Year 16, Week 43, Day One (week 874)

Year 16, Week 43, Day One (week 874)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-29-16 Saturday

A frigid 79 degrees early morning, A sweltering 80 degrees after breakfast, a comfortable 83 degrees during the heat of the day. These massive temperature shifts in one day are really hard to take. They fixed the clouds mid week and they were still unbroken all day long. A really brisk wind (23 mph) with strong gusts (up to 40 mph) to blow things around. A few dots of sprinkles in the morning, then a little bit of showers around six in the afternoon. This weather report was brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. 

If it wasn’t warm, I would have thought I was in Seattle on a sunny day. Never saw the sun.
After breakfast, I decided to chance looking for yard sales. I found one by an elderly lady who lost her husband.  A landscape guy pulled up before me and he got a tool box that looked like it had a lot of tools including a couple hammers. I avoided getting (another) sander and (another) Jigsaw. I did buy some clamps and a few other items I really did not need. Clamps will get used. There was a little fine mist that passed that had her trying to cover her stuff with tarps, but the wind made it tough as they flapped wildly. What came down was not enough to wet anything but enough to get people worried. 
Another yard sale I found was by a pair of women. The leader of it was putting out signs so was not there. They were not ready to get started. Everything was still under plastic. After glancing in some of the plastic bags and tarps, I decided not to wait and drove off, since what I did not see something I absolutely had to have. 

I decided that yard sailing was not going to be fun todayas stuff was being blown around and there was a chance things could get wet. I finished the Northern part of the loop and headed home

My truck decided it needed service and would not listen to me so after I stopped at home, I headed out to the dealership. I knew it was going to take time. I still had in the truck some yarn I purchased a couple weeks ago. There is an orange yarn that is so vibrant and I just love looking at it. I grabbed the bag along with my crochet kit (which also has my tablet to play games if I want)  and after telling them what I wanted to have done, I settled down in one of the chairs of the waiting room with a cup of coffee. I took out a tooth-brush based crochet hook I had made last year and selected end of the orange yarn. I was not sure exactly what I wanted to do. I thought of little ornaments such as lightbulbs, but after a couple half-hearted failures in making the “magic loop” to make tight circular works that stuffed pieces need, I decided I would make a scarf. 
I have made narrow and wide scarves. I stitched about 20 links in the initial chain stitch. It looked wide enough and then began adding actual stitches into the ch ain. About the third row, I realized that this pretty orange yarn will look blah if it is alone. beautiful yarns really only look good when compared to something of a lower quality color.  I then decided to make this a Christmas scarf as I had green yarn and also a yellow yarn (really should be a white yarn but none in the bag and I was not heading all the way home in Sunrise to get white or head to a store to buy new).
I considered having yellow between the orange and green on both sides, but decided that orange against green won’t be bad. 
At the end of two hours I was just starting my third row of red (red yellow green, red yellow green, when they came for me having finished my truck. I had done a whole lot less done than I expected that I would have created in that time. I am not sure but part of it is because I have not done this stitch for a while and I was deciding on how I was giong to make it.  I considered early on the possibility of making waves, but decided I was not that energetic. One has to pay too much attention to get the different length stitches right. 

Back home, I set up to do some carving. I had an idea for rocking horse ornaments. The idea was to make it out of three glued up boards. The middle one would have the head and body. The sides would mostly be the legs and rockers with part of the body. I drew the head and body on a piece of molding so that two would come out of the same piece of wood. I looked at it for a while and realized that the wood was too thick to really cut out effectively with the dremmel. It needed the bandsaw, which was still put away, or a jig saw, such as what I did not buy today (I have several of them which is why I did not buy one, but they were buried or at home). It was near lunch time, so I packed up everything and went inside. 

I napped for a couple hours as the dark clouds sort of added to the restful mood.

