Canning shelf progress in city home & other stuff

Canning Shelf

I was able to get the canning shelf mostly compete - I still need to paint them.  Painting is an issue since its now too cold outside.   There isn't enough room the paint the shelf inside the house.  I may just paint the actual shelf boards themselves and leave the framing unpainted for now.  I braced the sides too, after I took these pictures.

Making fermented soda

I received my orders from the brew stores earlier this week.  I received the flavorings and champagne yeast that I needed to make fermented soda!  So I whipped up a gallon batch of root beer and a gallon batch of cherry.  The recipe is:  1 tbsp of flavoring, 1/8 tsp yeast, 2.5 cups sugar, 1 gallon water.  I bottled 2 bottles (2 liter bottles) each flavor in old soda bottles.  I got new plastic caps, but they don't fir right on the old soda bottles - the safety seal gets in the way of the flange.  If I removed the safety seal, they do fit well though.  I put the bottles in the master bathroom shower - on the floor.  They are working slowly - its rather cool in this house - about 68F.  The recipes say it should take 4-6 days to reach a decent carbonation.  So far its been about 3 days and they are definitely working, bit not ready yet.  Since the plastic bottles are fairly flexible, I am not too worried that they will explode.

Roller/Conveyor for woodwork

After my experiences using the "lunchbox" wood planer that last couple of weekend I am convinced I need a set on infeed/outfeed roller-conveyors to keep the wood from checking so much.  I found a nice set on woodcraft and ordered them.   They say it will be quite some time before I receive them though.

Sawmill thoughts

I still haven't heard anything from Bill DeFay - they gentleman in Michigan who I am trying to buy a sawmill from.  I have been checking around locally (to my farm to PA) and found a couple stores about 30 mins from the farm that I want talk with regarding their sawmills,  The one store is a resaleer for woodmizer - they other sells woodmizer and Timbery.  The woodmizer I am looking at is the LT15.  It is a bit expensive for that type of mill.  I am also considering the Timbery mills.  I am thinking i can save about $2,500 by not buying the trailer option - I have a trailer!  I guess I need to contact Mr. DeFay again before I get one locally, although it looks very unlikely that he has completed my order yet.  He hasn't even contacted me to discuss the build in over a month!  I am itching to mill and I have time now!