Green Things (For Laura)

The flower garden in front.
Our little herb garden got a little bigger this year.

The lawn is looking great because Jennifer is treating it with Scott's and we've had ample rain.

Someone has been eating the arugula.

The romaine is looking good.

Notice how things get bigger toward the compost pile.

The sky this morning

A shot of the whole vegetable garden.

See My Thumb? Gee, I'm Dumb!

This is the least a table saw blade can do to you.


I did worse, last fall, when I rushed through a cut and zinged off half the fingernail on my left index finger - though that was gruesome enough, the sheer torque of the blade at whatever thousand RPM was what caused the most pain. Still, worse can be done, and warnings to me to be more careful about these things are well taken. I risk becoming what a friend, John T., refers to as a P.O.D - "Potential Organ Donor*".

I ought to be using the blade guard and kickback guard, specially when I rip down long pieces, and also push sticks - safety glasses, too, because I am tired of getting sawdust in my eyes.

By the way, it is really difficult to photograph your own thumb.

*John introduced me to this term when he warned me to wear a helmet when I ride my bicycle. I still don't do it but I make damn sure Finn does, and he is now in the habit of it. Hey, at least i quit smoking (Nov 14 2007 9am at the Poughkeepsie train station).

Crowning Achievement

We put up all the crown molding in Cara's room today. As if figuring the inside corner bevels and mitres wasn't enough, we had one outside corner to contend with.


I got caught admiring our work.

More lessons learned about crown molding - instead of turning 16' pieces of stock around in a 15' room, you can turn the mitre saw around. Also, make your master cuts and keep them near all the time. Label them well.

We have a DeWalt compound mitre saw but it does not do double beveling; additionally, no laser sighting. If I had my way I'd have paid the extra $100 for a Hitachi with double-beveling, greater granularity on the angle selection and accuracy, and the laser site. I had a very nice Hitachi a few years ago, but that was lost to my ex.