Later I went outside and was petting momma kitty while she ate. Her body language said she could be held so I picked her up and was petting her on my lap. Midway through the session, she started making a growling type nosie. Slightly frustrated sounding. I wondered if I was petting her right and paid a little more attention to her. Then I looked up and saw that one of the pigeons was strutting around, whispering naughty names at the momma kitty. Mamma kitty wanted at the bird but did not want to give up on the attention I was giving her. That is why she sounded frustrated. At the distance of about ten to fifteen feet, momma kitty would not catch it anyway.

After I came back in, I settled down and added several more stripes of color to the scarf. 

I will see what I will do tomorrow. Weather reports say it might be worse.



Year 16, Week 43, Day Two (week 874)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-30-16 Sunday

The clouds started out unbroken, but whatever held them together gave way suddenly and they came apart and actually let blue skies show between them. There were some high platelets that helped keep the sun from shnining.  76 degrees early morning 82 late afternoon. The breeze just enough to be nice. I don’t remember seeing any sun but it was a whole lot lighter than yesterday. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism. 

My brother came up a little late. I had brought out my carving stuff with an idea of working on the rocking horse ornaments. Right after I had my stuff out, my brother arrived and mom decided to have the awning put back up. I had to relocate my stuff so they would not be in the way. A bit later, I put the carving stuff away. Other than digging out the step stool, He did most of the work while I watched. Mom directed him. I am not ready to do ladders. 
Later I gave him a hand on fixing the fold-down awning. I had not realized it but when it was put up by the painting crew, it was being held by the threads of some really long screws stuck through the holes. With the winds we had this week, it held surprisingly well. We had to replace them with bolts and nuts and that required some drilling since the bolts were a little bigger than a couple holes. 

Today, I added some more rows to the Christmas scarf. It is now about two feet long. 

I expect to have a couple times during the week to sit and wait, so I will continue to work on the scarf. It is going fast now which makes it fun. I think what slowed me down yesterday was weaving in the beginning of the new colors before getting on with the crochet. Also, there was some hesitation in getting the stitch right as it had been nearly a year since I started on a project like this. This is a project that people notice. 

I expect part of Saturday will be getting equipment and other materials out of their hiding places before any real work gets done. We are hoping that only a fraction of the stuff we had under the awning will return. More room would be wonderful.
I will have the band saw and lathe back out, so a number of projects I have planned can be worked on.
The thought crossed my mind that I really need a month or two off to work on projects I want done before Christmas. Yeah Right! 

I will see what I accomplish next week.

1580

Saturday yard sale finds. The clamps, a couple hack saw blades, and a icing dispenser unused. 

I picked up a couple things but they were not on hand when I took the picture.

Where the scarf was when I left the dealership

The scarf when I put it away on Sunday. I doubled the length which is now two feet long

A friend had a yard sale on Sunday and I picked this up. I know it is a horse, but could well be a dragon  if one looks at it right. 

Year 16, Week 41, Day One (week 873)

Year 16, Week 41, Day One (week 873)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-22-16 Saturday

62 degrees early morning, before dawn, 72 at about ten, The temps stretched out a hand while leaning just to make 80 degrees at three. Blue skies all day long. Our blue skies are not the deep rich blue of up north in the cold climates. We get a lot of dust from Africa and it makes it a little more of a rich milk-paint blue. A good breeze made it nice to work. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

The wood turning club meeting was this week. I usually go directly home from work, get some stuff done and then head to the club meeting. I had to make a couple stops and when I got home, I put some stuff away and sat down at the computer. When I next looked at the clock, I realized there was no way I could get ready and go to the club in time. I missed one.

Traffic is already getting thicker and the main Snow-Birds have not arrived yet.

I suspected there would be a number of yard sales. After breakfast, I headed out alone. There was nothing in the first three segments I drove through on my route. I then found a whole lot of yard sales as I headed south. A couple of the southern segments were also empty. I stopped at two stores en route to get things I needed. When I arrived near home, there was a yard sale that was not out when I started my trek. In total, I visited 12 yard sales and drove past one that always has them and never has anything I could use.. 

