Tuesday, September 27, 2011

A new Pro Se Magazine, with a story by Your's Truly inside!!!!


https://www.createspace.com/3696148


The second Pro Se Presents magazine is out and it contains the first story of my brand new Silver Pentacle series. This one is a real departure for me because it is somewhat post apocalyptic superheroes meets time traveling demigod in a devastated earth where the fabric and time and space has been ripped apart and all sorts of interesting things are happening. Yeah, it's strange, but in an entertaining way. Plenty of action and mayhem, and some very interesting personages show up throughout the series. The most atypical fantasy thing I've ever written, and folks I've written my share of weird stuff. Go check it out because the artwork is superb, and there is another amazing story by a dynamic duo of authors in there that debuts a brand new pulp hero. Pick one up because you won't be disappointed!
~Nancy

Monday, September 26, 2011

Sept. 26, 2011 Did You Write?

Sept. 26, 2011 Did You Write?

It is that time of the week again. Post a note on what is going on in your life each and every week, and in the process, tell about what is going on in your writing. After a couple weeks of no writing mentions, shame will set in and you will work to open something, anything, just so you can say you wrote.

How much does not matter. High word counts are fun, but reversing word counts does happen when editing or rewriting a passage so it works. One can write just one word, or ten thousand words. it does not matter. the object is to get something opened and worked on each week, making writing a habit. Not all habits are bad.

What is writing is up to debate, but we are easy here. New writing is of course, writing. Editing, even if it is the work of others, or critiquing are also writing. Poetry, blogging, technical writing, writing assignments, articles, world or character creation are writing. Even BBS posts and E-mails can be writing if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. While not all of these will count in your mind, our basic rule is that if you have to ask if it is writing, it is.

On the story idea front, I have 37 story ideas in my compost pile. I am keeping up with the days of the month. I doubt I will end up with more ideas this month. I am working later this week and that will keep me from doing many extra.

As for the question of the month, Yes, I did write. I added about 3 thousand words to my story since I got a response from my first reader. I did several passes on the first fifteen pages, and things popped into mind as to how to make the story better and more believable. It has been fun to work on. I have had to make notes for changes to later scenes to make them work better also.

On the woodworking front, my major planned projects are not going anywhere. I have ran into weather and energy problems. "Mom" projects also got in the way along with a demanding cat that had not seen much of anybody for two weeks.
I had made some crochet hooks and got them home. With what I had before, I have 18 crochet hooks laying next to me. A couple months ago, I got a basket of knitting stuff. I found it had a card that allowed you to check to see the diameter, the gauge of your knitting needles and hooks. Using the card, I now have a set of six hooks each of a different gauge. I have other hooks of repeated sizes. My plan is to make a whole set of sizes later.

As to the question of the week,

I can honestly say

YES, I DID WRITE.

DID YOU WRITE?

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Week 611 woodworking

Year 11, Week 37, Day One (week 611) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-24-11 Saturday

80 degrees in the morning with almost no breeze, blue sky with high smears and feathers, low wispy puffs. 94 degrees in the afternoon, the wisps became pillows, and then became towers. Late afternoon, a anvil wall appeared over the everglades and worked its way east. I drove though torrential liquid sunshine on the way home. According to weather radar, Mom finally got some of it for her plants. Here in Florida, Liquid Sunshine becomes water when it hits the ground.
One can really see the time changes that are going on. The sky used to be daylight bright when I arrived at mom's house. Today, the sky was only slightly lighter than the cloud towers over the ocean to the east. Until Daylight savings time ends, our mornings will get darker and darker.
This weather report was brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

FRIDAY


while doing laundry, I did two rows of the crochet granny square I was doing in my truck. I took it home to check and only had one more row, so I finished that one. I then finished the granny square I was working on at home. Mom says that I likely have enough for a baby blanket. I was thinking more of an adult blanket so it would be worthy of keeping for generations. I will see how things go. I started squaring up a heart. If this works, I will do it to others, then make them into granny squares.
On Saturday, I took a granny square I made last year using triple crochet rather than the normal double crochet, and am doing a standard granny square stitch around it to add it to the blanket I am making.


The two new granny squares. the purple one was the one I worked on in the truck.


SATURDAY


After Breakfast, we visited one yard sale. I saw a toy dragon and decide to ask about it. It is part of a game which I got for a wallet shrinking fifty cents. The game is sort of like Legos and little soldiers have to defeat a dragon and take a jewel that is used to unlock the safe to get to magical weapons. I like the dragon.


The dragon with the jewel in place It was what caught my attention first.


The game set in the box



Dragon with game board

After petting and feeding the cats. I petted and fed the cats some more. Then the beast of the back yard wanted even more attention, sleeping at my feet during several periods of the day. I had a phone conversation and

I touched up the crochet hooks I made last week. the throats of the hook was not big enough. A little grinding with the dremmel and sanding with an emery board solved that. They seem to test pretty good. I have a couple dozen hooks now.
I took out the machine lathe and finished machining a piece of black walnut that will be handles for crochet hooks. I then took a small rod I had broken when I was making it into a round rod and finished rounding it and made it into a crochet hook.


Black walnut hook and rod with stock pieces to compare with.

One thing I learned last week and was able to practice this week, was on knocking down the corners of the stock. the three jawed chuck this lathe has, does not hold square pieces well. The corners and flats don't match the jaws.
My method of solving this problem is to just grab the piece the best I can in the chuck, and centering the other end as close as possible. I then knock the corners off the other end and round it a short distance up the shaft. I then turn the piece around so the jaws of the chuck is now holding the round end, and I center the square end to the best of my ability. I then work the piece round as far as the tool rest will reach.
I flip the piece around again and finish it to match the main part f the piece. If one was working to a tolerance, one might flip it a few times to get everything completely centered. My wooden crochet hooks are not critical so I don't worry about that.


Months ago, I had machined the end of a grinding bit. This was a bit designed for the drill, and I machined it so my dremmel can hold it. I was not sure if I wanted to change it so I would not use the drill with it, so I only did the end. The jaws of the Fordum and Dremmel chucks damaged the end I had machined.
Today, I mounted the grinding bit back into the metal lathe and machined the shaft about half way up so now the dremmel can get a strong hold on the bit. It only took a couple minutes.
I am not totally sure why I had problems when I did it the first time. With some tasks, other activities give experience that shows when one goes back to the difficult project. I am thinking that I was trying to do the machining without the tail stock in place and the jaws were only holding the points of the grinding spikes and that did not give much purchase. this time I was using the tail stock to hold it in place.


