Year 16, Week 37, Day One (week 869)

Year 16, Week 37, Day One (week 869)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-24-16 Saturday

78 degrees early morning, 88 degrees late afternoon. No breeze early on, just picking up nicely later in the morning. Radar blobs danced off shore for a long time. About two, one reached out for us with a hand. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

Mom found two church yard sales in a paper. We headed out to visit them. One is a church we visit periodically. There were a number of interesting things I chose to not get. They had books, dollar a bag. I found some Jeff Smith Frugal Gourmet cook books. One was a three book set. Then there was another separate book. Mom found a few more books to add to the bag. When I got home, I found I had two of them. This makes my library to have 6 of the some 10 or so books he wrote. Of the two books I had doubles of, I put the kept the best in my set and the others will go as gifts or yard sales. I got these, not because I intend to follow a bunch of the recipes, but I loved his show and would like to have a nice collection of his books.
I also picked up a set of three scissors (one a pinking or serrated) and some metal crochet hooks, with a few needles and a metal knitting needle. 

Mom had picked up some stamps, which I was thinking about getting, and we looked at a Brayer Roller – used for spreading ink on stamps or printing plates. I glanced at a travel iron that had a converter to European outlets. I have one, possibly two, so I held off on getting that. 
We got home and looked at what we picked up, and Mom decided she wanted the brayer roller as one of the stamps is a really big musical piece. I headed back there. Both the iron and the roller were gone. I got twisted around leaving the church. I did find a yard sale I would never have found. I got onto the road I needed and headed North. At the far end, I found a yard sale. Lots of interesting things I would have wanted later. I did find a guitar stand at a price I wanted to pay. I later gave that to a place we meet where a number of guitarists gather to play. 
The other church turned out to be mostly commercial stuff and they wanted a donation for entering. I chose not to. I was feeling cheap at that moment. I had parked on the wrong corner of the building so I got a nice stroll. It is surprising how the walk back is always twice as far as the walk there.....

At a yard sale we missed when Mom was driving, I found out that a friend of mine was helping with the yard sale. It was just not something there that I needed. I gave her some books her daughter might like that I had in the truck. . 

I reached home and chose to take a break, relax until after lunch, which was going to be fairly soon. At two, I went outside after checking the radar. The string of radar contacts somehow skipped inland, going more over the edge of the Everglades. I went outside and looked at the lathe and the things that have to be moved to get it to where I could use it. I decided that with the weather that could be coming, that was not a project I cared to do. 
I decided to trim corners off the platter turning blanks. A lot of equipment would not have to be taken out or put back for this project. It looked good for when weather is questionable. 
I took my multi plug extension cord out. It has a plug box where several outlets can be turned off by a switch. One outlet is always live. I use this most when I am working with the dremmel or the mini lathe. I plugged the Saws-All saw into the always-on outlet, set the wood in the vice in position to knock off a corner. I brought the Saw-All up to the wood and pulled the trigger. Nothing. 
I changed outlets and still nothing, no matter how the switch was set. I wondered if there was power to the power strip I was plugged into. Mom had someone working there this week. I plugged in the fan, and it ran so it was not the power strip;. I then plugged the saw directly into the strip and still it did not work. I even moved the blade so the motor rotated, just in case it was in a dead spot. Still nothing. About that time, we started getting a Seattle Shower. This is where you get hit by one tiny drip a minute. Not enough to put up an umbrella and not really hard enough to keep you from working, but over time, it is enough to get you soaked. Since the saw was not working, I decided to pack up and end the day. It was getting closer to the time to leave anyway. 
Other than some fun yard sailing, I accomplished nothing. I have to get with my brother to trouble shoot the Saws-All. I might have to replace it. Will see. 

I will see what happens tomorrow. 

SUNDAY

I stopped at a yard sale of a woman who has had a few the past few weeks. Last time I visited, she said she was going to donate a bunch of stuff. I guess she decided to have another sale. She had a light frame with a bag that velcros to the top rails. It was a hamper. I love hampers for my yarn. I have several wicker hampers filled with yarn I have not had time to touch. I still have yarn that needs a better place for them.. I had something different in mind for this hamper though. 

A good storm passed about an hour later. 

