Cutting Boards

  Well, Christmas day has come and is now gone.    The refrigerator that was packed so full last week that the door hardly closed is now the proud holder of several little plastic containers of left over food.      The portable tools in the wood shop that were unplugged and pushed back against the wall to make room for an air mattress and a couple adults is almost back to its normal appearance.   The improvised bed is packed away and tools are rolled back into their little designated spots.   The Wifi that was in overload mode with all the additional cell phones and tablets that had arrived with our guests has now returned back to a "no problem status".    The septic tank is still wondering what hit it.    The grocery bill was a little high, but it is on the credit card and that statement won't arrive until January sometime.    The trash tote that was full of torn and discarded wrapping paper, plastic containers that wrapped around little toys, and all the little direction pamphlets that nobody really reads anymore, is now in the hands of Waste Management.     After a three day fast, the cat finally came out from under our bed to see if there was any danger that might still be lurking around  behind those closed doors.   She ate her cat food, drank water, and hit the litter box.    For those of you that care - all her body parts are working and she survived.    Some of the wine bottles are not quite empty and I'll have to do something about that.   But it was fun.   It was noisy.  Laughter came easy.   Love was shared.   And there was a little time spent on discussing the meaning of Christmas.    The best part was that everyone made it safely back home.          
    One of the things that I did for gifts this Christmas was the making of cutting boards.   I dug through the scrap wood pile and found unused pieces of walnut, cherry, Ash, and maple wood.       Even a few pieces of burr oak.
    I have made cutting boards in the past, but not to the degree that I did this year.

      Not only did I get rid of quite a few pieces of hard wood, I used up a lot of glue that I had on hand.

      I tried to be creative in my pattern selection, but I am sorry to say I just was in the volume mode more than I was in the creative mode.

     I ended up making ten cutting boards thinking that I was over doing it yet now that it is over I could have built at least three more.

    I did use up a lot of small pieces of scrap wood which was good and that has been a goal of mine lately.

     I took a little extra time sanding these boards.   As I stated before I tried to maintain some kind of pattern.   A maple board here, a couple walnut boards there.   I would throw in some cherry wood just for giggles - although I don't have a lot of cherry wood in my scrap pile.

  I rounded over the edges.   I rounded the corners.   Three of them I just made round cutting boards.   There were no duplicates.   Some were thicker.  Some were longer.   All were given a rubdown with some food-grade butcher block oil.

  I drilled a hole in each one to make it easier to handle.  

  In some cases these may be used as a trivet.

    Anyway, like I said, as I was freely giving them away I realized that I should have made a few more.    So cutting boards are back on that "task" list for 2017.  Now that I have done a few and those that received one seemed to approve, I guess I'll make some more later on.  Maybe the next time I will focus a little more on the creative side and not so much on the volume side.  (Or maybe not.)

A few notes to share:

    1.   More cutting boards for 2017.   If you want one let me know.

    2.   The little kitchen box that I had on the silent auction brought $95.00.   I thought that was great.   I appreciated that buyer for her support.

    3.    I'm rethinking the idea of including cat pictures in my future 2017 blogs....Like maybe not?     Might have to take a vote.