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.