Year 14, Week 40, Day One (week 686)

Year 14, Week 40, Day One (week 686)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-26-13 Saturday
   
    85 degrees, mostly sunny with loads of puffs all over the sky and a nice breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

    We hit several yard sales. One was put on by the local animal rescue. That one was WONDERFUL, except... With absolutely everything I saw that I considered taking home, I remembered I had one or more of them already at home!!!   I did see something I gave slight thought to and wished I got. there are "socks" that you slide over the handles of cast iron pans and other pots you put into the oven to cook something. I should have gotten them but did not really give it thought until I did just that for dinner.....
    At an individual yard sale, I picked up a marble rolling pin. This is something I SORT OF wanted to have but would never buy it new. I never even saw any in the stores. I had to have it and the price, two dollars, was too good to ignore. I now will put one of my wooden rolling pins in the yard sale bin I am developing. At that yard sale I also got some cookie cutters that are going to a friend, some silverware that I donated to my church in the evening, some cake decorating tips, and a few other items.
   
I had to go to a meeting and that killed my morning entirely. Mom and I then stopped at several stores to buy some shirts. One store we went to is called BIG LOTS. They have overstock, short sale and some of their own stuff. They also have food stuff. I picked up some packages of RED HILL bread mixes. I am going to give some to my niece as she wanted to try making bread. With the 10 grain bread, all you add is water and oil. the package has everything you need. There was also gluten free bread.

Other than about fifteen minutes while Mom petted and fed Momma cat, I was not outside at all except for going two and from the car and some building.
   
    I hope to do some woodworking tomorrow.
   
    I will see what I actually do.


Year 14, Week 40, Day Two (week 686)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-27-13 Sunday
   
    85 loads of high, streaks and feathers, and low puffs. It is a surprise that it was sunny all day with all the clouds around. The breeze was nice. This weather report Is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I stopped at my brother's house first thing. He is not feeling well. I dropped off the bread mixes to my niece. I got three hugs!!! I should have done that sooner!!! She has been wanting to try it for several months and this will give her an excuse to play around.

    At Mom's house, I dug out my penguin carvings and worked on them. I touched up some details and then applied paint. My first two penguins had dark red for the scarves and hats. The red is too dark next to the black of the bodies I decided orange would be better and it looks a little better, but I might add red stripes down the middle of them.
    A few of them need some knife touch ups and all need paint touch ups beside details. Paint tends to show up little flaws. I have some "feathers" of wood that I did not clean up, one beak is too broad. There are a few other things like that. I should touch up the paint on the first two penguins I made. Orange will be better than the dark red. The eyes are poor. Together, that will give me nine. That is enough, I think.
   
    I was about to leave when mom had me try on one of the shirts we bought.
    I would have no problem with my weight if I was built like a professional wrestler. I'm not.
    We went back to the store to exchange the shirts. One size larger and it fits better.
    Have I ever told you how much I detest clothing shopping?
   
   
    I hope to finish the penguins and carve a couple more leaping fish. Beyond that, I have no idea what next weekend will bring.
   
    I will see what I actually do next week.
   
   
   
       
   
   
       
   
   

Year 14, Week 39, Day 0ne (week 685)

Year 14, Week 39, Day 0ne (week 685)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-19-13 Saturday
  
    81 degrees at around ten, 90 degrees past noon, blue sky above all day long, some puffs over the everglades. I was never sure which direction they were going, but since they were not coming to us, I did not care. It did cloud up heavily over the Everglades later in the evening, blocking the sun. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
  
    We hit a couple yard sales early morning. We expected everybody to have a yard sale as it was good weather all day long.
    Later in the morning, I dashed off to go to the big box warehouse store and hit some yard sales on the way. Here in South Florida, the difference between a YARD SALE and a GARAGE SALE is almost no difference. People will use which ever they choose to write, though some who write GARAGE SALE actually have it in a garage or carport.
    I stopped at one Garage sale and it was actually in the garage. I asked how much did they want for the garage and the wife said that her husband has to come with it.
    They had a number of things that were interesting, but I ended up walking out with some tiny C clamps and a square.
    A joke: What do you do when the rising ocean tide is threatening? Use C clamps to hold it in place.....


    Momma kitty was going to have kittens. Mom's friend decided she would take momma and raise the kittens. They took her to the vet. Later we learned that the vet decided to remove the babies and clip Momma kitty so she won't have any more kittens. Waiting for them to pick up Momma kitty and later in the day, drop her back off, took some time out of our activities. Momma kitty did not like being put in a cage. She had never been caged before. Momma kitty was supposed to rest over night and we had to put a tarp over the dog carrier we put her in to calm her down. We will see tomorrow if she will hold a grudge on Mom for what we did.

  
    I sat down and did some carving on Christmas ornaments. I carved two jumping fish and one penguin. I had the Penguin near done when a piece of the scarf that hangs down in front, popped off. I applied glue to hold it in place and set it to the side over night.
    On one of the fish, the lower "beak" popped off. I glued it on twice, then gave up and carved it so it was a farther back. No one will know the difference.
    One of the fish just did not look long enough so I removed the tail so the body is coming out of the water rather than leaping completely out.
  
    I finished one scarf, the one I had started at home a couple months ago and added tassels. It is done with several colors of yarn, PINK, pastel orange (low light at home made it look just off tone pink), purple main body, and then more pink. I added pastel orange tassel of a higher gauge than the body yarn. It is completely done and looks good. It is the thinnest of my scarves to date.
    Last week I finished a scarf using a skip stitch. I decided it needed tassels to look right to me so I started adding them. I ran into two problems. One is that the yarn changes color over its length and I only had half the required darker color I had cut originally, and the other was that I was really sloppy on putting the exiting tassels on and had big gaps. I decided I would have to remove most of the tassels I had and place them evenly on both ends of the scarf, and then I cut enough of the lighter color (going go white) to fill in the necessary spaces. I did not have time to do that so I put it to the side.
    Another scarf is close to being done. This one I worked on in the truck and it is a changing pattern where I do three rows of single crochet, then two rows of double crochet, then three rows of single crochet again. it does have the problem where I got the stitch count wrong in several places. This was done at stop lights and when sitting and waiting, so keeping track of where the stitch count was, turned out to be difficult. there were times I would do just two or three stitches, other times where I would do several rows, and My mind was not always on the crochet so mistakes happened. I wound up the remaining yarn into a neat ball and just have a few rows to go before I run out of yarn. I decided I will edge it in a dark yarn and try to hide the errors either by grabbing to a deeper strand if I am at a high point, or if necessary, making my stitch longer in the valleys. it won't be perfect, but should be pretty good. I have a ways to go before I can go to the edging, though.
  
    Tomorrow, I want to do more carving.

I will see how tomorrow goes.
  
  
  
      
      
  
  
Year 14, Week 39, Day Two (week 685)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-20-13 Sunday
  
    90 degrees, strong breeze, loads of clouds. A pregnant cloud passed over head and tinkled to the east of us, in the next city over. We got a few drops but not really enough to take note of it. I was about done at that time anyway. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
  
    I took out all my carvings and touched them up, fixing little errors, completing some details. I used the disk sander on the bottom of the bases and around the edges of the base to clean them up.
    Some of the penguins need to feet finished and the beaks corrected, but otherwise they are ready to be painted.
    I cleaned up the fish quite a bit, correcting some errors. I guess they will be all right when painted. I will have to check pictures again to see what colors they have.
  
    I finished the tassels on the second scarf. I had to pull some tassels out and place them better, then I added a whole bunch more tassels between the ones I have. It came out pretty good.
    I finished up the yarn for the body of the scarf, only having to do one row of my edging yarn to finish up the pattern. I then started edging the scarf. I had to pull out some stitches a couple times to correct problems that were cropping up. I will have some more time to do the edging over both sides of the scarf, and then add the tassels. I doubt it will be done in the next week unless I have loads of time to do crochet.
  
    Momma kitty is acting like nothing has happened to her. She came out of the cage and has been hanging around. I petted her quite a bit. She has a big bandage around her belly. It almost looks like a diaper. Mom is going to have to try to cut the bandage off. We don't know how Momma kitty is going to act. I said it will take several sessions. Take her onto her lap, pet her, take a snip and then try to calm her down enough to hold her again. Mom thinks it might be easier. We will see.
  
    I keep looking at all the wood I have laying around. I see I have the same problem with my crochet as I have with my woodworking.
    There is a lot of material laying around. The problem is what project to do. If you decide to do a specific project, you will find you do not have the right material around. "You have nothing to work with!" If on the other hand, I take some material and decide to make a project out of it, I have enough material to last me a lifetime. This is especially true with the wood I have access to.
    Right now with my wood working, I am doing little projects that don't require much wood. At this rate I could be working these projects for hundreds of years before running out. I do have some big projects to work on. It is just getting to them. I have a vase that is supposed to have five faces on it. I have a dragon I was carving. I have a bunch of wooden wheels to make. I had plans to make another cannon, to make a few toy trucks, loads of bowls, vases, cups, goblets. I have somewhere a decorative tea pot that I was making and should try to finish it. I have a bin full of Mahogany wood that is begging to become what they can be. I have more crochet hooks to make. I also have to make more ornaments, pencil heads, some relief carvings, just to START the list of work I need to do.
  
    I will have to see what I actually accomplish next week.

 Carved fish

 Momma kitty with her bandage

 Scar Face, or Tom. He has been around for several years.

My Scarves to date. The blue one in front is not finished.
 
 Yard sale C clamps and square

Year 14, Week 38, Day 0ne (week 684)

 wicker paper plate holders. With this six I now have twenty which is plenty for our family gatherings. Time to stop collecting them.  Unless I get a bunch for a deal....

 Ceramic bowl on the bottom, stainless steel bowl next, then two plastic bowls inside a colander.

 Three round cookie sheets with a very large trivet for a pot on top.

 mandolin slicing set with storage container. This was an expensive set in the store..

 Ball of cotton yarn. Good for dishcloths. It was so cute I had to take it home.

  New standing fan under the awning. It is used when the wind is not blowing under the awning or when sawdust needs to be moved away. .

Part of my display at the antique shop. Camera does not have wide angle and the lighting is bad because there is a bright window directly above the frame.  This was the best I could do with this section. The face vases on the lower "shelf" was what I brought  this time.


Year 14, Week 38, Day 0ne (week 684)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-12-13 Saturday
   
    94 degrees, loads of puffs, nearly all sunny day with blue skies. A good breeze made it comfortable. it still was hot. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.
   
    I came home Friday and found my fridge was off. I called my brother who has a service company to check it. It could be a whole number of things but he found the problem quickly. Checking the stuff in the freezer, I lost was some bananas I kept frozen (it passes for ice cream). Everything else was well packed.
    One thing I had to do was to move everything out of the way so we could pull out the fridge. More stuff got moved than planned. Not all of it is going back in the kitchen again. One is always surprised at what one finds when things really get moved. A while back, I almost purchased a diamond sharpening stone set. I found that I have a set that the package was never opened.
   
    Today was a yard sale day. We hit quite a few yard sales and got some good deals. I picked up a stand fan for five bucks. That was my big purchase. The two that we have under the awning as seen better days because of sun and weather. One has a plastic housing that is breaking apart and the fan itself is slightly out of balance. The other needs to be opened up and the bearings oiled. The clips are rusted in place. This fan will make a good replacement when the heat is high or the air is still.
    A ball of yarn leaped into my arms begging for a new home. It was so cute I adopted it. I did not give it a thought at the time but it is cotton, which I love.
    I picked up a mandolin slicing set. This was an expensive set from the store. It was my second biggest purchase at three bucks.
    Between other yard sales, round cookie sheets, a very large trivet, on which you place hot pans on, and several large bowls. I use an air popcorn popper and I use a large bowl to catch the popcorn as it comes out. The bowl I am using is breaking apart. I now have a replacement bowl. What I do with the other bowls will be something else. I don't have room for everything.
    One thing I am planning on starting on, is to start a bin to put yard sale items into. Next time My mom has a yard sale, I will have a whole bunch of things to put out into it. It will take time to get that started. I have several bins but they have little bits of things in them and they sometimes need to be separated.

    A bit later in the day, I headed down to Dania Beach, to an antique shop on U.S.-1 and Dania Beach Blvd. I have some of my work on display there. I had borrowed a few of my pieces a couple months ago, and finally returned them to be on display again. I changed the display around a little bit. That has to be done to make it look like there might be new stuff. I also added a couple large bowls too. That antique store has a bunch of blacksmith made items, some blacksmith tools, and some good old wooden things. It is fun to look after I have dealt with my display.
   
    When I have to wait a time, I don't just sit there and stare at the wall. I prefer to do crochet. I could read, I could play games, but with crochet, I end up with something to show for my time, and what I make tends to be good Christmas Presents. After The Antique shop, I had to do laundry.
    I took the scarf I had worked on at home, and am working on that. I think I have two more rows before the field is finished, and then I just have to add tassels. I really had not seen it in the sun. It is made up of several yarn scraps. I started with pink yarn and that ball ran out quickly. I then changed to another yarn that in my house light looked a little darker. Come to find out, that is a pastel orange. I then went with purple for the main field of the yarn, then went pink on the far side. The yarn I was going to finish it up with was an orange, but it was twice the thickness of the yarn I did the scarf in. I decided to finish the scarf in the same pink, and then use the heavy orange as the tassels. It will make that one bit of orange yarn make sense.
    This week, I had finished the scarf I was carrying around. I was doing a skip stitch with it, three double crochets, then chain three, skipping three stitches below, then doing three. It is hard to get started when you have all single crochet chain, but becomes mindless once you get the first row of skip stitch. it tells you when you have to do your three stitches and when you have to chain three. I did several rows of single crochet in the middle and then returned to the skip stitch, before ending with single crochet. The single crochet in the middle helped stabilize the scarf and I think looks pretty good. I have not decided whether to add tassels or not. I will allow myself to think about that for a while.
    The scarf I am working on in the truck is running out of yarn. I won't get too many more rows out of it. That is when I will call it a finished length. The pattern is three rows of single crochet, two rows of double crochet, then three rows of single crochet. I want to finish with single crochet so I might have to back up a couple rows if I end on double crochet. This scarf was done at stop lights and other times I have had to wait in the truck. I have made some stitch count errors here and there. This is a medium dark blue yarn. I will use a dark blue yarn and edge the scarf. I am figuring on using half double crochet, and when it goes in for short rows, I will shift to double crochet, and then back again to even up the edge so it looks right. I will then add dark blue tassels. I figure half an hour of work will finish the field on this scarf.
   
    Tomorrow's weather looks as dry as it was today. I am looking at getting some woodworking done tomorrow.
   
    I will see what I actually do tomorrow.   
       
   
   


Year 14, Week 38, Day Two (week 684)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-13-13 Sunday
   
    85 degrees, sky filled with puffs but mostly sunshine. One dark cloud formed out west and headed on to bother the Everglades. A steady heavy breeze moved plastic bags around and gusts moved them fast for a moment. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    This morning, I dealt with some of the stuff from the kitchen and the yard sales. I have more to take care of. A few things are out of the way for now and need not move and a couple other things are in view to remind me to deal with them.
   
    I decided to take my pasta drying racks back to Mom's house and fix a couple that have little problems. The main problem was I was not accurate on the cutting on a few and did not square the ends with the disk sander and they did not stand on the counter properly. I removed the feet on the ones that were slightly skewed and touched the ends to the disk sander, rotating them to remove any angle that might build up. I think that will help. the way you square something on the disk sander is to rotate it and touch it many times to the sander. If it is round, I tend to roll it with the end touching the sander so any slight angle gets evened out. If it is square, I will touch it to the sander, rotate it a quarter and touch it again and continue to do that. A side to side angle becomes an up and down angle and it corrected.
I removed the feet off some of my racks and squared up the ends that the feet connected to. My table and work bench surfaces are not flat so that threw off some of my testing afterwards. I do know they are much better than what it were.
    I also got some more rods. I needed to cut them in half. I guess I had better go back to elementary school and learn to count again. I found out quickly that half of a three foot rod is not fifteen inches. I cut the four rods I purchased and then was shocked to find two different length rods. Luckily, the short rods work so I cut the long rods to the same length. I touched up the ends of the rods on the disk sander and was done. I do need more rods but this will do fine. One seldom uses all the rods on the rack when making noodles.
   
    My brother came and while we talked, I humiliated a piece of the wood I had prepared last week for my leaping fish. It is close enough to the thinness I need to start shaping the fish. on this piece, there is a knot that I am looking at. I need to figure out whether to shape the fish to remove that part of the wood or to leave it in and hope I don't have to cut too deep there. After lunch, I packed up my carving stuff.
   
    Last year, we had to abandon the septic tank and go onto city sewer. We had accidentally ordered more sand than we needed. My brother has periodically been removing some of the excess sand off and on. Sand is heavier than it looks. Today, he gathered the last of the sand in mom's front drive. We were happy to see it gone.
    Mom asked me if I wanted to sweep up the drive way. I told her no and walked away. A bit later, I grabbed the broom, a shovel, and a big dust pan bin that is used for shops, and swept the area. The shovel was needed because at the edge where the sand was thin, algae and weeds started growing and it was hard. The shovel scraped that up so it could be collected. I dumped the sweepings, which was possibly more than half a gallon, on top the stand box that mom has in back. She uses the sand in the box for her plants. She has a life-time supply, so it looks, but it gets used faster than you would think.
   
    Mom had a plant she was given that was not doing well. It needed more water than she was giving it because the pot leaked. We took the plant out which had very little root, and tried to slow the leak of the pot, which would be perfect for a cactus, and then added some of the old dirt, some fresh soil and sand to the pot. When finished, we took it out front where it was from and watered it. It leaked fast. A cracks running up the side and we did not deal with them. We will see how the plant does for now, and maybe move it out of the decorative pot and put it into a normal pot where it can be happy for a while. We called it a day after that.
   
    Next weekend, I really MUST get to work on ornaments. I picked up a couple more two by two boards to make into ornaments or something else. The month is almost half over and I have a lot more ornaments to make. There are other projects I need to work on but don’t know if I will even get close to them, not to mention all the wood I have to work on.

I will see what I will actually do next week.

Year 14, Week 37, Day One (week 683)

Year 14, Week 37, Day One (week 683)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-05-13 Saturday
   
    89 degrees, blue skies above with puffs around the horizon, feathers and smears high up, brisk breeze to keep it cool. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
   
    Mocking birds were singing again. It would be fun to be able to identify the bird song they are copying.
   
    We went yard sailing. We hit a couple church sales, and several individual sales. I kept my spending down but came home with a few items.
    I picked up a set of three spring form pans where you bake the cake and then spring the sides apart so you just have the bottom of the pan to deal with. I just had to have them, even though I have no clue when I will ever use them. I almost picked up a bunt pan where the center removes, or a regular cake pan with a recoverable bottom. The three pans were only a tiny bit more. I also got a pair of cheep umbrellas and a DVD of old time science fiction.
        I also got a tube that is designed for Champaign bottles. My intention was for my knitting needles. I got my small ones in there but they are longer than I thought they were. They will stay in there for now, though.
    I picked up a book on Flower Fairies. It turned out to be pretty good, with the artist's poems next to each one. She sketched flowers from life, and then sketched children from her sister's  kindergarten class in outfits she made and holding flowers, and then went to the studio to make her final paintings. This book is a compilation of seven books she published, and an eighth that was compiled from works not included in the other books.
   
    I finally got out back to do wood working. I brought my Pasta drying racks with me. I cleaned up any stickers that was on the sticks or rods, and the glue, along with most of the pencil marks and smudges. Sandpaper works well for the pencil lines and smudges, finger nails remove stickers, knife scrapes off the glue and sandpaper removes any evidence. All rods were sanded just to make them a little better.
    I finally laid all my rods on the racks to see how many rods I had and what I needed. I ended up with two extra short rods for the small drying racks, and am 15 rods short for the large racks. I just have to get more dowel stock. This project took a whole lot longer than I planned. I do have to take a couple of the racks back to square up the ends of a couple sticks so they will be straighter.
   
    I tried to tip the table on the bandsaw and it would only go so far. I gave up.
   
    I wore the whole-leg leg-brace I got last weekend. I wore it a couple times during the week, skipping a day or two to adjust it properly. Each time I wear it, it gets more comfortable. The big thing is to protect my leg from the Velcro hooks that are permanently attached to the brace itself. The pads are just not quite big enough, or I am not adjusting it properly. Today, it did quite well, forcing me to make adjustments only a couple times. I found that sometimes when I put my elbow onto my leg, I unlatch the straps.
   
    Tomorrow, I hope to work on several projects.
   
   
   
   
Year 14, Week 37, Day Two (week 683)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-06-13 Sunday
   
    92 degrees, blue sky over head, puffs all around, light breeze, not quite enough to make it feel cool.
   
    I tipped the bandsaw table as much as I could and cut the blanks for leaping fish carvings I decided I am going to do. It took some pounding and rocking to get it as far as I got it.
    The metal insert for the blade to go through and still support the work was too narrow for working at an angle so it had to come out. I then cut a couple blanks. the first cuts on the block was near the "base" so the base was able to support the work near the end of the cut. I then had to cut at the free end of the work. I cut one side with no problem, the edge of the hole holding the wood up. when I flipped it over to cut the second side, I was forced to hold the work physically. That is not good.
    I then got an idea. I took two thin sheets of wood I have and clamped them on each side of the blade. That supported the work nicely as I made my cuts on the rest of the blanks. Because of the angle, I have more wood to carve away than I would like.
   
    My brother then came and he figured out why the table was not tipping all the way. My activities had loosened the table,  because of the built-up crud over the years, so it would tip easily. He found that a guide block I had installed in the lower blade guide was too long. He took a hacksaw where the blade sticks out from the handle and sawed away the end of the guide block, and that allowed the table to tip all the way.
    Next weekend, I might re-cut these blanks. The less excess wood I have to remove, the faster the carvings will come out of the wood. Even without re-cutting them, this saves me a lot of time.
    One nice thing about tipping the table is that the work is still flat on the table where it is safe to handle. Previously, I would tip the stick up on the edge and have to balance, hold and control the stick's angle while pushing it through the blade. That is not safe. I will have to do some testing but I think that tipping the table, with the sheets of wood next to the blade, will be the way I will work angular cuts from now on.
   
    I had enough and called it a day, even though very little was done. Something was done which was good. I am a step closer to making some more Christmas ornaments. I still have a few blanks for Penguins to be carved.
   
    I am not sure how much will be done next weekend. I have some stuff that has to be done and unless I get a day where I can leave early from work to do it, It will have to be done on the weekend. Whether any wood working gets done will be up in the air.
   
    I will see what I actually do next weekend.

 book and dvd

 Champagne bottle holder to be used to hold knitting needles

 pair of cheep umbrellas

 nesting spring form baking pans

 pasta drying racks

bandsaw blade hole I had to deal with when cutting some materials when table was on angle.

 My solution to the big hole, clamping thin boards on both sides of the blade.

 finished blanks cut for leaping fish ornaments. I have them in stepped positions to to show how they were cut.