The daunting nature of following up a manifesto

So when one writes a manifesto-esque declaration of intention, it turns out to be a little daunting to follow it up with minutia about the slow progression from intention to action.  I contemplated what to write next, as if throngs of readers were hitting refresh in my blog waiting to see my grand entrance onto the stage of master woodworkers. It turns out, no one's read these words but me (I am as shocked as the internet historian who will one-day stumble across the great Dietrich’s early writings).  For now, at least, I'm gazing at my own navel, struck dumb by my own over-stated ambitions.  So let's keep this plain.

I have begun to divide my list of projects into the quick-and-dirty; those that need to get done to fill an immediate need, and the slow-and-deliberate; those that i want to study, ponder, plan, revise, and ponder again.  No doubt, I'll tend to discuss the latter more here, out of embarrassment regarding the former as much as a surplus of material regarding the latter.  Nevertheless, here are a few of my 'just need to get done' items:

- Dog dish holder for the lab-hound mix, she's too tall and too fussy to eat off the floor.
- Fence and gate for the downhill side of our yard (the neighbors have a fence, but it's so low relative to our yard that the afore-mentioned lab-hound mix could jump it in a few spots if she were motivated to do so, rather than paralyzingly frightened of the neighbors’ pack of wild pre-teens). I’m not even sure this qualifies as woodworking, sure I’ll cut a few boards, and attach some to each other, but I’m not planning on finishing, using joinery or even drilling pilot holes for any of my fasteners.
- Steps for the dachshund to get to the raised grass area in the backyard (seeing a theme yet?).
- workbench... not ‘the workbench’ just a workbench, so I can get started on some real projects using something that holds work better than the five pound cheap, swedish-made table my brother gave me under the misnomer ‘assembly table.’ It may have served that purpose in his shop, but that doesn’t mean that beyond the walls of said shop it maintains that title.
- garage shelving - to hold all the crap we stockpile in our garage away from the space I think of as my workshop-in-waiting
- crawl space door - the old one is rotted out and decrepit. I’m lucky it didn’t trap our electrician down there when we were working on the kitchen. Then again, all he would have had to do to escape is look at it crossly and it would have crumbled under the weight of his stare.

For now, that’s it on the ‘quick and dirty’ list. We’ve got some 2x4s and a sheet plus a little bit of plywood that will probably take care of most of it. Bought some fencing materials a while back before we got lost in the land of the kitchen remodel. It’ll be ugly, sure, but now that I’m looking at it through my new I want to be a woodworker goggles, hopefully I can learn a thing or two about the materials and apply some of what I’ve been learning to make lasting quick and dirty pieces of crap.

- TDD