Sometime in the early hours of May 21st we had a new addition to the barn. Tia Maria had a newborn foal in her stall when Wendy went to the barn at 6 AM. He wasn’t there the night before when I did a barn check at 10 PM. My barn camera didn’t record the event because of a problem wth the memory card so we don’t know the exact time. I did get this photo from the barn camera later.
Wendy with Tia and Jalapeño
He’s a beautiful sorrel colour and we all agreed he’s a match for our “Pepper Boys”, Cayenne Pepper and Red Hot Chili Pepper. So I suggested we call him Jalapeño Pepper.
Jalapeño meets Chili and Cayenne
We got him oustide the very next day and he had a chance to meet the Pepper Boys. He’s gonna fit right in with that crowd.
We put the finishing touches on the kitchen today and we can now call it complete!
When this job started, we thought we had prepared for everything. And most everything went smoothly, but it only takes one thing to mess things up. Our demolition went according to schedule. The new cabinets arrived and were installed on time. And they are perfect. We purchased a dishwasher way ahead of time and it was delivered. But then there was the sink.
That sink. I ordered it from Amazon.ca because we needed an odd size and it was the only one we could find. To my surprise it shipped from New Jersey. Amazon didn’t indcate it was coming from outside the country. Anyway, it was late. Very late. Finally, I got a notice from Amazon saying they considered it lost in shipping and I could have a refund. Time was now critical. We needed a sink in the new kitchen and we needed it ASAP. So off we went to Home Depot and found a sink, smaller than we wanted but at lease it was a sink!
Arranged to have the plumber out to install the sink and dishwasher. They got started but then got called away on another job they said was an emergency. That was Friday. We painted the old cupboards to the exact same shade of white as the new cabinets on the weekend. The plumber returned on Monday and finished the job.
Oh, and that sink that Amazon lost? Well it showed up just hours after the replacement was installed!
We did some finishing touches today and called it done!
A friend requested that I make a wall plaque in memory of his mother who passed away recently. He wanted a wooden spoon attached to the carving, which he supplied. Here is the design I came up with.
Finished job
This piece was too big to carve in one run on my 3018 PROVer, so I made two separate carves. The top letters which say “In Loving Memory of Mom” were carved with a 90 degree V-bit. The workpiece was then re-positioned in the CNC so I could carve the lower part with the heart, her name (which I have blurred in the photo) and the years. I switched to a 60 degree V-bit for the lower part as these letters were slightly smaller than the ones at top.
The piece was made of laminated maple and I put an edge on it with a roundover bit in my router before carving the letters. I also routered a groove on the back with my keyhole bit so it could be hung up.
I finished it with my beeswax / mineral oil paste. I applied the same finish to the wooden spoon and attached it with a couple of countersunk 1″ wood screws from the back.
This was a fun and challenging project. I hope my friend is happy with it.
The cabinets were installed earlier this week. All went well and I was told the floors were nice and level, which was a bonus!
New cabinets
As you can see the dishwasher is yet to be installed. That’s because we are still waiting for the new sink to arrive so we can call the plumber to hook everything up. We ordered a small sink – smaller than a single sink but bigger than a bar sink – from Amazon.ca but it turns out it was shipped from the US. It has been stuck in Cheektowaga, NY for over a week now if you can believe the tracking info. Interesting because it was listed as “Sold by” and “Shipped by” Amazon.ca with no mention of it being sourced outside the country. Anyway, the job is on hold until we acquire a sink. I would have sourced it locally but no one had the size we needed. We may now have to install a sink of a different size, if we can find one.
Finishing touches included sanding the drywall where I had patched it and Wendy has painted it. She matched the colours perfectly!
