Gye Greene's Thoughts: Fire pit cover

I'm on vacation -- or technically, this is the weekend that leads up to my week of vacation.

I've decided to work on a bunch of small- and medium-sized projects, just to get things done -- rather than embark on a huge project, not finish it by the end of the week, and get all disappointed.

For some reason -- possibly because it reminds me of family get-togethers during the summer at my paternal grandparents' house -- I like occasionally building a small fire in the back yard. I build it in a little terracotta fire pit (see photo above).

However, sometimes it's raining, and it puts out the fire. Sad.

So, I decided to use an old rusty barrel (it was already on the property when we inherited it; presumably one of the "treasures" collected by The Lady's granddad) into a simple shelter. It was already squished: I didn't do it.

Below is a photo of the project partway through: I had used a framing square and a grease pencil to draw a guide line -- then had at it with an angle grinder.

Once it was cut all the way through, it was kind of a "C" shape -- so I stood in the middle and used my (gloved!) hands to bend it into more of a "U"-shape. Unfortunately, I was wearing shorts (as usual, when I'm working outdoors), and accidentally backed into the rusty, jagged edge. Whoops.

I leaked a little bit.

Sometimes I'd just keep on working after cutting myself -- but this time I was sensible, and went inside and washed it out, and bandaged it. But before putting the bandage on (not shown), I used my electric clippers to shave off my leg hair all the way around -- so that the bandage would stick better.

And, here's a photo of the results, which I shot tonight: a fire, under the shelter. Proof of a completed mini-project.

By the way, I don't purchase firewood. Some of what I burn is small scraps from various woodworking projects. And I also collect fallen branches from the trees in our yard, and burn those.

(9/19/16) Addendum: Here's what it looks like in daylight.