got real pieces done:
Fun facts page made
Homepage link added
Daily rhythm locked
Phone cleaned up
YouTube channel live
CNC video public
Pufflings post proving itself
That’s not thinking about Puffincove. That’s building Puffincove.
The light got fed today.
Now let the keeper rest.
8:30 in the morning.
Got some good sleep, finally.
Coffee soon.
Just one more day in the life called me.
WordPress tried to play mind games with me today.
It got one point.
But it doesn’t know who it’s playing against.
Puffincove Logbook
Good day at the cove.
The Share Your Newfoundland form is now working. The submission comes through, and the attachment comes through too. It still lands in spam for now, but that is mailbox training, not a broken form. Big win.
Posted on Facebook to let a few Newfoundland friends know they can now go to puffincove2025.ca and click Share Your Newfoundland.
Created a strong Puffin image for the Share Your Newfoundland post. It has the right feeling: warm harbour light, parchment sign, Puffin guiding people in, and the words:
“Puffincove is only the spark.
The memories come from you.”
Locked in that Puffin will be the first character to get a voice. Still image plus Puffin voiceover will be the first simple path for Instagram and TikTok. Seagull can come later with the noise and laughs.
Talked through how digital creators get paid. The answer for Puffincove is not chasing fame. It is building trust, stories, products, and a little Newfoundland world people can visit and take a piece of home from.
Thought about the future and my back. The path makes sense: less heavy building, more bench work, CNC, jigs, digital work, products, stories, and smarter systems.
New product lane locked in:
Saltbox Remnant Corner Set.
Built from old reclaimed clapboard, framed in clean cedar, clear coated, and made as a hinged corner windbreak/privacy screen. Modern build, old face. Old soul, new bones.
Possible size:
30 inch clapboard center
3 inch cedar frame each side
36 inch overall width
6 feet high
Two panels hinged together as a corner
Build idea:
1×2 inner frame
3 uprights
cross pieces
glue plus fasteners
keep it perfectly flat
cedar trim for a clean modern contrast
clear coat to preserve the old marks, nail holes, worn paint, weather, and memory
If there is enough good clapboard, make matching planters to go with the screens. The full set could be a one-of-a-kind heritage corner for a deck, porch, garden, or patio.
Small puffincove wood tag at the top as a maker’s mark.
Important thought:
Not everyone will like this style, and that is fine. It is for a select few. The right people will not see old boards. They will see home.
Not making cookie cutters.
No two pieces leave the cove the same.
Tomorrow:
Check how much good clapboard is there.
Sort it into:
best long boards for windbreak faces
good short boards for planter faces
weathered feature pieces
rough usable test/back pieces
scrap that is too far gone
Good day.
Plan done.
Now execute.
The old Shoal Harbour sign — a quiet welcome at the water’s edge, back when a sign didn’t need to be fancy to mean you were home.
Before Puffincove had a name, places like this already knew the feeling.
A sign by the water.
A harbour tucked under the hills.
A road in, a road out, and enough memory in the air to fill a logbook.
Shoal Harbour wasn’t trying to be anything.
It just was.
May 7 — Morning Weather Note
Beautiful morning, but rain is coming this evening or tonight. The kind of system that feels like it’s crawling up the whole eastern seaboard — Newfoundland to Mexico, laughing. Good morning to get something done before the sky changes its mind.
CNC Plan
One more X-axis motor to install, then the belt, then adjust the Z axis. That’s the CNC work for the day. A little online after that, and the day will be gone. Not wasted — used.
CNC and Birdhouse Note
If there’s time, I may cut some laths for the birdhouses, but there’s no rush on that. The CNC comes first, and the birdhouse faces need to be digital before the rest of the batch makes sense. Get the machine listening first, then let it repeat the work.
Shop Direction
Small wins lead to a smoother road for puffincove going forward. Today feels good because there’s a corner in the shed waiting for winter — a place where the work can stay set up and keep growing. The CNC can be improved over time: Y-axis rails, better Z-axis setup, maybe a bearing screw when time and money allow.
Shed Peace
Things are going smooth today. No stress wondering if this shop idea has a home, because now I know it does. The shed gives the work a place to land, and that makes the whole Puffincove road feel clearer.
My buddy said it best:
“I had a bag of shit. She had a bag of shit. Together they stunk up the house.”
Rough way to say it, but there’s truth in it.
