Now that Jay has his workshop back together he has been busy making dust again.

What has he been working on?

Well, he has built a table for the rain barrel that I want to set up in the back yard:

The Finishing Dept needs to get it ready for its upcoming outdoor existence. I’m going to have him epoxy the bottom of the legs (so that they can’t soak up water). Then I will prime and paint it with an exterior paint to coordinate with our shed.

The next project was a downdraft table.

This was a birthday present that he felt I could really use. If you don’t know what a downdraft table is, let me do my best to explain it.

You hook it up to the dust collector (or a shop vac) and then sand your wooden pieces on the top. If you’ve actually remembered to switch on the dust collector then as you sand all of the particles will be pulled down through the holes. This keeps you from having to wear a dust mask or make a mess as you’re finishing a project. Jay thinks that I go overboard with my sanding routine and he knows how miserable it can be to wear a dust mask.  Hopefully this improves the finishing part of our projects!

And finally, I thought I should show you how abused and neglected Jay is in our marriage. I mean, the poor guy is taken advantage of constantly!

Last weekend I purchased this book for him:

At first glance you might think, “Gee! That’s awfully nice! She loves him so much she wants him to have something for inspiration!” That is true, but look closer… do you see the orange flags sticking out of the top? Yep. I looked through it and found a few projects that I wouldn’t mind him working on if he’s bored.

He can’t even enjoy a simple book without a Honey-Do list being attached to it!

One of the projects in there was the rain barrel table.

This is another:

Again, a perfect example of what Jay has to deal with when it comes to me and my projects. Here’s what I said: “I don’t want this trellis as it’s shown in the picture. I want you to take one side of it and make it easy to be attached to the front porch so that I can put it behind one of my rose bushes.” Although, giving him the example this way is much better than when I attempt to draw a picture of what I want. I was never good in art class, so you can imagine how horrible that has to be for Jay to interpret my chicken scratch.

He did an excellent job with the trellis, though:

He’s going to twist up some copper wire, like in the picture, and insert it in the spaces. He has already epoxied the bottoms of the feet so that they won’t soak up water. Then I just have to finish it with a hardy weather-resistant finish. It should look really nice!