This is the second wine storage barrel I've made. The first was for David on his 50th birthday. At David's party his friend from Seattle wanted to know if I'd build another one. I tried to say no, but I'm not really good at it. I'm weird, I don't like to build things twice. I enjoy figuring out the puzzle of how I can put it together and then move on to the next project. (A little ADD, maybe.) But David's friend, Dmitri, was determined, so here it is.Quite a few things had to come together to make this possible. The house was in the air for a while and one of the things I had to do was disconnect the power to my woodworking shop. So, first the house had to come down, then I had to reconnect the power to the shop, then I had to clean the shop up (no small task, let me tell you), and then I had to build the wine rack. I made several improvements from David's rack (which I did go and service at his house--that's customer service.) I left more of the tops and bottoms of the staves that I cut out along with an extra metal loop on top and bottom. This meant that I couldn't get as many racks in, so this one only holds 20 bottles of wine instead of two full cases. But it's sturdy, and I like the looks of it. (And, no, I won't build any more, so don't ask, or I'll quote you my "I don't really want to do this project price," and you'll say no!
I had to get this done because we are leaving for Montana to see our daughter, Noel, graduate from college. She's getting a degree in TV and radio production. She's graduating with honors at the top of her class, so she got that smarts thing from her mother for which I'm very thankful. I'm not sure if it's all the smarts, she got the organizational gene as well. In addition to seeing her graduate, we get to see two productions she's been working on. The first is the Missoula Children's Theater production of "Oliver". Noel is playing Nancy in this show, a big role for her. She's paid her dues in the choruses of several MCT productions and it's going to be really fun to see her in a leading role. The other production is her senior project, a documentary on the effects of suicide on families called "Unspoken--Voices of Suicide in Montana". This is going to be a great trip! We also get to celebrate Mother's Day with Robin's mom who recently lost her husband. Life is very short, so we need to celebrate every chance we get. We have a LOT of reasons to celebrate this week. I hope you do to.