Project Day

     I spent most of today working on a project -- more shelves.  These wrap around a dressing table, and provide space for many more of the 11" fabric storage cubes:

     That's drawn in LibreOffice's "Draw," which at least as nice a simple drawing program as I have used, quite comparable to the MicroSoft product for this kind of work -- and if you are in the habit of "thinking with a pencil," it is great for noodling around to see what fits where, especially since it will work to scale.  This is just a front elevation; all the parts are 11" pine boards except the three cross-braces, rabbeted in at the back.  The little stairstep at bottom left is an offset to clear the baseboard.  I'll have to cope the verticals at the back for baseboard clearance as well.

     The second page -- you can see a thumbnail at the left -- is a cutting guide.  Today I got all of the pieces cut and routed grooves for the top two shelves.

     This won't be a quick project.  I'm willing to let it take however long it takes. The next step is to do more routing.  After that, I'll sand it, assemble it -- it's too big to maneuver into place in one piece, so some parts will be glued, others just held together with screws -- plane, sand, clean it and apply some kind of finish.  Probably more linseed oil, though I'm wondering about the darker "Danish Oil."  It will take days of spare time.  There's one other piece, a plywood backer that will hold a mirror over the desk, but that will go in after the rest is all in place.

     I finished up the day by grilling meat on a sword!

TAM KEEL PHOTO

     Our corner market had chimichurri marinated Brazilian-style steaks, three little ones bent into U shapes and impaled by a flat skewer, almost a pound and a half total.  Grilled over the good hardwood charcoal and accompanied by grill-cooked fresh mushrooms, stir-fry vegetables (microwaved from a bag -- hey, it was a project day!) and some nice spiced rice/quinoa mix, it made a good dinner to end the day on.

     And next, Monday.   Oh, well.