I reached mom’s house after a long stop and she said, “lets go out to eat.” That killed the afternoon. She only offers that if my brother is not coming up. 
When we got back home, I got some things together and headed home. I had a couple stops to do on the way. 
My first stop was Sears. I was after two items, and they no longer carried them. One of them, a water proofing spray for camp gear, I know is available, unless the modern synthetic fibers  has eliminated the need for it. They also no longer carry Saws-Alls in the store. They might be found on line. The one I have was a Craftsman, which Sears carried. 
My second stop was Lowes Hardware, which was in the same plaza. I looked at the prices and the range looked like $75 to $115, if I remember right. The one I have is a good one. Mom has one of those off brand saws that has no guts. I figure the higher price MIGHT be an indicator for power or constructed quality. Will have to give it some thought. 

I headed home, ending my day. 

I do hope to get something done next weekend. I have a lot of wood that is calling my name. I am getting that thought that I have to get some Christmas ornaments made soon. It is never too early, though I started making them back in January and other projects became more important. 

I will see what I do next weekend. 
1298

guitar stand

jeff Smith Frugal Gourmet cook books

scissors and crochet hooks Note teeth on the pinking scissor.

A closer look of the "Steels" crochet hooks. These are best for thread rather than yarn.

clothes hamper

Year 16, Week 36, Day One (week 868)

Year 16, Week 36, Day One (week 868)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-17-16 Saturday

86 degrees early morning with high humidity and no wind. Some towers over the ocean. Some feathers and milk above. Puffs appeared here and there, but there was large sections of blue sky most of the day.  A light wind picked up in the afternoon that helped. No weather all day long. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.

During the week, a weather system passed close to us. I noticed it on the weather radar after it was already north of us. I saw movement in the Doppler where the rain patterns circled one area. A bit later, I saw it was reported as a storm. We received some feeder band activity, but that activity was not great as most of the rain event was over the ocean and not over land, which made it nice. If it had not been above us on the map, I would have thought that we were all going to die. It did gain a name after it finally was completely over water east of Georgia.

THURSDAY

The wood turning club meeting caught me off guard. All I had to show in the instant gallery was my drum sticks. Only three people brought something in to represent finials. A couple people brought in work that they hated. One said that his big bowl, about 2 feet in diameter, ended up in the garbage three times. His wife pulled it out of the garbage each time. It had laid around for a long time so he threw it in the garbage. His wife pulled it out and painted figurines on it. His adding the finish messed up her paintings and he tossed it..recovered it and fixed it and then they got a good finish on it. He still does not like it, but it does look good. Another brought in a decorative little container that was up on stilts. He hated it, he did several things to it, then his wife wood burned on it and made it impressive. 
Both cases are examples of where we know what it is supposed to be like and it falls far from our image. Someone else has no clue of what we had in mind, and they liked it. 
I have found in many kinds of art I’ve dabbled in, the artist knows what it was supposed to look like and is very disappointed. Everybody else only sees the end result and are impressed

The demonstration was on making pepper mills and salt mills. There is several steps of drilling and you have the have the hardware to make sure the holes are the right size. The difference between the hardware for the salt mills and the pepper mills, is that the pepper mills can be metal, but the salt mills HAVE to be ceramic because salt will corrode metal. One can get the rods in various lengths. He explained what to do if the rod is too long. The top of the rod is threaded. One cuts on the end that has the mechanism and then re-bends that end to crimp the mechanism in place. Never cut the thread unless you have a way to thread it again. Most people don’t. 
Once the drill holes are made, the outside is basic simple turning. If the wood is interesting, one should keep the parting slots as thin as possible so the wood looks like it was from the same piece of wood with no gaps. 
For fitting the parts in, he had modified a scraper to get the proper angles on the surfaces. He said that each mechanism comes with instructions on how they go together and work.
I will say that the masters make absolutely anything, no matter how complex, look easy. It makes my wood turning look like it is done by Godzilla.

SATURDAY

The weather report was good, so after breakfast, I headed out on the yard sale circuit. I visited 9 yard sales and skipped 4 (they either always have sales or nothing was on display worthy of stopping for). I was shocked at how many I stopped at after I counted them up. 
The only thing I picked up was a stuffy kitten. It was in a box of stuffies. I moved them around, setting several of the little teddy bears upright as they are supposed to be. When I grabbed the kitten, it started purring. It wiggled in my hand. When I set it down, it became a stuffy again, except the green eyes blinked at me. After that, I realized I could not leave it there. I really could not take it home as my teddy bears are very jealous and won’t accept any other stuffies. I solve the problem by letting the kitten stay in my truck on the dash, to look at me while I drive.

