Category Archives: General Farm Stuff

Sherman the TankChair’s Big Interview!

05 Thursday Jun 2014

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For the past 6 years I have told the inspiring story of the couple behind the TankChair to as many people as I could get to listen. Over the past  month or so, our backyard projects were not only being held up by regular farm chores, but also trying to get the property all spiffy for interviews and video because the folks at Bloomberg TV wanted to include me, Sherman and the ponies in their article and video segment on these fabulous chairs and the fellow that invented them.

Here are links to the video and the wonderful in-depth article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/popout/BAyWMTYSRM6i7lZJDwpMjw/0.047/

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-05/founded-by-army-vet-tankchair-makes-all-terrain-wheelchairs#p1

 

DIY Billiam’s List Patio Chair

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Wood Crafts

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Working strictly with the 2x4s that were included in the Craig’s List haul several months ago, I built a patio chair this weekend. You folks could do this in just a few hours, but I have to take frequent and extended breaks. Even with breaks, I’m a hurting unit right now and will need to take a couple of days off. However, as I recline with my bottle of Tylenol, binge watching Netflix, while my back and hip realign themselves, I will be smiling with pride, because this is the first of our many projects that I built entirely without help.

The original project plans, not using 2x4s, by Ana White, can be found here: http://ana-white.com/2010/05/plans/simple-modern-outdoor-sectional-armless-section

The above plans were modified for using 2x4s which changes the “cut list”. If you plan to make yours out of 2x4s, which to me are sturdier as well as less expensive, use the cut list on this page: http://www.morelikehome.net/2011/06/our-new-outdoor-sectional.html

To the above cut list, you should add another 2×4 cut to 21″. As you will see in my photos, the chair really needs another back board midway between the top of the back and the back of the seat. This board is not added to the 2×4 cut list, yet it is shown in her photos of the finished sectional.  Ana White’s page doesn’t show this board at all in her diagrams and only shows cushions resting against the back, which doesn’t look comfy.

patiochairsectionseatbottomFirst I put together the seat using the Kreg Pocket hole system. This photo shows the pocket holes at each end of the seat boards. This is the bottom of the chair seat which will be unseen unless someone turns the chair over to check my handiwork and that someone will likely not be invited back anytime soon. Using the pocket holes on the bottom saves you from screwing in from the top to attach everything, leaving visible screws if you care about things like that.

patiochairsectionalseatThis is the top side of the chair seat. See? No screws. It’s magic! This technique also seemed to make the seat very easy to attach to the support frame.

patiochairsectionalsupportAlthough neither of the above sites mentioned it, I used pocket holes in the support frame, not only to attach the frame to the front and back of the chair, but also to the seat boards. I placed three pocket holes along the top edge of each support board as well as the side and front aprons. I laid each piece out on the chair seat and marked where the pocket screws would connect to the seat and then drilled the holes. This took all guess work out of attaching the seat and, again, left no visible screws in the top of the seat.

Ana White’s measurements for the distance between the side apron and the seat support boards is only 3 inches. This is fine until you have to attach those support boards to the back apron. By then, you have all your side aprons and seat support boards firmly attached to the front apron, the seat, and the front legs. I saw this problem coming, so I added another inch and a half between the sides and the supports to allow for the drill. That still was not enough room for my small hands and my Ryobi drill to get between the boards and attach them to the back apron. I would suggest you leave at least 5″ inches of space between these boards.

patiochairsectionalbackIf you are making this chair from the 2x4s, remember that many of the measurements change. Be sure to check the site for the 2×4 built sectional for these changes. For instance, the back seat board for the 2×4 plan needs to be 13 and 1/2 inches from the ground, rather than the 15″ shown on the Ana White plan. One day, I’m going to do the smart thing and print these plans out so that I don’t have to burn wheelchair batteries running back and forth to my computer to double check! I did double check the measurements and instructions each step of the way, and wrote myself about a dozen sticky notes, so I didn’t have any major oopses. Also, you can really see in this picture that another board across the back is needed.

patiochairsectionalfrontHere is the finished patio chair. The plan is for a sectional which I hope to build. Ana White’s page shows how to attach the pieces to each other. To me, that defeats the purpose of having a sectional, so I’m not going to attach each piece. This way, if I need extra chairs by the pool or by the fire pit, I can just swipe a couple from the sectional.

