What did you do today?

[Coop]

With the birds getting half and me getting the other half, I have been picking tomatoes just as they turn pink and let them ripen on the dining table in front of the window. There are 50 or so now and my wife will put them up tomorrow. In the mean time, I turned about 8 lbs. of various breeds of jalapeños into 14 ea. 1/2 pints of cowboy candy. There are still 4 jars in the water bath.

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

I got started on a sort of garden cart for the wife. 

She said it doesn't have to be pretty, and i feel like I'm delivering on that expectation admirably.

But i did throw a bunch of M&T joints into the mix, mainly for the practice. 

I'm starting to get a little more comfortable with this joint now. Technique is getting slightly better. 

[fcschoenthal]

On 5/31/2026 at 3:14 PM, Sergio Escudero said:

a photo session of the shield posted above, finally finished.

Sergio, can you post a picture of the front of it?

[fcschoenthal]

On 5/31/2026 at 6:32 PM, Ron Swanson Jr. said:

I got started on a sort of garden cart for the wife. 

Careful, that's a slippery slope. I made the potting bench for my wife and suddenly I have two other garden related projects queued up.

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 5/31/2026 at 7:01 PM, fcschoenthal said:

Careful, that's a slippery slope. I made the potting bench for my wife and suddenly I have two other garden related projects queued up.

This... Sounds like a good warning to take heed of. 

[wtnhighlander]

@Sergio Escudero, that shield is huge! Must have required serious muscle to carry that, AND wield a weapon in battle.

[fcschoenthal]

On 5/31/2026 at 8:15 PM, wtnhighlander said:

Must have required serious muscle to carry that, AND wield a weapon in battle.

Probably better than the alternative of carrying a small shield. Personally, I'd want a suit of armor to go along with it.

[Sergio Escudero]

On 6/1/2026 at 1:59 AM, fcschoenthal said:

Sergio, can you post a picture of the front of it?

Of course, I will post soon in a dedicated post for the shield here. I am finishing editing the photos and preparing the content for my page.
Edit: here it is.

 

On 6/1/2026 at 3:15 AM, wtnhighlander said:

Must have required serious muscle to carry that, AND wield a weapon in battle.

Well, yes and no. Shields are lighter than people think, archaeologically speaking. The usual range for these shields is between 4-6 kg according to my research and reproduction work. Anything above that becomes torturous to handle and your arm tires quickly, preventing you from moving it.

[Sergio Escudero]

On 6/1/2026 at 5:06 AM, fcschoenthal said:

Probably better than the alternative of carrying a small shield. Personally, I'd want a suit of armor to go along with it.

That's not how shields work, at least not in this context. Troops define their function based on their equipment, and the shield is the main element used to differentiate skirmish troops from line troops. Within these groups, you will have medium and heavy infantry, especially among line troops. These large shields were used together with chainmail and other armor. The shield only became "dispensable" when armor technology reached its zenith in the 15th century, and everything quickly became obsolete with gunpowder.

[wtnhighlander]

Sergio, didn't the type of shield used vary with the type of action, also? Larger shields against ranged weapons like spears or arrows, and smaller shields for close combat against swords or axes? I've seen thibgs the size of a dinner plate (bucklers?) that were supposedly used for light sword combat.

[gee-dub]

My hip was going wonky yesterday and was totally out of whack today so I lost the day.  I became intimately familiar with the recliner, a heating pad. and alternately an ice pack.  I watched more TV today than I have in the last 2 months. 12 hours later feeling better and hope to catch up tomorrow.

[gee-dub]

Had a great conversation with a member this morning.  That prompted me to drop in and say a thank you to all you folks who post here.  Most of what I know how to do I learned from forums like this.  Reminds me of one of my favorite Far Side cartoons:

I learn things from what people post, what I see in their pictures, what I see ion the background of their pictures . I am on an ever-learning curve.

[fcschoenthal]

On 6/2/2026 at 8:55 AM, gee-dub said:

Most of what I know how to do I learned from forums like this.

You must have gone through a lot of forums to soak up enough for what you've done. Thanks for paying it forward.

[fcschoenthal]

A couple of weeks ago I posted this about making some shutters for our house. I finished up the rest yesterday for 12 total.

The only thing more boring than ripping 44 pickets into 77 pieces is putting a chamfer on all four sides of each. I setup a jig for putting them together that saved a ton of time and got them all knocked out. I talked the wife into staining them all. Once she's done, I've just got to hang them.

[Mark J]

I got first-time hearing aids.  I don't love them, but my wife said I needed them.  Well that's what it sounded like she said, I think.

