Year 18, Week 41, Day One (week 979)

Year 18, Week 41, Day One (week 979)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-20-18 Saturday

76 degrees early morning, 87 late afternoon, partly cloudy (small flat puffs) early morning, a bit larger ones in near noon. Blue skies by four with puffs building over the Everglades. A light breeze helped and the humidity was a lot lower than it had been. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

THURSDAY

For several years, we have met at a local high school in their environmental department. They do planting, and have reptiles in terrariums and fish in aquariums. A few times they had ten foot diameter, four foot high vats with fish in them. All the school yard-maintenance equipment is stored and used there. We would have our meetings there and do wood turning projects and other sawdust intensive demonstrations with no problem. We swept up after ourselves each time. 
This month, we had to find a meeting place really fast. Because of the school shooting down here, security rules changed. We had a locked cabinet in one of their closets that security could not get into, and we met after school hours. That was two things the new security rules did not allow. We are not a tax exempt organization so a lot of places that could have been free, was going to cost us a lot to meet there. Our people found a place for our meeting at the last minute and we will meet there next month also. We cannot make a mess but we are able to have other kinds of demonstrations.
We had about 1/2 to 2/3rds of our people at the meeting which was not too bad for an emergency location. This location was out in the boondocks, at the edge of civilization. About a mile past this sight was a north south highway, and the start of the Everglades with nothing other than a few cross roads and a couple rest stops until you get to the other coast. 
For our demonstration, we had a question and answer. People sent in their turning questions and we answered them during the meeting. Things like “inside out” chucks, which is where you turn an inset into the bottom of the piece and the outside of the chuck holds the piece. They explained that for holding pieces with side grain, where the grain is running across the piece, rather than down it, a tenon that the chuck grabs onto might pop off. With the inside-out tenon, there tends to be a lot more wood for the chuck to hold. 
They talked about how big a tenon should be. The bigger the piece, the bigger the tenon should be. When they make the jaws of the chucks, they turn the shape inside and out, and then cut them apart. They are at their strongest when the jaws are slightly open, the edges of the jaws have full contact all the way around. The bigger the tenon, the less of the whole edge is dug into the wood until just the corners of the jaws are holding the work in place. 
There was mention about the type of steel to use for tools and a couple brand names. They mentioned about whether to use a waste block or not (piece of wood glued onto the back of the piece to hold it to save as much work’s wood as possible).
What is a worm screw? It is a screw that comes with most chuck with sort of a square head with rounded corners and well spaced flat threads. One drills a hole into the piece the diameter of the shaft. The threads of the worm screw actually cut into the wood for better holding. One member mentioned it is far more effective when going into side grain as opposed to end grain. In end grain, the threads actually cut the fiber, weakening them.
We discussed our officer election next month, possible meeting places for January, and the club Christmas party we are having on December 1. 
We have a bring-back prize, where we have a raffle and someone wins the piece brought by the previous winner. Then that person is to bring in something for the next winner. It happens that I won the bring-back prize last month so I had to bring something this month. Years ago, I was making platters. Some were in yellow pine and some were in local woods. I had painted a couple of yellow pine plates with a Christmas tree. I brought one of those for the bring back since I had nothing brand new to bring. I showed it at work and one of the women would love to have it, so she might get the other one, but she would like a puppy dog on it also. Will have to see if that happens. The winner is a club member that demonstrates at National Wood Turning Symposiums around the country. 

Several years ago, I was practicing for a demonstration on how to turn platters. I was making one each weekend testing ideas and having fun in the process. Health problems and storms intervened to prevent me from solving all the problems I was working out or doing the demonstration. I am completely out of practice now. The club could use demonstrations any time someone is ready for it. I would like to start practicing again in hopes to be ready like in May or June

Saturday

I got a surprise when I got back from Breakfast. Mom got the awning back up. The base plates under ground for the columns had to be repaired, some piping (a pipe frame) had to be replaced and a couple brackets needed correction, but now it is up. (My brother said it was a ten minute project that took all day).  Considering how buried my equipment is, it will take me some time to move my tools back under the awning so they can be used. 