I picked up another doll. I liked the dress and the face. I have a friend who gushes when I’ve shown her pictures of the couple other dolls I found. I gave this one to her later in the day. I got a good hug. Well worth it to say the least. 

I found a shop dust pan. The one I’ve been using has seen better days. The handle is good but the plastic bin of my old one is missing pieces and does not have too much time to live.  The thought crossed my mind to make something like it in another material. 

I picked up two books I really don’t need. One is setting up a hydroponic garden and the other is mixing oil paints.  I found a turntable that plugs into your computer to copy vinyl music. Electronics are dangerous to get as mny times they just don’t work. A l;ot of times the low price shows that it might not be usable, Other times they are just trying to get rid of it.

I picked up a router bit. It might need the edge touched up, but for rough work, it just might be fine, especially if I use it in the wrong equipment. 

What I consider is my big find is a stack of dowels, rods and bamboo stakes. I was thinking about making dangling ornaments and these rods will save me a lot of work.

The radio we use out back is on its last legs, being possibly a decade or two of  being out in the humidity and heat beneath the awning all that time. I picked up another radio, for a dollar,  untested, and it works great.  I set it on my metal table and could hear it almost to the front of the house. 
There were a few other odds and ends I found that does not need to be mentioned.

I took a nap right after I got back home. You don’t realize how much work there is in yard sailing until you visit a large number of them. 

I gathered my ornament blanks and decided to finish up the three paint brush ornaments I cut out last weekend. It did not take long to make them look like brushes. I now have 9 of them. I need three more and that will finish them up. They just then need painting and varnishing to make them complete.

I grabbed the shortest of the dowels I found today and created it into a spiral ornament. I have a whole lot of work to do on it yet, If nothing else, I have to clean It up, but I want to go deeper with my grooves. If I go deep enough that they “daylight” I would not complain. I have several sizes of dowels so these will be different sized spiral-dangly ornaments, unless I find another use for them. There is a use for the bamboo stakes but I am not exactly sure how. 

Mom has not put up the awning yet, so nothing can be left outside. Everything has to be put away. That makes for a bit more work for each project. Also, because some equipment is not available, projects are limited to tools you have at hand. 

That ended my day. I rested until it was time to leave.

I will see what I accomplish tomorrow. 





Year 16, Week 41, Day two (week 873)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-23-16 Sunday

Blue skies, early morning. There were clouds way out over the ocean early on. By noon, the sky was populated with herds of wispy clouds rushing west at full speed. 

Last night, My low tire pressure light was on. This morning, I pulled the truck out of my parking space and the instant I headed forward, something felt wrong. I pulled to the side of the road, still across my condo’s property. My passenger front tire was flat. I took out my little air pump that runs off the cigarette lighter. It ran for several minutes when I realized it was not doing anything. I ran my hand over the tire and found a bolt stuck into the tire. 
It was time for my Three Stooges’ imitation. I have never changed a tire on this truck and it had been many years since I had to do it with any other vehicle I owned.  I have three jacks and lots of parts to them. I had to figure out how to lower the spare tire. That took some time. I then had to figure out where to put the jacks to lift the truck. The instructions were not perfect, but I used what I saw and made an educated guess. When I got the truck, my brother told me to get some wood blocks to raise the jack. I never got them. 
After removing the hub cap and loosening the bolts by standing on the iron until it moved,  I lifted the truck high enough to get the flat tire off, but then found that the spare appeared taller. That was likely that it was full of air. 
I figured out that the big jack I was using was at its upper limit, which is why you want some blocks to set under it to raise it as high as possible and still fit. I put a scissor jack under the wheel suspension to lift the hub high enough that I was able to slip the tire on. the hard part was done and I was able to quickly finish the job. 
I am not good on the ground. I had to get up and down a whole bunch of times. I had limited amount of lifting the tires, but it was also enough.
I am a person who detests being late and dislikes even being on time. Being a pessimist, I tend to be early whenever possible just in case something happens like traffic back up or problems. The tire lost me an hour in my morning plans but was still able to get going on time. I skipped several stops I normally do in the morning and did a few after I left Mom’s. I do have roadside assistance on my insurance but I was half started when I remembered about it and decided I did not want to make that call. Not across the street from my house. 

