(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-02-13 Monday
Actual weather report unremembered and never checked as I never left the house. (written later in the week.) This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Sunrise Department of Tourism.
ABOUT THE WEATHER - Theorizing
While looking at the weather radar today, something dawned on me. The nature of South Florida, is that sand and dust is carried across the Atlantic and it settles on us. In Palm Beach County, they have high sand dunes along the coast and they are created from African Windblown sand.
There is a chain of islands off the coast of Florida known as the BAHAMAS. They catch a lot of the windblown sand from Africa so that Broward County and Miami Dade County don't develop the high sand dunes. The beaches themselves are built from sands that work their way down the coast from up north.
When there are not storms or fronts, we get weather that develops from the prevailing winds from the north-west, and winds coming off the ocean.
I had noticed over the years while watching the weather radar that Palm Beach County tends to get heavier rains, and they tend to last longer than farther south. The idea that came to me was that the Bahamas might be mellowing some of the natural off shore winds. http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/caribb/bs.htm The way it looks on the map, Mom's house is about in line with some horizontal islands at the top of the chain, which might help in it being the driest part of the county.
Grand Bahama and Little Aboco, along with Great Aboco provide a line aiming at Pompan.
LABOR DAY MONDAY AND ABOUT FOOD
Last week, one of the local stores had the Boston Pork Butt Roasts at almost a quarter off the cost that the big chain stores carry it. It was a little over ten percent less than this store normally carries it. This was half the cost of the cheapest beef steaks. I don't buy beef because of the cost. Over the weekend, I ended up with eight of the bone-in medium sized roasts.
On Sunday evening, I sliced steaks off each roast first, until I reached the bone which in most cases is small. Most of my freezer is filled with pork steaks. I have a powered meat slicer but found that the Chef's knife is easier to set up, works better, and is much easier to clean up.
Monday was Labor day which I had off from work, I took a fillet knife and removed the meat from the bones. The bones are now in the freezer and will later be put in the CROCK POT and made into soup stock.
Now my plan was to make sausage. I love sausage and the idea of making my own tugged at my brain. I don't have a way to put them into casings so they were going to be sausage patties.
I took out the meat grinder attachment that fit my SUNBEAM mixer and set it up. I then started feeding the meat into it. Meat showed up at the end and nothing happened. It just stopped feeding. I was going to check the instructions to see what was wrong, but then changed my mind. I disassembled the grinding unit so it could be washed. I will figure out later what went wrong.
On TV, I saw where they used a food processor to make ground meat. I chopped up my trimmings (including some from the steak) and ran it in batches through the food processor. When I was done, I took about three patties worth of meat and added some seasoning I thought would be right for sausage and fried them. I saw that I did not have enough seasoning, The meat was not chopped enough, and I was not impressed with my mixture.
I dug out my crank meat grinder and ran the meat through that. Being broken up made the job a whole lot easier. On TV they use the perfect cuts of meat with no connective tissue and limited amounts of fat. that stuff gave me some trouble with the food processor but was not a problem in the grinder because they were already somewhat broken down. I now had 2 one gallon baggies of ground meat to deal with. I had to re-pack my freezer to make room to just freeze the patties flat.
I made my normal burgers. I add my seasonings, oat flour as a filler, egg as a binder. I formed them into balls and stuck them into sandwich baggies and pressed them. I made these thicker than I normally do. I then stacked them in the freezer.
My freezer is full and I have no chance of making use of any kind of sales on meat or frozen veggies for a while.
BREAD
Sunday I made some more bread dough. I added more sugar to this batch. I cut that in quarters and stuck it into the freezer. I then took out some of the dough I had already had frozen. I thawed the dough, kneaded it, and let it rise. I had gone to Moms and when I came back, I kneaded it and let it rise again. I put it in the pan and let it rise over night.
Monday, I baked it and found it had developed a whole lot more flavor than it did when I cooked it after it had doubled in size. When I re-arranged my freezer, I found that I still had a few balls of this dough left. I intend to try making bread again with it and let it set between kneading to develop flavor. The worse that could happen is I end up with sourdough. Not having to rush to kneed the dough increases the ease of making bread.
I have already made the decision that I have no use for a bread machine. It is not a difficult process to make bread by hand. I did read that because bread dough is by nature sticky, one tends to add too much flour when making it by hand and it does not rise as much.
I likely will never use my electric pasta maker. I don't even buy those kinds of noodles. I make the noodles I buy most, which are flat.
