Sometimes you hit your head. Menuhin’s Law.

A friend and neighbor has really gotten into baking, to the extent that canisters of supplies have taken over the counter space needed to do the required work of kneading, rolling, mixing, cutting, peeling, melting, dusting, whipping, and all the other related activities.

Mickey's Tacos

He called me in December about installing a shelf to hang down from a beam over a kitchen peninsula on which he could store the dry goods to alleviate the over crowded counters. I suggested that the six foot long shelf be thick (1 ½”) to minimize the number of supports and allow a decent span between them.

R S Shelf Drawing

Winter is a tough time to bring thick wood into the shop from outdoors. There can be consequences to the sudden change of temperature and humidity relating to the timber’s moisture content. My first effort was a wide 8/4” thick plank eight feet long and ten inches wide, the finished shelf to be 6 ¾”.

R S Oak Plank 1

R S Oak Plank 2

There were deep drying checks at the ends but I figured that cutting twelve inches from each end would be fine.

R S Oak Plank 3

The grain figure ran at an angle.

 

R S Oak Plank 4

R S Oak Plank 5

 

With the extra width I was able to rip edges parallel to the center of the figure and ended up with a nicely balanced grain over the length of the board.

R S Oak Plank 6

R S Oak Plank 7

Then I went on a wonderful vacation to Puerto Rico and forgot about bone dry air.

Tico on Playa Pastillo

Upon my return I found six inch checks at each end, so all that work was unpaid history. Oh well, on to the next board.  Similar result. The third try was the charm. I like the design. Long lag screws go up through hollowed posts into the framing in the ceiling. The ends of the posts are shouldered and seat in shallow mortices.

 

R S Boring Oak Posts

Baking shelf 1

There is a catch: the male members of the household are finding it difficult to adjust to the new spatial reality and keep bashing their heads against the end of the shelf. It has become a hard hat bakery.

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There is but one window in my walk-in basement workspace, a southern facing unit that I put together from casements that were being tossed out. During the comfortable months of the year one window swings out and ventilates the shop. The view is of ferns and junipers and sometimes canine companions.

R S Paz in shop window

The window disappears with the onset of winter cold, covered by an insulated panel.

R S Window Panel

Conserving BTUs is important. Hunker down, do your work. Around April I’ll pull off the panel and start to get a little excited about sunshine and Spring.

Yesterday the thermometer climbed above freezing briefly. I jumped the gun, popped out the insulating panel and took a look at… icicles hanging from the deck boards above and a newly formed pond caused by the ice dripping from the edge of the roof fifteen feet above the deck which is six feet above the shop window.

R S Roof Ice

R S Gutter drain

R S Ice Pond

 

The ice pond has nearly risen to the window sill height and could conceivably drain to the indoors! This is truly unheard of. Never in the last thirty four years here has anything like this happened because:

~ I rake the roof.

~ I shovel the deck.

~ The south side of the house melts away snow and ice even in deep winter.

Yet, one terrible wet snow in November froze hard on the roof and over everything and has stayed frozen

R S Wet Snow 1

 

creating a base for endless following snows, record low temperatures with no thawing, and, oh yeah, being away for a couple weeks…

This morning on my way to work (18 footsteps from the living room) I passed the propane heater and saw a mysterious pool of water. It looks like a drain hose for the condensation somehow rotted out. Three cartons of machined parts were partially soaked.

R S Water Leak

My baking friend and I share the same tax preparer, a gentleman who has established Menuhin’s Law, named after himself, which states that Murphy (anything that can go wrong, will go wrong) was an optimist.

 

 

 

1 comment to Sometimes you hit your head. Menuhin’s Law.

  • Ah shucks, Tico. Lousy Winter eh? Wind and drizzle for us today and we’re doing some riverbank felling – what fun 🙁 . I’ve been wondering for a while what a lag screw might be – they must come in pretty long sizes! Great shelf.

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