Re-machined shaft on grinding bit. Needs cleaning


I had a large number of projects to work on and never got to any of them other than the crochet hooks. I was sort of lazy and the phone call was longer than planned.
Tomorrow, I will have to see what my mood is, but I am half thinking about trimming the second palm tree. It might not do all of it, but if I do some, that will be a lot. I know Mom will be happy. I also want to work on the dragon. Even if I just mar the surface even a little, I want to make a little bit of headway. I will take home a couple pieces I want to carve so I can draw or even paint on them the design I want to carve onto them. It is not having the design is the biggest problem.
I should make the spout for my tea pot. The main thing is to drill the hole for the tea to come out. Then I need to turn or carve the spout so it will look right. I also need to shape the handle so it will be comfortable to hold. Once they are done, I can attach them after drilling the hole through the wall of the pot for the spout.
I have lots of wood that is begging to be worked with. I can hear their feet tapping impatiently from here.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


Year 11, Week 37, Day Two (week 611) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-25-11 Sunday

86 degrees, blue sky with a few high smears over head and some puffs on the horizon all around. The puffs moved in and grew. they were low with grey bottoms. Around noon, a really large and grey cloud appeared to the south. I decided to put the machinery away. I was almost completely packed up when some drips come down.
I left Mom's house and was out of the drips within three blocks. I then hit the highway, going around the storm at Mom's house. A couple miles down the road, I ran into a torrential liquid sunshine shower which was part of the storm at Mom's house. Several miles more and I was out of the storms entirely.
There is a tropical wave off the coast. I do not know if this weather is related to that but it could be.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.


two things I forgot to mention yesterday. I was closing up for the day and the outer door refused to close. The more I tried, the worse it got. I told mom and she came over to have a look. After trying the door a little bit, she opened it wide and a lizard fell to the ground. I had smashed a large curly tail lizard in the door which was why it was not closing.
The other thing I forgot to mention about yesterday was that I picked up my dremmel case and had forgotten to latch the lid. I had small bits all over the place. I picked some up by hand, then grabbed a couple magnets I had gotten from speakers that are wrapped with a wire to act as a handle, and I swept the area with the magnets. I got a whole bunch of the bits that way.
Today, I took the broom and swept the area up into a pile and ran the magnet through the sweepings. I got five drill or cutting bits and a few screws. The magnet really made rescuing the bits of metal easy.

When I arrived today near nine, Mom had worked out in her garden since dawn. She had pulled a whole bunch of her plants onto the patio, and repotted several of them. She was just laying down cardboard when I arrived. I helped her break down some boxes to lay them on the ground, then we took some rosemary and scattered them all over the cardboard. Finally, we took some red mulch and covered the area.
the cardboard is to keep the weeds from coming up beneath the mulch, and the rosemary is to keep the cats from digging. We are not sure if it really works, but in the cats stopped digging in the last area we added rosemary we mulched this way. I helped her put some plants back. Mom has to get more cardboard and cut some more rosemary before she can finish the job.


I carved a little bit on the dragon. Mainly marking up the surface with the grinding bit to show where I will have to cut in more. Only a few places are really deep enough to where it would take some grinding to remove signs of a mistake. Because of the way the dragon is laying, I still have to work out how the rear leg is positioned.
The dragon is leaning to one side, and the rear is up a little, like it is down on the elbows in front. it is also tipped to the side. The rear leg on the low side is the problem, working out exactly how it is positioned.

I had used a yellow sand as inlay on a Sea Grape bowl to fill some gaps. Yellow was horrible, looking like it was a mistake. I used one of the grinding bits I found on the ground today when I swept up the area and then ran the magnet through the sweepings, and routed out the yellow sand filler. I added some magenta sand into the cleaned gaps and super-glued them in place.
I had an oak cup that I had cut beads into the side. this was the mate of the one I did last week. I filled it with super glue and purple sand and then mounted it on the lathe to clean up the surfaces so the inlaid sand was flush. I mounted the sea grape bowl on the lathe and cleaned that up too.
Here is something to think about. I am using some super glue that is over a decade old.
They used to have computer shows where you could get new and used computer equipment cheep. We frequented them for years. The shows faded out as fewer and fewer people were attending them. We finally stopped going.
At one of the shows, a company was offering their super glue kits with two tubes of glue, an accelerator, a filler, and a spray nozzle. I got one and then realized I rally did not have a use for that so I stuck it into my fridge. It has been there ever since, for over a decade.
Today I used that glue and it is as good as the day it could have been purchased.

I spent some time petting the cat and I let it sleep at my feet for a while. He loves the company. I did a little crochet during that time.
A couple months ago, I got a basket of knitting stuff at a thrift shop. Last night, I counted out that I had 18 wooden crochet hooks at my desk. I remembered that within the knitting kit was a card that had holes in it to tell me what diameter my hooks were. I located the card and went through all my hooks, marking on them the hook size listed on the card. I see I have some gaps in my hook offerings. Part of that is dependant on the stock rods I am using such as three different sizes of skewers I have used as hooks.

Next week, I still have my list of projects to work on. I have the dragon, a tea pot, a couple vases. I MUST start my Christmas ornaments for this year. I have some old ones I need to make and have to make a set of four new ornaments too. I need to get them all done by the end of November and that won't be enough time. I still have to think about Christmas presents I want to make.
I have Mom's tree to trim and any other projects she might come up with. I have loads of wood that demands to be made into sawdust and something to show from what is left.

I did not take any pictures of the stuff I did as everything is in process but not far enough to really show a change.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Fortune's Pawn And The First Year With Pro Se Productions





I spent yesterday out shopping, and by the time I got back to the farm, it was pretty late in the day. No time for writing unfortunately, and I always feel guilty about that, even though authors also deserve a day off now and then. It had been a whirlwind trip out and about, and there was a lot of stuff to put away, including some thrifted items... So it was around dinnertime when I finally got online, only to be greeted by the wonderful news linked below. Made me smile and puff with pride, though I have to say I couldn't have done this without all the important folks behind the scenes. 


I have the honor not only of having the final book ppublished in the first calendar year that my company has been in business, but I also have our best selling title! With both feedback online and in person concurring, FORTUNE'S PAWN has been very well received. It's been reviewed on Amazon.com 3 times now, and is also for sale on Barnes & Noble online as well as Alibris (including a UK vendor) and an Italian bookselling site called Bol.It. All versions are in English at this time. I am sure I have missed some other sites that are listing it. 