[gee-dub]

Read a FWW article where this book was mentioned.  Particularly chapter 7 on wood movement (and therefor the consequences of resawing).  I thought "hey, I have that book".

Mine was a gift from good ole Mom and Dad.

I know not everyone is as big of a nerd as I am but the book has a lot of good stuff in it if you want to understand why wood sometimes does what it does 

 

[fcschoenthal]

On 6/3/2026 at 8:38 AM, Mark J said:

I got first-time hearing aids.  I don't love them, but my wife said I needed them.  Well that's what it sounded like she said, I think.

I got mine about a year ago and love them, especially the bluetooth function. They do take some getting used to, but get better the more you wear them.

Mine became necessary from all of the bad decisions that I made growing up. Too loud music in headphones, not wearing hearing protection when woodworking or shooting, riding a motorcycle with no helmet (wind noise), playing in a jazz band right in front of the lead trumpet, etc, etc.

[Sergio Escudero]

On 6/2/2026 at 12:02 AM, wtnhighlander said:

Sergio, didn't the type of shield used vary with the type of action, also? Larger shields against ranged weapons like spears or arrows, and smaller shields for close combat against swords or axes? I've seen thibgs the size of a dinner plate (bucklers?) that were supposedly used for light sword combat.

We are talking about very different eras and very different types of combat. The buckler is a dueling shield used in an urban context. Large shields tend to be intended for heavy infantry in compact formations for large scale battles. It's like comparing carrying a pocket knife in the city to carrying a sword for large army battles.

[Tom King]

With three litters of six week old puppies in the house, I'm dividing my time with helping train puppies when they are awake and working on the barn apartment when they are sleeping.

There is a learning curve with the Rockwool and large spray cans of foam, but I have it figured out now.  The barn was built with leftovers and reject lumber from building houses so it's kind of wonky here and there but the apartment with be straight, plumb, and square.  

The 1" foam is not strong enough to compress the Rockwool up nice and flat with my low tech baffles, so I'm adding 2x4's crossways under the rafters to hold it up and will put the foam and one of my beaded board ceilings under that.  The foam in the picture will have to come back down.  I went to town and came back with another truckload of materials to keep it going.

We took down the partitions between the stalls for this space and used the boards to fill the open spaces above the old stall walls.  I pressure washed all the boards, let them dry out in the Sun for a couple of weeks, sprayed them down with bleach and after that dried coated them with an effective insecticide.

This was just my first playing with the foam gun.  I had never used one of these before, so I made some learning mistakes by mostly getting too greedy with the first coat.  It should go a lot better from now on.

 

[Beechwood Chip]

I'm handing off some hand-me-down tools to a young friend.  She just graduated with a mechanical-engineering degree and worked in several "maker spaces" in college, but doesn't have her own tools.  I'm in a situation where I can upgrade some tools, so she gets my originals.  She breaks down the pallets from her job and she's going to make an outdoor bench.

[fcschoenthal]

On 6/3/2026 at 4:43 PM, Beechwood Chip said:

I'm handing off some hand-me-down tools to a young friend.

I'm sure that she really appreciates it. I've started giving away some of my old tools, but most of them I wouldn't give to someone that I knew well and wanted to stay friends with. Mostly trying to clear out some of the old and cheaper power tools that I started with that are just taking up space. Another win-win.

[Coop]

On 6/3/2026 at 8:38 AM, Mark J said:

I got first-time hearing aids.  I don't love them, but my wife said I needed them.  Well that's what it sounded like she said, I think.

That’s going to be my next medical chore. What brand did you and @fcschoenthal get and does anyone else have recommendations?

[fcschoenthal]

Mine are the Widex Alure. That's what my audiologist recommended and insurance paid for anyway. My wife got a different model of the Widex almost a year before me. She hates wearing them. Don't know whether it's partially vanity or just that she doesn't like anything in her ears. I'd gotten used to ear plugs and earphones over the years, so they don't bother me.

[gee-dub]

I have no vanity left.  I have lost most of my hair and my physique is far from anything that would turn heads.  The Jabra offering at Costco has been our go to for a couple of cycles.  We all know that the lobbying for hearing aids to be "medical devices" allows insanely high pricing.  My Jabra earbuds rechargeable batteries last longer, the devices work better and are water proof to a couple of meters.  You just cannot program your curve onto them.  My hearing aids that cost 10 times as much are pitiful by comparison but, until we get things changed it is what it is. An advantage to Costco supplied devices is that they clean and maintain swap-able parts for free.  They have even replaced failed wires without charge.

[Coop]

I too am looking at Costco’s aids. I plan on seeing an ent prior to going though.