Workshop

     We recently moved into another rental, and this one does not have any place to work. This sucks. I have some decent power tools and hand tools, but no where to get anything done. No saw horses even. Fortunately my Dad has a huge shop. It is filled with his tools and projects, as well as, some of my brothers junk, but there should be some room for me to build a modest craft.
     So today I picked up my tools from storage and took them over to Dad's. I have a really nice jigsaw my father-in-law got me for Christmas, a Skilsaw, a Dewalt cordless reversible drill, a nice Stanley hand saw, etc. And my mini-fridge. Can't tell you how nice it is to stop the lawn mower and grab a cold beverage out of my garage fridge without taking my shoes off or tracking crud in the house.
     Dad and I talked about his days fishing. Not just rod and line, but honest gil-netting and purse seining. Some pretty hairy stories. Apparently he bought a 28' boat with a friend and they put a new cabin on it.
     Dad and I went through the books I got from the library and the boats they had. We also got out some plans that he gave me a while back, that used to belong to his friend. Larry? I think. The plans call the boat D5 from Bateau. Http://www.bateau.com. It's a cute little boat. There is a similar one in the book "Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson" called Ruben's Nymph. Dad had a clever idea, that I should build a model of one with the cardboard from a box of cereal. Then I'll get an idea of what it will look like and the way to build it. I will try to put some time into that tomorrow.
     Also looked at lumber today. I know almost nothing about lumber and I could still tell that Lowe's wood was all crap. Knotted, split, warped, crooked, and ugly. The plywood was even worse. The ply's were coming apart. I could see voids on the edges. Big ugly knot holes. Sad. I'll try Home Depot tomorrow and if that sucks as bad, and it probably will, I'll start looking at local hardware stores and the recyclers.