Yesterday I did something I should have tried a long time ago: I followed my own instructions.
I’ve been selling plans for the archaelogical/garden shaker sifter I built for Michelle on our online store. When I formalized the plans, I included an estimated time to build the tool. Since then, I’ve wanted to build another one and time myself, to get a more accurate idea of the amount of time it might take.
The solution was simple and elegant: choose a friend who gardens, and make a deal with his/her spouse.
A friend in town is still ramping up the gardening effort at her new house. And, as luck would have it, she has a birthday that falls early in the growing season. I told her husband that if he bought the materials, I would build a sifter to my plans’ specifications as his wife’s birthday present. Yesterday, while she was out of town (and hopefully not logging on to read this blog!) we got together and I built the sifter.
“Test driving” the new sifter over a wheelbarrow (Photo: Mark Zeiger).