Remember, this is reclaimed wood from Craig’s List. The boards are not perfect and, therefore, neither is the chair they’ve been used to build. If you’re using reclaimed wood, prepare for a few surprises. The board you cut so precisely to fit, may have just enough of a mild twist or bow that it doesn’t fit the way you expected. This is what they make wood clamps, power sanders and cuss words for.

 

 

My Mother’s Day DIY Tools As Much Fun as Candy

18 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Rural life, Uncategorized, Wood Crafts

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I am not without tools, William saw to that. We have tools that I had when I was a single Mom, tools that William bought throughout his years of home ownership, and a lot of the tools his father had collected. We have hand saws, table saws, drills, sanders, grinders, a tile saw, drill press, a collection of screw drivers, hammers, and wrenches of all descriptions. We are not tool poor. There are quite a few power tools, however, that we have simply done without because we had the hand tools.

For Mothers Day this year, I made my sons shopping chores easy for them. I gave them a list of tools that would have made William’s home improvement life easier and will now make my DIY life and yard work easier.

kregjigThis Kreg Jig K4 kit has already allowed us to make headway on the arms and back for the swinging bed, and will make building the frame for the next planter boxes and storage bench much easier and neater. This kit is available at Home Depot, but Home Depot doesn’t carry any of the nifty clamps that make pocket hole work so easy. Lowes has a better selection of accessories and screws for this jig.

 

powerstaplerThis Chicago Power Stapler is great for all the projects I have planned which require upholstery. I used it to upholster the top for the storage bench and it drove the staples in straight and fast. No bent staples to remove! There is a trigger safety lock and the tool weighs less than 2 lbs. so it was easy for my old lady hands to use. This stapler came from our local Harbor Freight.

 

ryobipolesawUntil now, all we’ve had to trim the trees have been long pruning shears and a bow saw. We set this Ryobi Pole saw up and put it to work immediately. We trimmed every over grown mesquite tree in our yard into shape in about an hour and a half. Those were big trees and thick branches too! We’re using this saw to cut up the branches we removed. Some will go to DIY projects and some will go into the firepit to makes some splendidly flavored grilled meats. This was a tool I knew I could handle and it was a lot less scary to me than a chain saw. These are available at Home Depot

I love chocolate as much as any chocoholic Mom, but I’ll take tools that save the time and strength I don’t have over a Whitman’s Sampler any day!.

Sherman the TankChair

24 Thursday Apr 2014

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About ten years ago my oldest son was exploring a creek north of Phoenix and came across a couple of guys testing and taking videos of an amazing off road wheelchair. The minute he saw it, he knew I needed it. He introduced himself to the fellows and talked to them at length about the chair and it’s capabilities. As soon as he got home he called me to tell me all about it and how it would be able to get me down to the waters of a nearby lake so that I could fish again. After looking the chair up on the internet I knew I wanted one, I just didn’t think I needed one that badly. We had a budget and that budget just wasn’t going to allow for an expensive item that would only be used to get me to the shoreline to fish. But I didn’t forget about the chair.

