Living-Deliberately.com

We have built a table.

It is big.

We’ve joked many times that this will be a table to build a house around. A life around. It’s only a half joke.

We built it for $70 with framing lumber and a week’s time.

But this table is priceless.

10 2×8’s, yellow pine. We almost used Cypress, which had a nice Florida heritage idea to it, but I wanted imperfect, dentable, wood that would take on a nice patina in what will become a very normal life. So, plain, run-of-the-mill (so to speak) pine it was.

First, we ripped it into strips.

Then, two beads of glue on every side to be jointed. We gave close attention to how the grain was matching…or not. I wanted a sort of “butcher block” look.

Three boards, glued and clamped; the beginning of the top.

The legs were made of salvaged wood. Origonally they were the beams in some guy’s kitchen, remodled by my Dad. Then, they became legs for my mother’s work tables. Now, patina removed, they will be the legs that hold my table, pictured here with the frame.

Shortening them slightly. They had been “counter height”, 36 in, and we wanted the table to be a finished 32.

Learning to use the Router. It takes a little finesse to get it right! There are few dings and wavy lines here and there on my table…. patina!

Dad, bracing the legs. We used screws and carriage bolts. The table will need to be disassembled to be moved; it’s too big and heavy otherwise.

Lots and lots and lots of sanding.

Choosing a finish was hard! And I was considering distressing it with chains too. It became a debate between “honey” and “nutmeg”, though what I decided on hadn’t yet been presented.

The tops were ready for the planer. I LOVE the planer best of all the tools in the shop. Ugly, rough, imperfect things go in; smooth, refined, clean things come out the other side.

Clamping the top together. At this point, Dad started calling it my “aircraft carrier”.

Scraping the glue bumps; getting ready sand and grind the top.

Routing the edge. I went a groove that wouldn’t get dented too easily, nor be a food catcher.

Just taking a moment to appreciate that grain! I LOVE it. Each line represents a year of life. That always seems profound to me.

Break Time!

Sealing it to minimize warping, a real concern not using wood that wasn’t kiln dried and aged to the extent we would have liked.

I decided on a shade of stain between Nutmeg and Honey. It’s called…”Wheat”. I am using this photo to be true to the project’s process but I swear I look rather mannish in this one!

And here it is!!!! It needs to cure for a few days before we eat on it. I’m gathering chairs from various thrift stores and garage sales and painting them a royal, almost navy, blue.

It is The Table. I’m not sure how working with wood, smelling fresh sawdust, and Dad’s time heals exactly. Only that it does somehow.

I’ve been considering our water usage because:

• water here costs more than electricity
• we’ve had drought conditions for most of May and June
• in learning more about Mexico, we’ve read about how chronic their water situation is, and it indeed gives one pause.

It’s true that a rain barrel, complete with a spigot at the bottom and an enclosed top is on my little list of “dream green purchases”. It’s also true that we go through a lot of water around here! On a normal week I do at least 12-15 loads of laundry, wash dishes with running water 3 x a day, and let the kids play in the hose at least once a week. I also water the garden every other day (not the grass) and we have 6 people showering a few times a week (not every day).

I decided to just run a little experiment in my kitchen. I got a 5 gallon bucket and set it next to the sink. I reduced my water pressure to just over a steady trickle (I usually blast it near full capacity).  I washed each dish with another dish underneath to catch the “grey water” and then drained that lower dish into the bucket. I turned the water off to suds/scrub each dish with my handheld soap/sponge combo.  My findings? Even with lots of water still doing down the drain, I make enough waste water in each session to nearly FILL my 5 gallon bucket. Each day’s bucket contributions water over 3/4 of the garden!!

Now, yes it’s cool that I’m using the water twice.  And I doubt there is much that could have shown me how much water could be reused without doing an experiment like this to wow my socks off. But I am stunned to imagine how much we could get from showers, the laundry, and rainwater.  I have tended to work more on my electric bills and phone bills, definitely the food bill…now I have a real way to work on my water bill!  I can’t even fathom how much water gets used, single time, on lawns and swimming pools.

Experiment number two: making my own ginger ale!! The recipe is in my Nourishing Tradtions book and it’s so easy I had to give it a try. Basically it’s grated fresh ginger, lime juice, salt, rapadura, whey and water. After just one day it has started to carbonate itself, even though the recipe indicates to strain it and mix with carbonated water when ready to drink.

Has anyone made their own sodas before? One thing I’m noticing is that the pressure is building; I periodically release it to keep the bottle from bursting. But the recipe did not indicate this would happen so I’m befuddled. Will be doing some research.

Snack ideas for this week: frozen bananas in a variety of ways….plain, dipped in chocolate and nuts, caramel and nuts, peanut butter and granola…the kids can’t wait!