(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-02-16 Saturday
A frigid 76 degrees early morning, a sweltering 78 degrees in the afternoon, a nice calm breeze, sunny blue sky in the morning with only a few tips of towers to the North East over the Ocean, puffs arrived and started crowding in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
Figuring it was a beautiful day, there might be some yard sales out. We went out and drove part way through one of our rabbit runs and saw nothing. We came home and killed some time.
I went outside with the idea of many projects. We got a piece of yellow pine that was less than a foot long and had straight grain running through it. The rings went on an angle through the section of it. I had looked at this piece for almost a month. I knew it would be something but was not sure what.
I split the wood in half, parallel to the rings. I then used my knife to knock off all the corners of both pieces before I mounted it on the lathe. I decided to use a cup center on the tail stock. I used my knife to shave the ends so they would fit into the cup. I figured this would make centering easier I put the big end into the hole of the fully closed chuck, which was just about small enough to hold them in place. It was strictly friction holding the sticks between center.
I rough turned both pieces round first, then reduced each to the size I was after, and made a few more adjustments to get the to the shape I was after. Because the ends were in the cups, I could not reach them with the lathe tools. I used the sanding disk to clean them up. I made a mistake on sanding one striking end, and had to shape the other stick’s end to match. Matching was more important than being right.
I finished and put everything away, before I wiped varnish on both sticks and set them in the sun to dry. I went in to take a long break. I figured that I can always pull the equipment back out if I decide to do another project in the afternoon. Even if I did not work outside again, I was satisfied that I accomplished something. Also I figured that if I did not go out to work, everything was already put away.
The drum sticks were a quick and available project to try, since I was staring at that piece of wood for several weeks. I have some ornaments I want to turn. I hoped to start on them in the afternoon.
Before lunch, Mom decided we should go to the Festival Flea Market. This is a mall with stores along the back wall, split by the food court, and in the main mall area, are hundreds of small booths selling all sorts of wares.
My favorite stores are the DOLLAR AND UP store, with two locations. One is near the middle as a store on the back side. The other is a gigantic booth closer to one end. These are not actual dollar stores, but have a fantastic choice of items at a very good price. (Think real yard sale prices) Mom and I walked both Dollar and Up stores, going down every isle. I did the booth location twice. All three times I ended up finding great stuff to buy. There was only two things I was really after and found them. The rest was pure opportunity or desire. A few booths away was a watch repair booth my mom likes, and I ended up getting a new watch band. That stop was between the two passes through the Dollar and Up booth.
We stopped at the farmer’s market they have there, I did a quick walk through before sitting down and resting, something I should have done after the first time through the Dollar and Up booth. It has been a while since I made noodles and I am beginning to forget how much work it was. The farmer’s market had some bean noodles and they looked interesting. Just an idea....
The walk back to the car was really tough. Even pushing a cart to take the weight off my legs did not help much.
Back at mom’s house, I napped for a while, before I decided to load some books and apps on a tablet I got for Christmas. I went out to feed the cat and was listening to a radio station. Momma kitty kept getting spooked and decided only to eat a few mouth-fulls before dashing off. I had even turned it to almost nothing and she still did not like it.
I was wore out from walking that I was not in the mood to do any more work out back, especially at the lathe. My ornament idea has to wait.
I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I have plenty of projects, but have to see what crops up.
Yellow pine drum sticks. I would never give them to a professional as they would likely not last long. I gave them to a amateur wanna be.they should last her a lifetime.
Year 13, Week 47, Day two (week 692)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-03-16 Sunday
76 in the morning, 80 in the afternoon. Some areas of the sky was blue, filled with feathers and splashes, but the rest of the sky was filled with grey puffs and large blobs. A light, almost unnoticeable, breeze made it nice. It is supposed to get below 60 sometime this week. I doubt it will get down to our 56 degree frost temperature. It will just be a warning. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
It took me an hour just to get my body moving properly this morning. I definitely over-did it yesterday. I was moving all right when I left the house but I was not walking anything close to normal.
I got to Mom’s house, and my brother was there. We ended up talking and comparing web sites on my tablet to his phone. I showed him some books on the http://www.gutenberg.org/ site that he would be interested in.
My body was not in the mood of standing in front of the lathe or doing any other kind of standing. That eliminated the main project I had in mind for the day which was to explore a design of Christmas ornaments..
I left soon after lunch.
I hope to be more productive next weekend. I have more than a couple projects in mind.
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