I saw a whole lot of stuff that in previous years I could have grabbed. There were doll house furniture. There was several cooking appliances, such as a two bladed french-fry cutter. There were bread machines and various electric cooking devices like pancake maker, rice cooker, sandwich makers, etc. I am getting a little better on being picky on what I get. I do have days where I am weak, though. Several pieces of furniture I have no room for. One woman had a copy of a master’s painting. It might have been painted.  If I had room, I would quickly run out of room anyway. 


Once I was back, Mom had a red Cedar tree that was dying. She had me top it, then cut just below the highest green branches. The thickest part of the trunk was about two fingers wide. She had a Tababulea that kept sending up shoots from the top that would rush to reach the sky. It had developed a knob on top. She had me cut that knob off. She will see how it reacts to that. I did those cuts with a hand saw as I did not want to drag out the extension cord for such small cuts.  With the last cut I was making, I was wondering if it would have been less effort to drag the cord. It likely would have been the same. 

I then brought out all the oak branches I had accumulated from my brother’s oak tree.. I decided that I was not going to keep them as many were not in good condition. I chose to cut them up into smaller pieces so they could go into the garbage. I used the saw-all with a not sharp enough blade. Once the blade got part way in, the branch vibrated wildly which is not efficient cutting.
I kept the two largest pieces, removing excess branches from one. I could have unloaded those two, but I decided to give myself a chance anyway. 

After lunch I went out and decided to cut some blanks for wood turning from the board I picked up. The first thing I found out was that it was a two by ten, not a two by twelve. That means the blanks are actually nine inches across. 
I cut on one board with the circular saw and it got stuck. It was also not going straight like I wanted. I changed to the saws-all and that did even worse on going straight. I cut a second blank and decided to change projects. 

I already had some blanks cut but needed the corners removed in order to be able to turn them. I had started on one last month but stopped because it was hot and I was lazy, so I decided to finish that one. The saw was still fighting me. I changed to a sharper blade and it was still fighting me. I should have opened a new blade but didn’t. 
I was cutting away when something hit me on the back of the head. It was like a closed palm hitting me. Solid but no edges. It could not be what I was working on as that was the exact opposite side of where I was hit and it was a small piece I was removing, having removed the main bulk of the corner before. That piece would hit me on the top of the head, not the back of the head.  My vision blurred for just a second, I yelped out, then turned around. I looked over the entire area for what it could be and could not find anything. 
I was going to do some more cutting, but just felt uncomfortable because I had no idea what hit me. There was no sound of anything bouncing off the house before or after. No swishing sounds of things being in the air. 
I decided it would be a good idea just to pack up and call it a day. 


SUNDAY

I stopped at one yard sale I saw yesterday since it was up. I still did not need a french-fry cutter or bread maker. I did pick up some recipe booklets. No, I did not need them. They looked interesting anyway. You know how addictions are, you do well for a while then you get a weak moment.

My brother was up. I arrived and we talked about Model railroads for the most part. Most model railroads are designed to see trains run around the tracks. We, though, are into dropping off and picking up cars, or delivering passengers. We discussed how to improve the model railroad layout we have in my house, drawing a few examples. The layout I have inmy house is what I consider the ultimate model railroad layout on a 4x8. He was talking mostly about simplifying it, make it more challenging. We also talked about building self powered engines for the railroad. He wants to go to a big scale where he can use drills to power the engines. I want to stay with HO and use battery power with the batteries in the second car. We don’t do much with model railroading as our schedules don’t mesh. Also, to get my railroad ready to run trains, we would have to spend several sessions just clearing the layout and cleaning tracks. 
Beyond that and some talk about welding and machining, we accomplished nothing. 

Hopefully, I will actually accomplish something next weekend. I can cut a bunch of blanks from the boards. In trimming the corners of the blanks I already have. With the 2x10s I don’t have to cut quite as close to the circle as the two by twelves require. There is more room to spin the blank from a smaller boards. 
I have a lot of wood that wants to be made into something, and a lot of projects that were started and never finished. I need to give up something unimportant such as work, and sleep, in order to get more done.

All the way down the Atlantic coast is a dune area referred to as barrier islands with what was originally fresh water behind it. With dredging, engineers interconnected the inland ponds and lakes behind the barrier islands to create what is now known as The Inter-Coastal Waterway. One can take a boat from New England all the way down to the keys in the protection of the barrier islands. 
Down here in Florida, if a city is established entirely on the barrier island, they gave themselves a name with Beach on the end of it to separate themselves from the city on the main land. You get Miami Beach, Dania Beach, Pompano Beach. Hillsboro Beach. 
I thought you would like to know. 

I will have to see what I do next weekend. 