All of our other current Pro Se NEW PULP offerings are being handled similarly, and believe me, they are well worth checking out if you love a good high action and adventure read in a book that won't give you a hernia to carry around.  We have all of the past year's magazines still available, as well as audiobooks and some E-versions for those with electronic devices. I have heard the audiobooks and they are amazing! Great stuff to listen to during a commute or when waiting somewhere, or just to sit and relax with your eyes closed.


So congratulations to all of the special folks at Pro Se Productions, for the fine work you do bringing author and reader together as well as hosting a creator's convention, the first one I've ever been invited to attend. And thank you for the opportunity to get my work out there where it can be read and enjoyed, as well as trusting me to edit one of your publications. My experience with this startup company has been very positive and I feel like part of a family. 


What a year it has been for me! 
~Nancy


The official announcement appears on: 

http://pulpmachine.blogspot.com/2011/09/pro-se-ends-great-first-year-with.html


http://allpulp.blogspot.com/2011/09/fortunes-pawn-makes-first-move-for-new.html

Monday, September 19, 2011

Did You Write? September-19-2011

Did You Write? September-19-2011

Another week to practice writing notes about your life, and in the process, mentioning how you have done in your writing. Posting is an important habit so you can shame yourself into opening your work in progress just so you can say you also wrote.

How much you write does not matter. It could be one work or ten thousand words. Word counts are fun to brag about but we all have had sessions where we rewrote a section that was not working so our final word count looked like we were wasting our time in spite of writing thousands of words.

We all know that new writing is writing. Editing is also writing, even when it is the work of others. Critiquing is also writing, just as Poetry, blogging, technical writing, articles, writing assignments, world and character creation. BBS posts and E-mails can be writing if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing.
In essence, if you have to ask if it is writing, it is.

As for me, I did write. Not as much as I hoped. I had fired my spirit of Vengeance one and two off to a friend. I finally got it back. His suggestions are very valid with only a bit of disagreement with names. He is a comic book fan and knew obscure information about names used in publications I never even knew about. I will let the publisher worry about that. I started the editing based on his suggestions, but have not had time to get back to it. It will cause some changes in the story. One thing I hate is that my best editing was not all that good.

I have 36 story ideas in my compost pile. I've been getting ideas, but not at a really fast clip. I did post tonight's story idea on Friday. That helped as I did not have the time during the weekend.


On the Question of the week,

I can honestly say,

YES, I DID WRITE.

DID YOU WRITE?

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Week 610 Woodworking

Year 11, Week 36, Day One (week 610) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-17-11 Saturday

84 degrees early morning, 90 degrees in the afternoon. Blue skies with tall puffs passing by from the ocean, a few were a little pregnant, dropping a little bit of LIQUID SUNSHINE on me as they passed by. It was never enough to get the ground wet, but if I were not sitting and petting the beast of the back yard, it would have had me rushing to get my equipment under cover.

THURSDAY
We had our turning club meeting. Our video guy was out of town so it was my job to run the camera. Other than one time where I got in front of the TV, no one complained.
The demonstration was on making natural edged mushrooms that had tops that rotated and tipped. When one is very skilled, it is a very easy turning project to do. One needs sharp tools to do it right. That, I think, Is my biggest problem.

I showed off my ribbed cup and sea grape vase both with inlay. Most of the work on display makes my stuff look primitive. Considering that I had forgotten all about the meeting until Saturday, I did not do horribly.
Someone showed how use a grinding disk on the lathe. He made some jigs to hold the disk in place when the tail stock is used to hold part of the system in place. One of the great things about this is that if you use it to sharpen your tools, you will have it at the right height and angles for turning, also. Most of us have face plates laying around unused. He mounted one part on the face plate and he drew lines on the wooden mounts and on the grinding disk to line it up true each and ever time.


FRIDAY

I moved some stuff around the house. I found the second ribbed oak cup the match to the one I showed at the turning club meeting. I could not find this one no matter where I looked. it had been sitting on the floor right next to me filled with some wooden beads I made. BLIND!!!
I finished a granny square, took pictures of all my granny squares on the bed to see how many more I will have to make, and found a paper shredder and battery powered sewing machine in my digging. They were not where I thought I put them. How did they get buried?
I broke one of my bamboo skewer crochet hooks. I was shocked that it broke at my handle rather than the hook itself.

all but two of my granny squares and parts to be expanded. The green squares shows the size I am trying to match. The left bottom square is not by me. I expanded the other non-green squares in the first two rows. The rest will be expanded later


My last finished square. Note the shades changing on the way out. I kept running out of the yarn in the small balls I was using. If planned, one can get really good effects by having each row fade from light to dark, or dark to light.


SATURDAY

Mom was still out of town. I went directly for breakfast before I went to Mom's house. I saw one yard sale and picked up a wheeled basket which I really did not need. The price was good, though and it was in good condition. There were some plastic chairs that looked interesting, but I did not want to go close to the price they were asking for, as cheap as they were.

Wheeled basket.


The beast of the back yard and Scar Face both met me outside when I got to Mom's house. I had to spend a lot of attention giving them time as they both needed love. The beast made me sit for quite a long time after Scar face left. He needed extra love.

I had the sand that I glued to the tea pot body last week, so I mounted the vase on the lathe. I used the dremmel to hollow out the inside of the mating surface on the handle, and then got the lath spinning the vase fast. It sanded the surface quite well. I could have held it there a bit longer to get it absolutely perfect, but I got it pretty good. I now have to shape the handle so it is comfortable to hold.
Since the sand still was good, I took the piece of wood I drew the spout onto and with some hollowing on the mating surface, I spun the tea pot and ground the spout wood until it mated perfectly.
I found that if I tipped the piece of wood too far on the leading side of the sandpaper, the wood would slip off and I would brush the vase with my hand. I have a few little scrapes on my finger.
The main purpose of hollowing the inside of the mating surface is so less wood has to be removed when creating the mating surface. It is essentially the outside part that has to match the tea pot, not the inside. If I had left it there, a lot of sanding would be to get rid of the wood in the middle which is the high point of the wood. When I was done on both pieces, very little of the hollowed surface remained.

The handle set on the vase after I had sanded it to shape. You can still see the sand on the vase.


