Another week passes and I continue to hack away at “The Project” list. 

Let’s see, since we spoke last, I have built two, new, light weight shelve units that go in the cabinet over where the sinks are. There was an existing shelf from the factory that worked well enough, but it was taking up too much room and it was also made out of solid, 3/4 inch wood and weighed in at 18 pounds. 

It was well made and would have supported our last car if we asked it to, but since the shelves only store four wine glasses, 24 small spice shakers and 2 Kalik beer steins, the two I made are foam cored fiberglass and weigh in at 1 pound total. 

Add 17 pounds to the weight savings. Score !!

I’ve completely re-stitched the cover to the smaller of our two kayaks. It was 5 years old and the seems were starting to let go, so after a quick trip through the washing machine, it was up on the machine for some serious repairs. Three hours later it was back in action.

Speaking of sewing, I knocked out a couple of projects for our friends on No Agenda. They needed a new sun pillow for their outdoor lounging area so I took a couple of old cushions they no longer used and sort of combined them into one 6 foot by 2 foot lounge pillow.

I also made them a second sun shade for their fly bridge to match the one I made last year. I still need to replace their Isinglass in their dodger, but the glass hasn’t reached yet, so that will have to wait.

I’ve spent a bunch of hours in the wood shop wrapping up a couple of projects.

First up, I finished the gen 7 swing chair, pictured above. It turned out great and almost looks professional grade. I’ve gotten a lot faster at building them and only have 10 hours of wood working time in this model. The seat cushion design and construction took an additional 4 hours.

Also from the woodshop I give you Megabrella Beach Chair, 2.0. Long time readers will remember the two chairs I built last summer. They worked well, but were too heavy and too big to be convenient, so I ended up trading them to a French Canadian for $20 and a case of beer.

This new model is based on a chair I saw at a Nascar race a number of years ago. Up until last week, I didn’t know what it was called, but I recently ran across another version of it online. The article called it a Kentucky Stick Chair, but I have since seen it referred to a number of other ways.

My version is based on a bunch of sketches I made on a napkin and then mapped onto some measurements I took from a commercially available chair I found on the Googles (George W reference). The measurements allowed me to calculate the appropriate pivot points and distances of the main leg struts.

I’ve got maybe 15 hours in this prototype, but I’m now happy with the design, so assuming this one survives beta testing, I’ll build another one next week. For those interested, this chair weighs in at 9 pounds, but for that weight, I think it's probably indestructible.

And finally, yesterday I planted our fall crops in our newly built, carbon fiber growing troughs. The troughs are designed to mount inside Dream Catcher and keep the vegetables safe and out of reach of the weasii. (multiple weasels). 

As an aside, the planters weigh 1/4 pound a piece and our current crop includes mint, cherry tomatoes, basil and oregano.

Ok, see you next week. Be safe, it’s stupid out there…

P.S. - Is it just me or does everyone's wood shop look like it was attacked by ravenous Beavers after even the smallest of projects is completed?