Peruvian Nights and Jamaican Days

What I did for my summer vacation: a pictorial

So...since I have slacked lately, this is how I spent my summer:

We started by getting our vegetable garden in. It looked cool at first, but soon got dried out and weedy. We had almost no rain this year:




Then, I went catfishing with my dad. We caught some stuff, including a nice catfish...




...and an evil gar...




Then I went to my 10 year reunion....




...where I had some whisky. And stuff.

Then we planted lots of wildflowers in our butterfly garden, like Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)...




...and Snow-on-the-Mountain (Euphorbia marginata)..




...and Ironweed (Vernonia baldwinii)...



....and butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)....




...and we finished planting our rain garden, and put in a little swale to connect it to our downspout...




...and we finally finished the living room window, with new trim around, including tile...




...and finally got the garage/shop in order so I can do woodworking..










...and installed some hillbilly track lighting (old curtain rod + fluorescent bulbs)...




...and I got a new miter saw...




It has been awesome to have the saw. I finally have a way to square the ends of a board. I can cut a 6" board if I put another 2x6 under it, so the blade will go through...

I'm also dreaming of getting a table saw. Grizzly tempts me. They seem like the best saws for less money. I dont know if I want to buy the base-type model:



...the step up (cast-iron wings and better fence)..



...or the big step up..



The 1023 (the last one) has gotten "best saw," or at least, "best budget saw" designation from all the major woodworking magazines. There are lots of flavors of it - with 70" rails, with 44" rails, with built in router table, left-tilt, right-tilt, 3 hp, 110/220, single-phase/triple-phase. I would like to get a model with no fence, and a built-in router table, then get an Incra fence. Those things look sweet.

OK. That's it..

-m