I had brought a few more tools from the condo before this. It won’t be too long (I hope) before I won’t need any of the tools from home. 
I had a second jigsaw so I brought it. It has some features I like and a few I don’t like. One feature I like is that the plate is solid and flat, and the space around the blade is smaller than the one I used last week, and the plate is the same width on both sides of the blade. The other one had one side shaped to give better view with where you are going and a design feature to help you follow the line better. 
I found out that this jig saw uses an allen wrench to tighten the blade. I was not sure if the set mom brought out would have one that small, but then found that there were two smaller. The first time I set the blade it was not quite tight and it popped out and fell to the ground. I found it easily. I put a little more torque on the set screw and then it held nicely. I was using a finer tooth blade than I did last week.
I found small problem with this jig saw that I will have to experiment to find a solution. The space between the handle and the body is a bit wider than the other one. With the other jig saw, I could use a thin board to keep it from tipping. With this one, I used a larger board and it was not enough. It still tipped and would not hold. I will experiment with that. More.
I corrected a couple roofs of some of the gingerbread house ornaments I am making, and one had a pesky knot in the wrong place so I had to cut back that face. This blade was less grabby so it took less effort to hold the piece in place, and I could hold it to the blade from the left or the right, which made it easier. There were times the blade tip wandered left or right, and sometimes front or back, most likely because I was applying too much pressure in the wrong direction. It helped to flip the piece around a cut with the bottom on top to even out the cuts. 
I have a tendency to not depend on the blade doing the cutting, but instead pressing hard against it. This causes problems with the blade tipping or bending. Hey, I’m learning, and I am a slow learner.

I sat and carved on many of the houses, removing wood from the sides to create an overhang, and then cutting back beneath the peak of the roof. I had seven roughed out with the knife and was happy with that. There was a couple where I used a dremmel with a cutting disk help remove some of the wood where a knot went through the peak of the house. I cut the eave lines, then undercut some beneath the triangle, then cut slits down the triangle so it could be removed with the knife. There are times where knots add character, but other times where they are a bother. 

After I had finished with my carving, I mowed the neighbor’s front yard. The back yard needed it more, but everyone sees the front yard. I was done in after that.

I will see what I accomplish tomorrow.

Year 18, Week 41, Day Two (week 979)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-21-18 Sunday

76 degrees early morning, 87 late afternoon Blue skies with some puffs building over the Everglades. A light breeze helped and having the humidity a lot lower than it had been as late as last month made it nice out. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

My brother has been viewing machining videos on line and lately he’s watched some using the little Uni-mat machine lathe I have. I found out that I can start moving things around in mom’s neighbor’s garage. My brother really wanted to get the mini lathe out. It was at the back of the garage. Some of the stuff stacked up in the owner’s some of the stuff is mine some are packing materials (some wood that looks like it might be good for carving) and some are trash. I will be sorting though the stuff at every opportunity. As equipment gets uncovered, it will go under the awning at Mom’s house. The owner says there is no hurry. I do have to clean up a bit with what we did. 
We pulled the mini lathe out to Mom’s awning, and went through everything in the box. We were both figuring out what everything was, and how to use it. There is a lot of stuff that should not be in there, but was stored there as there was no better place for them to be, such as small clamps, thin skewers (can be used as thin dowels), tools for other machines, just to name a few. Except for the skewers, everything went back in there when we were done.
The box is the original box, made in 1976 by the documentation, and it had seen better days long before I got it. I could make a new box, but my brother suggested making a dedicated cart with a new box tall enough for when  the lathe is mounted upright for machining, and drawers for all the stuff in the drawers. Right now that box is sitting in the well of a BBQ cart I picked up at a yard sale or was given to me. I cannot remember now. My brother is thinking of making tools for the mini lathe so he can use it for small projects. He likes having something to work on when he comes up to Mom’s for a visit. This would be one. He jokes about making a live steam engine, which this lathe could well do. 
Very machine has some slop, and an expert or knowledgeable worker can compensate for the slop in the set up of the machine.  In some videos my brother watched, the guy said the lathe was junk because he could not do anything with it. Others are doing ultra fine work with it. It is all in the setup and operation of the tool. 

