Piles O’ Tools

Recently while visiting our older daughter and her posse I snuck down to the basement workshop while the rest were up in the dining room playing board games (have some pity on Mrs. Barn, she loves board games and dancing, two activities for which I have near-zero proclivity), spending some time assembling sub-units of the tool cabinet parquetry.  It’s an easy project I can take with me in a shoe box.

This parquetry topic will play an increasingly prominent role on the blog over the next year.

The work itself is fairly mindless, giving my attention plenty of opportunity to wander here and there.  One of the ruminations it settled on was the numerous work spaces I inhabit, and the many sets of tools these places are populated with.

Of course there is my workshop in the barn, with its plethora of tools for woodworking and metal working.

That’s the first pile o’ tools.

Even in the barn there is the subset of tools up on the fourth floor where I build Gragg chairs.  I created this space and its accoutrements after getting mighty tired of walking up and down stairs every time I needed this or that.

Thus, a second pile o’ tools.

Just down the hill from my main barn is the vintage log barn, originally a livestock housing but now a storage bin for lumber.  Attached to this barn is the lean-to where all the lawn equipment is stored.  And stored along with the equipment is the substantial collection of tools requisite for keeping things in operating order.

Third pile o’ tools.

Just across the creek from the lean-to is the cabin, and like almost every domicile it has a fairly extensive set of tools to keep everything there running smoothly, from electrical to plumbing to woodworking to who knows what else.

Fourth pile o’ tools.

Then we’ve got three vehicles, each with their necessary tool kits in case anything goes wrong while on the road.

Tool piles five, six, and seven.

Then there is the aforementioned workshop at my daughter’s house with fairly complete workshop in the basement (pile #8) and my carpentry tools and power machines in her little barn (#9).

Even though I do not have a workshop nor tool collection at my other daughter and son-in-law (he’s got an excellent inventory himself) I’ve got a couple selections of tools I take whenever we go there.

Piles 10 & 11.

Some might say I “have a tool problem,” I refute the accusation vigorously.  I do not have “a tool problem,” I have a lot of tools.

Big difference.