At mom’s house, I already decided I was not about to do any work. Getting the stuff out and put back again would be beyond my endurance.I would leave after lunch so I can go home and sleep for a while. 

I much doubt the weather will be as good as this weekend, which I had not seen since spring. I figure there will still be a lot of yard sales out. I am not counting on the awning to be put up by then. While I want to do some turning of platters, I will spend my time working on ornaments until the end of November.

I will see what I do next weekend.

1494

the shop dust pan on the left is my old one.

You can see how it is breaking up because of all the weathering

The doll. Her stand is really too short but she hnng over the edge of the table very well.

Books

router bit.

the dowels and other items I picked up.

In the back ground is a chilli paddle I got at another location

Radio with clock in it.

Today's production, spiral dangles and three paint brushes..

A rod that the dangle came from is for comparison

Year 16, Week 40, Day One (week 872)

Year 16, Week 40, Day One (week 872)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-15-16 Saturday

86 degrees, some wetness early morning, and late in the evening. Lots of piled puffs all day long. At about noon, it looked like it might clear as high pebbles were overhead and blue sky over the Everglades to the west, but the weather people changed their mind. A strong breeze blew all day long. Light stuff could be pushed off tables This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

We found that there were two big sales. Auntie’s Attic, which has a lot of collectables, and a Church yard sale. We did not bother looking for any others though we did see a sign as we passed by the street at 45 mph and the wrong lane.
At Aunties Attic, which might be about 60 tables, was fun to look at. There were several people selling knitting or crochet. I saw several sewing machines, some doll house furniture, a few cute dolls and typical jewelry, books and decorative dishes, odds and ends. 
One of the sewing machines was an early model of the singer style and it required either a treadle or a separate motor. I did not have that kind of money on me and likely would not have gotten it if I had.  I really don’t want to learn how to sew. If someone offered it for a few bills, I would have grabbed it. I have a sewing machine treadle at my brother’s house that we were going to turn into a treadle powered lathe. That project never happened. It is not totally eliminated, but on indefinite hold right now
There was a woman who had some yarn. One of the ladies selling crochet work was making something. I told her about the yarn. I figured that I would not have to get it....I somehow escaped without buying anything. There was, though, a lot of stuff I would have gladly accepted if they were given to me......

At the church yard sale, walked it a few times. There was some yarn in two places. I escaped the first one, then at the second spot with yarn, the yarn leaped on me and tangled me up. It forced me to grab the other yarn and pay for both batches. Right now, they are holding my truck hostage. I have to keep them if I am to be able to drive my truck around.......

When we arrived back at home, I went out back. I can still feel some of last week’s storm preparation work. Mom said she needed to bring the panels out for the awning. She intended to wash and paint them. Those things are heavy. I can carry two, but three is just too much. I carried three once. Just once. I had too much pride to carry them one at a time. I also was not going to let her do all the work around her house.