A grinder and a disk sander was on the lathe table so they came out with the lathe. I sanded something and turned it off. I got the idea to fix the roofs and bottom of the houses and turned the sander on. It ticked but would not turn, then it locked. My brother intends to see if it needs a bushing or bearing, which he can replace, or whether it is dead. It is like a 1960s machine, 1/4 horse power. If the motor is dead, we discussed getting another motor and making a new base that will do angles. My brother has access to motors all the time that run but are being replaced. In digging in the garage we did find one of my palm sanders and will use that next week on the houses, unless I find a better solution by then.

I will work on getting a bunch of the ornaments finished up, as once I get the lathe out back, I have dozens of project s to work on, and those will have some priority. One ornament idea is to turn ball style Christmas ornaments, then carve designs into them such as spirals or flowers etc, or even  possibly hollowing a couple of them. Whether I decide to do this will depend on whether I can come up with a better ornament design. 
I had one house blank I had not gotten to so I carved on it. 
I had been prying wood up with one of my knives while horsing off wood. I found today that the knife I was using was very dull. I ended up sharping it so it is sharp enough to shave hair. Not sharp enough to shave a beard, but it will remove hair on the arm. 

My knives are designed with a thick back, and it has an even taper to the edge. Some people have the taper on the blade, then change the angle at the edge to give a strong cutting edge. When I started carving, I had a problem with holding the knife at the right angle when sharpening them. 
When I started making knives, I made them easy on me. I made the taper from the back to the edge of the knife. To sharpen them, just lay the whole blade down on the stone or on the strop. The edge becomes sharp with no effort on holding the right angle. The problem with this kind of edge is that it is that the edge is delicate. One can get chips on the edge with ease. 
When sharpening a knife, the grind stone is really only used if the edge is damaged such as with chips. One uses the stone until the edge is even. A burr will form on the edge of the knife and it usually bends slightly away from the last time you stroked the stone. Usually when I am near the end of the sharpening with the stone, I will stoke once, flip the knife and do that several times. Usually, one grinds towards the blade, almost like you are cutting or shaving it. 
When one uses the strop, the idea is to take that burr and straighten it up so it is in line with the blade, and to polish the sides and the bur. You pull the blade backwards to the strop so you do not cut the material. The last bunch of times, I will flip the blade each stroke to make sure the burr is centered. The burr is the razor cutting edge. When carving, the sharp edge with stick to the wood and dig in with pressure. A dull knife will slip off the wood and if the hand is in the way can cut flesh (speaking from experience here). Hence the saying, “sharp knives cut wood, dull knives cut fingers.

After we went over the machine lathe parts, looking at the instructions, we put it away,  Mom and my niece joined us and we sat there and talked, while I carved on a tea pot. With this tea pot, I started from a short square piece and worried the wood away as I worked. What I really need to do from now on is draw a circle on the piece before I start cutting so I can know where to cut to with the saw. By working from scratch this time, I controlled what wood was removed. 
A light breeze went under the awning, making it comfortable, mocking birds singing a few houses away, bright blue sky sun shining all around to light the shade beneath the awning, It made having the awing nice. 

I am really excited about accomplishing some wood working. It has been a very long time since I really saw progress. Coming up with designs this early really made this nice. Most years I was doing ornaments, I would be struggling to come up with something in the middle of November, when I would be due to show them at the beginning of December. This is a little heady. I really should come up with a Christmas card design while I am at it....

