Humans 2, Cats 0- Completion Photos

 Good Morning All,

The combination side table-cat scratcher is finished and here it is:

It has several layers of polyurethane and a small concrete insert that I've decorated with some small stones. Here's how I did that along with the photos:

The tree trunk has a small natural gap between the trunk and an adjoining branch. I didn't want to just leave it as it would probably get full of cat hair and other crud so I decided to fill it with concrete and use some small stones that I have left over from another project to make a simple design. Here in the photo is the concrete patch I used-it costs $5 at the local home improvement store:

As the gap I'm going to fill is rather narrow I just decided to create a small simple design with the stones like the design you see here:

The concrete patch material is the consistency of soft serve ice cream which makes it very easy to use. Since the gap is narrow and I didn't want to get any concrete on the wood, I spooned about half of the container into a large zip lock bag with the intent of piping it into the gap like icing on a cake:

...there's always a back seat driver on every project...

Here you see the concrete in the bag. The corner is uncut at this point:

Here's a photo of the concrete being squeezed into the gap:

It took about 10 seconds to fill up the gap. I smoothed it over with a small, wet spoon. Then I started simply placing the stones into the concrete:

And here it is about a minute later:

Now while I was working on the project the cats decided to really hammer away at the chair so my husband got some scrap plywood and constructed a barrier all around the sides and back of the chair. Suddenly my project wasn't needed any longer:

So I brought it out to the living room and placed it between two chairs. I'll use it as a side table and the cats can use it to scratch on:

I was going to take a photo of Rhubarb sitting on the table but he looked at the table and walked off in a huff and that was that.

So the chair is protected and I got a new side table for coffee and my reading glasses. Woo Hoo!
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Now as the weather is warm and very pleasant, I was planning on re-opening the wood shop and begin my turning schedule but it's suppose to get colder and snow again-it is February still so I can't really complain. So the wood shop will be closed until probably next month. In the mean time I'll get some of the logs I have cut down into turning blocks so I'll be ready to go.

So thanks for dropping by and just a reminder to grab some coffee and drop by the wood shop. If you have a question or comment, I'm always happy to read them and respond.

Take care and see you all soon!
VW