In My "Spare" Time: February 2017

Year 17, Week 04, Day One (week 890)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-04-17 Saturday

high 60s early morning, high 70s late afternoon. Hazy blue sky early morning some puffs in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I did do some yard sailing and did well. I picked up a big cast iron pot. I don’t need it as I already have two. This one is slightly better than my original big one, which is about the same size. I then have a smaller one we used when we had our Christmas Bar B Q..
I also found a musical instrument that you blow into and push keys. It takes a good set of lungs to play a whole song. I can’t play worth beans. This was not a toy. I showed it to Mom and she scarfed it up. She found it difficult to blow into it for long. I reminded her of those devices in the hospital that you breathe into to strengthen your lungs. I said this would be a good replacement.

Over at the house again. There was a glass holder above where the bar was. We removed the glass holding panel and found there was a flourescent light in it. That explains everything. When we moved the bar, there was a wire going from the bar and into the wall. We cut it and wire-nutted it. Now we now realize that a switch in the bart powered the light above the glasses. From what I figure, the light passed through a diffusing panel and into the glasses themselves, causing the glasses to glow. It would have been nice to see it but never had a clue.
We took down some bottle racks on the wall but left the upper shelf up for now. That will come down later. They had used 4 inch screws and it was fun to just twist and twist and twist with a flat-head screwdriver until they finally came out.
There was thought that the base of the kitchen table could be used for storage. We then noticed that the table top was two pieces, and we then saw it would slide. I decided to open it up and see inside. The guy who built this was a genius of design. The base spits apart and a gear on one of the rails caused the halves to separate evenly. We put a center panel, that we found hidden behind the curtains, in place and it makes for a nice family table. The base, of course, cannot be used for storage, but it was a nice thought. We put the center panel away and closed it up.

Between the yard sailing and working with the furniture, I was too wore out to consider working wood later in the day.

I will see what happens tomorrow.

Year 17, Week 04, Day One (week 890)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-04-17 Saturday

High 60s early morning, very low 80s, lots of clouds but lots of sun. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

We went back to the house and my brother and I took down the rest of the glass holder unit. Again, really long screws. Some of them could be taken out with an impact driver, but some had to be done by hand. Together we got it down. After looking at it a moment, Mom decided the case would make a good display shelf. We just need to get some hardware, shelving, and a back panel. It fits the design of the rest of the furniture. It might need to be screwed to the wall or something else as it is tall and narrow, but it should be nice addition to the living room.

That was about all I had time for before I had to head home and recover from the weekend.

I will see what I do next week.

678

The wind instrument

the pot on the left is new, the other two I already had

The glass holder in place

The glass holder sitting up like a shelf unit.

Year 17, Week 03, Day One (week 889)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-28-17 Saturday

54 degrees early morning, 75 late afternoon. Blue skies all morning long. High clouds appeared later in the morning, puffs started showing up in the afternoon. Light breeze took away any heat one built up. Was able to take jacket off for a couple hours before dusk started settling in. A front is coming through tomorrow and that will kill anything planned for tomorrow outside. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

During the week, Mom and I tackled my yarn. We poured them out of the hampers and onto the floor, and then sorted them according to color, sticking them in boxes. Mom’s idea was to label the boxes for the color. My idea was to set them on their sides so one can see the yarn colors. It works great for the skeins but the balls don’t stay in place. We had to jam them into the cracks between the skeins. Of course, while putting the boxes up, some balls would fall down and have to be picked up and stuck in there again.
I knew I had a “life time” of yarn, but now I actually see it. I have a lifetime of yarn!!!
I think my wool might have gotten stuck up there with the regular yarn, but I kept my cotton separate. I have a couple small boxes of yarn that need to go up there, but at this moment, they are keeping stacks of stuff that came out of the closet, from falling over. I do see I have a lot of really pretty colors there. I did not realize that before this. It is hard to remember when they are all hidden. My plan was to sort them and put them back into the hampers.

Saturday.