Tea pot spout sanded to shape. The drawn spout is upside down but since it was only drawn on there, that does not matter. I just now have to create the spout to fit

I then had to remove the glued on sand from the tea pot. I have a scraper that has a circular bit in it. I put that to the wood and was scraping the sand away. I stopped and realized that I had sanded away some of my metal. Luckily, because it is round, I just turned the flat spot to the back of the support so it is nowhere near any wood when in use.
I took a stainless steel rod and used the sand to round the end of that. I am going to make that into a crochet hook later.
I used a roughing gouge I seldom use to remove the worst of the sand, and then used a couple other tools to finish the process. I guess I should have a "sharpening party" tomorrow to get my tools back into condition.
I did find that gluing sand onto wood does work. I might take a wooden disk I have that is supposed to be a platter, and make it into a sanding disk. The grit will not be known since I won't be sifting them to size.

I brought my metal hooks for crochet, so I made handles for them. This makes them easier to handle as they give me something more to hold onto and to twist. I drilled the holes out with whatever drill bit I had available, and then put wood filler into the holes before I stuck the hook into it. When the filler dries, it will hold the hook tightly.
I re-drilled the hole in the handle of the broken hook and glued the hook back in.
I took two of my rods I made on the lathe and glued them into handles too. I then cut the hook into them. Other than sanding, a quick test showed them to work. I will want to make more hooks later.

two metal hooks with new handles, the short hook was one I broke and repaired, the other two are new.

I looked at several projects and realized I have several projects to do. Because the cat wanted attention and I did a phone call, I never got to the dragon. Maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will dig out the little metal working lathe. I want to test out making dowels with it now that I understand the machine a bit more. I had not taken it out of the shed in months. When My brother comes, I will likely change over to a metal working project. There are many I can do including working on my cross slide project that I have not touched in many months. Likely it will be a simpler project. I would like to take some pieces of planer blades I have and make round scraping disks for my turning tools.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 11, Week 36, Day Two (week 610) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-18-11 Sunday

86 degrees early morning, 92 in the afternoon with lots of sun with mixtures of high feathers and streaks, low puffs and very short towers with grey bottoms A nice breeze had gusts that moved fine saw dust all around.

After giving the cats food and some attention, I dug out the metal working lathe. I decided I would machine some wood for crochet hooks. I normally get a lot of bounce in the middle when using the big lathe. I figured that the small lathe would spin a whole lot faster and the machine tool would avoid the bounce by just hitting the high spots until it was round. I took a two by two piece of Black Walnut and after cutting it to length, I split it into quarters. I took one quarter and mounted it into the lathe and started the process of rounding it. I kept rounding it until it was half the diameter of the original square.

I then took another square from the two by that I cut, and cut it into quarters and machined it into a rod. I did two of them. While I was machining, the cat was nowhere to be seen. He does not like the noise. I took a break and called him over. he laid down, got some periodic attention, but mostly left him alone. He dozed off for a while. I got a phone call and while on the phone the beast of the back yard, got up and looked to the sidewalk, alert. My brother appeared and the cat disappeared.


First rod for crochet hook being machined.


Machining the rods for crochet hooks. I figured out on this one to machine one end to something that was round, then turn it around and work the second end to size, then turn it around and finish the first end to size. The three jaw chuck does not hold four sided things too well.



My total collection of hooks I worked on this weekend. The dark wooded hooks were made today

A short time later, my nephew arrived. I was machining a black walnut rod to be cut up into handles and set that project to the side and started cleaning up some.

My nephew wants a beer tap handle made. I started turning it, then let him do some work, then I did the final design. We have to get a cheap beer tap so we can find out exactly how it is attached and I can then finish the piece to fit exactly.

My nephew scroll sawed for a while. We went for lunch, then came back and I started taking some rods I made and turning them into crochet hooks.
I cut the slots in, with some hand sanding. I also glued some handles on a few pieces to finish them off. Over the weekend, I ended up with 10 hooks made. I will have to give them a serious test and make adjustments to make them work perfectly. I can do that with emery boards used for fingernails for most corrections.

I showed off the many projects I have in process, explaining what I have to do with them. Those are projects I should work on next week. I never touched the dragon, never addressed the ten knot log, I have a couple vases that need work. I have tools I need to sharpen, some really need it bad. I have some detachable bits to make for some of my tools.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Monday, September 12, 2011

09-12-11, did you write?

09-12-11, did you write?

It is that time again. You report about what is going on in your life so you have an excuse to post here every single week, and then you tell about whether you wrote or not. If you have too many weeks where you post that you did not write, hopefully shame will sit in and you will open your work in progress sometime during the week, even at the last moment, so you can happily report you actually wrote this week. It only really works if you post regularly.

We all love to report word counts. for new writing it is a whole lot of fun. If you find yourself having to rewrite a section, or are editing, word counts can end up being small in spite all the work you did, or they may actually go backwards.
How much is written does not matter. One might write one word, or one might write half a novel. One might have writing goals to aim for and one may report whether you ended above or behind th goals.

As to what is writing, new writing is always writing. Editing, even if it is the work of someone else's is also writing. Critiquing is writing. Poetry, writing assignments, technical writing, blogging, world and character creation, BBS posts (preferably wordy and best if they pertain to writing) are also writing. E-mails are also writing if they pertain to writing or story and are wordy.
In essence, if you even think to ask if it is writing, we accept it to be writing.

As for me, Yes, I have been writing. I have added a few pages to all three stories I am working on, but most of what I have done is edited the first two. I am in the last stages to get the first two stories out to my first reader to see how the stories hold up.
I was on page 19 on my first story last week. I am now up to page 23. On my second story, I was on page 6, and now on page 7. On the third story, because I have done heavy editing, I did little, I was just on page 3 and now fully onto it. I did, though plot bow some of the central action is supposed to happen where the character movements are key to making it work. I even sketches to help make since of the action.

On the story idea front, I am a little ahead as I have a meeting this week that will set me back a day. I had felt the story ideas were coming very slowly, but I have 40 story ideas in my compost pile. That is not too bad. Some of the newest ones are pretty good. I will try to use up the lesser ones to get them out of the way before they sink too far. I make that mistake often, tending toward the fun ideas first.

As to the question of the day,

I can honestly say,

YES, I DID WRITE!!!!

DID YOU WRITE?

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Fortune's Pawn has been reviewed twice already!


Both reviews were quite positive. So why don't you go out to Amazon.com and see what people have to say about my book. And remember, you have choices because it is also available on Createspace as well as Barnes & Noble online. Thank you so much for supporting small, independent publishing, where we try hard to bring you the kind of stories you want to read.
~Nancy





Week 609 Wood working

Year 11, Week 35, Day One (week 609) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-10-11 Saturday

94 degrees, blue sky with feather and streaks, with some thick puffs zipping by mid morning. The puffs then congregated over the everglades and stayed there, leaving sparse feather and streaks in the sky. The breeze was light, really only moving leaves all day long.