I accumulated my materials to work. There is a storm shutter in the back corner of where we have the awning. We never notice it as it is right under the awning when it is up. I set up beneath that just in case weather might come. 
Mom gave me some flat door trim. I decided it was perfect for the paint brush ornaments I am making for Christmas. I basically just have to cut the shape out and surface carve them. The first ones I made were out of two by twos and I cut three out of them out the two inch thickness. These are perfect thickness. 
I did not have access to the band saw. Carving the shape out of the wood was gong to take far too much time. A lot of wood is removed around the handles. I do have a dremmel and I used that to cut the excess wood. The disk I was using tends to burn the wood. Not the perfect solution but it did the job. I just had to carve away the scorched wood.
Carving the wood was not too difficult, at least it would not be if the grain of the wood was not consistent. On one piece out of the same stick of wood, one surface refused to do anything other than split. I think there was a knot near there. I know one piece had a knot. I carved three paint brushes before I decided to try a different project.
Not finding wooden rods I know we have, I then dug out a well weathered piece of black walnut. It is so weathered that the deep brown color is gone completely. I decided to do a dangly spiral ornament. The end of the stick already went on an angle where it broke. My attempts to round it was not spectacular. I ended up working with it as it was. I started the spiral with the knife and then was reminded that black walnut is a hard wood when it comes to carving. I used the dremmel to cut in the slot of the spiral. That allowed the knife to do its work. There was one spot where there were a staple was driven into it, leaving holes near the top. As I cut in, the wood gave, leaving a bigger hole in there where the wood rotted inside. The rot was black walnut brown. 
At the top I drilled holes through in both directions. I was trying to give it some design. As I was trying to enlarge the hole with a grinding bit. There was a pot and a corner of the wood was gone at the rotted spot. I could never find that piece of wood. I do know I heard it hit the nearby wall. 
When packing things up for the storm, I had found a baggy of sawdust I used for filling. I looked several places and could not find the baggy. I was going to use white glue and sawdust to fill the hole and the break, then shape it later. I figured I could always paint this ornament as it was not looking good in the natural color. If I run across the sawdust, I will fill the break.

I decided to create three more paint brushes. I did one with the bristles at the end of the stick, then second’s  handle touching the handle of the first, then the third with the bristles meeting. After cutting the three brush section first, I removed the excess wood at the handles second, Then I separated the brushes. About this time, I decided it was time to pack up and call it a day. 

I accomplished quite a bit today considering the conditions I was working under. 

A friend suggested some ornament designs and I decided I am going to do some rocking horses. The blanks would be easiest to do with a band saw and drill press. It might not be next weekend, possibly the following before I can consider this kind of project. I could do it with a knife but it is a lot of wood to remove and if I am to aim at making a dozen of them, I need to remove as much excess wood as possible to do them fast. 
My friend also suggested spiral dangly ornaments. Those are best done with a lathe available to rough shape the wood. If I put my hands on some rod I am positive we have, I can carve them from scratch from them. I will not buy dowel rods just for these. I would rather use what I already have. I have the tools available to make anything and do it quickly. Just remembering where the tools are and accessing them is the problem...

I am not expecting much tomorrow. The weather does not look good.
I will see what happens next weekend. 

1236

additions to my yarn collection.

some materials also from the collection of yar. I

am thinking that the short pieces of yarn is from cross stitching.

Some artist foam with the yarn collection.

Showing the wedge shaped flat tip of my knife against the grooves of the brushes.

The look at the black walnut wood that is heavily weathered.

The good side of the spiral dangle.

The spiral dangle showing the break.

The wooden paint brush ornaments. Three are not carved. The one on the right has a coat of varnish. The brushes are about an inch and a half wide.

Year 16, Week 39, Day One (week 871)

Year 16, Week 39, Day One (week 871)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-08-16 Saturday

High pebbly clouds early morning, fast moving thin cotton puffs later in the day. Good breeze and 86 degrees. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

WEDNESDAY

Hurricane Matthew was bearing down on us and everybody was getting ready for the storm. At that time, I had not taken the storm seriously yet. My weather sites did not make it frightening, showing it more a glancing pass than anything.. At about nine, Mom called me and said she desperately needed help getting the house ready for the storm. I left work early  and we got to work trying to find places for all the stuff that was under the awning. We had not moved most of this stuff since it was put into place after Hurricane Wilma. It had accumulated like you would not believe. I filled two garbage cans with small pieces of wood I wanted to keep and do something for. Mom had spent the morning getting the garage cleared enough for my machinery to fit into the garage. 
SOMEHOW we found room for most of it. When I finally left, we still had more stuff to put in place but we were wiped out. Nothing damaged by water was out.

