A Man and Two Horses

I've been pondering horses lately.  Several blogs I follow have described beautiful creatures with sleek coats and elegant necks and tails.  I'm not yearning for a horse, but I think they are wise and lovely animals.  My husband is not a horse lover.

My father-in-law was a building contractor.  When I'm off on one of my woodworking projects, I often think about him, his skills, his tools, his love of wood.  We inherited a couple of his sawhorses at one time.  We stored them outdoors (too big to take up precious space in the garage), and every year the legs got just a tiny bit shorter as the wet Northwest weather slowly rotted them away at the bottom.

Team of horses

Now those horses my hubby remembers with fondness, especially if he is having to use the cheap, fold-up, plastic models from the big-box store.  "Now if we had Dad's sawhorses, this would be. . ." he has frequently intoned.

So the other day when Things I get to do today included hankering for another wood project and thinking of making it out of eucalyptus wood, Hubby was enthusiastic about my doing a test using that wood to make a pair of sawhorses to replace the old respected and admired horses from his dad.

All saddled up

We found a plan.  I bought the wood (not cheap--legs for two horses--$95). Cut the lumber:  all angles are 10 degrees to make the legs super stable.  Assembled the parts.  Learned lessons (all the legs are cut exactly the same.)  Learned lessons (if the leg seems backwards, turn it around until it works.)  Learned lessons (measure and cut each end brace individually.)  Learned lessons. I love all that I'm learning, and I like these horses, too.