We met at Bucky’s this morning for coffee and headed for Shelton’s for some roots and beans, then home. It’s been raining. I brought in the shutters last evening to be dry so Raven has something to work on as they need staining. I dropped three screws taking them down to be found.
Last Sunday I sailed on my boat in Sausalito and it needs some things, so I’ll work on those today. I need a new cockpit hatch and I broke the boom chock while jumping to shore holding on to the boom to avoid falling in. The chock is still aboard with the boom tied to it, but the old X brace is here broken in a storm.
I have a lot of mahogany wood here from boats they were crushing in the boat yard, pirate booty. Digging through it I found a nice piece of mahogany counter top, half inch plywood, perfect for the hatch. I wrote the measurements on the back of my checkbook several weeks ago. 15 7/8″ x 15 1/2″ and tapered to 14″ with two 1 x 3/4 braces beneath. Sixteen inches is too much for my saw fence, I’ll need to use the main bench for a wider fence. Looking through my screw stash for a good bolt to secure the saw to the bench, nothing good enough. Raven needs more screws to secure the cupboard doors, off to Harry’s up the corner, 16 brass screws and one 1/4 inch lag screw, perfect. I secured the saw to the bench with the lag screw, laid out the two by fence secured with a screw and clamp and made the first cut, perfect at 15 7/8″.
I’m hungry, so is Raven. I chopped up the green beans, parsnip, carrot, an onion, three small red potatoes, a clove of garlic and the thawed O chicken breast. As the onions cooked in a glug of olive oil, I ran out to the garden for thyme, parsley, oregano and rosemary, back in time to stir it and add the chicken and garlic to lightly brown. Chopped the herbs and added everything less a bit of parsley garnish. A pint of O chicken broth and a large glug of dry white wine to cover. I have O celery, add a stick.
Back to work, Raven is complaining about all the tiny crevices in these assembled shutters, it would be easier to finish them before they were assembled. I found a smaller brush, she’s been using paper towels mostly on the big parts. I dug out some Q-tips too. I cut the 15 1/2″ cut, then came in to stir and turn down the stew. I laid out the 14″ lines on the hatch, looking at it I better use the band saw for this cut. Checking the drawing and measuring, oh oh, I used the wrong sides, the grain goes long, I relaid it out.
The stew is close, back to the garden for more parsley, ah, some beet greens and wild mustard greens would be good cut small, added. I put some flour, maybe one and a half tablespoons in a cup with less than a quarter cup of water, stirred. The carrots are mostly done, add the flour mix to thicken, stirring the base to prevent clumps. Boiled a bit more to thicken it while stirring. It’s done.
Ladled into a bowl, wait, Raven’s new bowl with a handle, reminds her of Shrek’s ear. This stuff is really good, so hearty and tasty with the fresh herbs and veggies, that and our appetite, wow.
I cut the corrected hatch lines on the band saw, then rough sanded the edges on the lapidary, finish sanding with 220 grit by hand to erase the wrong lines and prep it all. A bit of putty to fill the bad spots and re sand.
I found a piece of scrap mahogany from the vardo steps that will work perfectly for the hatch under stops, cut to 3/4″ x 1″ and rough sanded, cut to length, hand sanded, clamped, drilled and screwed to the hatch. Varnished to finish.
Meanwhile Raven patinaed the brass screws with the gun bluing pen and attached all the cupboard doors.
I still need the X brace for my boat, I headed for Garret’s for a 1×3 faring strip. Cut to shape of the old parts on the band saw and lap sanded. Bolted together with the original hardware, it’s fine in raw wood.
Raven took pictures of the shutters and inside, me of the hatch and X brace.
Another productive day and tasty stew.
8shotoflove8 