1977

The bowl that got thrown out three times

a turned and shaped piece that was fished out of the garbage and wood burned by the wife.

Some pepper mills used as examples in the demonstration.

cat stuffy standing up.

cat stuffy on in the permanent home in my truck

wood to be cut up and tossed.

cook books I picked up Sunday

Year 16, Week 35, Day One (week 867)

Year 16, Week 35, Day One (week 867)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-10-16 Saturday

86 degrees early morning. Sky full of puffs of all sizes with blue sky in between. 94 high with a light breeze. A weather system down by Cuba (continuing to head west) had sent streams over us most of the week so expectations were low for the day. The day turned out to be dry and nice. Another storm is shown coming right at us in the Atlantic. We may still be scoured off the face of the earth. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. 

Because of the weather system, I had no expectations for yard sales, but decided to go anyway. I followed the entire big loop. I think there are eight sections one can expect yard sales. There were only three sections with yard sales.
It dawned on me while I was driving the route. This route is about 20 miles. Before the car, 20 miles was a day’s travel for most people. Most towns were spaced about that far apart because of this, plus at river crossings, road crossings and some other geologic locations along the way. Here, I am driving, with no stops, in an hour, and I am driving really slow compared to what we are used to. 
I found six yard sales along the way. Many weeks, something will be common in several yard sales. Golf clubs were at three of them. Cook books were at four of them. Furniture was in four of them. 
At the last yard sale, I picked up a Crock Pot slow cooker which is the same size as one I already had, and a Cast Iron fry pan, which on-line says is for cooking bacon. The pan really needed help. 
I did well in not bringing home a full load as there was a lot of items I gave thought to and talked myself out of.

I got home and Mom wanted to go to Home Depot. I drove as I needed a board. Just as we hit the road, we saw a yard sale sign that was not there when I made my run, so we stopped. She had a lot of children’s stuff. I picked up some rubber stamps and was able to walk away WITHOUT another package of watercolor paint-pots that are connected together. I have plenty of them already. 
I walked from one end of the Home Depot to the other, weaving through about a quarter of the front isles and a few of the back isles too. I picked out a two by twelve board for my platters. While examining the boards, it dawned on me that I tend to grab a board right in front on top. It is a lot of work moving them around and the desire to find the exact board I want is very weak. It usually happens that the kind of board I am after, one with knots, is right there as it was left behind when someone was after clear boards. Below it was a nice clear board with no knots. I like knots better. 

On the way home, I took Mom to that last yard sale I had seen when I went on the circuit. Mom said this woman has nothing she is ever interested in but I stopped and we looked. Mom did find something to buy. I found a doll I had not seen before. The doll had a pretty face, a cute dress and the price was good. I have a friend that gushes whenever I show her pictures of the dolls I have gotten. I might gift her one for Christmas.

Mom had a project for me. She told me about it last week and I decided to tackle it today. We have a wood pile of dimensional boards that we have not touched in a very long time. Some of it is pressure treated and some is not. I started pulling boards out and the ones that had started rotting, at least on one end, got tossed. There were a couple boards that had full contact all around and kept wet that had became compost. There was almost no wood left with them. The pressure treated wood looked well weathered, but they are still useable. 
I found two pieces of black walnut among them. These are like two by twos and a one by one and a half. I had learned how to spot black walnut a while ago. It had a special weathering signature, black spots here and there among the grey surface. 
After I sorted the wood and got them out of the way, Mom cleaned up the wood compost and then figured out how to keep the wood off the ground so it won’t rot so fast. 
I have some oak branches my brother gave me early last year that I have to look at and decide whether to keep them or toss them. I might do that next weekend.

The cast iron pan I picked up, needed some help before I could use it. I looked for a wire brush to mount in my drill. After searching  a bit, I remembered exactly where the brush was. The problem was it would require an archaeological dig to get to it. I was not up for that. I took a brass brush in the dremmel and worked on the bottom of the pan which as fine grooves circling the center emblem. I found out that the brass sticks to the iron and the brush slowly became a simple disk. 
I decided to take a hand powered wire brush (ever use one of those? It is something that cave men used a few years ago) to the pan. It helped but still the pan needed more help. I finally dug out some sandpaper. That finally got the pan to a useable level. It still needs to be washed and scrubbed with steal wool and a brush, but the worst of the corrosion and dirt was gone. 
I was reminded that rust sticks to cloth. I was cleaning the pan with it on my leg and I had a nice rusty colored area on my leg that does not come off easily.