I hope to have another machine out back next week (it won’t be the lathe). I have to remake the blanks for the tea pots. Cutting them properly will save me time and effort. I might get a new two by two board. The fresh wood is usually softer than the several year old stick I am working with right now.  There is some damaged corners mid way down the board and I am getting close to that section.

I will see what I do next weekend.

12584

The yellow pine platter with a tree painted on it. If the grain curves up edge to center, you get an oval. if it curves down from edge to center, you get hourglass shapes in the center

me holding the yellow pine platter. Yes, I am smiling.

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one of those newfangled drill presses. Talk about new technologies This one is about a foot tall. I brought it from the condo more to show it than to use it.

my carving results for the year. The far left house has some details carved into it. The right hand tea pot is the one I did today.

Year 18, Week 40, Day One (week 978)

Year 18, Week 40, Day One (week 978)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-13-18 Saturday

79 degrees early morning 89 in the afternoon, mostly blue sky after a quick shower before dawn. A light breeze helped with the heat. There was some humidity in the airDuring the week, we received a few feeder bands of showers from the storm but nothing else.  This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Mom’s neighbor’s lawn needs to be mowed. The wet lawn in the morning precluded any mowing. That is my excuse. Mid day, while at the neighbor’s house. a man came by asking to mow the lawn. “I said that was my job. It is the only exercise I get.”that is better than paying for it to be done...

I was so frustrated with not finding tools I need, I brought some tools from my condo. I had a jig saw, a circular saw (really did not need that) a dremmel, a pair of battery powered drills, the battery of one is dead, I learned later, and a drill with no reverse. It is really old with a metal body, and is strictly a drill. That is something you won’t see anymore. I might not have brought that but I did not realize it did not have reverse. I also grabbed another dremmel body. I have several and a few at hand, but it was there when I was grabbing stuff so I have it. 

In the morning, I mounted my two by stick in the vice and cut out blanks for my gingerbread houses. I first cut the roof. I broke the blade that I had in the jig saw. It was dull. I went to the local True Value (used to be an Ace years ago) and picked up a package of three blades. I installed the coarsest blade, and should have used the finest blade as the coarsest blade has a lot of grab.  That really was not a serious problem as I was working with the wood in the vice. 
I worked until the vice was in the sun. by then, because of the angle I was at and the position of my legs, my knees told me to stop for the day. I have 9 blanks made. A couple are not great and with the two I had already done, I would need to make one, and one I have has a knot in it where it does not belong and another is a bit short, so I might make a some more to make sure I have some good ones made. In all, these will be very easy to do so having extra won’t be a problem.

I had tried to add a new top to a desk. I used shelving materials for this I glued them down and it is down, but the desk is so heavy that if you try to lift it by the boards I added, which has much more overhang, it would break the glue bonds. I found that the phillips bits I was using was stripped, so I picked up a package of bits. It was a box of them. Later I tried to put the screws in. Some went in nice, but some balked part way in. I have to try it again using some wax or soap to lubricate them so they will go in easier. There are some I have to get on the floor to do. Getting on the floor is the easy part. It is when you need to get up that is hard. 

I am happy I accomplished something today. Will see what I do tomrrow.

Year 18, Week 40, Day Two (week 978)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-14-18 Sunday

Mostly blue sky, loads of sun. 79 degrees as the low, 89 degrees as the high, light breeze to carry some of the humidity away. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

