Year 16, Week 01, Day One (week 746)

Woodworking - 88
   
This like an on-line diary. I write my activities in my hobby of wood working, bragging about my accomplishments, crying about my failures, and mentioning what else is going on in my life.
In spite of the fact of my regular postings, anybody can post here, on any subject, at any time. Join in the fun and let us know what you are doing.    

Year 16, Week 01, Day One (week 746)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-17-15 Saturday
   
    55 degrees early morning. Roads were slick from the frost because the temperature was below the 56 degree frost temperature of the tropics. 74 degrees as a high, almost no breeze, sunny with some clouds around the horizon. This Weather Report it brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of tourism.
   
    Back in 1999, I would go to my Mom’s house each Saturday and spend some time. While there, I finished an unpublished (and now lost) novel, and was work on making buildings for my model railroad using scale sticks of wood.
    In 2000, it dawned on me that my dad was in his 80s. I realized I did not want to have one of those “I wish I had said, I wish I had done” feelings at his passing. For a couple years before, he had asked me to learn how to carve. I was not interested at that time.
    On Saturday, the 17th of January, I borrowed one of Dad’s knives, and took a small stick of wood, and started a carving. When Dad was learning to carve, he had a problem of not removing the corners of the wood so his carvings were still somewhat square. I think this was from a fear of making a mistake. He quickly got out of that but he still retained the reputation. I decided I was going to be bold and dig in deep.
    The carving I was doing was supposed to have a hat with the brim going all the way around but it kept breaking. I did a fairly good carving of a man from the waist up. He had a big nose, which was intended, and the brim of his hat is on an angle. He looks like a French Foreign Legionnaire with his hat on a slight angle. I am still proud of that carving.
    I used to keep count of my carvings but lost count when I did some real tiny carvings for a scene I was thinking of doing, which never was done. I did not know whether to count them all as one or individually.
    I saw an article about making bells, Christmas trees, and Snowmen on a lathe. Dad had a tiny Craftsman lathe but the motor had a problem. It would run for a short time and then die. After a few attempts, I realized I could make the ornaments by hand and started carving. When I had a bunch made, I decided to make a dozen of each, which also included some sleighs, I never realized how big a project that was as a beginning carver until I had most of them made.  48 little carvings!
    In October 2000, Mom got me a lathe (Chicago Electric made of sheet metal. They can still sometimes be gotten through Harbor Freight).  That got me into Wood turning also. I used it to make the bags of presents on the sleighs as my first wood turnings.
    I joke that the way dad taught me to carve was to pat me on the head and tell me to do another. Over the years, taught me how to make my own knives from files and how to keep the knives sharp.
    Since that time, I got a better lathe and developed my carving skills and created some impressive works. When my dad died at the age of 89, I kept carving and wood turning, both as I enjoy them, but also because it was a memorial to my dad.
   
    Back in 2012, I had an auto accident and have been trying to recover from the injuries. Since the accident, Iwrote these posts because I did not want people to worry about me, I wanted to tell what projects I’ve been involved in, and writing the posts are fun and uplifting for me. I did a bit of bragging of doing better than I really was. Again, I did not want people to worry about me and my condition. I also pointed out stupid things one should never do. I hoped it would help others who ran into difficulties
    Back in December, I got some discouraging news and stopped posting because I was depressed. I could not bring myself to write uplifting posts and gave up on them entirely. I am still a bit depressed, but since this weekend is the anniversary of my starting wood working, I decided I really needed to start these posts again.
    
    I have to have a knee replacement. My knee is collapsing and wear a brace to help with re-aligning  my leg. That leg does not respond as quickly as my good leg and acts like it is slightly shorter, so I have a bit of a balance problem. Also, if I am on my leg too long, either walking or standing (standing is actually harder on my leg) my leg hurts worse than it normally does.
    I have back problems from injuries from the wreck also. Bending over and picking things up is painful. Bending over slightly, for long periods of time, to do certain types of work, such as working with the big lathe, making pasta or bread, painting, model railroad, and so on, does me in also. My tail-bone was also bent from the accident and sitting is “a pain.”. Since I am always sitting in my work and other activities, I use special padding or ignore the discomfort.  I dislike taking pills of any kind, let alone pain pills, so I will ignore the constant low-level pain as long as possible. I tend to practice avoidance of activities that aggravate my leg or back.
   
