    Viviane

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  4. Wow George you are so handy. You made the red gate all by your self from scratch???
    I remember once, Nima and I tried to install the curtain...God it took us a long time plus several holes on the wall :D

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  5. Georg,
    You sure are handy around the house! I'm sure you never have time hanging on you because you always find some way to use it productively...I admire people who can use their hands to make for a better environment.

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  6. hallo herr Georg

    you are very wise working with wood! and i do like a lot your posts on the works you do around the house, my actual bachelors degree is in Industrial Design (from UNAM in Mexico City) so i am used to work with my hands a lot, and always my favorite material to work was wood, my father had a small workshop in Mexico for building small wood furniture, so it runs in the family, unfortunately these days i do most of the time graphic design and web design so i am seated ALL the time, i am jealous of you that get to move around and build superb things as you do!

    great post, and beautiful door!

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  7. je me disais aussi!!! mais qu'est-ce qu'il fout ce géorg!!!!
    je pensais même que tu étais parti pour voir Sarko à BERLIN.
    J'ai beaucoup aimé cette soirée.
    et j'ai beaucoup pensé à toi.
    je suis gentil, hein?
    bises à Zabeth.

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  8. Hello,

    You build this huge gate?
    Wowww impressive and beautiful. I consider you very lucky for doing all this buy yourself in such busy world where we have a resource for even drinking water delivery.



    :)

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Thanks for commenting, all of you.

    To Viviane
    C'est vrai, ma chère. Mais je fais l'effort car ça vaut la peine de venir voir chez toi.

    To Hiva
    Yes, I made this myself. This kind of work is not difficult but a little experience helps. When you live in the country side in your own house, you learn to do these things as the years pass by.

    To Iditis,
    Yes, there is no boredom to be found. That is typical for people living in a house, in the country side. As to me, I am convinced that intellectual activities alone, or to be exclusively manual is a kind of atrophy and should be avoided.

    To Berenice

    Industrial Design, Berenice, that's wonderful. Create beautiful, useful things. Why didn't you stick to this instead of slaving along for stubborn language learners? Send me an email.

    Pour Vincent
    Non, Berlin, la TV fait l'affaire. Mais j'ai suivi quoique presque tout a déjà été dit à ce sujet.
    Un de ces jours, un petit coup de bignou.

    To Kulsoom

    Thanks for commenting. Just coming back from looking at your blog. Being able to do something useful with your hands, that's a pleasure.

    Georg

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  11. Hi Georg, so fleissig gewesen - und auch noch so begabt!Wow - Hut ab! Ich wünschte, ich wäre manchmal etwas weniger faul...Und dein Garten scheint total schön zu sein!!! Und das Problem mit den Internet-Anbietern....ohjeee, DAS ist ein elendes Thema, hatte ich auch kürzlich! Na ich wünsche Dir noch eine schöne restliche Woche!Alles Liebe aus dem Dauerregen-Deutschland, geisslein

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  12. Hi Georg,
    Beautiful gate.
    I love working with wook. Unfortunately I am not as skilled as you are and I can't afford the kind of power tools to try to build from scratch.
    So I buy the pre-cut for what I want to build. I still find it a very rewarding task.

    Fifty percent of the time the parts don't fit anyway so I get to make some ajustments before I can put them together.
    The bad new about that is, sometimes it's more difficult to try to fix someone elses mess ups then it is to start from scratch. I find a lot of swearing helps. lol

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  13. Hi Exceno,

    That's very interesting! I think pre-cut furniture is not available over here (as far as I know). Or do you mean IKEA furniture you have to assemble at home?

    I have a lot of tools, bought over the years but the problem is always to work with precision, with or without those power tools.

    I like to do wood work from scratch because then I can use plain wood and not glued together stuff that continues to stink for years.

    Georg

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  14. Yes Georg,
    I think assemble is a better description. But they don't come with glue, they come with nails and screws and so on.
    I envy you with your talent to be able to work with raw wood and create something from the beginning to the finish. I would think that would be very satisfying.

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  15. Ack! I hope your internet connection is now fixed and trouble-free, Georgy! On the other hand, it is really cool to see real works get done from the time that got freed up, ay? Nice going with all the projects!

    My old place back in the Midwest had a yard and fence, too. But here in the city you have to be quite rich to have enough space to want to close off! :o) It's lovely that you have leveled out a spot for relaxation in your garden... and even lovelier that you bought an American tool bench making kit! A few friends here were lamenting about the fall of the dollars, but our exporting businesses sure needed it.

    Not many home-improvement projects left to be done at my new pad, though we did clean up a neighbor's backyard and porch (she has a really nice wooden porch with a fireplace in the center and a jacuzzi at a corner) on Thanksgiving Thursday.... mainly because we needed to make more stomach room for the after-dinner pies. :o)

    Hope the weekend is going well in the Midi. It actually rained here today... A minor miracle!

    Smorgy

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