Garage # 3

     It is hard to believe that September is here.    I don't want to think about summer being over.  I noticed the school buses are running around the neighborhood again.  I noticed the neighbor's son packing his football gear in his pickup as he heads off to the public high school.  I noticed that it is darker when the radio alarm goes off in the morning.    Just this past week I noticed that there were some soybean fields where the leaves are starting to turn meaning that it won't be long and the combines will be taking the crops out.  I like the lazy hazy days of summer most of all.   When fall comes around it tends to remind me of the projects outside that I had on my "to do" list that are still on my "to do" list.    I guess I will have to put those projects on the 2015 calendar.  (Procrastination is my middle name.)
     I still have been working on projects in the garage in an effort to make things just a little more organized.   I have been working on a couple of other items also, but for this week I am going to blog about a few quick fixes that I have completed.
     In the past I stored  my air compressor in my basement shop.   If I needed air in the garage I would lug the compressor up the steps and once done with it I would haul it back down the steps.  (All the while the wife's cat would weave in and out of my legs as I traveled those steps.  I felt it was her intent to trip me.   The wife says it was her intent to let me know her food dish was empty.)
   One day I bought this 50 foot air hose that was on sale.  I built a little holder to coil the hose when it was not in use.  Now rather than carry the compressor up the step I just connect the hose to the compressor hose in the basement.    It works good.

   I always kept my portable saw horses leaning against a wall that was in front of the car.   I thought it was a good plan.    The problem was that as the wife would try to get into the car she would rub against the saw horses as she squeezed  by and it would leave a little track of saw dust on her slacks.    (Usually in an area that she could not see - If you know what I mean.)





    So I made this wall bracket out of some scraps and mounted a couple long 3/4 inch dowels into the wood.   This gives me a place where I can now hang my saw horses up and out of the way when I am not using them.   (It also help me make a few points with the miss.  Or maybe keeps me from losing points. )

    In my shop I have this radio that plays good country western music.  (Now that school has started, most of the neighborhood is either off to work or gone to school so I can crank the volume up a little more than usual.)   Also I like to play audio books while I'm working away in the garage shop.   (When one is retired one is always looking for any easy - cheap source of entertainment.)    This radio seemed to find its parking space on top of any available tool that was not in use at the moment.


    I made this shelf up out of alder wood scraps that  I had laying around.    I went overboard and built it like it was a project destined for the Iowa State Fair.   No screws.   All the pieces are held together with dowels.   Gave it a very nice finish that even Norm Abram of  "New Yankee Workshop" show would have been proud of.  
 
    That is that for this week.    No more garage projects for awhile.   Next week I will have a real project to blog about.  (Or maybe I will be focusing really hard on my Star Tribune NFL football picks trying to win that free trip to Hawaii for two.)