    As for the period without my posts, I gifted most of the Christmas ornaments I was making.  I also finished a bunch of dish cloths and scarves using Crochet and gifted all of them. They were really appreciated. I also was able to paint my Christmas cards. It took me a whole week to paint them as I could not stand long enough to add more than one color in a session and then had to sit or lay down to recover, which made adding a second color in that evening impossible. Some people actually got their cards after Christmas because they were not done at the time to give them when I saw them before hand. I was told by some people though, that these were the best cards I had done to date. That is nice, but I know every single mistake I ever made in them, and had wanted more detail and quality in them. I did not have the time or physical ability to do more on them.
   
    After the Christmas rush of making ornaments, dish cloths, scarves, Christmas cards  and wrapping, I my depression really set in and have not done much of any wood working since I looked around at projects I could be working on and there is always something that prevents me from doing them. Most lathe projects require me to stand way to long to get to finish them up. I have not had luck with stuff left on the lathe over night, let alone all week. Most carving projects requires the use of hard wood, which my left wrist cannot handle, or getting covered in dust and I have found I am not as tolerant to getting covered in dust than I used to be. A few projects require chisel work such as ladles, and my wrist cannot handle the pounding either, and usually I have to be standing to do themand I am limited there too. I have more than enough wooden crochet hooks right now so I don’t need to make more for a while. There just isn’t a whole lot I can really care or can do right now.
   
    I have done yard sales since I last posted. I have a problem where my balance is such that I have to watch where I am placing my feet, rather than where I am going. When we arrive at a yard sale, I am uusally Mom’s passenger. She parks at the side of the road and I get out on uneven ground, mostly in grass. I have to watch carefully on where my feet are being placed, concentrating on my balance using the car to help me. I am better on the road or drive ways.
    At the yard sales, if they have stuff on tables I am all right. The problem is when they have things laid out on the ground. I don’t like stepping over things for the balance reason, and to pick something up off the ground, I have to place my cane in front of me and use my arm strength to bend over with my weight on the cane, and use my arm strength to straighten up again to keep my back from doing the hard work. It is a real bother since my arms are not really strong and I do enough of this in normal activities. These problems generally prevent me from selecting things that are laid out on the ground. It would be too embarrassing to ask them to show me something, especially if I choose not to buy it. My yard sale purchasing has been limited because of this.
   
    SATURDAY
   
    We hit a few yard sales today. We went to two church sales and a couple individual sales.
    One church yard sale was in a play yard. Tree roots above the ground, the ground uneven and covered with wood mulch, made it a bit tough. They had a lot of tables filled with stuff. I tried using the tables to help with my balance, but when one table wobbled threateningly, I decided that was not a good idea. I found I had to watch my feet and take a couple steps, then look around me at what was nearby, then look to take a couple more steps.  I forced myself to ignore the yelling of teddy bears asking me to take them home. My seven teddy bears on my computer desk had threatened me should I came home with another. They say they don’t get enough love as it is.  I saw a motor tool (like a dremmel) but I have too many as it is. I considered getting it as a gift for someone but they were not worth that price....
    Another Church yard sale was inside a small dining room. I walked around the place, and talked to some people I knew there.  There was a sewing machine there and I considered getting it. It would be like the scroll saw at Mom’s house, though. “I have other things to do.” I sat a couple times to rest while mom examined everything in the place.
    The sewing machine was eventually purchased by someone else and eliminated my thought of getting it. There were really pretty and interesting stuff there, but I am not into decorating my home for entertainment. I did see a bunch of cook books but I don’t use the ones I have and none had anything I really wanted to make. I don’t buy clothing if I can avoid it. It was nice to look at a dozen yard sale’s worth of stuff in one climate controlled place.
    Two of the individual yard sales had nothing of interest and the people didn’t have an interesting story.
    One individual yard sale I went to was really good. I found that the guy makes prosthetic limbs. I also found that one of the couple’s fathers built boats, the other did wood working and they had tools from them. He had a air filter unit for wood working on display (great for clearing saw dust and dust particles when working indoors A hose runs from it to the machine you are using and it clears the air and reduces sweeping ), a really expensive hand powered miter saw (I have several and don’t use them either)  and a power hacksaw. A power hacksaw turns the spin of a motor into a reciprocal motion, moving the hack saw back and fourth. These saws are patient and will cut for hours if one adds a little cutting oil when cutting large bars of stainless steel. Also standard hack saw blades last for a lot of projects as there is no twisting which using a hacksaw blade by hand happens to suffer.  My brother made a power hack saw and has used it often. Each time he thinks about rebuilding his, he has a project that needs it. This one was a commercially made unit. I will let my brother know about it and see if he is interested in getting it. We have the address so we can send my brother there if he wants it.
   