Everybody brings something into a home — old habits, stress, hurt, pride, fear, routines, and the way they were raised.
The trick isn’t pretending the bags aren’t there.
It’s learning how to live together without letting them take over the house.
Sometimes love needs space, patience, and a good place to put the mess.
I learned something the hard way.
Be the spark, not the fire.
A spark can bring light, warmth, and direction.
But if you become the fire, everybody gets burned.
Sometimes the best thing you can say is:
“I love you all, and I’m here for all of you.”
Don’t let someone else’s storm convince you your boat isn’t moving.
You can care about people.
You can stand by them.
You can keep the light on.
But their weather is not always your direction.
Spark, not the fire.
Rain moving in. Tomorrow is Puffincove online work: fix posts, clean up Share Your Newfoundland, and get the submission form ready for photos, drone views, stories, and old Newfoundland memories.
May 6 — Morning
The day started with daylight at 5:30. Summer is showing itself now. Corner planters can wait until the 16th, but the work doesn’t stop. Pine birdhouses, photos, templates, CNC, and the website all still move the tide.
This year isn’t about forcing money. It’s about getting the flow started.
May 6 — 6:43 AM
I don’t find work. I create work.
Pine for birdhouses. Photos for the site. Contributors starting to line up. Above The Rock from the air, photographers from the shore, puffincove in the middle keeping the light on.
This year isn’t about forcing money. It’s about getting the tide moving.
The old shed is full of Dad’s years and some of mine too. Tools, Skidoo parts, motors, old snowshoes with the lacing chewed by a squirrel. It’s not all junk. Some of it is memory. Some of it is useful. Some of it is just time gone by. We won’t save everything, but we’ll save the story.
Some people look at an old shed and see junk.
I look at it and see where I came from.
Old tools. Skidoo parts. Motors from the 70s. Snowshoes with the lacing chewed off by a squirrel.
It’s a gong show, yes. But it’s also memory.
Not everything can be saved. But the story can.
Not Pretty, But Real
Things are shaping up for puffincove. Not in a showroom way. In a real way. A CNC needing a home, a family place full of old tools and memories, and enough room to start cutting. It may not be pretty yet, but it’s honest. And honest is where good things start.
The Place That Raised Me
Before the garden became crowded with tools, tarps, parts, and years, it was the place that raised me.
The little mountain seemed bigger then. The river was only five minutes away, clear enough to see the bottom, with rainbow trout up to twelve pounds and salmon running through our swimming holes.
We swam there. We fished there. A few came home with us too. lol
Looking at it now, I don’t just see a mess to clean. I see the ground that made me who I am.
Talked to Dad about the garage. He said he’s going to sell things and next week he’ll start. That’s a big step. Mid-May brings warmer weather, and maybe that’s the time to begin — not by throwing everything away, but by finding the good stuff, sorting it proper, and making room for what comes next.
Fairytale Huts Someday
Looking at the old boards and weathered clapboard, I can see where this could go. Maybe next year: little fairytale huts for grown-ups. Not fake, not plastic, not store-bought rustic. Real weathered wood, lantern glow, and the feeling of a place you’d want to disappear into for a while.
Material Language
Vinegar and steel wool, old clapboard green, touches of red, weathered boards from wherever I can find them. Puffincove will have its own look — not painted new, but worn into character. Someday people might call before throwing old wood away, and that’s when the stories start coming to me.
Claiming Old Boards
Went around the garden claiming old weathered boards. Not perfect boards — better than that. Knots, cracks, nail marks, grey grain, and damage with a story. Anybody can do straight. Puffincove starts where the wood has already lived.
First Jog Goal
Going for the heart of the CNC today. If I can get it jogging, I’ll be happy. The first real cut can wait for a rainy day. Today is just about seeing the machine wake up and move because I told it to.
Break Time
Almost noon. Wind blowing, coffee on the CNC base, wires run, old boards claimed, and the machine getting close to waking up. Some days don’t look like progress from the outside, but deep down you can feel the tide starting to move.
I Needed This
Maybe Puffincove isn’t just something I’m building. Maybe it’s something that helped rebuild me too. I needed something to wake up for again — stories, wood, ideas, memories, and a reason to keep moving forward. Turns out the light I was trying to keep on might have been my own too.