There was a church yard/rummage sale today. Since it started a little late, we decided to hit other yard sales first. The first few I got nothing. A condo that has a periodic sale, and had one again so we stopped. I saw a recliner much like mine, but in much better condition, and a floor lamp with a shelf mid way up. I was going to get them, but since I was riding with mom, I decided that I would come back later in the day and get them if they were there. When I finally did get back, the recliner was gone, and a woman was coming back for the lamp with transportation to bring it home. Darn. Oh well. That happens with that tactic. Some things go fast, while other things are still there.
I am not sure, but I think we hit ten or twelve yard sales before we got to the church. I had found a new cane, a coffee grinder with different settings. You can set the number of cups and the coarseness of the grind and it will stop automatically. I have several coffee grinders. They can be used for grinding seasonings, like pepper, making flour, and also in crafts where you want to work with a powder when something is granular.
I also picked up a multi plug cord, a long drill bit, a cook book on bread (like I need another cook book with over 70 in my library), a “snake” for cleaning out sink drains, and a keyboard.

By the time we got home from the yard sales, I was wore out. I had done a lot of physical work the past two weekends. You hope you can recover during the work week so the weekend will be great. I was still feeling some of last weekend and some things I did during the week, so I was not in the mood to do much.
When we got back, I headed back out to see about the recliner, which was gone, then went to locate a new grocery store I had heard about. I found it. Their sign is still a cloth banner, they are so new (took over a small grocery store building that went of business). I walked all the isles to see what they had.
Back at home, I ended up napping then lounging around the rest of the day as I was running on fumes. I never did get out to make some sawdust, which was one project I really wanted to do this weekend.

We have a front coming through tonight and tomorrow so I am not expecting much going on tomorrow, especially outside.

I will see what I do tomorrow.

Year 17, Week 03, Day Two (week 889)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-29-17 Sunday

52 degrees early morning, a short time the gauge in truck showed 50 degrees but went back up to 52. Low 70s in the afternoon, but there was no heat in the air. A constant shower of liquid sunshine came down, If it had been rain, it would have been sleet since it was well below the 56 degree frost temperature of South Florida. Being liquid sunshine, it contained just enough heat that when it turned into water on contact with the ground, and refused to freeze as it flowed away. Some of the canals did get an edging of ice but that did not get thick. It will be cold tonight and there will be thick ice for going to work. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

The weather killed most activities. During the week, I was at Walmart and found one of those spiral cutters. I had seen advertisements for them for a while and sort of wanted one. The advertised ones were either powered or manual. The one at Walmart was selling for $4. On line, something quite similar was about $40. I had hoped to find one of these at a yard sale and they were nowhere to be seen, and the price was about what I was going to expect to pay for one second hand.
As I opened the box, it was logically made and easily understood. It came with three blades. A flat cutting spiral blade, a wide noodle and a narrow noodle. It has a center hole that has a sharp edge and the veggie goes against that. The crank has a plastic spiky holder that digs into the veggie to allow you to turn it. The pressure on the crank is generally enough to hold it in place.
I started with the flat slicer and sliced up a potato. It creates long curls that can be kept together or cut up for chips. My technique was not great so it was not one continuous piece. I used the narrow noodle. It has teeth sticking out to give the noodle width, and then the slicer blade gives the noodle depth. Again my technique was not great. If you crank it with continuous pressure and speed, and if you get the veggie centered, it will string out in long noodles. If you are jerky and uneven, they will be short and that is what I got. I can see uses for this.
I have a philosophy that if a labor saving device requires more effort to clean it than the savings it gives you, it might not be a good idea. I have found that if you are fixing something for a dozen people, the labor saving devices do save labor. For one person, it might be better to use something else, like a knife. This spiralizer is borderline for labor saving and clean up.

Because of the weather, there was no way I was going to get any wood working done. It was also too cold to be outside. Other than watching my brother solve a problem of a water feed to the ice machine that broke, I accomplished nothing for the day.

It is going to get even colder tonight and possibly tomorrow. I am officially taking up a collection to send me to a warmer climate. I don’t like it this cold.

I will have to see how things go next week.