Christmas Gifts 2010

2010 was a good year for hand-made Christmas gifts. It took me a while to come up with the exact right idea for each person, but in the end I was very pleased with both the quality of the gifts and how well they fit with each recipient.

For Sarah, I made another bird feeder. The feeder I made for her a couple years ago is still going strong and is a lot of fun to sit and watch. I wanted to make a feeder that would contain different seed and accomodate more birds at once. This is the design I came up with. You can't see it from the photo, but the upper part of each hole is half-covered by a small piece of wood to prevent the seed from just spilling out. It spills a bit when I pour it in, but once it settles the seed stays put. The feeder is about 24" high by 4" square. I used half-inch poplar from Home Depot. I like this wood for this kind of project because you can buy it already milled and ready to go. The paint should look familiar: it's the same paint I used on the generator enclosure.

For Elizabeth, I made this treble clef mounted on a piece of maple. The clef is about 9" high. I cut it out on the scroll saw and spent quite a while sanding it but it was worth it: it came out quite nice. Elizabeth is very excited about playing her violin in the Green Mountain Youth Symphony, so this was a good gift for her.

Helen spent some time last summer singing and touring with a vocal group called Village Harmony. They spent a couple weeks in Canada and then came south to the states. She had an absolute ball and loved every minute of it. I have to confess that I did not cut out all of these letters. There are too many and I could not have done as good a job as the folks at SJA Wood Design. I have bought letters from them a few times in the past and have always been happy with their work. I stained the mounting board black before gluing on the letters. I think it came out quite well.

As always, I ended up really enjoying making and giving these gifts. I always get  a bit tense leading up to it as I feel the pressure to create something unique and beautiful for each person, but the rewards are just great. I think the kids look forward to exchanging our handmade gifts on Christmas Eve as much or more than the gifts we open on Christmas Day.

Generator Enclosure

We are lucky enough to have a small generator that can be plugged into a secondary electric panel to run the critical systems in the house: heat/hot water, water pump, refrigerator, a few lights. This allows us to be without power pretty much indefinitely without an adverse impact on the house.
The issue was, though, that we stored the generator on the porch so when we needed it, we had to move it. It's very heavy; in fact, it's really too heavy for two people to lift. When I'm around, I move it with the tractor but Sarah's pretty much up the creek when I'm not around. I built this enclosure so that we can keep the generator in the right place without having it exposed to the weather.

This photo shows how I normally start projects like this. I have a journal that I sketch, take notes, make estimates in, etc. It's very helpful. Of course, I always end up improvising a bit while I'm building, but this way at least I have the rough outline of what I'm going to do before I start.
The enclosure is made from 1/2" B/C plywood and 2x3 studs. Hardware is galvanized. I painted it with Behr (Home Depot brand) primer/paint combination. That stuff was great to work with: covered in just one coat. I've got a bundle of shingles ready to put on the lid but we really needed to get the thing in place first, so I'll do the shingles a bit later.
The goal was to match (at least for the most part) our existing trash/recycling enclosure; I'd say I was pretty much successful. The colors, shape, and size pretty much match so at least the new one doesn't stand out too much.
Not exactly the funnest project to build but very useful.