We had lunch and talked until two. The bench with the vice is against the fence. Then there is another bench against the house. Then at about three, I went out and sat at the house bench and carved on four of the gingerbread houses, creating the overhangs on the roofs. My tactic is to slice where I want the eaves to be, and then work the wood away. Sometimes I work the peak end of the house first, but usually I did the side eaves, since they were not even, It would take a little more work to get them where they will look nice. To get beneath the overhangs, I slice straight in with the knife and then cut, and sometimes split the wood away.  The removal of the wood at the walls, to get them set in beneath the overhangs, is done by splitting the wood out as much as possible, and by slicing to even them out, or where the wood is resistant to slicing. I am working different angles of the wood as slicing from the side sometimes is easier to remove the wood. 
A wood block has six sides. The end grain on both ends react the same to the knife. Except for pieces from the outside of really big trees, (and these are cut from near the heart of the tree usually) the sides have a different grain profile. With these two by twos, the heart is usually  right near one corner so two sides are actually edge grain and you have the back grain. How much depends on what pieces of wood you get them from. Face of the grain cuts differently than the edges of the grain. Also, the wood is sawn, rather than split from the tree so the grain might go into the side rather than parallel to it.  When you are cutting on the piece of wood, you end up rotating it all the time to get the best angle of attack on the piece. It will cut better from one side than the other. Also some directions the wood will split easily, while a different direction will have to be shaved down. 
I split when I could, but made sure I cut deep enough to make the split stop. These stop cuts are sometimes simply a straight-in slice into the wood where you want it to stop. Usually, though, I would V cut the place where I wanted it to stop, and work carefully, sometimes having to slice deeper at the stop cut because my split is below it.. 
I ran out of shade by the house at about four. I could have moved and carved more, but I wanted to try something I talked to my brother about. I had seen in videos where they used a jig saw as a table saw. I was not going to go that far but I decided I would try mounting the jig saw in the vice upside down. I had to tighten down the plate several times but the side of the plate that goes against the body of the jig saw is larger than the part that is up when you angle the plate. In my cutting, other than slicing pieces off the stick, I would hold the work on that side. 
I decided to make blanks for the coffee pots. Here is where I learned that I need a finer blade. I needed to cut the corners off the pieces. I first held it at a 45 with one corner down and instantly saw there was no way to hold it like that.  I then realized I could set it down flat on the end and cut it from the side. I had to use a stick to hold the piece down as the grabby blade would lift it up. I also needed it as I was not about to get my fingers near that blade. I imagined all sorts of damage it could do. I was working a quarter to half an inch away from that blade. 
After the first couple cuts, I found that the jig saw was tipping as the handle part is tapered so only one spot is held by the vice. I tried several positions and none worked, and then tried several boards to stick between the end of the handle and the vice to keep it from tipping. A piece of board for my rocking horses did the trick.
I tried different levels of removal. Because the grabby of the blade, My fingers were getting tired with all the force I needed to hold it, A couple, I cut in for the spout and handle, others I just removed the corners and in every case I removed far more than I planned. Part of it was the force to hold the pieces in place caused the blade to bend so they were not even. The last batch were just the corners cut off. One thing I did was since I was not cutting them off the stick straight, I would find the highest corner and decide that was the spout and then cut the side corners off for the body. 
Next weekend, I will carve more on the gingerbread houses, get them all roughed out so I can do finer detail, and then finish them. I will also work on the tea/coffee pots. I might re-cut some of them. I will mount the finest blade in the jig saw and see if that will make my cutting easier. I would like to make the tea pots (which is what these are actually supposed to be) fatter and the way the course blade wandered it never happened. I might completely re-cut them. 
There is a saying in metal working, “The more time you spend at the saw, the less time you spend machining.” that is also true for wood working. It is why I like to cut blanks to work from. 
I remember hearing from a friend where he was up in the Ozarks and stopped to see a carver. He asked to do a carving and the guy grabbed a blank and rounded and detailed it. My friend was disappointed that he did not start from a block of wood. He felt cheated. 
Anyway, I am excited about my accomplishments the past couple weekends and hope to do a whole bunch more next weekend. I still have to work on the rocking horse and if the fine blade is gentle enough, I will try to use it as a scroll saw for the rocking horses.

I will see what I do next weekend.


1798

My jig saw mounted in the vice. the board locks the handle so it does not tip. The left side of the base plate is large, stable and  us close to the blade so that was where I sat the work. I used the  thick stick in the picture to hold the piece down.

