What happens when my back gets sore.

  When I have had several busy days in a row, days with extra walking or oddly enough extra sitting the arthritis in my back reacts badly and I am sore until I fully relax for at least two days, sometimes three.  Of late I have not been able to put 2 or 3 days relaxed time together and so each day is crap shoot as to what I can get done before side lined totally.   

  While I am sore life goes on and there still are a ongoing stream of little things that need doing.  For example, yesterday we pulled our dishwasher out and scraped spray foam insulation off the out side, it needed knives, putty knives, plyers, screw drivers and the shop vac to clean up.  A shop tip: a Dollar Store serrated bread knife cuts spray foam really well, costs $1.25 and is easier to hold on to than a loose hacksaw blade.  I also spent time polishing the plastic guard plates for the stained glass studio, drills, buffing wheels, cloths etc. If you are going to get into big jobs polishing things, cars, boats etc get the machine for the job.  What ever little job comes along means tools taken out and probably not put back where they belong, because the task used up all the available back mobility.

  What happens is this:

bench piled high with small tools
used recently.

work table covered with projects
and stuff dropped off on the way by.

  There are plastic containers saved for later use, the sander than prepared the flower box and various clamps, clothes and bits of wood.  This is not how I like my shop but use and drop is the routine I use while saving my back as best as I can.

  Today, I couldn't stand it any longer nor could I do ANYTHING in the shop with the work space in that sort of shape.

what the bench actually looks like, with its own
work light.

 the work table cleaned up with the
new raised bench in place

  Having gotten the space into shape I decided to add to my Mother's flower planter.

  

  The stencil was hanging on the wall. The paint was a $1.00 sample colour and I thought it added a nice touch to an otherwise big brown box.

  While I was at it I  used the same stencil to begin a design on some coasters.

  These will get more detail and contrasting colour once everything is dry.  Probably these coasters will end up as a Christmas hand out.

  Today I sent about two hours in my shop before my back started to complain loudly,  half the time cleaning.  However there is satisfaction in  cleaning a shop too.

  cheers, ianw