In My "Spare" Time: 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.

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