Working on my shop!

I have been putting in alot of effort improving my shop lately. I bought a shop vac that was on sale (50% off so it was $40) and cleaned up alot of sawdust that had been sitting in my woodworking shop for over a year.

I have been looking alot lately at power tools and shop equipment. I have decided to go ahead and start investing in some high quality tools that will serve me for a long time. I want some nice woodworking tools and I figure if I am going to buy some I may as well by some high quality stuff.

My first big purchase will probably be a hybrid or cabinet style table saw. I need a good table saw because the one I have now is my stepfather's and it was probably $120 dollars or something like that. It is a good saw but just not up to the amount of work I want to thow at it.

I am also looking at buying the Festool plunge saw kit with the guide rail for cutting plywood and the like. It is $500 but every review that I read, the people say that it was probably their best investment. Sounds like a good tool for me!

Trying to repair a flat tar roof.

I have a small shop that I do some woodworking in that has a very old (30+ years) flat tar roof. Of course, it has a few leaks which are definately not a good thing in a carpentry shop. I can't have very many expensive tools in there becuase they could get wet and ruined. I can't store much lumber in there because of moisture the possibility of them getting wet and ruining also.

I have been reading up on the subject online and it seems that repairing a flat tar roof isn't garanteed to stop the roof from leaking. On the sites I looked at, it was suggested that it is more cost effective to replace the roof than to repair the leaks. Because, repairing the leaks doesn't always work so you will probably end up replacing the roof entirely anyways. We will see....

So I am off to Lowe's to get some tar and see what I can do. I have never done it before but it can't be to hard to spread some tar around. Maybe I can do a little better than that though.

Building your own house!

Have you ever thought about building your own house?

Think about it.... When most young couples buy a house they finance it for many many years, they will be paying for their house almost until the day they retire. Most house payments around the Southeast are in the $1000 a month range. Also, the first ten years of payments on a house are generally just enough to pay the interest off, so until the eleventh year people are just now paying for the actual house! It's so difficult to imagine, but it's true.

I have putting alot of thought into building my own house one day. There are alot of different things that I want my house to be.
-energy efficient- solar panels, excellent insullation, lots of natural light, LED light fixtures, and many more "green" things
-designed with future additions to the house in mind
-modern looking

I love the thought of not having a house payment every month, have low or no utility bills, the satisfaction of building my own house. I am a carpenter and I am capapble of building a house on my own right now. But like most people, money is a current issue but things can be done about that!

Becoming a Personal Trainer?

I am a bit of a health nut, I like reading about nutrition and exercise and I think I know a good bit more than the average man about fitness. Whenever my friends and family bring up exercising or loosing weight, I always end up explaining my understanding of it all. Whether I am right or a little bit wrong, I enjoy talking about the subect. I also love to work out and stay in shape, looking good is just a perk.

I went to college to major in business and I lost the my motivation so I dropped out and began doing odds and ends. I think all the tme what I want to do with my life, as a career. People ask me if I plan on going back to college and I always so probably not unless I can study something I am interested in. Fitness and exercise is something I am interested in and a subject that I would enjoy studying. I actually study it often on my own accord, reading books and reading on the internet about fitness and nutrition.

The other day I was talking with my mother and she was asking me to help her get on a diet and exercise program (she asks often but never goes through with it). Somehow she or my sister said something like "Why don't you be a personal trainer for a living?" My mind lit up! So then I explained how I have talked about doing that if I ever did go back to college and my mother thought it was a good idea.

So now I am looking into getting a personal trainer certification and going back to college and studying Exercise Science. If I do go through with it, I believe it would be something I would enjoy doing. Besides, if I didn't enjoy it, it wouldn't be hard to get out of it and into something else if a better opportunity came along.

Talladega Time!

It finally time to head back to the Talladega Infield!!!!

This has been an event that I have been attending for about 8 years now, twice a year and I have never missed a NASCAR race at Talladega since the fist time I went.

I pull my camper up there and we stay in the infield and party for 4-5 days, it gets wild. There are about +60,000 fans in the infeild staying in everything from RV's, tents, and horse trailers. Lots of rednecks, lots of beer, lots of wild activities.

This year, we are going up on Wednesday and staying until Monday. We went on Wednesday last race and it was great getting their early. Usually I don't head up until Thursday though.

I can't wait but I have alot of work to do, getting the camper ready, buying the food, getting all of my friend's beer and luggage in the camper, getting LOTS of ice, fixing some ruined cornhole bags, the list goes on and on........

Building a Computer Desk

I consider myself a decent carpenter. I have built all type of things out of wood from decks, houses, boats and furniture. For a while now I have been day dreaming about build myself a nice big computer desk with plenty of shelves for all of my books and other junk. This past weekend I decided it was time to put all my thoughts to work and build the desk.

The desk needed to be cheap but good looking. I chose to build it out of 1" pine lumber because it is the cheaper lumber, soft and easy to work with, and looks pretty good. I plan on painting the desk a light color so I am not concerned about buying expensive wood with beautiful wood grains running through it. Pine is just fine!

So my work began and in about 4 hours I had my basic structure up, no problem.



There is still alot to be done but it is coming along nicely and was pretty simple.

Just got back froma cruise!

March the 7th my girlfriend and I went on a 5 night Royal Caribbean Cruise Line cruise and had a wonderful time. We went to Cozumel and Costa Maya, both of which are in Mexico. The weather was warm and beautiful, just a little windy, to bad we didn't get to go sailing.

One of my favorite things about the cruise was the food! Each night, we went to the captain's dinner and had gourmet meals, things like: duck, escargo, lamb, lobster, pastas, exotic fish and excellent desserts. The best part was that you could order as much as you liked. So usually, I would order two or three appetizers, two or three main courses and some sugar free ice cream for desert. The platters were a bit small so any grown man would need more than one.