THURSDAY. 

I left work at noon and headed to Mom’s house again. We found places for the last pieces of stuff that needed to be hid by about four. Mom is getting up in years and I am not in great shape or condition. We did miracles as this had to be done.  This was one of those cases where you do what has to be done, and then hope to recover afterwords. 
I will say that we found stuff that we did not know we had, or could not find. 
I told mom that unless there was damage in the area, I would not be coming up tomorrow. 
I spent the afternoon moving stuff in the living room and then taking the plants off my porch. It took some time as I felt the past two days and had to rest every few plants. 
One problem I found was that when you pile stuff up, your feet double in size and bumps into everything. It is almost like wearing swim fins.

In the evening, I looked at the weather radar on-line and found that the eye of the storm was a on the other side of the Bahamas when it was in line with my county. That was as good as a total miss.  I don’t think our highest wind was above 40 mph

SATURDAY

It was dark when I arrived at Mom’s house in the morning and the colors of the upcoming sunrise was beautiful as we headed out for breakfast. I really need to take pictures. Earlier in the year it was already light when I arrived at Mom’s house.

I knew there absolutely would not be any yard sales. Anybody who planned for one, had the yard sale stuff shoved onto some corner piled with things they brought inside because of the storm. If not next week, the following week nearly everyone will be having a yard sale as they all have found things they can unload. 

Since the walls under the awning is exposed and cleared, Mom decided to hire someone to paint the back walls before they become encased with stuff again. We were not going to put up the awning just yet and none of my big equipment was coming out of the garage. We did get some stuff out of the house so that we could move around in there. Finding room for some of that stuff was a challenge. 
I had to go to plan G for projects to work on. Plans C through F required physical work and my body said absolutely not.

I had my dremmels and carving basket in my truck so I took them out and set up my folding table in the back in the shade of the house. I pulled out the fan and put it on, and then had to search four different places to find all the ornament blanks I accumulated. It was not hard search as I knew about where they were likely would be. 
Over the years, I have made more blanks for Christmas Ornaments than I finished carving. Sometimes I ran out of time, other times, depending on the design, I ran out of initiative to finish all of them. I first wanted to see what they were, and then decide what might be worth finishing. I also had some that I was making back in January for this year and wanted to see what they were again. 
After digging them out, I examined them for ideas. Years ago, I read that at one of the carving symposiums, they had a carving challenge. They gave the carvers a cube and told them to carve something out of it. I did a couple and found that a frog worked great in a cube. I had a frog I started and a couple blank cubes. 
I took one cube and decided to try to create an egg and then have the egg hatching. I took the time to carefully sharpen my knife, and then started carving on the cube. This piece of wood did not want to cut. I rounded the corners but you could still see the cube in it. I really needed to use the lathe to turn the egg then carve it. I have done that a few times. Also, the physics of the wood makes it easier to carve from a longer stick than a little cube. 

The wood this cube was made from had one corner at the center of the tree. The growth rings went from one corner to the other in radius of that center corner. Wood has different cutting effects depending on the direction one cuts. The grain of the tree runs up and down in the growth rings, which goes around the tree. Cutting the grain and the rings on an angle is generally the easiest way to cut. 
Depending on the direction one addresses the wood, the wood may cut easily or split or resist cutting. Cutting straight across the grain is the toughest direction, but with the growth ring and across them also has different amounts of resistance to cutting. I’ve seen only one scientific analysis of the forces involved in cutting wood in different directions and I was in too big a hurry to try to figure out what it was saying and it really was accurate for that one wood, though some information could be gleaned for other woods. 
Being a cube, I was cutting across end grain on most of it, and not having easy cutting really everywhere. If this was that on a longer stick, one can attack the surfaces at more angles and from all sides.
After I humiliated myself with the cube, I decided to set it to the side. 

