Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Factory 59

[Krfjkm]

Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox!!

Minor, but still important, progress update… the original plan for the long weekend was to button up some outdoor projects, however, spending the weekend outside in the 100F+ heat index just didn’t sound like much fun. Instead, Wife and I dug into reclaiming the basement over this past weekend. At least it was nice and cool down there. When we moved in last year, anything that we didn’t have a home for was dropped in the basement with the eventual plan of converting the center section of the basement into a storage area with shelving. Much to Wife’s annoyance, I suggested that we should paint the walls first before installing anything as this would likely be the last time they were easily accessible. Wife agreed that I should paint the walls.

The good news is that the cinder block walls had already been painted at least twice in the past. The first color was a pea green which was then unevenly covered with a single coat of white paint at some point later on. The bad news is that I quickly found that the most effective way to get a new coat of paint on these walls was to use a brush. Even a thick nap roller and a fair amount of pressure wasn’t enough to get good coverage. So brick by brick, grout line by grout line, I got to work painting three out of four walls in a 24’x12’ room while Wife started going through boxes and sorting through stuff. I got in a groove pretty quickly… I burned up the last of my “free” Spotify audiobook hours pretty quickly (Black Light by Stephen Hunter… pretty darn good so far) before switching gears and diving into the adventures of Francis Marion in a multi-part podcast series from The Dead Warrior Society. About 10 years ago, I went deep on the American Revolution but mostly focused on the broader timeline of events and battles. Digging deeper into individual stories like this one is interesting and I suspect I might be reopening that door. Anyway… once the first coat was applied and dried, I hit it with a second coat. The second coat was done with a roller, so it went much quicker, and really allowed the white paint to pop.

Unfortunately, that was about as far as I got over the weekend. Wife did damage on sorting through stuff. A big pile of donations, a big pile for the disposal, and everything else repacked neatly into totes and labeled. The floors are in serious need of a good cleaning, which Wife also agreed I should do (just joking, she’d help if I asked, but she knows I can get a little OCD about that sort of thing and it’s better to just let me do my thing). I’ll get that knocked out this week so I can install shelving this weekend.

I know, I know… not much of a shop update. The sequence of events is by design. I know that once I start working on the shop itself, the shed and storage room projects would take a backseat. I promised Wife that I’d get these projects taken care of first, then it’s open season on the garage and basement shop. Painting the walls also taught me a few things, the main one being that straight white paint will be too bright for my walls in the basement shop. It’s fine for the storage room but will be too abrasive for my shop. The other thing I learned is that it will absolutely be worth the effort to mask everything off and use the sprayer in that room. Because it’s the addition, the walls are cast concrete with a smaller brick pattern, instead of cinder block. Trying to paint that room by hand would take forever, especially considering it’ll need primer before topcoat is applied.

 

[burger]

All stuff that needs to get done.

If you haven't listened to it already, Michael Troy's American Revolution Podcast is fantastic. At about 400 episodes plus a lot of bonus ones, it's a 300 hour deeeeeep dive into not just the war, but also the events leading up to it and the founding of the country. I'm currently listening to it for a second time for the 250th!

 

[Xti04]

I have some relatives who did a family tree tracing our lineage back to the swamp fox, but when my grandfather had done his family tree, he refused that idea and because he thought he was never wrong, only his work could be correct. So theres a chance I am a descendant, and I have the correct last name, but who knows?

 

[bdbecker]

All stuff that needs to get done.

If you haven't listened to it already, Michael Troy's American Revolution Podcast is fantastic. At about 400 episodes plus a lot of bonus ones, it's a 300 hour deeeeeep dive into not just the war, but also the events leading up to it and the founding of the country. I'm currently listening to it for a second time for the 250th!

300 hours! That makes a Dan Carlin series sound like a TikTok video.

I'll check it out, but I'm not going to promise I'll get through it. I struggle staying engaged if things get too deep into the weeds on details. I tend to prefer the broad storylines and human side of historical events.

