Family Thanksgiving and workbench progress

Family Thanksgiving

We had our family thanksgiving on Dec 3.  I had taken the prior week off to hunt ad help Katherine prep.  I did a lot of house-cleaning!  Katherine did great things in the kitchen (as usual).  

Homemade bread for the dressing - made from home made flour right from the wheat grain

Veggies ready for roasting!  All grown by me, except the celery (and the carrots - although I have grown carrots these aren't ours).  Butternut squash, sweet potatoes, onions, and white potatoes, all from our farm this year.

Sister Connie, her hubby Ben to her right.  Her dog Lucy in front.

Ben checking his phone

My brother Tom.  Katherine in the back there.

Workbench top progress

I got to run the cured hickory boards through the jointer and then plane them flat again.  Then I had the fun of  piecing them together as best I could, matching boards to length, planing to consistent thicknesses and putting them together to prepare for the glue-up.  It was a LOT of work!  I decided to make three 11 inch wide laminates, all about 3 inches thick and 8 feet long.  These will be bolted together to for the workbench top.   i am not sure if I have enough hickory  for the entire workbench top so i think I will make the center laminate out of oak (I have TONS of oak - literally -lol).  This will allow me to save some of the hickory for tool handles, as I originally intended.

Mixing and matching boards to get the required length and width

A lot of fiddly work

A bit wider than 11 inches and a bit longer than 8 feet so that I have some adjustment room!

Not much adjustment room!  Just an inch over 8 feet

Now to cut the pieces to match the lengths, mark them, take them inside and figure out how to glue them all together!

Deer hunting

I did go out deer hunting each of my days off (when it wasn't raining).  I took some pictures while I was out, but they don't look too interesting so i am not posting any (I assume everyone has seen leaves and trees?).  I found some nice areas to hunt from and even saw some deer scat, tracks, scrapes and rubs, etc.  But no actual deer!  The woods were full of hunters and I am sure the deer are far from here.  I only had one deer on my trail cam - a doe (which are legal to take now).  Deer season ends Dec 10 in PA.  I have taken next Thursday and Friday off and will try to get some hunting in.  If I don't get anything this week there is still the late bow season starting Dec 26 and running through Jan 14th.