Lots going on, so I thought I'd show a few things.
1) One of my "Old Girls" came back to lay eggs. This is a HUGE 18" snapper that is likely 50 years old. She climbed a steep 8-foot-high bank to lay her eggs. She picked a spot where the mulched beds meet the unmowed grass at the top of the bank. She has mulch all over her head. She comes every year. Usually, I see her out there wandering around by the shop looking for the place she was born ...which is now under the shop. I leave her be to find a place to dig a nest, but the next day I find her nest torn up and all the eggs eaten by raccoons. This time I checked on her throughout the day. After she was done with the nest, I covered it with a wire baking rack to keep the raccoons from getting the eggs. I left just enough clearance on the creek end for the babies to crawl down to the creek in a few months.
2) I have a stainless-steel rolling cart I use when doing BBQs. When I have a big BBQ, I take the grill down to the yard to free up more space around the six-tap beer cooler and the hot foods holding/serving convection oven. I set the cart next to the grill and use it for prep and my utensils. I keep a hose nearby to wash my hands and such. I added a removable glass top for prepping meats and such. I decided that my grilling area has everything but the kitchen sink ... so I added a bar sink to the back of the cart. The sink stores inside the cart and slides on to a brace I put on the back of the cart when needed. The garden hose snaps on by a quick connect and the drain line will drain in the gardens. I can use it on the deck when I have smaller parties.
I have a big BBQ on the 1st and will take photos of the food area then.
3) I am restoring an old and badly weathered atlas vertebra from a whale. The atlas is where the spine meets the skull. It is 30" across and weighs around 50-60 pounds. It washed out of a sand dune many years ago and eventually found a home on my deck. It was starting to fall apart in big sections due to age and weathering. Once I have all the pieces cemented together, I will give it a penetrating coat of clear epoxy. The bone sits on my deck by the BBQ area. You can see one piece of the bone sitting on a shelf in the BBQ cart.
Those "rubber bands" are woodworking rubber clamp bands for applying tension while gluing furniture. Each one is a 12" circle when not stretched. They don't stretch easily, either.
4) No photo yet, but a friend who is getting too old to do much in the shop called and is giving me a commercial vertical 6X48 belt sander. It is a 2HP 220VAC unit with dust ports and all the required OSHA protections. It weighs a couple hundred pounds. I may swap out the motor and make it 3-phase VFD. The nice thing is only takes up a small floor area because it vertical. Comes with a heavy cast worktable and T-track slides. IIRC, it is an old Rockler professional grade unit. He has a lot of other stuff he wants me to take a look at and see if I want.