 

[bdbecker]

I have some relatives who did a family tree tracing our lineage back to the swamp fox, but when my grandfather had done his family tree, he refused that idea and because he thought he was never wrong, only his work could be correct. So theres a chance I am a descendant, and I have the correct last name, but who knows?

That's pretty cool... while Francis Marion didn't have kids, his siblings did, so it's very possible there is a connection.

My only ties to the American Revolution come in the form of an ancestor who was a member of a Hessian auxiliary force who decided to not go back home after the war. That's the story according to my Grandpa (I still need to figure out who ended up with that genealogy book after he passed). Mom's side didn't show up until the mid-19th century as settlers. There are a few interesting stories about skirmishes with the Native Americans during that time.

 

[bdbecker]

After posting that yesterday, and paired with a couple of hours to kill while Sis was at gymnastics practice (and staying up a little too late last night), dug into my family's genealogy and found some pretty cool stuff. As it turns out, I do have a Hessian ancestor, but he did not fight during the revolutionary war. He immigrated to the US in 1856. The war connection is probably just an misunderstanding as information was passed through the generations over the years. Kind of cool how much you can find out in a few hours of digging around the internet. I now know that...

John -> John Henry -> Harold -> Daryl -> Dad -> Me

Having two guys named John living in the same town threw me for a loop for awhile during the research, but I eventually figured out the connection. I don't know how deep I want to get into this though... the next step is trying to figure out who John's parents were when he was in Germany. There is not much information (that is free at least) beyond that point. Someone has sorted out the lineage for John Henry's wife all the way back to the 1600's in Germany, which is pretty cool.

Kind of neat to actually know the whole story now. I can see where this is a bit of a rabbit hole though, so I need to be careful. An Uncle on my Mom's side got bit by the genealogy bug hard and has traced everyone back to Europe, and even hired local researchers to help find information. My Aunt is a bit over it at this point... every weekend seems to be centered around going to some small town and walking around a graveyard looking for a second cousin twice removed gravestone.

 

[gearhead1960]

After posting that yesterday, and paired with a couple of hours to kill while Sis was at gymnastics practice (and staying up a little too late last night), dug into my family's genealogy and found some pretty cool stuff. As it turns out, I do have a Hessian ancestor, but he did not fight during the revolutionary war. He immigrated to the US in 1856. The war connection is probably just an misunderstanding as information was passed through the generations over the years. Kind of cool how much you can find out in a few hours of digging around the internet. I now know that...

John -> John Henry -> Harold -> Daryl -> Dad -> Me

Having two guys named John living in the same town threw me for a loop for awhile during the research, but I eventually figured out the connection. I don't know how deep I want to get into this though... the next step is trying to figure out who John's parents were when he was in Germany. There is not much information (that is free at least) beyond that point. Someone has sorted out the lineage for John Henry's wife all the way back to the 1600's in Germany, which is pretty cool.

Kind of neat to actually know the whole story now. I can see where this is a bit of a rabbit hole though, so I need to be careful. An Uncle on my Mom's side got bit by the genealogy bug hard and has traced everyone back to Europe, and even hired local researchers to help find information. My Aunt is a bit over it at this point... every weekend seems to be centered around going to some small town and walking around a graveyard looking for a second cousin twice removed gravestone.

Genealogy is definitely a rabbit hole....I've traced many a branch and have found interesting folks and a few famous ones on my tree....

 

[madison069]

Yea, I learned on one tree branch that the family had a serial killer in the family and so they changed their last name moving forward. So there’s that to worry about when searching the family history.

 

[bdbecker]

I’m hitting a dead end on trying to track down who John’s parents were and if he had any siblings. I know for sure he lived in Hesse, Germany because it is referenced on several census documents, but finding an exact town/village has been tricky. I would like to figure out that bit so I can find his baptism record, which might shed some light on who his parents were. I’m trying to figure out the generational mystery of why he wouldn’t talk about his life prior to coming to America. Even on his death bed when asked if there was anyone back in Germany they should inform of his passing, supposedly he just said “No”. Under the parents’ section on his death certificate, it’s listed as “Unknown”. His son Daniel (who signed the death certificate) didn’t even know who his grandparents were when the form was filled out. I do have one potential lead that might explain things - he might have been born out of wedlock. I’ve got a baptism record that is really close to when he was born (within a few days), but I need some further proof to confirm. I’ve had to force myself to quit working on it by a certain time at night because it’s easy to start pulling on a thread and end up staying up later than I should. I imagine this is how people who are into video games feel… just one more level, and the next thing you know, it’s an hour past bedtime.

