I spent the morning installing the last 16 of almost one hundred recessed lights in the River House and am happy to have that rather tedious task in the rearview mirror. In the afternoon I turned my attention to shop organization. Few items get more use in my woodworking than clamps. It is said that you can never have enough but I would add that they also need to be close at hand and quick to deploy. My solution for this, based on my experience with two prior shops is shown above and the reason I chose to make my shop walls from plywood. I can grab or stow a clamp in one second. They are located two steps from my assembly table. Each clamp is supported by two cleats. Each cleat is fastened to the plywood wall with one screw. It took me less than two hours to make all the cleats and hang all the clamps. Not one to ever waste good wood, I made the cleats out of what used to be the rails of the bunk bed I built for the boys when they were small. Other remnants of those beds can be found elsewhere throughout the shop.

Arguably the biggest chip and dust producer in my new shop is the combination jointer/planer. It has also proved to be the most difficult to connect to my dust collection system. The machine uses a non-standard size dust port. Once again, 3D printing saved the day. It took me ten minutes to design the required adapter and Maya was kind enough to print it at work. The fit was perfect and I am very pleased with this solution. I also managed to solve the other big challenge with this machine. When converting from one mode to the other, the entire dust collection plenum makes a 180-degree flip. To address this, the dust collection hose is often disconnected and reattached after the switch-over. My brother developed a clever solution for his shop that employs a dedicated blast gate and hose for each mode making for a much more streamlined transition. I eventually arrived at a solution which provides just the right amount and orientation of flexible hose that allows for operation in either position without having to ever disconnect the hose.

The bamboo plywood I will be using to build the cabinetry for the River House has still not arrived. It has made it to Massachusetts from California but needs to be picked up by a freight carrier with a flatbed truck and forklift to facilitate delivery. With any luck, it will arrive tomorrow. After spending the morning installing recessed lights, I decided to give myself a break and build an assembly table in the afternoon. I have now installed about half of the roughly 100 lights and find it best to do a dozen or so at a time. The work is not difficult but my hands and fingers get very sore if I do too many at once. The table top is from the desk that Maya used during her high school years. The base is made entirely out of plywood remnants left over from the shop wall paneling. It is not pretty, but it will sever the purpose until I can devote more time to building a proper base. I will be adding leveling feet and retractable casters to complete the project.

Installation of our interior doors commenced today. Bedrooms and offices will feature 5-panel frosted glass doors while others will get a flush panel. This photo is in silhouette but I will be sure to publish a properly lit one when I get a chance. We anticipate that all the doors will be installed this week. Curious to test out the magnetic latches, I shut the door behind me only to discover I was trapped inside my office. Too embarrassed to call out for assistance, I escaped by way of the window.

A number of crane flies appear to have taken up residence in our newly painted garage attracted, no doubt, by the bright white color. As they do not bite and only live for about two weeks they seem like an innocuous guest and we are happy to share our space with them. I had the River House to myself today due to the holiday and spent most of my time installing recessed lights. A trip to the Home Depot in Watertown placed me close to Kyle so I dropped in to assist him with the finishing touches he is making on his renovated basement before his new tenants move in next week.

The Pemigewasset Loop is a 31-mile hike in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Maya completed the loop this weekend with her boyfriend, Owen, and another friend from work. Her flatmates, Fiona and Grace were originally planning to make the hike but came down with Covid days ahead of the adventure. In total, the group summited 14 peaks – Flume, Liberty, Little Haystack, Lincoln, South Lincoln, Lafayette, South Lafayette, Garfield, Galehead, South Twin, Guyot, West Bond, Bond, and Bondcliff. Maya reported sleeping for 10-1/2 hours the night of her return.

Pictured above are the batteries for the energy storage system that will power the River House in the event of a power outage. They can also be used to shift the time of use for grid power (charge from the grid during off-peak times, supply the house during peak hours) that will allow us to purchase electricity when it is cheapest. Mounting these to the garage wall was no small feat given that each weighs more than 500 pounds and that I did so working alone using levers and blocks to lift the units an inch and a half at a time. Mounting and connecting the batteries took the better part of the day, a task that could have been easily completed in half the time with the aid of a forklift and a couple of really strong assistants. Even so, there is something very satisfying about moving really heavy things alone using the principles of mechanical advantage.

The turnout this afternoon at our neighborhood summer picnic was quite good; enhanced no doubt by the perfect weather, a nice respite from all the rain we have been having. Our community seems to be composed primarily of really young families or retirees with little else in between. After a rather unproductive morning working at the River House, relaxing for a few hours was nice.

Kyle has graduated from apprentice to novice carpenter. He created this video to document his first major solo woodworking project. With new tenants about to rent his newly renovated basement, he decided to add much-needed storage to his garage in the form of 2-foot-deep shelves. It fills me with great joy to see him using the skills he developed while we worked together on the renovation.

Jeanine joined me at the River House to check out the build progress. We used the opportunity to model what our house number will look like at scale. Maya 3D printed these numbers for us at work and even though I could not hold them up with the proper spacing, we are very pleased with the size. Initially, we thought we would buy backlit numbers and I provisioned for the power to do this. Upon further reflection, however, I think we have decided that we would prefer not to illuminate the numbers. Visitors looking for our house at night will be more likely to rely on the reflective numbers on our mailbox than peering through the 300 feet deep forest of trees separating our house from the road.

Last weekend I ran over a turtle with my car when I arrived at the River House to work. It would appear to be a female snapping turtle and measured about 7 inches in length. I did not see the turtle nor did I realize I had driven over it. I only noticed it when I got out of my car and immediately felt sick to my stomach, not at the sight, but because I had caused the death of this wonderful creature. I suspect the turtle had come from the river in search of a place to bury her eggs. This only compounded my feelings of guilt. By the time I had completed my work for the day, all that remained of the turtle was its shell. I take a small measure of consolation knowing that the other wildlife we share our yard with gained nourishment from this tragedy. Over the course of my life, I have helped to save a handful of wayward turtles. I hope this history of compassion and care will help me to forgive myself.

My new jointer planer has 5 rows of 15mm x 15mm x 2.5mm square four-sided convex edge carbide knives for a total of 80 knives. When an edge of a knife gets dull or damaged you simply remove the locking screw and rotate the knife to a new edge. The helical arrangement of the blades results in a smoother cut and less tear-out on difficult grain. I spent some time doing the final tuning of the infeed and outfeed tables today as well as sealing all the joints on my dust collection system.

While it is far from complete, my new wood shop at the River House is officially open for business. As of today, all of my major machines are operational and I have access to most of my tools and building supplies. The automatic dust collection system is up and running on my table saw, jointer/planer, and bandsaw. Jeanine stopped by to see the garage doors that were installed today and found me working in my shop for this photo. Just ten days ago, this was an empty room and now I am ready to start building cabinetry for the house.

Nicolai returned to the soccer pitch this afternoon playing in a showcase match to kick off the month-long Boston Unity Cup. He played with and against many of his teammates from the US national team as well as several exciting new players who have recently joined the sport. The tournament is meant to reimagine the power of soccer to build community, connect people from diverse backgrounds, and promote equity. Nico had 2 goals and 2 assists in a tight 4-3 win. Photos from the match can be found here.