New Testingstan

The sides of that shelf I mentioned:

I hand cut the dovetails and mortises (aka the slots for the shelves)

Next step is to cut the pins for the top to fit into the dovetails and the tenons into the shelves to fit into the mortises. After that, I have to cut tongue and groove joints and beading into the back pieces (like on the back of my tool chest) and nail them on.

Okay, so I haven't done much this year because I've been dealing with getting my house ready to sell and dealing with all the bullshit that's gone with that. I've only done three brews and little else.

First, I abandoned the bookshelf project. I'd gotten the joints *just* wrong enough that it wouldn't work and I couldn't salvage it. Then, this weekend I took the time to do some stuff.

Fresh batch of BBQ sauce (almost a gallon):


Fresh batch of Strawberry Jam (more than a gallon):


100th Batch of Beer (Honey Wheat):


A planing board:

(It's for holding boards while you hand plane them; a bench appliance I want to give a try)

The stops:

The underside:

Ever thought of opening a DIY blog or something?

Occasionally. I keep vacillating on it.

Though, if I started one I'd probably call it "Tell Me What I Did Wrong". Tongue in cheek, of course. Mostly...

It would be wrong of me to suggest "I just don't know what went wrong!" as the title, wouldn't it?

Yes!

Well, no.

Yes!

(And maybe after I move...)

New level for my tool chest:






It was just too jumbled in there and I needed to add space, so I built some.

I haven't made a front for it yet and, obviously haven't painted it either. I also need to reorganize, but I'll do all that later. I'm just too wiped out right now.

Shotgun update. I've been making stuff while staying at my folks' place.

Mixed veggie sauerkraut or кислая смешанные овощи (sour mixed vegetables). I've made this before, but this time I customized it a little. In particular I used flat leaf parsley instead of dill. Dill just overpowers everything.

This is fresh out of the fermenter, being heated for canning.

After canning.

Maraschino cherries (6 jars) and maraschino jelly (3 jars):


Four different salsas (for football season):

There's salsa charro, salsa verde charro, chipotle salsa and chipotle lime sauce.

Lemon Pickled Fuji Apples:


I've no idea how they taste and they need to sit in the fridge for a few days to let the flavors develop. Stay tuned!

Curve cutting practice. They could be better.

Ogees.

Is it weird that I found laying them out with my compass to be fun?

Spicy pickled okra:


Okra (duh), spices, shallot, garlic, cider vinegar, white wine. Figured that would be a good snack for tailgating once the football season starts back up.

Soy Pickled Shiitakes Mushrooms:


I also made another batch of the pickled okra (which is great, by the way).

pickled okra sounds amazing, gotta try that

In spite of all the crushed red pepper it was surprisingly mild. You can really enjoy the taste of the okra even though it's been pickled.

So, I haven't posted in this thread in a while, what with being stuck at my parents' place and then unemployed. I've still be making things, but mostly things I've made in the past and just wanted to replenish my stores (like my strawberry jam).

That said, I've been going crazy not being able to woodwork and having no suitable surface to work on. So, I came up with this idea and built it.



The lower metal bits are from McMaster-Carr and the top is 2by material from the hardware store, just screwed together. It can all be taken apart (well, except for the top) to be put away for storage. That's a "Moxon vise" sitting on top that I built a while back.

Haven't done much of anything new in a while until yesterday and today when I made pickled sweet corn and pickled grapes.




I haven't tasted them yet, but it should be interesting.

You'll want to switch to using Imgur instead of photobucket, friendo. Potatobucket blocks 3rd party image linking unless you pay exorbitant fees.

Yeah, that's a new problem....

Fun fact: the capsaicin in chili peppers like jalapenos can cause chemical burns on your hands and spread to... elsewhere.

Don't ask me how I know that.