I pop in and read from time to time, but know that I haven't exactly been active with my posts lately, though I miss doing so.
Since moving to Whidbey island on the Puget Sound about 6 weeks ago, we have been working slowly but surely towards making the home "ours". Never having owned anything other than a modern home on 1/4 acre before, we are definitely finding a 1950's house on 5 acres to be more maintenance! (and fun) Karen has been busy painting each room from skirting to ceiling (it's her thing) and I've been adding new fixtures, fixing electrical problems, working on maintenance issues and helping with the boys' schoolwork (we are home schooling). Through this I've also been making multiple trips to the VA squaring things away for my post-military health care.
As far as woodworking, one of the first things I discovered was that the electricity running to the 1200 sq foot grain barn/shop was woefully inadequate (8 ga aluminum) for the subpanel. The boys and I dug a 140 foot long ditch for the new supply (by hand.. in rocky soil) and the supply line has gotten a ditch cover inspection, permit, and approval for a soon upcoming new 100 amp sub. Our 120 year old 100 x 66 barn on the property does not have electricity running to it and other than a really cool (really big) building for storage- I haven't made many plans for it yet (maybe a spray shop in the future...) Until then, it is being run by a huge resident owl we call growler (after the F18s which fly out of the next-door runway on the Navy base)
My sister has a full shop which belonged to my recently deceased brother-in-law who was a cabinetmaker. He was an amazing person and woodworker and I feel honored to accept her offer for me to purchase his tools which include a unisaw as well as a bandsaw etc. It will probably be June/July or so before I pick up these tools, so until then I'm fairly limited in my woodworking (not that I have time to do any other than making chicken and duck coops and maintenance work!) My goal is to have a small business making flag cases/shadow boxes etc- specializing in military materials. This fall I hope to use my GI bill to earn second degree - this one in entrepreneurship which should hopefully help with my startup. I'm also pursuing using a VA program which specializes in assisting vets towards starting small businesses.
I hope to be able to visit here more often, and very much look forward to meeting some of you at the pig roast I miss the camaraderie of this and the other forums and hope to be able to visit more now that the chaos is beginning to settle.
Hope everyone else here is well,
Lawrence