Finish work is slow and is as exciting as watching varnish dry. Michael was good and varnished some boards for me while I was in New Mexico saying hello to loads of relatives and friends, and goodbye to my daddy.

My nephew holding the box my Uncle Tom made to house my father’s ashes. My mom painted the images. I’m nowhere near this level of competency...but they have a few years on me!

I’ve been back for a week now. It seems I should have more to show, but it has been a week of learning.

The veneer tape arrived just after I returned.

The cabinet making books my Uncle Tom sent to me mentioned finishing plywood edges with pre-glued veneer tape. We ordered some just before I left, not really knowing how the darn stuff works. You Tube saved us again! It is applied with a clothes iron (I bought a small one to dedicate to woodworking) and then is trimmed with a plane iron.

Getting the veneer tape to stick on a curve required Michael’s ingenuity, warm water to soak the tape, a large dowel, some scotch tape and a couple of twist ties.

Using a wood block to encourage the glue to hold while it cooled, together with the pre-bending, worked!

Yes, squaring this corner would have been so much easier, but I like matching the countertop’s curve.

The box for the computer desk got put together.

The wall next to the computer desk is not plumb. This is what happens when architects come and build things while you are away. Sweet, but it creates problems down the road.

We also installed two of the boxes in the closet area.

We share this mania about checking for level...

We bought more plywood to make the rest of the shelving in the narrow area to the left of the closet.

We were blessed with a wonderful visit by some friends of mine from high school (I went to high school in California, so visits are rare):

Kim from Watsonville, CA and Starla from Austin, MN. What a treat!

In our spare time we harvested butternut bark for future dye projects and garlic because, well, garlic.

Bark comes off so much easier if you catch it right after the tree comes down. This tree had a fungal infection.  You can see the bark at the end of the table is black. This is what Michael and I did to relax the day after I got home. — Bark comes off so much easier if you catch it right after the tree comes down. This tree had a fungal infection. You can see the bark at the end of the table is black. This is what Michael and I did to relax the day after I got home.

If you wait too long to harvest garlic, the protective paper deteriorates.

Oh yeah, we did go fishing this past week as well. Looking back on this week, perhaps “slow” fails to track reality.

With that, I present the font of all energy, and her progeny: