Year 13, Week 37, Day 0ne (week 683)

Year 13, Week 37, Day 0ne (week 683)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-24-15 Saturday

76 degrees early morning, 86 degrees afternoon. Patchy cloudy all day, with a few real early morning showers in Miami. Light breeze was enough to make the weather nice, but not quite strong enough to blow things around. This Weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. 

After breakfast, we looked for some yard sales. A church was having one and we were trying to figure out where it was. It turned out to be at a house which we think may be the Priest’s house. One thing I really liked, but had no use for, was a bunk bed that had a set of stairs to get to the top, and each step had a drawer in it. It was in a nice honey colored wood, likely pine. The stairs themselves was just pretty. 

At another yard sale, the landscape had some mounds next to the road. I walked on the side of the mound. My leg has not developed the strength which I lost when I spent all that inactive time fighting the infection in my knee. I’ve not been using the cane in order to save my sprained wrist which has been healing nicely. When I stepped off the mound and onto the pavement, I knew I really made a bad mistake. Luckily, I was wise enough to toss the cane in the car just in case. After the discomfort of walking around at this multi-family yard sale, I had to use the cane for the rest of the day. Luckily, my wrist healed dramatically compared to last week and was able to take it. . 
At one yard sale, I picked up some cookie cutters. There were shapes and sizes I had not seen. I also picked up a cookie extrusion set. This set has plungers to press out the cookie dough, and different shaped dies to create different shaped cookies. There were two large plungers and a tiny one, which I think was for frostings. 

cookie cutters of different shapes and sizes

cookie press with loads of different shapes and fittings.

At another yard sale, I got a tiny screwdriver/plier set. This is a set for working on devices. Mom took that from me after we got home as she is always working on children’s toys and the jeweler’s . Screw drivers are hard to turn as they are so small in diameter.

screw driver and wrench set


A lot of the stuff we saw was great and nice to have, but not that I could use. One place had some Halloween decorations. She had a skeleton available. Later in the afternoon, I thought of a use for it, (put it in the chair of someone returning from vacation) but it was well too late to get, even if I decided to go get it. 

I needed extra sets of keys for my truck. My old ranger’s keys had a chip in them for the ignition, but one could go anywhere to get them made. This new truck required me to go to an expert or to the dealership. I went to the dealership this time. The keys and fob were fairly cheep, but the labor for programming the key and fob to the truck was expensive. I ended up being there for three hours, and that killed the last of the morning and a bit of the afternoon. 
A while back, during my last doctor’s appointment, I had started a dishcloth where I was working corner to corner rather than across the end. Since I was at the dealership for a while, I decided to work on that. After making it “square” I started around the edges with single crochet to tie it all together and make it look neat. I was getting close to finishing my second row of edging when they told me my truck was coming up. I tied off and clipped the yarn, calling it finished, about five minutes before we went out to get my truck.  During my time, I had it nearly finished, and had to rip out most of my decreasing stitches because it was really out of square. And then re-do the reducing stitches again. Even so, It ended up not quite square, but this is the best of this style I have done so far. I will have to start a new one soon.

Not quite square dish cloth, started on one of the corners and worked diagonally.


After a short break at home, I went out back and worked a tiny bit on the drum sticks I  want to make. I split off some sharp corners from the Sea Grape stock I selected for the drumsticks. I used my usual method of pounding on the back of a hatchet with a hammer. My wrist did a whole lot better today than it did when I pounded with it last week. I could have done a whole lot more but decided it was not splitting exactly the way I wanted and did not want it to get too small in diameter in any one place. My wrist has healed a lot this week. 
While I can make the sticks a lot smaller with splitting or shaving, I have decided that I will remove the excess wood when I turn them. It would be nice to have the grain exactly straight through the whole stick, but with only a little effort in centering, these drum sticks will be straight grained enough to not split with any use I will put them through. I have seen where other drummers are always chewing up or breaking their drum sticks because they play so hard or loud..
With my splitting the stock,  I have a couple more small pieces of wood that can become something like crochet hooks.

Tomorrow, I plan on pulling out the lathe, which requires a whole bunch of stuff being moved out that has accumulated in the way over the past few months. Then I hope to turn at least one drum stick. My plan is to get both pieces of wood basically round, and then shape and size them individually from there. 
What I really need to do is to empty the lathe cart, dismantle the lathe, clean and lube everything before putting everything away. I also have to check the wood parts of the cart as some bugs have been having lunch at my expense. Then of course, all my tools need to be cleaned and sharpened. 
It is always the choice, clean or do a project......

I will see what I actually do tomorrow. 




Year 13, Week 37, Day Two (week 683)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-25-15 Sunday

76 early morning 86 degrees in the afternoon, scattered showers mostly to the south, loads of puffs of clouds with blue sky in between, a light breeze that felt slower than the clouds were moving to the west. 
Here in Florida, there are two kinds of people when it comes to Air Conditioning (AC). One type cranks the temps down to match Fall or Spring  temps up North. This costs a lot of money each month. Most “natives” (Or nativized residents) set the temps to high 70s or even up to 80 degrees. They are using the AC to remove the humidity. Without the humidity, the higher temps feel comfortable. The evening temps are down to where one can leave the house open to air out and it feels like high temp AC.  This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism. 

I got a really late start this morning. When I got to Mom’s we decided to go out to lunch with some friends. A couple hours later, I decided to head home as I would not have time to accomplish anything, and still be abel to do something at home. 
Nothing happened today at all.


I hope to accomplish a lot next weekend.

Year 13, Week 36, Day 0ne (week 682)

Year 13, Week 36, Day 0ne (week 682)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-17-15 Saturday

I forgot to check the temps for the day. I was out of the habit. There was a front lingering south of us, watering the gardens in Miami, but it did not have a passport to come across the Broward County Line...... Mostly cloudy, most of which was high and grey. A light breeze made it nice. 

TILL NOW

It has been a while since I posted here. There is a curse that says “May you live in interesting times.” I have had some interesting times. 
On June 22, I had knee surgery. On July 11, I broke the wound open and ended up in the hospital for a week because of an infection that went into the bone. I then spent nearly a month with my mom with a nurse coming in to give me antibiotics and tending the wound, which the doctor decided must heal from the inside out. That took extra long. 
I finally returned back home a couple weeks ago after the wound closed up, and still am healing. 

During this time, I had the chance to get rid of the Ford Ranger pickup and get a Toyota Tundra pickup truck. This new truck has low enough milage that I might be able to go five or more years without a major repair. 

A couple weeks ago, I had an interesting day. On the way to dinner, I saw a car on fire. I first saw the black plume, then the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles, and finally the car with the fire department hosing it down. The fire looked about out. Once at my destination, I saw a water spout from a restaurant that was about a mile from the ocean. The Water spout (a tornado over water) was well out in the ocean and never moved. It was on a 45 degree to the road I was beside. After dinner, there was a light drizzle and I stepped on one of the painted stripes on the pavement. My foot went out from under me and I sprained my wrist. I was using my trusty cane at the time and it was in the wrong position to stop me from going down, but thinking about the incident I figure that even a walker would not have prevented that fall. It was that kind of slip.

Waterspout off Fort Lauderdale Beach

Waterspout off Fort Lauderdale Beach. Stayed right there for a good number of minutes.

During the time out, I could not stand for very long or lift anything, so wood working was out of the picture. I did work on three crochet projects though I had very little interest in doing th em. All three are supposed to be dish cloths, in cotton, that are worked corner to corner rather than across the side. It is a bit of a challenge to get started but the effect is interesting when done, especially with multi colored yarns. With one, I made a mistake in the stitch count and ended up with an equilateral triangle. I still have not figured out what to do with that. There are many ways to save it, or I could rip it out and start over. I have not decided what I will do with it. One I made and gave to my mom. The third is in process. These are made with increases in each row as you work across it At the widest point, one starts reducing the same amount as you were increasing, until you come to the point.. That third dish cloth is now in the reduction stage where I remove stitches until I get back to the corner. If I do it right, it will be square. If it is not, it will be “cock-eyed” like the one I gave mom.
I also learned how to play my Game-Boy gaming system. I have like, 30 games, for it but have only played two, and the one I spend all my time with is TETRIS ATTACK. It killed a lot of time when I was not in shape or mood to do much of anything.

SATURDAY

After breakfast, Mom and I went out looking for yard sales. We hit three sections of our favorite yard sale areas and saw nothing over most of it. We did eventually find two yard sales. At one, I picked up some mini clamps for use in modeling or in machining when holding small parts. At the other yard sale, I had my hands on three things I absolutely did not need. Luckily the price was higher than I wanted to pay for any of them. They were worth it but two of the items were items I already have a couple of and was getting them just to get them.

Two sets of tiny clamps for model making and metal working, along with two drawer knobs.

After we got back, Mom and Dad had to go somewhere, so I first went to a store, then went searching for yard sales in two more areas we normally find sales. I located three more sales. They all had interesting items but most of which I would never use nor have no room for. 
When I got back, my wrist was hurting bad. It dawned on me that my cane was aggravating the sprain. There are ways I can apply pressure on my hand, such as pushing myself up, with limited or no pain. There are other types of pressure that causes it hurt bad. The cane, with my weight in it, is the wrong kind of pressure. At that time, I could not leave the cane alone. Too rough walking.

After I got home, I gathered some stuff that I had left at Mom’s house after I had changed trucks and also when I had moved out to go home. I had brought my hand truck and was able to drag the stuff around easily. It is surprising how much stuff one accumulates.

Mom and Dad called and said they were going to eat out, so I went out for lunch (Chinese) and then, when I got home, I basically laid around to give my wrist some rest and relax overall since the day was done enough. 

I have some plans for tomorrow, but will have to see how the day goes. 
 


Year 13, Week 36, Day two (week 682)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-18-15 Sunday

82 degrees, mostly cloudy, light breeze, a nice cool Florida day. The Front over Miami headed back south over the ocean. The evenings are cooling down to where one does not have to run a fan to stay cool when the house is wide open. 

My brother came up today. It had been a while since I saw him as he has been busy at work. Mom gave him a “little five minute project.” to do. He finished it an hour later. He made a metal end on a ramp at the front door out of aluminum diamond plate. It required him to measure, cut, bend the metal for a perfect fit, and then he tacked it down. 

While he was dong this, I decided to prepare to make a set of Sea Grape drumsticks. In moving from one truck to another, my favorite set of drum sticks disappeared. 
I grabbed a piece of sea grape log I had split a while back (years ago?) And basically split it in half. I wish I had a Fro which is a blade with a handle used for splitting. You hit the blade to drive it down, and then pull or push on the handle to split the wood in the direction you want to go. 
My method of splitting wood is to rap on the back of a hatchet and just keep pounding until it splits the wood enough to pull the blade out. The hatchet handle is to the side so you cannot apply force to the split to open it up.  A long time ago, I had hit the hatchet head wrong and a piece of metal popped off and stuck into my finger, so I learned I have to be accurate with my hits. No problem like that this time. 
I split the piece in half, which it did not want to do. Then I removed, by splitting, the sharp corners to make them closer to square, less wood to remove on the lathe. I might remove more wood by splitting before I get to the lathe. Having it closer to shape and size will help. 
My dominant (right) hand is the one that is sprained. I tried a couple times to hammer with my left hand but I was lucky to hit the ax let alone drive the blade in. I was stuck using my sprained hand to hammer the ax head into the wood. It hurt my hand most when I missed the ax and wood  entirely. I had to stop the swing of the hammer and that was what hurt.
I ended up with two pieces of wood that are way too big for drum sticks and a small piece that can be used for making crochet hooks or knitting needles. That was all the work I was going to do whether I wanted to or not. It was actually more than I should have.

three pieces of split Sea Grape, two large ones for drum sticks, small one for crochet hooks or
knitting needles


It was nice to do SOMETHING in wood for once.
I am hoping to pull the lathe out next weekend and make a drum stick. 

I will see what I actually do next week.