Post #552655 by Bay Park Buzzy on Tue, Sep 7, 2010 1:05 PM

A couple sunsets:


Happy New Year!

I say Happy New Year because my calendar resets each year after Tiki Oasis. The day after Oasis is my New Year's Day. Each year, I use this time to reflect on my last year's efforts and reset for a new year's worth of adventures. Last year was one of my least productive and frustrating years so far, so I've been kind of looking forward to refocusing myself this new year. Last year started with Kiva dying and my car accident that took me out for 4 months, and ended in late July with a strained ab muscle that took me out for another month or so. Add more or less the two months off in May and June due to my back acting up and it wasn't much of year left for working.
So, I guess it can't get any worse, and I've survived it and am rested and ready to start working again. I started out last week by fixing up my work area. FEMA still hasn't sent me my aid from when my tarp ripped and my pop-up lost two legs in the windstroms of '09, so I took matters into my own hands and fixed up my work environment.

My reconfiguration started with an A frame 10 x 10' setup. I got the pole set up back in July without the tarp and was going to get the tarp during the next heat wave. the next heat wave never came so I did it to get ready for the New Year.
Here it is a few days ago:

I can extend it out to 10 x 15 or 10 x 20. 10 x 10' seems to fit perfect.I split my old piece of thatch and hung it on the ends. I'll get a new single piece to cover the whole thing to hide the whiteness of the tarp later this year.

My yard kind of faces southwest, so the sun shines in from the side during the afternoon. I put this decorated wall up to block it:

Since the structure was the nicest and most sturdy I've ever had, I went the extra mile and installed the sound system for maximum effect:

Here's the view from my back door as I step out into my work area:

I covered all the poles with pieces of reed fencing to give it that natural and "tikified" look

During my yearly reflections, I realized what one of of my major problems with productivity this year was: I never really had a large carve-ready stockpile of logs at any time. So, the solution to this work impediment seemed to get a large stack of logs ready to go, asap. Seemed easy enough...

I started working out this problem last Monday, and gave myself a quota of doing thirty carve ready logs before I started back to carving regularly again. I went out first thing that Monday morning ready to tackle a big pile of logs. I grabbed the trusty Ryobi planer and took to the first log. Something was immediately amiss. I hit the Ryobi trigger and the blade slowly got up to speed, rather than immediately. As soon as I touched it to the log, the blade stopped and slowly got back up to speed after taking it from the log. It wasn't a motor problem, so I checked the belt. Sure enough, it had stretched a bit and was no longer able to turn the blades when met with resistence. I ordered a new belt, and sharpened up the draw knife. I did the initial stripping with the drawknife, and when the new belt arrived on Thursday, I finished cleaning what I had started with the hand knife. On Friday morning, I had these 17 logs all done:

Front row is waist to chest high, with the back shoulder to head high+
I did three more larger ones yesterday to bring my total to 20. Ten more to go...

In other news, Poki got a new ball:

And she likes the rabbits so much, she spends the weekends with them now:

She says it's a little crowded, but the company and food is good, and it's refreshing to get away once in a while.

On 2010-08-26 18:51, drasticwagon wrote:
Have you thought about doing a Duke Kahanamoku Board?

The seed has just been planted...

On 2010-08-26 19:04, RevBambooBen wrote:
You saved mine right?

Of course! A low numbered one too...

On 2010-08-26 19:22, leleliz wrote:
Thanks for the photo---I think MP jacked it. What can I say..his man crush is never ending.

That's too bad for you. Congats MP!

On 2010-08-27 21:22, MadDogMike wrote:
:lol: :lol: :lol: I think I peed myself :lol: :lol: :lol:

That's what she said!

On 2010-08-28 03:42, Benzart wrote:
Looks AGAIN, like everyone got a poster but me :( .

I just might have another low numbered limited edition one lying around here somewhere...

On 2010-08-28 04:38, HOUSE OF KU wrote:
Happy B-lated B-day B-zzy!

thanks Freddie!

On 2010-08-28 09:56, Bowana wrote:

and....wait...who am I again? Oh well...

Yer pal,

Babawana

Whatever it may be
that you call yourself:
You always have been,
and always will be,
TikiDav-to me!

My favorite poet of all time was Andrew Dice Clay. Hickory, Dickory, Dock!...
Buzzy Out!