Scattered Thoughts . . .

B ack two or three years ago, I built a custom Giant Jenga game.  That required some planning, a lot of cutting, a really lot of sanding, and then quite a bit of waxing.  This unique game (because of its size) gets a lot of use whenever we have a barbeque in the yard though! My only complaint about this game is it is heavy.  All the pieces are buttery smooth and slick because of all the sanding and waxing I did which is really nice for this game in particular.  I designed all the pieces to fit inside the overturned base so it is relatively compact when stored but it is quite heavy requiring two people to safely carry it.  The base, when turned upside-down, is its case as well as a platform that can be leveled for play.  It is a great design...  just a bit too bulky and heavy to be considered "ideal".   In this first photo, below, the base is perfectly leveled even though it looks like the stack of Jenga pieces are leaning.  Well, the b...

W e always have our first barbeque of the season on the weekend that falls around July 1st which happens to be my birthday.  This year, we had this barbeque on July 1st.  If anyone is wondering, I turned 61 years old this year.  Unfortunately, most days, I feel like I'm 81 and I have difficulty and a lot of pain trying to get around and I even look the part due to being hunched over and having difficulty standing.  Contrary to how I feel on these days, my birth certificate claims I am 61 years old this year.   We had a very dry spring to the point where everything in the yard was dying and turning brown but the past two weeks were filled with day after day of solid rain until the day before our scheduled barbeque.  The rain stopped just in time for me to mow the lawn, do some much needed landscaping and set up the backyard for our barbeque.  It was sunny, hot and humid with a bit of smoke from Canadian wildfires hanging in the air.  My h...

W hile Lukey and Kenzie were staying with us for a few days (mom was in the hospital giving birth to Sophia), we spent some time in the backyard.  We had a fire in the firepit, nice Adirondack chairs, a putting green, and the new homemade Giant Jenga game.  Later in the evening, I made some Shish-Ka-Bob on the grill in the outdoor kitchen, we had S'mores and we played a few games of Dominoes.   We had a good time playing quite a few games of Giant Jenga!   I shot video as well as photos but I'll put together a video soon for another blog entry.  Hmmm...  maybe I'll put together a video of all the things we did in the backyard on this evening.   For now, here are some photos of Giant Jenga with Gee, Lukey, Kenzie and Pop... We had a really nice time on this afternoon and night!   We're looking forward to the next time some or all of the grandchildren are at the house.  It is always fun to play!

Liza and the kids spent some time at the house after Kenzie's and Gee's 5K run the other day.  They had a little time to kill before Lukey's baseball game later in the afternoon.  While we killed time, we set up the newly finished homemade Giant Jenga game in the backyard so the kids could play a couple of quick games. The weather was chilly, windy and it looked like it would rain at any moment.  We could definitely use the rain but we didn't get any.  It actually feels like September and the lawn looks like a typical dry September lawn.  We really could use rain...  a lot of rain at this point.  We were able to squeeze in a couple of quick games before Liza and the kids had to run to Lukey's baseball game.   Lukey played against Gee in the first game.  Kenzie had the winner in the second game.  Unfortunately, Ace wouldn't allow Kenzie to play so the game was cut short when Ace knocked the tower of blocks over.   Gee and L...

O ur homemade Giant Jenga game is now ready for playing in our backyard! After I finished sanding all the 2x4 pieces with 220 grit sandpaper (which was after 80 grit and 120 grit), I waxed every piece and then polished the wax until it was smooth and slick.  I also waxed the top of the leveling base.  Now every piece is very smooth and looks nothing like a typical framing 2x4 which is how this wood started!  Each of these pieces started very rough when I first cut the 2x4s to length.  Now they are looking nothing like a typical framing 2x4. For some reason, I thought that the relatively easy process of applying wax and then polishing it would go very quickly but, as usual as my health worsens and I get older, I was very wrong in my time estimate.   I think the waxing required even more of my time than sanding with the last grit of sandpaper did and that took far longer than I anticipated!   I found that I could only wax and polish 12 of the pieces...