(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-10-18 Saturday
67 degrees. Was predicted to be in the 50s but things changed. The showers after one never showed up. 83 afternoon. Light breeze. Some showers in the late afternoon from a front passing through. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
After breakfast, we went to "granny's attic" which is sort of a collector's rummage sale. there was a lot of jewelry, quite a few cook books, some dolls. there was a meat grinder but while I eyed it, I walked away without even getting a price. I told them about how I already have two, and I used to get a Boston Butt Roast, slice off steaks and then use the meat around the bone to make ground meat. The lady got a kick out of that. The second time around the place, it was gone.
My friend of mine I got to know through yard sales was there. she had mostly jewelry but a few other things. At a different table, I glanced through THE CHILDREN’S COOK BOOK. I was disappointed that there wasn't any children used in any of the recipes......
I walked the place three times before we left. My legs knew we did a lot of walking. it is so much easier to walk with a shopping cart.
We stopped at a multi family yard sale. It was at the house of an old man who has done many yard sales over the years. I think he is in his 90s. It was good to see him. I got a folding cloth covered box. I have several of these, but have no idea where they are right now.
After we got back, I headed out on my own. I stopped at one yard sale, then took my truck to be serviced.
I played a few games on my tablet, then started on the scarf I have had in process for a while. I finished the last row of red&black, then saw that the black&white needed to be balled. I balled up both of them using my method to allow them to pull out the center, then got half way through the B&W before I ran out of time. This is the last row, then I need to clean up the ends. They worked faster on the truck than I expected, and also I beat two levels in candy crush so that took me longer. My truck is good for another 5 k before service again.
The neighbor’s remodeling is picking up steam. Contractors were digging a trench in the back yard for the electrical plumbing. It is sand so it is easy to dig. The problem is both him and his partner are in bad shape due to heavy schedules they have had to work during the week...
I love hard work. Bone bending, muscle pulling hard work. I can sit and watch it all day.
I sat and watched them and sometimes talked to them while I was carving. The first rocking horse/laying dog might not be recoverable. I had popped a leg off and it is not gluing right. I should take the time and dig out a couple clamps.
I started another one and it is coming along nicely. At this point, this one almost looks more like a Saint Bernard than the hound I had planned. That is not too bad for a rough carving.
The guy had to cut a few roots from the Mango tree. I need to go out and grab them and hang onto them. At the moment, they are very easy to carve. A couple slices goes right through the wood. Unlike branches and stems, roots don’t require strength. They are just to draw nutrients from one place to another.
I have no idea what they will be like when they dry. The last root I had was soft and mainly fibers when it had dried.
I intend to carve some elves in the wood.
I will see what I will do tomorrow
Year 18, Week 08, Day Two (week 948)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-11-18 Sunday
66 morning, 79 in the afternoon. Cloudy with some expected showers coming tomorrow. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
The contractor was here again and because it is supposed to rain really hard tomorrow, he needed to get the pipe in and covered or it would float up, messing things up.
His partner was not able to come because he was hurting too much. I had little important to do so I helped him with some things. Holding the pipe on the end to keep it moving as he pushed a fitting on, handing him stuff while he was in the trench, and just talking to him. He was sore and wore out when he started burying the pipe. He said he will likely come and fill in the trench some more in a day or so..
I am not in great shape either. I can walk all the isles of large grocery stores if walking behind a cart, but it is hard work walking around the house to get to the back. The thing I do best at this moment, is to sit. I am an expert at that.
While watching him, I grabbed the mango roots and decided to carve on them. Green as they are, these are too soft to get details in. I roughed out three figures and will let them dry before I work on them more.
I love how I have not forgotten anything about carving. I still see the figures inside the wood and can release the excess wood to show what was hiding in there.
There are two things that one has to have to carve. One is a mind’s eye picture of what the figure is supposed to be with an idea of what wood has to be removed to get to it, and then the skill of placing and moving the knife to make the cuts that have to be done. I have not lost either of those.
I have done light carving so far so I have not developed blisters or sore spots on my hands. I don't have the callouses I once had. There have been many times where I did a lot of carving, then stopped for one reason or another, then when I pick up the knives again, I have to develop the callouses again. The mango roots were like carving on a very hard vegetable. The knife went through the root nicely. I once had some strangler fig root and it was light fibrous when it was dry. Will be interesting to see how these dry. They are on the window sill in my bedroom.
I will see what I do next week.
1171
pieces of mango root. It had some white sap came from portions of the bark while it was really fresh. .
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