I worked a tiny bit on a cat head and cat body I tried making. I did not accomplis much on them, other than a little more defining shaping. 
I then did a little bit of shaping on a pair of mice blanks. They have a long way to go. It hurts a little that there is a knot on the nose of one and on the tail of another. Those knots require twice as much shaving to get through them. I could have plugged in the dremmel and made quick work of it, but I was not in the mood for that at the moment. 
I have one blank where I had to look at old pictures to remind me that I was making Santas entering a chimney head first.
I had made a bunch of angels early this year. My first ones had fairy wings and then I remembered the wings angels are supposed to have and made the rest with the right wings. I used the wrong paint to paint (a crafting paint that rubs off) and then the varnish I used was old and left yellow on the surfaces. They don’t look great. I need to paint and varnish them with the right stuff. 
I have a bunch of snow men with arms. I had seen where someone made something like this shape, but carved on them so they looked like old women, children, singers, and such. I will have to carve them. 

I worked on the ornaments until about eleven, then played games on the tablet until lunch time. I put everything away and then picked up lunch. I had a little bit of trouble getting myself to pack things up. There was resistance to walking and carrying like I needed to do.
After lunch, I laid back and relaxed the rest of the day. I found that when I get started after a rest, I am stiff, but I limber up some a short time later once I am up. 

SUNDAY

We went out for lunch at the Chinese Buffet with some friends. What would have been an hour for my family was three hours with them. 
When we finally got home, Mom had me help her move things out so that the painters can get in and do the work with the least amount of effort. Hopefully, next weekend we will start the process of getting things back in place.  I am not used to conversing that long.

The storm tracks stopped showing Matthew looping back around and returning to us so we won’t have to continue a storm watch.  I know that the lathe will not be out back for some time so any projects that require turning is out. There MIGHT be a few yard sales next weekend but I figure people will still not be ready to put them out. Most likely I will sit out back and carve on something. The following week might include having to put stuff back. While being able to work again would be nice, I don’t look forward to all that work.

I will see what actually happens next weekend.

1722

the blanks and carvings I dug up.

spools and light bulb to have santa faces carved in.

carved pain brushes

figurine blanks, at the moment snow men

cat, two mice, cat head, frog and cube I bothered.

angels

swans

Pole cats, frog and polar bear

incomplete figure

incomplete figure. I had not defined the nose, which I intended to be big.

Year 16, Week 38, Day One (week 870)

Year 16, Week 38, Day One (week 870)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-01-16 Saturday

The weather report on Friday said good weather until after two. Morning radar showed a blob over Miami stretching up deep into my county. It looked like Mom’s house would be dry. It wasn’t. We had Seattle weather in the morning, a light dribble of water that was not heavy enough for an umbrella but enough to wet everything down. The only difference between what we were getting was that in Seattle, it would have been 42 degrees, instead of 84 degrees. After 10, the moisture left and we had high feathers and spilled cream skys. This weather report was brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I knew there would be very few, if any yard sales. Mom did find that the church, we went to last weekend, was still having their sale. I walked and searched for anything of interest but could not find any items that needed to come home with me. They have a deal which is a dollar a bag on their books. I did find a book that was interesting, but to “get my money’s worth” I would have taken all the craft books (quilting, knitting, cross stitch,) and the rest of their cook books. I decided not to get any.  There were some mini muffin pans, but I have not used the ones I already have. 

We then went to Walmart and I went through the food isles. In areas I might have gotten something, they did not have the exact thing I was going to get. I left empty.

A while after we got back, I went to the neighborhood Ace Hardware / True Value store and picked up a few things I really did not need. I walked all the isles and then had to go back for something I thought of.  Since my wire brushes are buried somewhere that would require an archeological dig to find them, I picked up a pair. Now to place them where I can remember they are at, and can get to them easily. I also picked up some eyelets for my Christmas ornaments. 

