The Barn on White Run

I had a great time at the PATINA toolapalooza on Saturday, connecting with many friends and acquaintances, and communing with hundreds of thousands of tools.  Every year I can spend up to a dozen minutes shopping for clothes and such, but I could spend dozens of hours browsing and shopping here.

There are two parts of the event, and I always start at the tailgating outside in the parking lot.  That’s often where the real deals are found.

My big score for the day was a full NOS sleeve of vintage 220-grit 3M Tri-M-ite sandpaper.  My experience is that this is getting harder to find, but one fellow had several tables of sandpaper-ish inventory, most of which I did not need.  But the Tri-M-ite was priced nicely so I bought the whole pack.

I was only tempted a little by a smaller patternmaker’s vise that was missing a lot of parts.  It was only $60 but I let someone else go home with it.

But if vises were what you wanted, there were plenty.

Inside was packed with both people and tools.  Bins and shelves of tools.

The only other things I bought for myself were a file handle for $3, a Lufkin 10-foot tape measure for $2, and an extension carpenter’s rule for $8.  I did buy a number of good tools for the grandsons, small back saws, eggbeater drills, and chisels for a future date, etc.

Very much looking forward to next year.

I’m involved in a couple more tool events this year; stay tuned.

This coming weekend is the PATINA tool swap near Frederick Marlyand.  You can get the details here.  If you are anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic it is well worth the effort to get there.  Yes, there are scores of tables with thousands of premium vintage tools, but for me the real treasures are out in the tailgating tool swap.

I’ll be there Saturday morning on the hunt for tools appropriate to little boys.  Can you believe Lil’T is four years old?  And his brothers and cousin are stair stepping right behind him.  I’ve got plenty of tools a-waitin’ for them, but not nearly enough.

Anyway, it you see me there and recognize me come up and say “Hi.”  If you see me but do not recognize me, well, don’t.

A few days, ago my longtime friend retired broadcaster Brian Wilson and I had another of our long-form chats, commenting about the state of the world.  He posts these and other musings on his Substack account, Brian Wilson Writes.  Feel free to indulge (or punish) yourself as our conversations are definitely no-holds-barred, not for the easily offended.

NB – Pictures from last summer

With a break in the brutal winter weather I got myself up into the woods to chop up that grove of black birch trees that came down last winter.  The amount of firewood from this one incident of windfall is about what we should need next winter, but even when done here I’ll keep at it.  It’s fun and good exercise.

The work site was quite the mess so I spent most of the first day just clearing brush, then got to work chopping my way up the trunks.  I got two good truck loads of 6-8″ 16-inch bolts with the occasional 10-12″ piece, but those were almost outside my lifting ability.   I followed those two loads with two more today.

Once I get to the biggest section of this tree, about 20 feet from the root ball, the pieces will be 20-inches in diameter or more.  Those will be so heavy I will have to roll them to the tailgate and up the ramp into the truck.  If past experience is any indicator each one of the biggest sections will yield 32 pieces of firewood that are manageable in size.

Another couple days and another couple truckloads and I will be done with harvesting from this site.  Then on to splitting and stacking.  I’ll use a system new to me I’m adapting from Mike Wilson, whose yootoob channel is one of my favorites.  Previously I just spent way too much time stacking carefully to make everything “just so,” crisscrossing each layer for good stability and air flow.  This new system should cut my time by at least half with even better air flow.

Then on to harvesting some more windfall elsewhere on the homestead.

Good thing my little 4WD S10 is strong and nimble.  It may be dissolving before my eyes and maybe not reliable for long trips anymore but I’ll keep it until it runs no more

Now about a month out from our weather episode that brought three inches of snow, three inches of sleet, a half inch of rain, and another two inches of snow, we are starting to see some ground again.

These two picture were taken from the same spot, just turned 180-degrees.  South facing slope?  Grass!  North facing slope?  Glacier.

Tomorrow – harvesting firewood Day 1