Retirement Projects
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Some of us are lucky enough to be actually or semi retired. I'm presently retired for the second time (the first lasted two days) since May 20th, 2017. I'll likely go back to part time or a couple months on/off in the fall, but for now, I'm enjoying the first break excluding vacations in 41 years.
I'm getting lots of long planned work done around home. I figured I'd start a thread where us geezers could show some of our geriatric projects.
Kirk
I'm getting lots of long planned work done around home. I figured I'd start a thread where us geezers could show some of our geriatric projects.
Kirk
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Built a fire pit the first weekend I was retired. Big hit with the grandkids.
Replaced the base boards and re-finished the posts on the front. A project 27 years in the planning stage.
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My original Adirondack chair is about 15 years old and showing it's age. I'm building two new chairs and foot stools for more seating around the fire pit.
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Wow! Projects completed and new ones planned! The fire pit makes for a good powwow.0
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Hey, Kirk... Here's a project I've kept a link for someday... You might like it!
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/05/picnic-table-converts-benches
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I do lots of fun things in retirement, but few of them have tangible - let alone useful!
- output. (I thought retirement's whole point was to relieve me of the obligation to be useful . . . ?)
The most tangible, I guess, is jewelry making. Not very good photos, but here's a necklace & earrings I made (the larger beads & earring drops are off-loom bead weaving, i.e. made from smaller beads with needle and thread).
Here's a close-up of one of the big beads - it's maybe an inch in diameter.
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So beautiful.
I used to sew seed beads to some work blouses to dress them up a little. 2 -
Beautiful work Ann.
Today I ordered materials to re-roof my father's small barn, a project my brother and his oldest son and I will do later this month. I also re-clad and painted a support post in my carport. The old one was rotting.
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I am in awe of each of you who do things beautifully in retirement. I have skills, but they are not useful or transferrable outside the semiconductor design industry.
I plan to die on the job. In this industry, there is no forced retirement age. There are a lot of people who die on the job, too.
I heard that the lead layout guy for the Pentium chip collapsed and died in the midst of tape out.1 -
Dying on the job isn't one of my life goals.2
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My yoga friends persuaded me to do a mala necklace workshop. 108 beads & knots later...
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My yoga friends persuaded me to do a mala necklace workshop. 108 beads & knots later...
Are you fully chill from the experience, or did 108 knots kinda baby-feline you off?
Nice mala! Jasper (picture jasper, maybe?) and . . . what? Quartz? Moonstone? Inquiring rock lovers want to know!
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »I am in awe of each of you who do things beautifully in retirement. I have skills, but they are not useful or transferrable outside the semiconductor design industry.
I plan to die on the job. In this industry, there is no forced retirement age. There are a lot of people who die on the job, too.
I heard that the lead layout guy for the Pentium chip collapsed and died in the midst of tape out.
Not a bad way to go actually.
I do not even know what those words means but I gather he was in the midst of doing something rather routine.
Not that it matters; the universe decides for us.
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Okay.The mala beads piqued my interest, so I went to the repository of all knowledge -- Youtube. Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDzE1-OJpN0
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I'm a patient person. Although I didn't find the experience meditative, I was fine with it.My yoga friends persuaded me to do a mala necklace workshop. 108 beads & knots later...
Are you fully chill from the experience, or did 108 knots kinda baby-feline you off?
Nice mala! Jasper (picture jasper, maybe?) and . . . what? Quartz? Moonstone? Inquiring rock lovers want to know!
Picture Jasper (for balance and peace), Quartz Rutile (for happiness and joy) and Rose Quartz (for love and creativity).2 -
110 of 180 component pieces sanded to 120. Four chairs and footstools consist of many bits.
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Such beautiful pieces. I love the work artists do.0
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"I am pleased with your offering of fresh villagers"
Due to depletion by mortality, perhaps depression, I had to go pick up a batch of crickets (we call them villagers) to feed my grandson's dragon while they're away.
I figure this makes me 'Kirk, grandfather of dragons'8 -
Retired after 31 years but took post-retirement lawn care job with best friend. Doesn't leave much time for hobbies, but I've developed an interest in blacksmithing after making an aluminum melt foundry for recycling soda cans with my (now off to college) son.
