I spent most of yesterday out in the garage cleaning out and putting stuff away that had accumulated there over summer.  Now that it's cleaned up it can continue use as my make shift shop.  Getting space back was aided by switching the tractor back to winter mode with the snow blower.  It is now sitting primed at the entrance to the garage awaiting the first real snow fall.

I have a small chicken and the egg problem with my shop.  It's currently storing a lot of stuff such as camping equipment, Christmas decorations, dive equipment, other tools and miscellaneous stuff.  It's taking up a good chunk of the floor space and there's no room for my tools.  The ceilings are high enough I can put up loft storage to store all of it but there's no room for the tools to build it currently. 

So I at least got the standby shop into a condition I can begin working again.  The goal is to finish up storage location A and move out all the stuff destined for the first location.  I have one problem left to be solved in the first storage system design.  I think I have it solved but I need to do some math to verify it will hold the weight.  Then next will be ammo storage racks and doing some rearranging in the shop.  Followed by some high shelves in the house to finish unpacking knickknacks and family memorabilia.  I will post pictures and details as I progress through the projects.

Lastly will be two custom workbenches.  One will be for the express purpose of reloading and firearm maintenance. This will be unique because it will be fully seal-able to keep wood dust and other shop dirt out of the work area and drawers.  The second will be my main workbench and will have built in storage for some of my more awkward tools. 

At this point I should be able to move my tools and then I can start building the rest of the material to finish up the shop, such as a planer stand, and a permanent router table.

I do want to get the shop finished up because I there is some stuff I would like to start making to sell.  Not to mention I have some other ideas of stuff I can make and sell.

Speaking of which I made a simple shirt yesterday as well for AepilotJim that I just noticed I put in the wrong store.  It should be up here in the near future with a much wider selection than just t-shirts.  If you want to know what the shirt is, you can either listen to last Friday's VC or wait for it appear in the store.

See instead of bitching about life and how it's unfair I continue to work my ass off in one form or another.  Hell I spent time doing a bunch of work that I'm sure those who wasted time on useless degrees would never bother doing.  Doubly so since I didn't even get paid for it, I did it to help some friends.  Thing is they probably could have offered to help for compensation and it would have been accepted.  Shoving insulation into walls suck but someone's got to do it.  Running conduit and wiring has to be done by someone.  Taking care of all the plumbing has to be done by someone.  Notice a pattern here?  Next time actually get an education in something useful and in demand.

Winter arrived for me and the wife just prior to Thanksgiving this year and has yet to leave. This past Thursday we had yet another significant snow fall but with the catch of high winds. This resulted in much of my yard being devoid of snow, yet my drive way and sidewalks in decently sized drifts.

Yes that snow next to the truck is up to the running board. Opening the door caused snow to be scraped off the top of the drift. Clearing the driveway was fun because the drifts were big enough to have to be slowly cut off.

I will say though, that 44 inch blower for the lawn tractor thus far has been a life saver. When I get to the far side of the driveway it actually takes a couple passes because it's so deep as well. While yes, the snow can be annoying, I am willing to put up with it for the following couple reasons.

There's some more of the senic pictures I took today here.