My jig saw in the vice. If you notice, the blade is mounted backwards (usually facing forward in normal use) so the plate becomes my saw  table.

The houses I have started, four carved rough out and five to finish.

tea/coffee pot blanks. I might make fresh ones with less corner cut off. the effort to hold the piece and the way the blade chose to go made it difficult to remove less wood.

I also grabbed this pant box easel and brought it to mom's. I intend to do some painting from life and if I have it at mom's the chances go up. I just have to fill it up with paint and brushes, grab something to paint on and go out. It folds out into an easel with the box behind the painting. 

Year 18, Week 39, Day One (week 977)

Year 18, Week 39, Day One (week 977)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-06-18 Saturday

80 early morning, 90 in the afternoon, mostly blue skies with some clouds zipping along, clouding up more in the afternoon. The predicted showers never arrived here. Mom had to water her plants that are in pots. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism. 

I am not doing much yard sailing lately. The time to do my yard sale runs leave no time for any kind of wood working. We did stop at a couple yard sales right after breakfast on our way home. One guy is in a neighborhood that is being bought up for a project. I am not sure what it will be. I picked up a stainless steel pot, with interior strainer and a steamer basket. No I don’t need pots. I liked the idea of the steamer basket, though. He had a lot of lids and I should have picked up the big ones as I have pots without lids. He did find a glass one that fits the steamer basket. 

Last night, I took a few pieces of wood I was thinking of using as my rocking horse blanks. I had mom draw a rocking horse on it. At home, I dug out my wood working stuff. I rough cut the rocking horse out, but did not get near the lines, using a dremmel cutting disk. I did not have the bits I need. I have to search for my good dremmel kit. It has the grinding bits I need to clean up my rough cuts. The only bit I had for grinding was going to take forever to remove the wood. Nothing is where it belongs.
I cut a gingerbread house and a tea pot from the two by two. I have the tea pot nearly done, but only removed the bulk wood from the gingerbread house. It dawned on me that by ten, the shade at the vice is gone. That was when I packed up the woodworking.  I think what I need to do is to spend my time cutting blanks at the vice while it is in the shade, and then go into the corner of the house and carve while that is shaded. I need to get more than one of each thing done.
I really need to dig out the scroll saw to work with. Digging is the right word, by the way. It will make the rocking horse ornaments real easy. I cut two legs, one body and then glue them together, and later carve them rounded to be more like a rocking horse. 

At home, I made some ice cream. Well sort of. I had a lot of bananas frozen and some frozen blueberries. I have tried this before and have seen it on the web. I pureed the blueberries and the bananas together, they have to thaw some to work into a cream. My bananas were in a big zipper bag and I poured hot water into a bowl and flipped the zipper bag a bunch of times until the bananas started thawing, then dropped them into the food processor until they became like cream. I mixed the berries into it and then put some in mini loaf pans lined with foil, and the rest in a foil lined sheet pan and froze them. 
When totally frozen, I slowly pealed the foil off. Just work really slow and it comes off very well, except for one loaf pan where a fold stuck deep into the ice cream. I t hen sliced the sheet pan ice cream into chunks. The loaf pan ice cream sliced into thin disks. Back in the freezer they go. I added nothing else, no cream, no sugar, just the fruit. It is really good. It is not too sweet but tastes good. 
I will admit that I likely ate half a cup of ice cream while “licking the bowls” when this is gone, I will make more. 

I really need to get more efficient on the ornaments. I think I am going to get sawsall from mom (she knows where it is) and use that to do my cuts. It will be faster and likely more accurate. 

I will see what I do tomorrow.


