Productive Day

I had a productive day today. I mowed the lawn for the second (and probably last) time this summer (grass grows slow up here). I also started putting up the Christmas lights. Since I never took them off the trees from last year, all I did was move the lights from the trees to the roof, which is where I had originally intended on putting them. Before you question why I am doing the Christmas lights in September, know that last year I put them up after Thanksgiving and had to do it in two feet of snow in the freezing cold. The weather is pretty good here right now, so I'm taking advantage of it.

I also built a bench out of an old snowboard today. I used some scrap 2x4s I had laying around and I think it turned out pretty well.


I made the bench to put under the kitchen table. We normally have the table pushed against a wall. When we have more than three people eat, though, we have to pull the table out and put folding chairs behind it. Now, we have a bench ready to go when we pull the table out. The top of the board is pretty ugly, but I plan on doing something to make it look better.

I also built a display case for the 20 year old food I found when I cleaned out the cabinets last spring. I used some more scrap would I had laying around and plexiglass leftover from when I replaced the plexiglass in the storm door last summer. You can't really see it in the picture, but there is a piece of plexiglass closing the front of the case. I used the table saw to cut grooves in the wood to hold the plexiglass.


The rice in the bottom right was the official sponsor of the 1992 Olympics. The baby food in the upper left expired in 1987, so it was probably mine. The Mac & Cheese doesn't have any dates on it, but the price tag says "4 for 88¢". It must be old! I'm going to get a bracket so I can hang this gem on the wall.