A few years later we moved out of the city to our small three acre farm, put up a barn and filled that barn with miniature horses. I had a manual wheelchair and an inexpensive power chair to help me feed, water and groom the horses, but no way to go out into the corrals to train and play with them or take them out into the sand of the dry wash to exercise them. I remembered the TankChair, made an appointment with the fellow that invented it and a few days later he brought one out to the farm for me to test drive. Here’s a link to a video taken the day I met the TankChair that Billiam would dub “Sherman”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZdkxCstY3o

Since childhood I have preferred outdoors to in, since childhood I’ve hated shopping and loved the wild yet peaceful freedom of the countryside. My soul was not engineered for a life lived on pavement. As I grow older, this need for being outdoors does not lessen, but rather grows stronger. I do not wish my last glimpse of life to be at a ceiling or walls, but a blue sky with puffy white clouds framed by leaves and limbs.

tanktraining2

I could have given up the horses because of my handicaps, but I wouldn’t have really been living. I could have confined myself to only where a manual wheelchair could take me, but I’d only have been breathing. Many, do not understand my deep need for living in this manner, but that’s okay, I don’t understand their ability to adapt to places where they cannot see a horizon and only touch pavement and not earth. For people like me, however, ponies, TankChairs, a view of mountains and the sights and sounds of the natural world are what make getting out of bed every morning worthwhile.

Video William and I made of how well Sherman helps me on the farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOmTlEwatEI

The TankChair was created by Brad Soden, of Phoenix, for his wife Liz. Liz was paralyzed in an accident and her outdoor loving life came to an abrupt halt. She was stymied from enjoying camping trips, hikes and playing in the snow with Brad and their children. In true DIY fashion Brad knew he could do something about that and set to work in his garage to build a freedom machine for Liz. He also invented the seriously awesome Speedster wheelchair for in town travels. The speedster gets a wheelchair bound person above “butt and crotch” level. Trying to look up from someone’s crotch and carry on a serious conversation has been one of the banes of my wheelbound existence, nevermind the exposure to noxious fumes from behind when queued up for a restaurant table or movie. If I ever win the lottery, a Speedster will be mine, because it would definitely make the time I am forced to stay on pavement much more acceptable.

Brad and Liz Soden and the Speedster

bradandlizsoden

 

 

As Life Would Have It

28 Friday Mar 2014

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The month William and I set up this blog, looking forward to telling you all of our stories in our own styles, he became ill. A month after the onset of symptoms he was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. 8 weeks later he passed away, holding my hand, a look of surprise on his sweet face.

His life and energy are still here, on the farm, as is his unfinished, and rather lengthy, To-Do List. We had so many things we planned to accomplish around here like concrete work, laying pavers, adding a drip irrigation system, tiling the bedroom, adding plants, building furniture, painting, and various household repairs but we were attacking them slowly. Even on just a three acre farm, there are a lot of daily and weekly tasks and chores that leave little time for the improvements we simply want to do. Turns out, there was much less time than we thought.

As I sorted through a lifetime of disorganized paper work, grieved, made his final arrangements at the funeral home, filled out never ending forms, planned his memorial, cried, cleaned and boxed up his models, paced the house in stunned silence picking things up and laying them down in a different spot, and trying to remember to eat, the one thing that kept appearing on the top of the heap was his To-Do List with all of his plans for a future on the farm. I knew that after eighteen years of doing for him, all I could do for him now was to tackle his list of things he wanted done.

After the memorial gave his family and friends some closure (more on that event in a later post), I picked up Billiam’s List. Between the never ending paperwork, necessary phone calls and runs to town to fax important documents, rather than doing so much pointless pacing I started keeping my brain and hands busy on the things that were his true final requests.

Writing was what we did. We wrote together, we wrote separately. Writing, and reading writing, was what made us fall in love and kept us close. It was our most personal love both together and separately. Thus, writing has been the most difficult thing for me to get back to. The things we love most and do most often are what define our normal and normal isn’t easy to find, and is often too painful to approach, after we lose the person with whom we shared that normal.

I read an article last month about using personal rituals to help us through grief. I realized that this is what I had been doing by taking over the To-Do List, these projects had become my personal daily rituals of honoring my husband, healing and finding that new normal. So, as life would have it, this blog has changed from being our life on the farm, to a blog that is essentially my path through grief. Because my path through grief involves projects I’ve either never done alone or never done at all, there will be ample examples of How-To do the things on the To-Do List as well as how not to do them.