Will have to see what I end up doing next weekend.
Year 14, Week 32, Day 0ne (week 679)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-07-13 Saturday
80 degrees, light breeze, pregnant clouds early morning, giving birth to the north and south of us, with a thought of it before breakfast in our area. Over us became high boulder clouds with bases reaching down to the ground to the North of us. We got a little bit more wetness in the evening.
We hit several yard sales but I did not see anything I could not live without. the early morning did not look good for yard sales but it improved as the day wore on.
I am making some penguin ornaments. I needed some blanks. I took my stick of 2x2 whitewood from HOME DEPOT and cut three twelve inch lengths from it. I still have about four feet left on the stick.
I then dragged out the lathe. The weather was questionable so if I made my carving blanks early, I could easily just sit and carve while the weather did its thing.
There are days when you should never get near a power tool. You usually don't know it until after you are using it. It does not fully dawn on you until later. You usually try to get the job done anyway. Luckily, I was not working with a rushed project or a big project.
I mounted the stick into the lathe after marking centers on the ends and marking thirds down the lengths, I took my parting tool and started cutting in at the base of the three pieces. The corners of the stick broke.
I am not exactly sure how it happened, but I do know that my parting tool got pulled into the work because I was not moving it over to make a relief cut. The base of my little finger got pinched between the tool rest and the work for a fraction of a second and it nipped a piece of skin off. It did not bleed much but it did hurt. After a very quick check, I got back to work. I cut in the tops of each base also and then changed sticks.
On the second stick, because I was not making relief cuts, I was making the relief cut on the base of one figure a little deeper and it bound. the stick bent right there, showing that the wood twisted at the cut.
I got the third stick done to the same amount. I did not remove the excess wood where the figure did not stick out but would take the extra cuts with the knife to do that.
I went to the band-saw and sliced the blanks off the stick. On one, I cut at the wrong point. One blank has two bases attached, while another has no base.
I put everything back so I would not have to give the weather another thought.
It was not a good day with the machines. It was only later that it dawned on me how bad I was doing. I am actually quite surprised that I did not get hurt worse.
I settled down with my carving kit, stropped my knife so it had a good edge. I took a blank I made last week and started carving on that. I had removed the wood from where nothing was sticking out. the problem with this is that you cannot change your mind, shifting things up or down. That penguin went fast. I then started on my second penguin with the new blank. It was more cutting but that was really not a problem.
One problem with Whitewood as opposed to Basswood, is that Whitewood is a little more brittle. It will splinter. The favorite thing for it to splinter on is noses and beaks. One then has to cut a little deeper to bring them out enough. I lopped off the beak while cutting wood from beneath it so I had to cut in. One would not notice that I made that mistake. I doubt I could tell you which one I made the mistake on.
I was finished on the third penguin except for the legs, which all three need more work. Three carvings was a good result for the day.
My body and I have conversations. My wrist was explaining to me that if I even gave a thought about carving a fourth penguin, or finishing up the three I made, it would make me regret it for the rest of my life. I know it was exaggerating but I took the advice and cleaned up. It then nagged me the rest of the day about how much it had to do. In the afternoon, I gave thought to going out and carving a little more and my wrist reminding me about the warning. The nick in the skin on my hand screamed at me each time I bumped it. It not bad, but it does hurt. My legs only complained at me when I got up after sitting too long.
tomorrow, I hope to carve again. I should finish carving the three I made today, and then paint them. When painted, there is a satisfaction that it is complete, no question as to what it is. As to any other woodworking or projects I might do, I will have to see. It is not like I have no ideas for work to do.
I will see what end up doing tomorrow.
Finished penguins. Well, not finished, but close. There is some carving to do on all of them.
LABOR DAY MONDAY AND ABOUT FOOD
Last week, one of the local stores had the Boston Pork Butt Roasts at almost a quarter off the cost that the big chain stores carry it. It was a little over ten percent less than this store normally carries it. This was half the cost of the cheapest beef steaks. I don't buy beef because of the cost. Over the weekend, I ended up with eight of the bone-in medium sized roasts.
On Sunday evening, I sliced steaks off each roast first, until I reached the bone which in most cases is small. Most of my freezer is filled with pork steaks. I have a powered meat slicer but found that the Chef's knife is easier to set up, works better, and is much easier to clean up.
Monday was Labor day which I had off from work, I took a fillet knife and removed the meat from the bones. The bones are now in the freezer and will later be put in the CROCK POT and made into soup stock.