FRIDAY

I have a bunch of plants on my porch and I also do sanding and varnishing there. It had been a while since I last cleaned the porch up so it had gotten bad.
I took everything out of the porch except two chairs and a folding table, swept and bagged the debris, then put the plants back. What a difference it made. I re-arranged the plants so if the rare angled rain comes in from the east, rather than the west it normally does, the rain can go in through the screen and water the plants.
In the process, I emptied a couple pots that the plants had died in, and pulled dead stuff from other pots. Saturday I brought fresh dirt from Mom's house with compost added and will top off the pots with the dirt



messy porch long side


Messy porch short side


Cleaned porch long side


Cleaned porch short side.



Another finished granny square, the red center was what someone else did.

SATURDAY

Mom was out of town so I went directly to the restaurant we eat at. Then I went to Mom's house and fed and petted the cats, several times.

I also fed the curly tails. the squares are twelve inches across


I have a turning club meeting this week and had nothing to show for it. I decided I had a couple projects with shrinkage cracks or worm holes in them that could be filled in. I brought some super glue and colored sand with me.
One coin cup is made of oak and I had turned beads all the way up the piece. I had started filling it and got interrupted on it. Somewhere, I cannot remember where, I have another one just like it. Anyway, I finished filling it with purple sand, super glued into place.
I turned it some to clean up the grooves between the beads before I applied finish.

Oak Change cup with inlay

A Sea grape vase had some big shrinkage cracks. I decided to use yellow sand as inlay for the cracks. Again I use super glue to glue the sand in place.
Once I filled all the cracks, I mounted the bowl on the lathe, using the chuck to open up inside the mouth to hold it in place. first used the tail stock without a point to ram the piece in place while I trimmed the sides so they were clean and smooth. I remove the tail stock and finished the bottom and then sanded the whole piece on the outside.
I turned the place around, again using the tail stock to ram the piece in place, but this time with it inside the bowl. Since I had a rim on the bottom, I was able to open the chuck on the inside of that and that held the bowl in place. I have a hook tool with a round bit in it to scrape the inside of vases. I used that to work the inside of the vase walls. Once I had them cleaned up. I took a chance and removed the tail stock and was able to work the bottom of the vase inside and blend that with the walls.
I had to fill in some gaps in the inlay and hand sand those clean. I then gave the vase a couple coats of varnish.
I now see that yellow is not the best color for inlay. It really does not do much for me. Oh well. I could route it out with my dremmel and re-do it, but I will let it stay. this sand is not the best inlay material.
I have more sanding and varnishing to do but that was enough for the day.

Sea Grape vase with yellow inlay

Between petting the cat and making phone calls, I tried to attach the strap to my crochet bag. I quickly figured out it was not going straight and was not looking right anyway, so I removed the stitches I used. I will have to start that over again later.

I need to sand and varnish both pieces I worked on, and want to get to the lid, handle and spout of the tea pot I had started. I need to work on the dragon, the five faced face vase. Of course I have loads of wood to use up.

I have the turning club meeting this Thursday and will work hard to have something ready to display then.

I will see what I do tomorrow.


Year 11, Week 35, Day Two (week 609) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-11-11 Sunday

84 degrees early morning, 94 in afternoon, light breeze, mostly blue sky with a few puffs along with high feathers and streaks. It was nearly all sunny all day long. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

ALERT ALERT!! Someone stole the beast of the back yard and left a CAT in his place. This cat wanted to be petted for long periods of time. If his personality wasn't so different, I would have thought it was the beast of the back hard. He was being sweet today, setting me up for some other time. He even came out while my brother was here and accepted some attention.

Beggar, Beast of the back yard not happy about having his picture taken.


I decided to work on my tea pot. I finalized the design of my handle, and cut it out on the band saw. I have a lot of shaping to do, but the basic design will work. I also started the design of the spout. I cut the mating surface for the tea pot, and drew on it how the hole will be run. and how the spout was to go. I never went farther on that.


Tea pot handle roughed out.

The hardest part of mating something to a bowl is to get it to fit the curves up and down and side to side. From experience, I had wanted to mount the work in place and let the spinning form shape the mating surfaces.
I could not figure out how to do that. I got the idea of taking some emery cloth and attach it to the work. I decided I needed to glue it on. I stuck a few pieces on and realized it was not going to work at all. since I had glue on the pot already, I slathered glue on it, then scraped up some of the sand in mom's yard (she is in an area where it is a white sand. the sand I got has some nutrients worked into it from years of gardening so it is not exactly white) and globed that into the glue. I put it on really thick. I then let it dry without touching it. After the glue set a while, I brushed off the loose sand and set it to the side to dry thoroughly, until next week.
I will hollow out the mating surface of the handle so mainly the edges will be rubbing on the glued-on sand. I have no idea how long it will last. If it lasts long enough, I will do the same to the mating surface of the spout.


Tea pot with sand glued on so I can match the handle to the curves of the vase.

I sanded on the bead cup and vase and added more varnish to them. I have more to do before the turning club on Thursday. They are looking pretty good.

when my brother came, we talked and he scroll sawed a piece for a clock he is making. We went out for lunch and then when we came back, he looked at some catalogs before we cleaned up and left.

I won't have any pressure to finish anything next week. I have the tea pot to work on. I have the dragon, a face vase, a vase that will have flowers carved into it, Christmas ornaments to carve, wood to make something out of, Christmas presents to make. I have a little metal lathe that is hungering to taste metal again. I can also use it on wood projects.

On Thursday, I have to run the video camera as the guy who normally runs it is out of town. It will be interesting to see if I remember the instructions I had totally forgotten about it until this weekend.

I will see what I actually do next week.

9-11-01 to 9-11-11

Every year on the September 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our country I have posted this poem somewhere online. It was written by me on September 14th, 2001. Hard to believe it has been 10 years already.
~Nancy
 






They Did Not Die In Vain

All humanity sighed
As souls left the earth
Lives taken swiftly
Unjustly so
They died not in vain
For tears and remorse
Wash clean the blood
On the crumpled edifices
Of steel and concrete
That makes civilization grand

But buildings do not define us
Within we are human
Warm and alive
Full of stories
Martyrs they became, oh yes
But so much more
Every last one
A living testament
To faith
Hope
Pride
Charity
Accomplishment
And the greatest force on earth
Love

We watched in horror
Over and over again
As the events were replayed
And reactions were given
Stunned looks
Terror in the streets
Angry oaths
Silent sobs
Open weeping
Our brethren were stoic
Or they cried and pleaded
They were dead heroes or victims
But they were all alive
Just moments before
Without any foreknowledge
Of their place in history
Etched on our minds
Engraved on our hearts
For eternity

I wept with them
The ones who died
The living left behind
The shattered hopes and dreams
Like the rubble in the streets
Made us all stop and think
That could be me!
I watched stunned
And vowed as did others
We will overcome this
We are one people
We are humane and caring
This cannot be!

