Today's project was clearing out and reorganizing the garage, so that it is actually usable for projects again, and I can actually reach my tools and supplies properly. Pictures forthcoming, probably tomorrow! Battery too empty to make them now.
There's a lot left to do here, but I'm very happy to finally have the whole thing in a usable condition, at least! Instead of having to constantly navigate around all kinds of crap scattered on the floor (instead of being stored where it belongs).
Currently painting the new plant table; weirdly, the cheap primer I used claimed on the can to need 12 hours to dry, but it was fine after like 2 hours? I just applied the top (color) coat on top of it, and had no issues whatsoever.
This can of paint is one of my bargain bin cans - the local hardware store usually has a cart with assorted stuff on it that they are trying to get rid of, usually because they're no longer selling it. Discounts between 50% and 99% are not uncommon - at one point I got some 35 EUR table legs for 1 EUR each.
Sometimes there are cans of paint on there as well - presumably these are the result of some employee accidentally mixing the wrong color for a customer, and them deciding to try and recoup some of the cost for the erroneous can by putting it on the cart at a discount.
So I've been picking up some of these cans every once in a while, and now I have a decent collection of semi-random (and often unusual) colors for projects like this where I don't need any particular specific color!
Tomorrow, when the plant table is fully dry, I can continue with my *actual* project (for which the table and the garage were dependencies): pre-planting seeds for my vegetable garden.
I've also finally installed a garden hose box, because I am sick and tired of my garden hoses laying on the ground outside and getting damaged and needing replacement all the time (storing them inside is impractical because of frequent use and being wet)...
The plant table is done and installed! Quite happy with the result, considering that it was a practice project and all the wood involved was crap 😄
(Also, this is the first table I've ever built, I think?)
Cleared out some more invasive vines in the garden, and moved my flat greenhouse thingem to a new location! #gardening
There's nothing in there yet except for dirt, compost and vermiculite - but I'll probably be putting some lettuce in there soon, if nothing else.
The adopted strawberry plants seem pretty happy with their new home!
Completed! That's like, 3 years worth of vine backlog deleted. Now nice things can finally grow there, instead of just endless uncontrollable vine overgrowth!
I am so, so exhausted now. Did a second trip to Action today, bringing back a crapload of ground cover, so I was already tired by the time I got back, and then the vine removal... including removing the two 'base plants' which had developed roots with a diameter of like 8-10cm...
Today, I've made a Gridfinity paint tube holder, for the cheap tubes of paint sold at Action (that still didn't have a place of storage here)
I've also hacked together a rough dirt sieve from skewers and metal wire, to remove branches and roots and such from soil before I reuse it for something else
My paint tubes are now nicely stored alongside the rest of my everything :)
Put the 3D model for the paint storage bins online here: https://www.printables.com/model/1260340-gridfinity-12ml-paint-tube-holder
Well, today was mostly spent talking in Dangerous Professional to the manager of the local McDonald's, to get a friend of mine the salary they are entitled to. Things set in motion, and now we wait.
Speaking of which, if you work for McDonald's in the Netherlands and are on a part-time or full-time contract, check your pay slip. They *should* be paying you for your contract hours plus overtime, *not* for the clocked-in hours. But according to the local manager they always calculate by clocked-in hours (as per head office policy), which is illegal.
(Exception: they can shuffle hours to other weeks to make up the weekly contracted amount of hours. As long as it works out to the correct average in the end. But as we've found out, it is by no means guaranteed that that actually happens.)
These are tomato seedlings, right? I'm not missing something? Could they possibly be something else, like a weed?
(I ask because these are showing up in areas that I *definitely* didn't sow tomato seeds in, nor any similar plants...)
Thanks to @pixouls I now know what happened, I think! I mixed some home compost into my potting soil, and in the past I've composted... tomatoes! So most likely these are seeds that survived in the compost all that time.
Which, funnily enough, means that I now have tomato plants as a type of weeds
Gardening update! Over the past weeks I've been slowly planting various things, and organizing my backyard.
Looks like I now have early bumblebees enjoying the raspberry plants 🙂
Today's workshop improvements! Reused an empty 3D printing filament spool as a spool for the long extension card in the garage, installed some hooks to hang my (non-electric) scooter on (finally, it's no longer in my way!), and finally added some nonslip tape to a working surface so that I can safely put stationary tools on it without them moving around and without having to bolt them down permanently.
I've also been working on finishing my plant tables for the garden today, but I don't have any usable pictures yet. Today's work is mostly just fixing the parts I already put together; there wasn't enough room for imprecisions in the wood so I've had to change the design a bit, and move a couple of planks.
I've snapped some crappy (because lack of daylight) pictures of the in-progress woodworking project! As well as the little spacer tool I made to ensure the planks are at the correct distance from each other, and will match up at the ends.
I now have four of these 'half tables', that will then be transported outside and combined per two into a whole table, adding the two missing legs. That's why the spacing is important - it needs to match between all of them, or the point where they get joined won't line up!
Today's progress in Project Workshop Density: installed some overhead storage hooks for long things, so that they finally aren't in my way anymore; and installed an auto-retracting hose spool for my compressed air onto the ceiling.
Also worked on the plant tables a bit; cut and added all the ledges that the 'floor' planks will rest on. Assuming it's sufficiently dry tomorrow, I might assemble and install them outside tomorrow! Can't do that in the garage, because once fully assembled they won't fit through a doorway anymore.
Basically I'm trying to fit everything efficiently in what one might call a one-car garage if one were generous. Efficiently enough that there's actually enough space to work on projects. While also storing gardening tools and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff in there.
Just picked the first few strawberries from my own garden! #gardening
(The birds got the first few)
I have finally finished my raised beds (aka plant tables)! This isn't the first woodworking project I've finished, but it's the first that I *started*, back in 2020. Plenty of setbacks in health and circumstance delayed the project, but I got there eventually 🙂
Now all that remains is to put some permeable plastic in there to help keep the dirt and roots inside while still allowing drainages between the planks, and filling it with soil and plants!