When I arrived at home, Mom had a little project. She had a solar powered L.E.D. lighted decoration. The problem was that the angel did not fit on it, so she wanted me to cut it to make it work. It took a little bit. I used a cutting disk to cut a slot down the middle for the fiberoptic-rod support. Following her lines, it was too wide. I then used a grinding tool to “drill” a hole. I found out that this plastic material melts when the bit is going fast. I spent as much time trying to remove plastic build-up as working on the hole. In the end, I found a drill bit the right size and drilled in until the rod would fit inside. That hole needed to be polished but that was not done. Mom was happy that it would stay on without glue. 

I napped for an hour or so, until it was lunch time. 

I went outside FINALLY to do some work. With the lathe out where I could work, I mounted one of my platter blanks into the lathe and made a platter. I shaped the inside/top. This time I mounted a sanding disk (I picked up early last month) and sanded the surface with the 40 grit and 60 grit disks. That eliminated some tear-out and tool marks. I am thinking that I should take some time and properly sharpen my turning tools for once. 

I flipped the platter around and shaped the bottom/back. I used the sanding disks on that surface. The disks are too big to get into where the center is holding the platter. 

Removing the platter from the lathe, I sat down and removed most of the center post on the inside, then used the dremmel to grind it down to level. Then I used the sanding disks in the drill to hide the dremmel work and go over the surfaces better. There is one problem with using a drill for this. Your hands are in the wrong place to keep it flat and straight and to keep it from wandering. I also removed and sanded the knob on the back side. 
The platter looks fairly good, but has all sorts of flaws in it. One big flaw is that the bottom is so thin that if you hold it up to the light, you can see light through the wood. The plate needs serious sanding and some corrections. Because the sanding disk wandered into places that was not supposed to go into. It ruined some edges. I would say it is not bad for a first attempt at finishing. 
I really need to take the platters I have already made and do some finishing on them to get them closer to presentable.  I am spinning the work at 2000 rpm which is as fast as the lathe will go. I should slow the platters down when sanding. I can go as low as 500 rpm. I have found that most lathes will either go too fast or too slow for what you want to do.

When I was done cleaning up, my legs were telling me that they were not happy with me. I had walked and stood at the church yard sale (about for times the size of a nice living room) and then walked around the food section in Walmart, then went to Ace Hardware/Tru Value, and then stood while making the platter. That was a lot of work for my legs to do.  I relaxed the rest of the day.


Sunday 

I found two yard sales on the way to Mom’s house. One had a lot of baby items. They had a big bag of teddy bears and I had to plug my ears as they were begging to have me take them home. Yard sale teddy bears have a desperate tone when they beg to come home with you. Store teddy bears are a whole lot more calm as they know they will go home with someone eventually. The other yard sale was an elder man and his prices were higher than what I wanted to go with. He had a bunch of electrical wire I could have picked up for my brother, but his prices were higher than I had, even if I wanted to go that high which I would not have.. 
This is a case where the old man had put out signs, and the other house took advantage of people going that way. I almost chose not continued on, but did not feel like turning around in a driveway. Most of the time, I love having several close yard sales. This was kind of nice, but if it were not that I had looked carefully at the address, I might not have gotten to the other sale.

At mom’s house, we had lunch. I decided to lay down just for a moment. An hour and a half later, I woke up. I decided nothing was gong to happen and I was still tired. I decided I had better get going home. 

This week, Matthew will be passing by. The computer models show the storm missing us. It could still wander, or the waves could crash over the state, drowning it. All I know is that when there is a storm out there and we are all going to die. 

Will see how the weather is next weekend.

1280



face side of the platter blank I was after the knot.

'

back side of platter blank

sanding the face of the platter before flipping it.

finished face side of platter with post removed and sanded down.

back side of platter.after post removed and sanded.