Who dares challenge that right?
To live free and open lives
To send fear into our hearts
And sorrow of the most profound
For after all is said and done
Nevermore will we trust
With the heart of innocents
That we are safe and protected
In this womb of our building
In this fortress of our sovereignty

Will the swords of justice
Smite down the aggressors
And bring us peace and redress?
Or just a sense of revenge
I do not know
But I do know this
They died not in vain
Who gave their lives for freedom
And to help their fellow man
For as the tragedy struck
And lives hung in the balance
Or were snuffed out
I saw birds rise from the buildings
Sun on their wings
Angels of nature
Reminding me that there is a better place
Where there is no grief or pain
And no thoughts of war
May they live there forever
Those poor wretched souls
Till we join them again

And amid all the rubble
The twisted beams of steel and concrete
The dust and the fires
Papers fluttered to earth
A poignant reminder
We once lived and worked here
Do not forget us
We live on in your hearts
Forevermore
We did not die in vain
If the world becomes a better place
Because we once showed you
How to care about your brethren
And to value all you have
No matter how small it is
Or how rude and humble
Life is a gift


Wednesday, September 7, 2011

A Special Project

A bit of writing I did to a prompt for a fundraiser. I needed a place online to host it, and figured this was about as good as any. 
~Nancy





It’s All About Mindset


Sometimes, you know, it’s all about mindset. You see things you don’t want to see. Things you never even want to know about. You do things you shouldn’t. Eddy don’t talk about none of it. A whiny kid like me… well I didn’t have much choice. You can block it out for a while. But over time it gets harder.

I remember when the voices started. They were in the walls. They said, “Don’t be afraid, we’ll watch over you, we’ll take you away from all this. Don’t listen to her screams and cussing, she don’t know no better. Don’t sit there waiting for the beating again. Tune her out like Eddy does. It’s all in the mind…”

I didn’t believe them! I’d rock on my bed with a dirty old blanket over my face for hours, covering my ears with my hands, praying she’d stop. Hell, she never stopped! She’d just get madder and madder with every skipped day of school, ripped pair of jeans, pilfered cigarettes, roach clips and half empty bottles of booze found tucked inside Eddy’s backpack that was supposed to be filled with books and papers. She’d go after him with whatever she had in her hands, sometimes a big spoon or curtain rod, and whack him good and silly. Until she couldn’t lift her arm anymore, it ached so much from swinging stuff at Eddy. He’d be down on his knees, covered with bruises, but he never gave her the benefit of seeing him cry. Not even once. Eddy wasn’t no little whiny kid like me. He was never a little kid, Eddy. I think he was born tough.

I don’t think I ever seen Eddy flinch. He’d just take it, like he took everything, with sort of an attitude that life sucks and that’s just the way it is. You should have seen the hazing the guys at school give him every time he opened his mouth! Eddy, he’s got like a problem with stuttering, and he don’t fit in, you know? So he started acting tough and silent-like, figuring that would help. Oh, it helped some. He got in trouble, but nothing too serious, until she took us in.

Aunt Ethel bragged to everyone she could get state money for raisin’ her sister’s brats, the one that was Lorna’s and the one that was her bum of a boyfriend’s kid. Eddy didn’t like her, but with Ma strung out most of the time, on the street lookin’ for a john or a fix, it didn’t sound so bad to me. Food and a warm place to sleep, and Ethel gets money for it. What every abandoned kid wants and needs. Eddy didn’t like it there though and he gave her grief every chance he got. They went at it daily.

I seen the gun first, it was in his backpack. I went in there to cop some smokes, it’s a bad habit but you gotta have somethin’ to look forward to. I didn’t think much of it; guys I knew had guns sometimes. He wouldn’t use it. Not Eddy.

It was shiny and black and his hand was white and shaking when he pulled it out. He just wanted to scare her, waving it around and stuff. I swear that trigger was filed; it went off so damn fast! The first shot went wild. The second one went deep.

Ethel dropped like a rock, her mouth wide open. She fell forward, trying to stop him. Her hands went right to that big red hole. Her eyes didn’t look right, they kind of rolled back and she made a funny noise like you strangled a cat. She was cryin’, and that made me want to laugh, but I couldn’t because I was choking on something. I felt weak. There was a lot of blood.

Eddy pulled that trigger, honest! Not me, I was too scared. The funeral was nice but I was glad when it was over. The voices said, “Rest in peace Eddy.” Why did they tell me that?

It’s sunny and quiet here, and no one bothers me, so I guess they was right after all. It’s all about mindset.

FORTUNE'S PAWN has been reviewed!





And he liked it! I'm ten miles off the ground right now, don't expect to see my feet touch earth for the rest of the day. LOL
~Nancy


http://allpulp.blogspot.com/2011/09/reviews-from-86th-floor-barry-reese_07.html

Monday, September 5, 2011

Did you write? November Fifth, Two Thousand and Eleven.

Did you write? November Fifth, Two Thousand and Eleven.


It is that time of week, where we tell the whole world about what is going on in our lives. In the process, we also tell about what is going on in our writing. the hope is that after several weeks of not being able to tell about your writing, or not meeting goals, shame will set in and you will find a way to work on your projects more.

We all have our opinions of what is writing. Not all of us will agree on everything on this list. New writing is writing. Editing is also writing, even if it is the work of others. Critiquing is also writing. So is poetry, blogging, technical writing, articles, writing assignments, world or character creation, and even E-mails can be writing if they are wordy and pertain to writing or story. If you have to ask if it is writing, we answer yes.

As for me, I did do some writing. I edited Spirit of vengeance one and two. I printed both of them up and read them to my brother and saw all sorts of errors to correct, and he gave some good ideas for the story. One problem I have is that all the women's names are similar sounding. That will be an easy correction. My big problem is that all my sentences are about the same length. I will have to do some major editing to mix that up so it won't be so boring to listen to. He said the story, and action are good.
In my editing, I added 461 words to One, 79 words to Two, and I added 719 fresh words to Three. I worked out some plot issues on it and still have some to technical out.

On the story idea front, I posted 32 story ideas for a 31 day month. that ended up on page 33 at 19599 words of pure drivel.