Year 18, Week 39, Day two (week 977)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-07-18 Sunday

80 degrees early morning, 89 in the afternoon (in the shade). I got to mom’s and found that the vice was in the sun. I really did not want to be out there working with hand saws with no shade. Instead I hung around moms until lunch was ready and we watched TV and talked for several hours. 
At about four, I decided I really needed to make some blanks. I saw that the vice was in the shade so I took my stick of 2x2 and started cutting. As mentioned last week, hand saws require skill to use properly. It is one thing to simply cut a piece of wood. It is another to cut accurately. The little fine toothed rusted saw cuts nicely but slowly. I am finding that the big course toothed saw cuts fast, but also, for some reason, cuts on an angle. The cut always tips to the right. Even when I tip the saw to cut left the cut still goes a little right. 
There are techniques I have seen like lining the reflection of the wood on the panel of the saw with the wood itself to make it square. The saw I am using does not have a really good reflection and even so, there is a slight tip of the cut. There are ways to keep the saw from flexing. Either I cannot remember what they are, or they don’t work. 
My biggest problem is when I cut the angle of the roof of the gingerbread house. The cut angles out, rather than going straight. I put a positive angle on the blade and it still tips out. 
Today at four, I cut four blanks for the gingerbread house and decided not to bother on cutting the roof angles on the fourth. The other three fought me way too much. They are sloppy and one of them I cut the house too short so it might not be too useable. I will likely make it work, but still. The corners of the roof are at all different heights. Being end grain, it is not easy to correct this with the knife. It would be easy to fix if I had the sander out also. But since I don’t.....

I really do need to concentrate on wood working. Having three ornament designs this early is a real treat. Usually November comes and I am still trying to come up with an idea. Whether a forth design comes up, I am not worrying about that. It is a lot of fun to be creating and doing this. If I can get the blanks done, it will be easy to carve these. 

At home, I have some 19 grains. I mix them and use the mixed grain instead of rice. I do it only because I can, not for any health considerations or anything like that. I was really low, maybe one more serving left, so I dug out all my grains and mixed them again. Several kinds of rice, rye, steel cut oats, bulghur wheat, millet, several kinds of quinua, buckwheat, just to name some of the grains. I had remembered that it took me a long time to mix them the last time, a couple years ago, but this time it took me about ten minutes. The plastic mayo jar is mostly full when done, adding about a quarter cup of each. Mixing them when done was easy. I just slowly turn the lidded jar end for end a bunch of time. As the grains tumble down the slope, it mixes and after about ten (I think I did it about forty times, turning the jar a quarter several times) rotations, the grain is well mixed. 
I intend to borrow mom’s saws-all next weekend and see if I can get a lot of blanks done quickly. If I can get all the pots and houses roughed out, it won’t take too long to carve them. I might get mom to help me get the scroll saw out (It might have to be stored in the neighbor’s garage, more lawn mowing to keep him happy) and work on the rocking horses. I can stack the wood and do them quickly.

Our normal summer weather is where the storms pop up parallel to the ocean and then move from there. Either driven west if they develop more towards noon, or they go east if they develop in the later afternoon.  This summer, we have not had much of that pattern. Mostly we have had a flow from the east with dots of showers rushing across the shore line. A lot of them disappear quickly before they get very far. From my understanding, there has been a series of highs over the middle east coast of the country and that is driving the showers from east to west. 
There is a storm developing over the Yucatan and that is coming north. Indications is that it will be a high category one storm, or a low two when it hits Mississippi, or the arm pit of Florida. Most of the rain will be to the east of the storm so most of the western florida coast will get wet. There is indication that the Carolinas will get it again. They don’t need more rain.

example of pop up showers

example of popup showers

example of popup showers

pop up showers showing where everything is in relation to them.

Will see what I do next weekend.

1644

coffee pot (was supposed to be a tea pot) and gingerbread house from last weekend.

mom's drawing of the rocking horse, the legs are different piece from the body.

rough cut rocking horse using dremmel saw to cut it out. Need to cut closer to lines.

molding boards being used for rocking horse.

my saws with two by two stick.

the coffee pot, the house and rocking horse from this weekend.

there was a knott running side to side through the house. If I had thought about it, I would have had it go through the front and back of t he house and make them into door or window. 

house, rocking horse and coffee pot from this weekend.