Now my plan was to make sausage. I love sausage and the idea of making my own tugged at my brain. I don't have a way to put them into casings so they were going to be sausage patties.
I took out the meat grinder attachment that fit my SUNBEAM mixer and set it up. I then started feeding the meat into it. Meat showed up at the end and nothing happened. It just stopped feeding. I was going to check the instructions to see what was wrong, but then changed my mind. I disassembled the grinding unit so it could be washed. I will figure out later what went wrong.
On TV, I saw where they used a food processor to make ground meat. I chopped up my trimmings (including some from the steak) and ran it in batches through the food processor. When I was done, I took about three patties worth of meat and added some seasoning I thought would be right for sausage and fried them. I saw that I did not have enough seasoning, The meat was not chopped enough, and I was not impressed with my mixture.
I dug out my crank meat grinder and ran the meat through that. Being broken up made the job a whole lot easier. On TV they use the perfect cuts of meat with no connective tissue and limited amounts of fat. that stuff gave me some trouble with the food processor but was not a problem in the grinder because they were already somewhat broken down. I now had 2 one gallon baggies of ground meat to deal with. I had to re-pack my freezer to make room to just freeze the patties flat.
I made my normal burgers. I add my seasonings, oat flour as a filler, egg as a binder. I formed them into balls and stuck them into sandwich baggies and pressed them. I made these thicker than I normally do. I then stacked them in the freezer.
My freezer is full and I have no chance of making use of any kind of sales on meat or frozen veggies for a while.
BREAD
Sunday I made some more bread dough. I added more sugar to this batch. I cut that in quarters and stuck it into the freezer. I then took out some of the dough I had already had frozen. I thawed the dough, kneaded it, and let it rise. I had gone to Moms and when I came back, I kneaded it and let it rise again. I put it in the pan and let it rise over night.
Monday, I baked it and found it had developed a whole lot more flavor than it did when I cooked it after it had doubled in size. When I re-arranged my freezer, I found that I still had a few balls of this dough left. I intend to try making bread again with it and let it set between kneading to develop flavor. The worse that could happen is I end up with sourdough. Not having to rush to kneed the dough increases the ease of making bread.
I have already made the decision that I have no use for a bread machine. It is not a difficult process to make bread by hand. I did read that because bread dough is by nature sticky, one tends to add too much flour when making it by hand and it does not rise as much.
I likely will never use my electric pasta maker. I don't even buy those kinds of noodles. I make the noodles I buy most, which are flat.
Will have to see what I end up doing next weekend.
Year 14, Week 32, Day 0ne (week 679)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-07-13 Saturday
80 degrees, light breeze, pregnant clouds early morning, giving birth to the north and south of us, with a thought of it before breakfast in our area. Over us became high boulder clouds with bases reaching down to the ground to the North of us. We got a little bit more wetness in the evening.
We hit several yard sales but I did not see anything I could not live without. the early morning did not look good for yard sales but it improved as the day wore on.
I am making some penguin ornaments. I needed some blanks. I took my stick of 2x2 whitewood from HOME DEPOT and cut three twelve inch lengths from it. I still have about four feet left on the stick.
I then dragged out the lathe. The weather was questionable so if I made my carving blanks early, I could easily just sit and carve while the weather did its thing.
There are days when you should never get near a power tool. You usually don't know it until after you are using it. It does not fully dawn on you until later. You usually try to get the job done anyway. Luckily, I was not working with a rushed project or a big project.
I mounted the stick into the lathe after marking centers on the ends and marking thirds down the lengths, I took my parting tool and started cutting in at the base of the three pieces. The corners of the stick broke.
I am not exactly sure how it happened, but I do know that my parting tool got pulled into the work because I was not moving it over to make a relief cut. The base of my little finger got pinched between the tool rest and the work for a fraction of a second and it nipped a piece of skin off. It did not bleed much but it did hurt. After a very quick check, I got back to work. I cut in the tops of each base also and then changed sticks.
On the second stick, because I was not making relief cuts, I was making the relief cut on the base of one figure a little deeper and it bound. the stick bent right there, showing that the wood twisted at the cut.
I got the third stick done to the same amount. I did not remove the excess wood where the figure did not stick out but would take the extra cuts with the knife to do that.
I went to the band-saw and sliced the blanks off the stick. On one, I cut at the wrong point. One blank has two bases attached, while another has no base.
I put everything back so I would not have to give the weather another thought.