I have started carving a dragon and it is not the dragon I saw inside the wood when I started. He has his mouth open. I never planned that. I am now trying to work out whether one leg crosses beneath him or sticks out behind him. He won't tell me until I get to it. My mom looked at it and saw there was a Chinese dragon inside the wood, while I am looking at a European dragon. Looking into wood is a lot of fun and a real challenge.
I am nearing the completion of my crochet bag. I finished the handle and now have to attach it. I learned that someone close is going to have a baby. I have been enlarging granny squares that someone else made. I was doing it more to use up yarn stock more than anything. Now I have a purpose for making them. this will be a gift. I just need to find out whether I will be an Aunt or an Uncle so I can choose the right color to bind the squares together with.

As to the question of the week,

I can honestly say,

YES I DID WRITE

DID YOU WRITE?


Week 608 Wood Working

Year 11, Week 34, Day One (week 608) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-03-11 Saturday

85 degrees. Blue sky half filled with a wide variety of puffs. Liquid sunshine started dripping onto the ground. Light the first couple times. After a half hour pause, it really came down and stayed. The weather radar, earlier, showed a tiny line of Liquid Sunshine cells appearing over our area and fading out before they got far. later, the sky opened up and the radar showed a cell with red and yellow just sitting over us. I decided the downpour was enough to not bother working outside. I got wet just getting into the truck to head home. Two off ramps on the highway and I was on dry pavement and when I got home, there was a cell just west of me that was nice and black, but I only saw one or two drops on the windshield. This was one of those days where it would say 100% rain, but many areas of the county would get nothing for most of the day.
This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.


FRIDAY

I started the morning by testing all the yarns I have. I wanted to know what was acrylic and what was cotton or wool. I cut pieces of yarn I knew the origin, and held them over a flame. Cotton's flame went out almost immediately when taken out of the fire. Wool did burn a little. Acrylic shriveled when held above the fire or when it caught fire, the ash end would stick to the candle jar for a long moment and would stretch. It acted just like plastic.
I spent a couple hours clipping pieces of yarn and holding them over the fire, then tossing the ball into the proper container or pile.
I have them mostly sorted, but a few acrylic may have ended up in my cotton pile later.
In the afternoon, I finished my second granny square where I started with a smaller square someone made. I then took a granny square that was one row too small, located the yarn used and brought it to the size I needed. I then started my fourth square to enlarge.
I am using wooden hooks I made and have made adjustments as I worked. A bit of emery board, such as one would use on finger nails to touch up a surface, dull a sharp edge, shape it slightly. As I use them, the hooks are getting better. Also, by being used, they are getting polished by the yarn making them work better too.

Finished modified granny squares. The dark green is what I am matching for size. The gray had one more row added to it. The other two started with the center squares made by others.

I left my place early and needed to kill some time. I went to the local HARBOR FREIGHT store. This was a drool stop. I was looking at each item, picturing how I can make use of it. I ended up walking out without spending a dime, but I do have a wish list now. I learned long ago that if you want to avoid impulse buying, go to the TOY store first and just look around. Look at all the neat stuff you had not seen before or not known they were available. Don't take notes. Then go back a few days or a week later. You will have forgotten most of what was exciting and when you see the stuff again, you won't have the excitement of newness. You will get only the things you can actually use because the impulse was reduced. It does not matter if this is a tool store, a clothing shop, a grocery store or kitchen store. whatever really excites you.

I went to a Walmart store and drooled all over the crafts section. I saw several things I could use. they had some yarn colors that would be nice to have. I did get some off brand coffee at half the price of name brand coffee. Unless the coffee is horrible, I won't tell the difference.

I still had to kill some time so I went to a shell shop and picked up a lobster made of cut and carved coconut shell glued together for my mom. It had a good design to it and was well done. I handed it to Mom and she was excited about it. It was exactly what she wanted. It is for a joke for a friend. I would not complain if one ended up in my collection.

I finally got to the antique shop and dropped off a few more of my pieces. I could have sworn I had made four face vases but I only made three. My latest face vase was so much better than the other two. My first one, I had turned the entire vase first, then surface carved the faces on it. Not great. My second one I planned it from the start to be a face vase. It is good, but I could see some distortion in one face. My newest face vase is really good. I priced it accordingly.


The left side of my display My newest face vase is in the picture next to the previous two


Right side of my display


Center of my display

SATURDAY

We went yard sailing. At one yard sale, I picked up a little cast iron pan which is 4 inches across at the rim, 3 inches on the bottom. Raised on the inside bottom is the name GREEN'S MiddlesBoro, Ky. This is decorative but I could have used it in cooking earlier this week where I wanted to heat some butter extract in oil. I had to use a pan that was really too big. I will have to fully clean this pan and then season it before It can be used. Even if it were not to be used, it is cute.

Mine pan

At a different yard sale, I picked up a zipper bag that looks like it is insulated. It is about the size for a six pack. I had a good use for that.


We almost missed a yard sale where I picked up two MAKIDA battery powered drills. they had several batteries and they all worked. I have a battery powered circular saw where one battery does not work. Tomorrow, I will test how the batteries and chargers work together.

Two drills I got. With my battery powered circular saw, I now have 7 batteries.


At the final yard sale, I picked up a woven basket with metal closures. It was decorated and had MEXICO on the top. I grabbed that as I knew I could put some of my yarn in it. This will keep my yarns separated. Some acrylic yarn may have gotten into my cotton yarn while messing with the baskets.


Six pack cooler bag, in use to hold my yarn in the truck for when I start working on adding the strap to the yarn bag.


Mexico Basket now filled with yarn.

I finally got out back and went over my purchases, taking pictures, and plugging in the chargers and then plugging in the batteries.
I settled down to pet the cat and read a magazine I had for a month and had not even looked at. the liquid sunshine started coming down off and on. I sort of decided not to dig my lathe out to work or dig out the dremmel to grind on the dragon. It was already sort of late in the day. The drizzles kept coming down just enough to prevent me from being energetic to get to work. When the serious downpour finally started, I was mentally done for the day. The heaviness of the downpour told me not to bother getting the stuff into the truck. When I finally left, I got very wet getting the things going home with me into the truck and then getting into the driver's seat.
I did not get any work done today but did read a wood working magazine and also worked a bit more on my strap for my yarn bag. I did figure out that the bag I purchased was the size I intended this yarn bag to be. It grew and stretched that much while being made. I know how to solve that but I am not starting over.