    After settling in at home, we went out back and petted the kitty, walked around the garden to see what plants are blossoming and what mom has done since I last saw the yard. She had extended the paving stones almost to my shed, making it easier for me to walk there. She says she has a little bit more to do to make it easier on me to get to my stuff in the shed.
    Mom had some sticks of wood for stakes to stake up plants and stuff, and she had me bandsaw points on them so she can drive them into the ground easier. That was the only woodworking I did today.
   
    I did do a little bit of crochet. I am making covers for frypan handles. I have steel and cast iron pans and they get hot after a long period of cooking. I got some crochet patterns for  Christmas and one pattern was for these covers. I look at this as a step towards making stuffed animals. I have to follow the pattern which is good for me.
   
    Besides a nap after lunch, that was the total of my day. Not great, but it was a bit fun.
   
    I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I will at least look at all the projects in process and all the wood I have and think about what they can become. If I actually do a wood working project, I will be much surprised.
   
    I will see what I do tomorrow.
   
   
Year 16, Week 01, Day Two (week 746)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-18-15 Sunday
   
    64 degrees early morning 76 in the afternoon, light breeze that moved leaves and loose bits of paper, mostly sunny with lots of cloud puffs everywhere. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I stopped at Home depot and walked around in hope that there might be some inspiration to be found there. They still have the really soft whitewood I used for carving my ornaments this year. I had examined a blank I had from last year and there is a big difference between the woods. Whitewood is not consistent in hardness. It is raised as a fast growing wood, not for qualities used in carving. The really soft wood I got this year was why I was able to do my Christmas ornaments in spite my wrist. It did not need a lot of pressure to slice through it. I do not know how long Home Depot is going to have this wood. I forced myself NOT to get another stick of it “just in case”. I instead walked away grudgingly.
    In to toy, I mean tool section, I found an interesting chisel. It is thick and it one side is angled so it can be used as a side chisel, a saw, a regular chisel, and a knife. I had a gift card in my pocket so I decided to get it as an experiment.  It might be useful for some projects I am thinking about.
   
    A couple years ago, I made some little bowls with the idea of making bird heads for them. Last month I carved a duck head and last week, I fitted and glued it to a bowl.  Today I did some final touch-ups and filled some gaps in where it met the bowl. I need to paint the head and tail and give the whole thing a good coat of varnish. The bowl is not well sanded but I had decided to go with it.
   
    After I was letting some glue dry on it, I examined my knives and then sat and read. Mom found out my brother wasn’t coming up so we went out for Chinese Buffet. Other than packing everything up, that ended my day out back. Good food is always nice.
   
    There is a turning club meeting this week. I have to see if I am in condition to go to it. If I do the paint and varnish on the duck bowl before then, I can take it with me to show off.
    I have no clue what will happen next weekend. I really do feel I need to do something, though, even if it is to embarrass a piece of wood a little bit.
   
    I will see what I do next weekend.
   
