It’s been a busy week and a half. Mitch Carter stopped by for a ride around the property in the tour jeep early last week, then Marty Tilford came by for a ride yesterday. We sure can’t wait to get this on the road so we can give proper rides!
Somehow, I never got photos of them in the FC (probably because I was driving). However, I did find a photo of what I think is our FC on eBay (I bought the slide).
I took a break from the race jeep to build these three 8′ planters for Ann. The sides are built from 60-year-old cedar that my parents used to wall their kitchen in the mid-1960s. They pulled it down during a remodel circa 1995 and kept it until I grabbed it after mom passed. I know she’d be happy we were able to put the wood to good use.
Wood with meaning.
Cool
Hello Dave,
I have over sixty years in using wood as a carpenter, cabinet maker, and contractor. Your planters look extremely nice. However, if they are not lined with either galvanized or copper tubs with MANY drain tubes at their bottoms, the cedar (and any other wood for that matter) will rot. Having liners of metal is not an inexpensive venture, but will create a lasting use. Also, I have found Armstrong/Clark to make the absolutely best oil based coatings for exterior wood. They offer one in a “cedar tone” which is a semi-transparent coating. It sinks into the wood nicely. It beats ANY OTHER manufacturer’s products including Wood Tex, Olympic, Cabots, and others. I highly recomment their product for the inside, outside, and bottoms of your planters. Apply it extremely thin as is recommended in the instructions. You really stay much busier than anyone else I either know or aware of! ewillys is the best and it partners with my tea and breakfast every morning. S.
Good times! Hope we’ll have a Washington FC event at your place in the near future!
Love the re-purposed wood project…….heritage ……family memories ……damn nice older quality wood.
Reminds me that I should cease collecting old wood…..and do something with it !!
Mitch: Yesterday while backing it out, the tour jeep sprung a small drip leak near the radiator tub inlet. Ugh. An event prob wouldn’t be until next year. I want the race jeep and tour jeep ready for such an event.
Stephen: Thanks for those tips. Much appreciated! The objective was 1) cheap, 2), quick, 3) easily removable with the tractor and 3) modular (hence the three compartments). These are more prototypes than anything else. The tops and frame are left over 2x4s and some stud 2x4s, so nothing fancy. The bottoms are leftover, warped and rough 3/4 plywood leftover from a remodeled deck project with 1″ holes drilled in them. The cedar is in pretty rough shape. The boards spent 20 years outside barely covered, so the fact I could find a use for them at all was great. Ann lined the interior with some garden weave fabric.
Since last year’s failure of 1/2 wine barrel planters (the plants overheated), we decided we need weightier boxes. So, these are test boxes that should give us a couple years of use at least (with our dry climate the heat is a bigger issue here than the rot). If they work well, we’ll invest in some better materials next year and a better design for a longer lasting setup.
Thanks for the hospitality Dave and Ann!! We really appreciate you letting us stay the night.
Cheree and I really enjoyed the ride around the property in the Tour Jeep. we will definitely be coming back when you’re ready to give us a complete tour around town.
We did get a few pictures. I’ll send them your way to post up.
Thanks Marty. It was great to have you and Cheree here. I’ll update the post with the pics at some point.
– Dave