Tomorrow, I plan to work on the dragon, may finish rounding the face vase, and may put together a couple more crochet hooks. I have some playing around with batteries and tools, and have a few other projects looking at me. I have a metal working lathe that I have not touched in a couple months. I have no idea if my brother will be coming up. Him being there or me being alone effects what I work on.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


Year 11, Week 34, Day Two (week 608) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-04-11 Sunday

84 degrees in the morning, sunny, a wispy haze over the entire sky with a anvil tower south of Miami. The haze consolidated into puffs which got heavier as the day went on. Grey showery skies showed up over the Everglades. about the time I cleaned up to go home. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I started the morning with petting Scar Face and the Beast of the Back yard. Scar face has been fighting again. He has a lot of pin scabs all over the sides of his head. He seemed extra loving today. the beast was his normal self, except he was pretending to be a kitty cat. He is getting good at pretending. It is almost real.

I brought my Makita circular saw with me and tested all my batteries in it and to each other. I have five of the nine volt batteries, and two 18 volt batteries. the 18 volt drill can use every single one of my batteries, and that charger will charge all the batteries. I have a charger that will only take some of the batteries. A couple of my batteries won't fit into the small drill. Their batteries have a raised guide that fits into a slot. What they did was to increase the width of the slot on the later models so they won't fit in early equipment. The interesting thing was that a battery that had always given me a signal that it was dead, charged up on a different charger. I need to number the batteries like I did with the harbor Freight drill set.

I ground a little on the dragon Other than grinding two lines down the back to show where the edge of the back runs, I mainly worked on the head around the chin. I am getting a better picture of this dragon's position. It is tipped on its side, I figured the low side leg will be either aiming backwards or under it on some way. it has sort of a playful look. the thought crossed my mind to turn a ball to fit into the mouth. I won't do that until near the last thing.

I finished rounding the ten knot Norfolk Island Pine log I have. I marked which pair of eyes are together by drawing a line where the nose will be. I now have to figure out which is the top and bottom. I have to put a tenon on the bottom so the chuck can hold it. I will cut in where the eye are, cut un beneath where the nose is, and slope the bridge of the nose and then do some shapes for the mouth and forehead. Finally, I will at least rough hollow the piece, leaving the sides thick. Then it will be mainly grinding, removing wood on each side of the noses and forming the faces. The carving is the hard part. I would love to do female faces, but doubt I am good enough to do that.

I mounted the tea pot onto the lathe. I decided to make it as thin enough so the natural edges disappear. I will choose a piece of wood far bigger than I need and drill the center, and make a spout by mounting it in the lathe on different angles to get the sweep expected of a tea pot spout.

I did some crochet while petting the cats. I have about three more rows and I can start the finishing process on the yarn bag strap I have been making. I will fold it in half and stitch this strap together, then I will attach it to the bag.

After my brother arrived, he got out the scroll saw. He is making parts for a clock. I read a story I am writing to him while he worked. the story and action sound good, but I need to change a couple names, and my sentences are all the same. can you say rewrite?

Because of Labor day, I will be off work tomorrow. I decided to go to Mom's house tomorrow at least for a little while. I have loads of different projects to work on. I will have to see which excites me the most. I may well work on several.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.



Year 11, Week 34, Day Three (week 608) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-05-11 Monday

84 degrees early morning with a breeze that could only move leaves. The clouds were streaks, ripples and haze. Later, the streaks and ripples became puffs that strongly tended to remain on the western half of the sky. Some clouds wandered over into the eastern sky, but the eastern sky remained blue most of the day. The breezes picked up to make things a bit more comfortable.
One can tell fall is approaching. Driving to Mom's house, the sun was not yet directly in front of me, but It sure made heading into it very miserable. I never deal with it in my normal life as I am to work before dawn. There were some tiny showers after I left but they were apparently spotty.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


I started the morning petting the cats. they needed it. I then got my tools out to do some work. Mom mentioned about the palm tree needing a hair cut. I decided I was in the mood and wanted it out of my hair so I dug out the long extension cord, the ladder, and the SAWS-ALL. I removed the leaves within easy reach of the front of the tree, concentrating on the leaves laying on top the shed. Mom was happy with that, but mentioned I needed to work more on the other side and to remove the seed stalks.
In another session, I worked around the tree and really removed the stalks. It was a real number on the tree.

trimmed tree


The other tree, showing something of what the untrimmed tree looked like.


The brush pile created from the tree

The SAWS-ALL works great for this project. I did get the blade caught twice as I keep cutting from the side that the stalk is leaning towards. I get past half way and it just leans that much more and pinches the blade. Other than that, I was able to get the thin, narrow blade in between obstructions and make nice clean cuts. this is going to be my palm tree trimming tool from now on.
Mom has another tree that needs trimming. We skipped trimming it when we trimmed this first tree the last time. I don't think I will be tackling it for a while, but the mood might have me do some work over the next couple weekends.


I decided to do a little bit of turning. Since I had mounted the body of my tea pot yesterday, I decided to work on that, making the walls thinner but cutting down the outside. I have some natural edge showing on it, since I mounted the piece of wood sideways with the center spinning around. the natural edge is the surface inside the bark.
I decided that the natural edge is not interesting enough to keep a lot of, so I cut down a lot of the outside, and then sanded it. I have more to do on the outside, but it is better.
I had made a lid out of pine before, but don't like it. this tea pot is made of Florida Mahogany. I am going to make the lid, the handle and the spout out of Honduras Mahogany - commercial Mahogany. it will be a contrast in wood.

I discussed with mom about the dragon. I had a question about one leg position. What I found out was that we have a different image of what the dragon is going to look like. She was thinking a Chinese dragon. They are snaky with small legs widely spread out down the body. I am thinking more European dragon where the body is more robust.

Mom's projects tend to take the energy out of me for my work. Today was that way. I spent quite a bit of time finishing the strap of my yarn bag. I folded it over and stitched the edge. My next step is to stitch it to the bag itself, a project I don't look forward to. It is not the fun part of the project. Until I get some time to work on that, I will work on a granny square as it is easy to do between traffic lights. Someone is going to have a new baby so I decided that the squares I have been making will be part of a gift I will be giving for the baby.



the inside of the handle, this is the half I did first.

'
The outside of the handle, I did this after I knew the length.


Showing both sides of the handle

For Next week, I have a number of projects to work on. I am not sure what they will be. I have the tea pot, the dragon, a flower vase, lots of fresh wood that needs to be used up, lots of old wood that needs to be used up. I have Christmas ornaments from last year that I need more made, and new ones to come up with. I also have to look at gifts for this next year. Of course, the cat will need a lot of love.

I will see what happens next week.