October

October 1, 2025

The rip fence for the table saw was a mickey mouse piece of . . . stuff! I had made two metal brackets that were attached to the ends of a board. One of the metal brackets had a nut welded to it and I had a block of wood with a threaded rod imbedded in the block that screwed into the nut and as I screwed it in, it pressed against the edge of the table saw. At the other end of the board, the metal bracket was bent to press against the back edge of the table saw.

Tightening the block with the threaded rod into the nut would hold the board in place as a rip fence. Since the block of wood was thicker than the board, it got in the way when trying to rip something, so I added another board to the side. This worked for a while. Eventually, I ended up using a clamp at each end to clamp this in place.

I’m not sure where I picked up an old rip fence from a different brand of table saw but I have had it laying around for quite a while. It was quite rusted and the lever would not work to operate the clamping mechanism. I covered every inch with some old used motor oil in hopes this would soak through the rust. One day, I tried to take it apart by removing the nuts on the bolts that hold it together. No amount of banging on the nuts would loosen them, but I found that I could get the lever to move just a little bit. I kept at it and this little bit grew a little bit more, then a bit more. So I added more motor oil, and worked the lever up and down, and I got it to work.

Unfortunatly, the brackets at the end of the rip fence did not correspond with my table saw so I had to do a bit of modifying. I had to add board to the end where the lever is located. The rip fence is a little longer than my table saw is, so I added a board to the back side of the table saw.

Dad always used to say, “poor men have poor ways”. I think he was describing me.

I prefer to think of it as making due with what you have, and using your brain instead of your wallet!

Anyway, I have been able to clean up the boards I have salvaged from the pallets by running them through the table saw at one width, then moving the rip fence over a tiny bit and running them through again – this second time cutting the other side of the board- I end up with straight boards. I am using these as the sheathing on the roof.

October 2, 2025

This morning, I got out the lawn mower and mowed the grass next to the road at the Holowai property. I mowed all the way down to the corner where my steet sign is.

Standing in the driveway and looking north east towards Mauna Loa volcano and Hilo beyond.

Standing in the driveway looking south west towards the Kona side of the island.

After mowing the grass at the road, I cut and fit some boards on the Kona end of the building roof.

October 3, 2025

This is the door for the bathroom. It looks pretty good for being a discarded bifold coset door. A bit of recycling!

October 4, 2025

I have been working on the roof boards. This is the end of the roof at the driveway. I almost have the sheathing boards in place to the wall. A bit more recycling.

The roof at the gazebo end is not quite as far along as the other end. It all takes time, and this is very time consuming to dismantle pallets and clean up the 1x boards for use as roof sheathing.

October 5, 2025

I was able to harvest a few tomatoes from my tomato plants. Now that I am preparing to leave and go back to the mainland, they are starting to produce. As Jim Croce said, “Isn’t that the way they say it goes?”

My mango seed has really grown into a very nice plant. I only hope it survives until I return.

I have both ends of the roof with 1x sheathing in place all the way down from the peak to the walls.

October 7, 2025

Now it is time to start on the long sides. I began with the “mauka” or mountain facing side.

I have a full moon tonight, peeking out from between the clouds!

October 9, 2025

The bottom of the driveway is one of the places I have designated as a pallet disassembly factory. I have hung up an old tarp between the tool shed and the house construction to provide shade. It has so many holes in it, that it doesn’t do much for keeping off the rain.

October 11, 2025

I have boards on the mauka side, about half way down to the wall. So, I started on the makai side, or the side towards the ocean.

With the different colors of the wood, the roof looks prettier from above than from below.

October 12, 2025

I have two piles of pallets under the floor. I had used these as my scaffolding when I built the floor. Again, poor men have poor ways. I prefer to call it ingenius engineering! As I tear them apart to use as roof sheathing, the piles get smaller.

October 13, 2025