   

BOOK REVIEW: THE LAST DRAGONLORD by Joanne Bertin

Okay folks, here it is.
My first book review for the new year.
Enjoy!

From Tor, circa 1998

FROM MY LOCAL LIBRARY...
The Last Dragonlord is the opening book of a new fantasy series by Joanne Bertin.
Within its pages Linden Rathan, the title character because he is the last of his kind to appear in more than 600 years, joins a contingent of his fellow Dragonlords (very long lived humans who can change into dragons and back again) to decide who shall become the new Regent of Cassori when their Queen dies under mysterious circumstances.

There is more than just the standard political intrigue happening, for a group of pure/true humans seeks to eliminate the Dragonlords, starting with the group in Cassori.
Of course the fact that there might also finally be a new Dragonlord on the horizon, who is also a potential soul mate for Linden, further complicates matters.

In Bertin's debut novel, she wisely changed the name of the secretive group of humans from The Fellowship to The Fraternity. Unfortunately, someone along the way didn't make all the necessary changes, for there are still occurrences of the J.R.R. Tolkien inspired name used within the early pages and on the cover copy.
And despite how it is presented on the cover, Dragonlord is only one compound word.

Some might say the circumstances that keep Linden and his true love separate until the "proper" time are cliched, but you will find yourself rooting for everything to work out for both the new couple and everyone else involved.

Dragonlords/weredragons is definitely a new concept to me. When I came across this book at my local library, I decided to give it a try and found the novel an entertaining read. The characters were believable, although why some members of the Fraternity would want to master dark magic when they're proud of being true/pure humans seemed a contradiction to me.
Other than the title species and magic in general, there isn't many of the other fantasy trappings one might expect to find. Not that there's anything wrong in that per se, but your opinion might vary.

_____________________________________________

Lee Houston, Junior, one of the founders of this fine blog, is the Editor-In-Chief of The Free Choice E-zine and the writer/creator of Hugh Monn, Private Detective and Alpha the superhero.
When not busy writing, in what he laughingly calls his "spare" time, he wishes he had more spare time to finish the manuscript for ALPHA, BOOK 2: WAYWARD SON, among other projects.
He maintains a presence on G+, Facebook, and his own writer's blog. His creative work can be found in both print and e-formats at Amazon.com and other outlets.

Year 15, Week 44, Day One (week 741)

Year 15, Week 44, Day One (week 741)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-06-14 Saturday
   
    68 degrees early morning, 78 degrees late afternoon. Mostly blue sky, slightly hazy with thin plates of clouds around the horizon. A brisk breeze took away any extra heat the sun shown down onto us. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I took my ornaments to work. I sold a couple of my chimney ornaments, a couple of my socks/mittens, and have all my mice. I sold some of my older ornaments. The very first year I made ornaments, I had made some bells, trees, snowmen and sleighs. I still have a few bells and a sleigh left from that year. One of the bells finally sold. I also sold a few other older ornaments made over the years.  It was a real surprise to get any sales, let alone the ones I got.
    Even with the sales, the brief case I keep the ornaments is really full. I have had to keep the mice in a separate bag to make room.
   
    While preparing the work surfaces for painting my Christmas cards, I ran across an ornament I made last year,. I only made five of them. It was a leaping fish. It looks more like a woodpecker than a leaping fish. I had stopped making them as they were more effort than they were worth. I am now thinking that the wood the two by twos were made of makes a different. The whitewood I am using now, except for the knots, are nice and soft and love the knife. The wood I had last year was harder than normal.
   
    Because it was a beautiful day, we were doing another yard sale. I wanted some plywood to span between the bins so I could show things a bit better and off the ground. Since the bugs have been having fun with the plywood in the shed, I took down all the plywood from the roof of the shed first thing. I figured something out. The bugs don’t like plywood glue. All the feeding lines and areas are in the top surface of the plywood. Did not take note of whether the bugs were on the top or the bottom of the plywood. I think they were working on the top layer. I did see a couple places where they would transfer to the layer above for a snack. Some of the plywood was damaged as a clean and finished surface, but are all right for structural projects that the looks don’t matter.
   