Calling It a Day
Up since 3:30. Time to eat, tidy up a little, file some photos and stories from the phone, and call it a day. The CNC is getting close, the old wood found purpose, and Puffincove feels more real tonight than it did this morning. That’s enough for one tide.
May 6 — Evening Thought
This is going to be a good year. There’s enough work to keep me busy, enough ideas to carry me forward, and enough old memories in the tools to remind me who I was before life slowed me down. Now the work is coming back, one piece at a time. — Evening Thought
May 6 — 7:15 PM
All picked up for tonight. Once the small workshop is set up in the garage, I won’t have to break out and pick up tools every time. Just a little tidy, leave the work where it belongs, and come back to it the next day.
This is what goes through my mind daily: ideas, work, jigs, products, stories, and the path of least resistance. Not the lazy way — the smart way. The way experience finds after years of building, fixing, adjusting, and keeping the job moving.
I’m so happy my sister said I can use the shed. That one thing moved the plan 100 steps forward. It gives the work a place to live — tools, jigs, wood, half-finished pieces, winter projects, and the small Puffincove systems that will grow over time.
May 6 — 6:43 AM
I don’t find work. I create work.
Pine for birdhouses. Photos for the site. Contributors starting to line up. Above The Rock from the air, photographers from the shore, puffincove in the middle keeping the light on.
This year isn’t about forcing money. It’s about getting the tide moving.
May 6 — Morning
The day started with daylight at 5:30. Summer is showing itself now. Corner planters can wait until the 16th, but the work doesn’t stop. Pine birdhouses, photos, templates, CNC, and the website all still move the tide.
This year isn’t about forcing money. It’s about getting the flow started.
May 5 — End of day
Called it at 11:30. Got the shop work moving, tested the birdhouse templates, caught a jig problem, made the daily log, and started the folder system for future Puffincove plans. The work has a place to land now. Steady as she goes.
May 5 — Birdhouse Template Day
Started the day working on the birdhouse templates.
Got the copying jig set up, but it was hard on my back getting everything in place. Good thing I had a backup jig, because the bearing fell off one of them. Better to find that out now than after ruining a template.
Got four different types of birdhouses started today. The goal is not perfection yet — just repeatable shapes that can be copied again and again.
Captured some 30-second video clips too, which will be good for the daily shop log later.
By 1pm I was on break, and by the end of the day I was tired and my back was sore, so I picked up instead of pushing too far.
A good day at the bench.
Small wins today:
Note to self:
Do a quick bearing/wiggle check before using the jig next time.
Closing thought:
Repeatable is the goal. The light stayed on.
Puffincove Logbook — May 4
Today was a big planning and building day.
We worked through the 90-degree planter fence idea. The two planters form the corner and help brace the whole piece. The render showed the layout clearly: planter, fence, corner planter, 90-degree turn, side planter, and puffincove sign.
The sign idea was locked in:
puffincove
Always — All roads lead to puffincove2025.ca
We also looked at the start of the wishing hut idea. It has a little storybook shape, with a long roof, round window, and a place for wishes. Rough sketch first, pretty later.
For the birdhouse templates, we decided the CNC only needs the face outline. The holes, fake windows, and doors can be done later by hand. The goal is not perfect. The goal is repeatable.
The digital workflow is:
black marker outline → photo → Inkscape → SVG → Easel → Mach3 → CNC
The first CNC test will be with a marker, not a router. If it can draw the same shape every time, that is the first real win.
We also talked through wiring:
Motor wires: 18/4 stranded is best.
Limit switches: 22/2 or 20/2 stranded.
Limit switches: can run as one normally-closed safety loop to start.
Emergency stop: should be its own loop.
The clean wiring flow is:
Wall power → power supply → drivers → motors
And the safety/control flow is:
Limit switches → breakout board → Mach3 sees STOP
The big rule:
Power wires do the muscle work.
Signal wires do the talking.
Keep them tidy and separated when possible.
The biggest hands-on win today was finishing enough of the Y/Z axis carriage to see the plan coming alive. Motor mounted, belt path started, frame built, and the machine is one step closer to moving.
Tomorrow’s plan is simple:
mount motors → run wires → label both ends → hand-test movement → marker test when ready
No need to chase the whole mountain.
Today the plan came out of the notebook and started turning into a real machine.
Sketches on paper.
Parts on the bench.
Motors mounted.
First marker line coming soon.
The cove is waking up.