-----

I made good progress on the storage room over the weekend, but I’m still not quite finished. Saturday morning’s dump run ended up taking way longer than anticipated. Note to self: Avoid the dump on the Saturday after a bunch of people had flooded basements the week prior. I waited in line for nearly 45 minutes just to get to the weigh scale. It didn’t hit me as to why there were so many people there until I was leaving and I saw a bunch of vehicles hauling water stained carpet.

On my way home from the dump, I picked up the racking components I needed from Menards. The product I’m using is Menard’s house brand Performax rack, which is just re-branded Edsal Muscle Rack. I looked at the displays at Home Depot (Husky brand) and Lowes. It’s all the same stuff across the three stores, further confirmed by the product images on the Menards and Edsal websites.

Pardon Our Interruption

MuscleRack™ Heavy Duty Welded Steel Storage Racks

Product Overview Features: Industrial grade welded steel frames and beams Easy to assemble in just minutes Shelves can be easily adjusted in 1-1/2” increments to provide more flexibility to accommodate a variety of different size items Black coated wire decking provides visibility, airflow and...

edsal.com

Menards sells the components individually, which after running the math, turned out to be better value than buying kits for the configuration I’m setting up. Assembly is simple, albeit tedious, at least when it came to getting all the hardware out of the little bags that come with the components. It took me a good 45 minutes to cut zip ties, open bags, and sort out nuts and screws for the shelf support brackets. I tried to get Smasher to help me, but he took one look at what I was doing and decided it was less entertaining than playing with his action figures. I gotta work on my Tom Sawyer style sales pitch when it comes to these sorts of things. After I got everything setup, I made a second trip to Menards and got the plywood needed for the shelves. Wife specifically asked for solid shelves instead of the wire decking. After running the math on the precut pieces of MDF that they sell for use with the rack system, I spent half as much and got a pile of ½” plywood instead. I ran out of time to cut the shelves, but can pick away on it throughout the week.

Good progress made, just not as quickly as I would have hoped. When we first bought this house, my Uncle said ‘there are no small projects with this house’. Every time I’m working on something like this, his words echo through my mind. Even something as simple as setting up some shelves in the storage room turns into a 2+ weekend project.

 

[gearhead1960]

I’m hitting a dead end on trying to track down who John’s parents were and if he had any siblings. I know for sure he lived in Hesse, Germany because it is referenced on several census documents, but finding an exact town/village has been tricky. I would like to figure out that bit so I can find his baptism record, which might shed some light on who his parents were. I’m trying to figure out the generational mystery of why he wouldn’t talk about his life prior to coming to America. Even on his death bed when asked if there was anyone back in Germany they should inform of his passing, supposedly he just said “No”. Under the parents’ section on his death certificate, it’s listed as “Unknown”. His son Daniel (who signed the death certificate) didn’t even know who his grandparents were when the form was filled out. I do have one potential lead that might explain things - he might have been born out of wedlock. I’ve got a baptism record that is really close to when he was born (within a few days), but I need some further proof to confirm. I’ve had to force myself to quit working on it by a certain time at night because it’s easy to start pulling on a thread and end up staying up later than I should. I imagine this is how people who are into video games feel… just one more level, and the next thing you know, it’s an hour past bedtime.

I typically use multiple sources. Sometimes Ancestry might have something, but Familysearch or MyHeritage will have something different. I also try to look at other family trees if they have some commonality. Not always perfect, but a starting point, and sometimes a backdoor way to make a connection or glean a clue. I've learned to check their sources or backup before taking their info as gospel.