I intended to do all sorts of wood turning today, but from the yard sailing, the Home Depot and the wood pile, I was pretty much done in. It was about two and I decided that calling it a day was the wisest thing to do.  I wanted to turn another platter. The turning club meeting is Thursday and I wanted to make a couple finials for the club challenge. Instead, I called it a day. 
If things go well, I should do a little turning tomorrow. 

I will see what I do tomorrow.

SUNDAY


My brother had to work and was not coming up. I got to Mom’s and she asked if I wanted to go out to eat. I said yes and that killed any wood working for the day. Even at a buffet, it takes a couple hours to go out, eat, and come back. One never rushes dining out. 

I have the Wood turning club meeting Thursday. 
I will see what happens next week. 

1229

stamp set

the inside of a pan left outside for a while

the bottom of a pan left outside for a while.

closed crock pot

disassembled crock pot

heating element, metal pan and glass top.

the doll front

the doll from one side

The doll the other side

The two sticks after some sanding. the bottom one is black walnut.

the upper one is some good wood.

sanded pan inside

sanded pan outside. Once seasoned, it will be black.

Year 16, Week 34, Day One (week 866)

Year 16, Week 34, Day One (week 866)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-03-16 Saturday

84 degrees early morning, light clouds all over the place. Mid morning a feeder band came over and basically ended my day. I had noticed tall puffs all around but did not equate that to showers. The storm missed us entirely except for a couple feeder bands. Surprisingly, Florida is still a peninsula rather than an island because of the storm. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. 

After Breakfast, we stopped at a yard sale on the way home. The woman’s brother had passed and was unloading much of his stuff. He had a number of items that were still in their original packages. He had quite a bit of tools, like sockets and wrenches. 
The woman saw the hat I was wearing and went inside and brought out two more. One was a bit too big and the other fits nicely. I also picked up a travel alarm clock.
I had my hands on a socket set a couple times and a draftsman’s compass set. I actually walked towards her to buy them but she turned to someone else and did business with them first. I put the items back. I am positive I might have four of those draftsman compass sets somewhere. I have not seen them in a long time. I seldom use the sockets I already have. 

I headed out on my own on the big loop. I stopped at four yard sales in my run. 
One had some hammer heads. A wedge shaped head was what caught my mind. I figured besides making handles for them, they could be used for other things.
One woman is an artist and was selling off some spare materials and some other things. Her art is to apply jewelry and other things onto animal shapes as decorations. Her work was masterful. A blue sea horse caught my attention and I kept coming back to it. If I had a place to put it, I might have found a way to get it. It was that good. I can still picture it in my mind. She said that she adds a liquid glass product over her pieces so they can be displayed outside, which a lot of decorators are doing now. I almost had a bag of wooden beads in my hands, but I remembered I have a bunch of them and have not come to a project that would make full use of them. Sadly, I walked away without anything. 
About this time, I noticed a bunch of tall puffs all around. 
When I reached to the Southern end of the run, drips started to appear on the windshield. When I headed North, it got heavier. I drove past a yard sale that was already covering their stuff with plastic sheets. I kept going. I soon got out of the showers, but when I did the Eastern jog before heading north again, I saw a yard sale by a woman that always has them. She seldom has stuff I need and her prices are higher than I like. Soon after I passed her, drips appeared again. She was going to have to pack up very quickly.
I got home and drips increased in intensity as I reached the front door.. I checked the radar and saw that the feeder band from the storm was passing over us. The band itself which was but a couple miles wide, was heading east on an angle, closer to the ocean to the North of us than to the South. The storm cells within the feeder band were heading north through the feeder band at a good speed. I decided to take it easy.
After lunch, I headed out and it was showering again. I looked out, and after a moment of thought, I decided NOPE. 

There was a lot of things I could do under the awning. I have Christmas ornaments to work on. I could bring out the little lathe and make crochet hooks. I could sit and sand on the platters I have made so far. “NOPE” got the nod so I went inside and relaxed with my legs up.

At about three, I looked out the window and thought about doing something, then chose “NOPE” and laid back down again. There is a twinge of guilt from not working on things, but it was not strong. 

SUNDAY

My brother came up but other than pumping up the air in my truck tires, we sat and talked and accomplished nothing. I headed home soon after lunch.

MONDAY. 

I chose to stay home and work on some projects around the house. Sleep, put some stuff away, sleep, move some other things around, sleep, etc. 

Hopefully, the weather won’t give me an excuse not to do anything next weekend. There will be a turning club meeting next week so It would be nice to show something off..
I will see what I actually do Next weekend..

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The artist's work

The hammer heads