    I set up my stuff for the yard sale. I, myself, had enough stuff out for a respectable yard sale on my own. The big problem is that my stuff is junk, to say the least.
    I had a battery powered dremmel that died on me while I was using it. I know the batteries were good at that time. I even swapped batteries to see if that was the problem. I sold it for a dollar. The dremmel chuck I forgot to take off of it was worth more than that. I can say, though, that it is gone. I also had a disk sander/buffer where the bearings were going bad. I sold it for half what it should have gone for. It was still useable so It went way too cheap.
    The main thing I sold were some buildings for a model railroad and a few of the commercially made leafy trees. The trees were well below what I really should have sold them for, but the price blurted out and I stayed with it.
    I also had a catering food warmer, used by catering services to keep food hot while serving large groups. I purchased it at a yard sale years ago, thinking it was a brilliant thing for our family. It quickly dawned on me that we don’t serve our food in any way where it would be of use. It was a big space taker in one of my closets. A year or two ago, I visited a yard sale where someone had all sorts of pans for this unit, but I was short on money to get them. The unit is now gone.
   
    Just about every time I went to take a break and rest, someone would show up wanting to know about something I had on display. That made it a very hard day.
    I finished the rough-carving of one of my chimney carvings, rough carved, except a few cuts a second one. That is not bad. I have more blanks to work on.
   
    I started packing up well before Mom intended to stop. It took me quite a while as I was packing things up carefully, consolidating contents of bins. When I was done, I had emptied two milk crates of stuff. That is doing well. It was not that I sold all that much, it was that everything was better packed.
   
    I understand that next weekend will be the last yard sale. I spotted some things among Mom’s stuff that I will want to get. One is a partial bin of stuffed animals. Since I am doing crochet and plan to eventually make stuffed animals, I decided I can use them to make clothing for and then gift them.
   
    I had put out the signs for the yard sale, got lunch, and picked up the signs at the end of the day. Otherwise, I stayed with the yard sale. When I picked up the signs, my body did not want to get going each time I got out of the truck in order to walk the short distance to the sign.  Mom did five times as much work as I did in order to be in the same physical shape I was in. We were both wore out.
   
    My ornaments were on two folding TV tables with a board between them. I was leaning to point one ornament out to someone. My foot caught on something and I started falling forward. I grabbed a number of things to try to stop myself and everything was moving. Somehow, I stopped my fall and remained on my feet.. Some of the ornaments went tumbling off the tables. My back did not like it and neither did I. I picked up what I thought was all the ornaments, but later after cleaning up, I found one on the ground. Nothing was damaged in the process.
   
    Mom mentioned that we might get some mulch tomorrow. No lifting for either of us. The people at the hardware store would load the truck, and I would just pull them off the truck onto the wagon to pull them to the back yard and dump them near where mom wants them.
   
    I will see what actually happens tomorrow.
   

Year 15, Week 44, Day One (week 741)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-07-14 Sunday
   
    78 degrees as a high, brisk breeze, strong enough to blow sawdust around, but not blow wood chips around. Fast moving puffs of clouds rocketed across the sky, sometimes darkening the sun for a few moments.  We saw a full moon rising last night and it looked monestrous when it was just above the trees. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I set up the work table in the back yard. One thing I did was to sort some craft supplies I had dug up. Some interesting stuff in there. Glitter, plastic glue-on snowflakes, thin pieces of fabric, ribbon, beads, just to name a little of what was in the baggies.
    It had had some bows of different kinds. A plastic fabric held in place with a gold pipe cleaner, and a gold and red plastic bows. The mice I made just did not look interesting so I decided to add the bows to the mice. I broke the hanging eye of two plastic bows. I did two mice with the red plastic bows. I used a brad to drill a hole behind the ears, and then cut a brad in half and then stick the bow in place. I was not satisfied with the results, so I trued the fabric bow. I made the holes larger and then glued the pipe cleaners into the holes. These bows look better.
    On the way home, I dumped the bag of mice out and one of the plastic bows broke. I replaced it once I got home with a fabric bow.
   