Since anvils are running $3-$6 (US) dollars a pound, I bought a 20" scrap of 12"x12" I-beam ($25/ft) to fashion an ASO (anvil shaped obect). Currently weighing in at 120 lbs
Worked on trimming 3" off either side of my ASO using a sawzall to give a 6x20" work surface. Had to give saw time to cool off every so often, so string trimmed yard, mowed, ate lunch, and poured three new pedestals for the aluminum melt foundry.
(50lb dog food bags in background are full of crushed soda cans waiting their turn in the melt foundry.)
I'll cut one of the 3" strips in half and weld them back on the top as skirts. The other strip I'll cut into triangles and weld back on as stiffeners top and bottom.
Not much progress on the blacksmith forge. Have to wait for a rainy day to hit the iron yard for scraps. They are not open on weekends.
I'll try to post updates at least weekly but another busy time of the year for lawn care is fast approaching so no promises.4 -
Todays project for the elegantly retired, a pull out tray and top shelf for the baking cupboard.
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Last year I dragged out all of my insulation from my crawl space, I thought pipes were leaking there was so much water down there. It was all water from humidity. There is debate about crawl space encapsulation and termites, but I refused to replace that insulation and let humid air flow into my crawl space and have to drag the insulation out a second time. I got a dehumidifier and would rather create a more hostile environment for termites than to listen to debates about termites, encapulation and crawl spaces. I am happy that I didn't get bitten by any black widows while removing that insulation, I killed quite a few of them3
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When my parents moved from an oil furnace to an electric heat pump, their basement got quite humid as well. I found it odd because I've always heard that electric heat was drier than fuelled heat. Anyway, dehumidifier was the solution.Last year I dragged out all of my insulation from my crawl space, I thought pipes were leaking there was so much water down there. It was all water from humidity. There is debate about crawl space encapsulation and termites, but I refused to replace that insulation and let humid air flow into my crawl space and have to drag the insulation out a second time. I got a dehumidifier and would rather create a more hostile environment for termites than to listen to debates about termites, encapulation and crawl spaces. I am happy that I didn't get bitten by any black widows while removing that insulation, I killed quite a few of them1 -
The Encapulation seals off the crawl space, so humidity has to come through the floors. If humidity can flow beneath your house, I don't think the type of heat matters. It's going to get humid down there.1
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Unexpected purchase. Been keeping an eye on Craig's List for anvils and saw one less than 5 miles away. It is damaged, missing a section of hard plate on the working face but it is a good name anvil. 125# Hay Budden made sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Was kinda hoping seller would reject my offer as it was $105 less than his asking price. Nope. Its mine now.
Now I gotta get my brake rotor blacksmith's forge up and running (still need time during working hours to hit iron yards.. and don't see it coming anytime soon).4 -
Wow! What a great surprise to get one so close to your place!!1
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Another project from Buhka's Workshop. A book display rack for my favourite school teacher's primary classroom.
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d_thomas02 wrote: »Unexpected purchase. Been keeping an eye on Craig's List for anvils and saw one less than 5 miles away. It is damaged, missing a section of hard plate on the working face but it is a good name anvil. 125# Hay Budden made sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Was kinda hoping seller would reject my offer as it was $105 less than his asking price. Nope. Its mine now.
Now I gotta get my brake rotor blacksmith's forge up and running (still need time during working hours to hit iron yards.. and don't see it coming anytime soon).
I looked up Hay Budden on Youtube to figure out what you have.
Looks like you have some metal work in your future. So cool to have this piece. 1 -
Another unexpected purchase. This one is a blacksmith's post vise. Here's a generic pic. Not mine but gives you an idea of what a post vise looks like.
This was on Craig's List again. Guy lives out near my wife's family, roughly 20 miles from my place. Turns out this guy played Little League with my wife's dad back in the day. Both are in their 80s now.
Vise needs a little TLC. Main issue will be reshaping the jaw spring. Vise is about 150 years old and was this guy's great great granddaddy's who had a shop in Sibley, MO at the start of the Santa Fe trail.3 -
Very neat!
A while back, I found a blacksmith's post drill being discarded. I didn't need it but the thought of a lovely old piece of kit ended up in the landfill bothered me so I rescued it and then donated it to an agricultural museum where it's now part of a blacksmith's shop display...4