It was not a good day with the machines. It was only later that it dawned on me how bad I was doing. I am actually quite surprised that I did not get hurt worse.
I settled down with my carving kit, stropped my knife so it had a good edge. I took a blank I made last week and started carving on that. I had removed the wood from where nothing was sticking out. the problem with this is that you cannot change your mind, shifting things up or down. That penguin went fast. I then started on my second penguin with the new blank. It was more cutting but that was really not a problem.
One problem with Whitewood as opposed to Basswood, is that Whitewood is a little more brittle. It will splinter. The favorite thing for it to splinter on is noses and beaks. One then has to cut a little deeper to bring them out enough. I lopped off the beak while cutting wood from beneath it so I had to cut in. One would not notice that I made that mistake. I doubt I could tell you which one I made the mistake on.
I was finished on the third penguin except for the legs, which all three need more work. Three carvings was a good result for the day.
My body and I have conversations. My wrist was explaining to me that if I even gave a thought about carving a fourth penguin, or finishing up the three I made, it would make me regret it for the rest of my life. I know it was exaggerating but I took the advice and cleaned up. It then nagged me the rest of the day about how much it had to do. In the afternoon, I gave thought to going out and carving a little more and my wrist reminding me about the warning. The nick in the skin on my hand screamed at me each time I bumped it. It not bad, but it does hurt. My legs only complained at me when I got up after sitting too long.
tomorrow, I hope to carve again. I should finish carving the three I made today, and then paint them. When painted, there is a satisfaction that it is complete, no question as to what it is. As to any other woodworking or projects I might do, I will have to see. It is not like I have no ideas for work to do.
I will see what end up doing tomorrow.
Year 14, Week 32, Day Two (week 679)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-07-13 Sunday
94 degrees at noon with the sun shining. Thunder bumpers towered to the west over the Everglades and to the North over Palm Beach County. 88 degrees after the sun snuck behind the thunder bumpers. Light breeze did not help much. it started piddling around two thirty, but I was well done for the day by then. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I decided I would look into making a new pasta drying rack. I had figured out some techniques that was used in the construction.
I went to a local HOME DEPOT STORE and searched for materials that would work. I found the three quarter inch square sticks, and the rods. I then needed to look for molding that would work nicely.
I found one corner molding that had an applied series of squares that the space was wide enough for my selected dowels to fit into. I had not given thought to what it was going to cost until I paid the bill. Ouch!
At Mom's house, I dug out the tools and started the process of slicing off the square strip. I got half of it off before it broke. The second half started splitting as they had glued the strip on heavier. I lost some but got the rest of the strip off. I will have to do some work to make it work right.
I really should have mounted the molding in the band saw or table saw and sliced off the excess wood to have free access to the dental strip and could have completely removed it without any damage. But, I though it would pry off easily as part of it looked, and was, not glued on perfectly.
I was trying to avoid doing the project right. I should have set up the drill press with a fence, attached two sticks together, mark my spacing and drill down at the gap between the two sticks to get my rod holders. That still might end up being the way I will end up doing it. At the moment, though, there is junk and equipment all around the drill press so one cannot really do the right kind of work there. I do have a portable drill press using a regular drill. I might decide to take that out and see what can be done with that.
20/20 hindsight is everything. I can see I should not have tried to take the short cut.
I did not take recent pictures of the drying rack I am trying to replicate but basically it is two base pieces, two upright pieces, one from each base, two cross braces between the uprights, and two rod holders centered on the ends of each uprights.
The long noodles are draped on the dowel rods and set on top the rack to dry.
The dental molding was to hold the rods in place.
During the week, my banana hook fell to the floor and broke. It was cut from a board and it split at the top, where the grain ran the thickness rather than the length.
I drilled two holes right through the face of the break, one going through the end, and the other through the arm of the hook. I then glued the two pieces together.
They will set until next week. I will drill through the "guide holes" I have already made and glue dowels into the holes to give the broken joint strength.
I will admit that I have never been good at fixing such breaks. Since I picked this up at a yard sale real cheep, if it does not work, I won't cry. If it works, it will be a feather in my cap and still be useable.
My thought is that I could never drill holes that lined up once it was put together. By drilling through the face first and gluing it, I will, hopefully, get the holes going through lined up properly.
I really did not get a whole lot done today, but have set up for some interesting projects.
Now whether I work on the projects I started, or work on ornaments, or get involved in something else,
I will have to see what I do next weekend.
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