    I carved on the last chimney carving I did yesterday, finishing the rough carving of it. I started on another one and have it to where I can add the rough details on it. I have a few more blanks for the chimney carvings and will be doing more of them, though they won’t be ready for this year. I have several mice blanks but won’t work on them until I actually sell a couple mice.
   
    My brother came by early and mom fixed dinner. We did not go to get mulch. My body liked the idea of taking the day off.
   
    I needed to stop at the craft store to get some supplies. My favorite store is Jo Ann’s Cloth World not far from Mom’s house. After I left Mom’s house, I went there. That is always dangerous as I am always fighting off supplies that are demanding I take them home. They are aggressive. Today, I knew what I needed and fully intended to leave only with them.
    First I went into the yarn section. I had to search the yarn section three times to find what I was looking for. It did not help that I enjoyed looking. Wonderful colors and textures. The yarn was the lowest priority thing I needed but wanted to do it first. My plan for this next year is to start making stuffies – stuffed animals. I started it back in January but found it was not quite as easy and fast as I thought. This time I am going to make little Christmas ornaments. I decided I would work in wool, and once I have them made and stuffed, I would “felt” them. Wool, when agitated in hot water, will compress and the fibers will interlock, creating felt. This is why wool sweaters shrink so bad. The spaces between the stitches disappear. My idea is to make ornaments felt/shrink them so they will be tight and solid.
    I saw a lot of wool blend yarns but finding the pure wool was kind of tough. I ended up with five balls of wool. Only a couple were really in the colors I was looking for. I do have a few balls of wool in my stock. I have to dig to find them, though.
    My next stop was to get some paint. Most colors I have will do for this year, but white and black were colors I needed more of. I also got baby blue as it is needed for the winter scenes I am planning on doing for my Christmas cards.
    My final stop within the store was for blank card stock. I have some already, and mom gave me some but I figured I would get some fresh to make sure I had what I needed. I made sure to get the card stock and envelopes, rather than the envelopes only that they also had. I got envelopes only one year and it messed me up.
   
    On the Christmas cards, I have two possible designs in mind. I am not totally satisfied with either one and would like to see if I can come up with something better. It has to be a balance between interesting and easy to do. I am doing some 40 cards and cannot deal with something highly detailed.
    My method of painting the Christmas cards is to work in groups of twenty, which is the maximum space I have to work and I usually have to rest after that anyway. I apply the same color in the same shape on all cards. I let that dry a little, then do the next color and shapes. I keep building up the image until something finally appears as a nice picture.
    The very first time I painted cards, I was doing teddy bears. The cards looked like it was done by an elementary school student until I nearly finished the card. It was not great, but it actually looked like something.
    I used to just get a box of cards, fill them out and add them to the presents. They were mainly saying who the present was for and who it was from. There was nothing of me in the selection of the cards. I know people who will search the card isles for just the right card for each person. When you do the cards like that, there is a lot of the giver in the cards.  There are those who design their cards on the computer and then print them. That is special and original and a lot of the person in the design, but one can then print hundreds of cards if needed.  My painting the cards, even if they are “production” painted as I described above, there is a lot of me in the cards. The only way you can get them is when they are originally from me. While the cards are quite similar, there are subtle differences between them because they are hand painted and stroke mistakes happen. Some designs of cards are better than others. Some are easier to paint than others. They are, though, originals.
   
    Next weekend is already looking pretty good by the reports. That will be the second to the last weekend of yard sales for the year, I think, unless Mom has one the Saturday after Christmas, which I doubt. There are a bunch of things planned for me during this next weekend. I am leaving my plans open. I hope to work on some more ornaments but have no idea what I will be doing.
   
    I will see what happens next weekend.
   

All my ornaments during the yard sale.

Some of my work, some unfinished, at the sale.

The mittens

The socks

the chimney carvings

Scarface. He was in another fight and also has a cold.

The mice with their bows added

Some scroll saw work by my brother a few years ago. We ran across them and decided to add them to my stuff.