(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-17-18 Saturday
65 degrees (feels almost arctic when you are used to the 80s) in the morning. 84 in the afternoon. Mostly light clouds all day, mostly blue sky. Our coats came off after breakfast which was about 8:00. This weather report was brought to you by The Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
THURSDAY
We had out wood turning club meeting. As we were meeting in a place where you cannot make a mess, and it is typically hard to come up with a demonstration, They convinced the Broward County Sheriff chief to come and talk about safety. I will admit that I forgot most of what he said an only have a strong impression of what I do remember. I think he talked about an hour and said this is usually a two to four hour presentation. He talked about different levels of wounds, shock, and how to deal with them. I cannot do justice to even a mention of what to do so I will skip that. I am positive there are presentations online to found that will explain what to do and how to handle them different situations. They will teach you far better than I could in a quick note. Taking classes would even be better.
Our next event is the club Christmas party which will be Saturday December 1.
SATURDAY
Aunties Attic was today. It is like a collector’s yard-sale indoors. They were mean to me. Teddy bears everywhere, every one begging me to take them home The bears I have refuse to let any other share my love, so I cannot take any more home. so sad.
A couple friends had tables there. I tried to sell some things to mom for my friend but they were not exactly what she was after. There were things that would be nice to have but I don’t have a place for them.
There were actually a few things that I had to figure out what it was. That is always fun. It adds some interest in hunting for things.
They had some Wild Coffee plants for sale among some other house and yard plants people grow and offer. I did not mind getting one, but a woman bought two big plants as we were about to leave, so that took the pressure off me for buying them. There was another small one hidden away but because it was hidden, that was my excuse for not getting it. I really don’t need to kill one of those plants at this time. Maybe I will kill one, I mean try to grow one later.
Wild coffee is a relative to the coffee you drink, but the seeds, which are in berries are tiny. The berries are bland but almost sweet. One guy said made coffee with it a couple decades ago and the coffee was horrible tasting. Thinking back now, I wonder how much he roasted them or if he did.... I was clueless about coffee (and other things) at the time and did not know what to discuss about coffee, and just remember him saying it tasted bad.
We found another yard sale run by a church group. There were some things that were interesting. I have a life-time supply of knives and kitchen utensils. I did buy another keyboard. It is cheaper and easier and to get a yard-sale replacement for the one at work than ask the office to get me a new one. The office one is simply dirty. One almost needs to remove the keys and scrub each one. It is easier to pick up a yard sale find as a replacement.
I had bought some meat for Thanksgiving and needed to take care of some of it. I had a 10 pound roll of hamburger I needed to slice. After rearranging the freezer to make more room, I stuck it in the freezer and let the outside surface freeze, rotating it periodically. The partially frozen outside of the meat will keep them as patties when I slice them. Otherwise they squish. After cutting the roll in half, I then ran the roll through my meat slicer. I made these thicker than I usually do, about half an inch thick, placing four of them in each gallon baggy and ended up with about 40 patties. I laid them flat to freeze overnight.
I did not have room for slicing up a pork loin I had also packed up. Maybe tomorrow. I can res-tack the freezer agin and remove a couple things so I should be able to make room.
I needed something in the back of the shed that mom lets me use for my stuff. The problem is that there is a lot of stuff stored there for the hurricane last year and that stuff would have to come out and go someplace. What I was after, was in no way visible so I decided, “forget it.” There is about seven things I really need but it is going to take some effort to get to them.
I nibbled a little bit on a couple of the tea pots I am making for ornaments, but not too much.
About that time, It was time for an afternoon nap before leaving. You know you accomplished little between what you actually did when you know you did something else and have no as to clue what it was.
I expect to do more tomorrow.
Year 18, Week 45, Day two (week 983)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-18-18 Sunday
76 degrees early morning, 85 late afternoon. Sky was blue in the morning, a couple cotton swirls of clouds around noon. By three the cloud cover built up into a solid ripple. A light breeze made it really nice in the shade of the awning in back. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I dug out my carving stuff, a portable table and my dremmels. I sat down and worked on my tea pot ornaments. I started shaping the tops with the dremmel, but decided it would be just as fast with the knife. I left a large knob on top. It should be smaller, but that will give room for the eye hook to dig in nicely and not break the wood.
I broke one handle and two spouts off while I was working, and glued them back on. I have to get more glue. The tube was nearly empty so I stuck a skewer in and used that to place the glue where it needed to be. These were the ultra fine skewers.
I finished about half the tea pots. I nibbled on one gingerbread house but I need to use a sander to clean up the surfaces before I go any father on them. Since the disk sander motor is dead, I will stick a sanding disk on the lathe and use that for sanding. (Note to myself. Make a sanding table for the lathe when using the sanding disk.)
Weekend after this one is the deadline for getting at least these ornaments done. Even if I don’t do the rocking horses this year, I want the ones I have started, done. I start displaying them at the beginning of December. I have to finish the carving of everything, then paint them. That will be a tall task. The tea pots will be easy to paint, but the gingerbread houses is going to need some detail painting to make them look right.
I just realized that December is almost here. I intended to come up with a Christmas card design already and start painting them so I could have them done well ahead of time. Three or four weeks sounds like a long time, but that disappears quickly. I have not even considered a design yet. It has to be interesting enough to be worth doing, but simple enough to do on some 50 or so cards each year.
I hand paint my cards. Many people create a card and then print it. Hand painting is more interesting. It means more to me, and also to the person who gets it. There are people who have every single card I ever gave them.
The hard part is to come up with a design that I have not done. Christmas trees and snowmen are old hat. Even if they are in the tropics... Last year, I tried to do a sleigh, and also a car filled with presents and they looked closer to a blob than anything. Some designs are just not doable.
I buy card stock (which reminds me, I better get some more) and I add one color on a batch at one time. Usually a batch of cards is 20 cards. It is enough to use up the space I usually have to lay the cards out to dry. I work the background colors first, many times just one of the colors, but I have one more than one color if they blend in with each other.
I should note that I am using bottles of acrylic paint. The colors are not pure so you really can’t mix them for the exact tones you are after. Think of the colors in the Sunday comics. It is hard to get shading and depth.
After the background, I use the base color of the main subject, A medium green for trees, a white for a snow man, brown for the bear and get the basic shape. I have had painting instruction and experience so I know how to work the brush to get the effect I am after. Then I add additional colors to build up the image. Sometimes one color. When adding colored lights, I will have several brushes each with a different color and dab those colors on at one time. After the colors are all dry, I can then add lettering on the back of the cards, letting people know who made it and when. I then letter the inside with the message of the year.
Back in the 80s, I took sign painting classes and as part of the learning, we worked with pens to do calligraphy. I understand the techniques and could tell people how to do it, but I cannot do it nowadays. My hands refuse to move the way I know they should. I really need to spend a couple months practicing to get good at it. Not depend on a couple weeks of actually doing it. As it is, the messaging looks nothing like I want them to.
I re-stacked the freezer again. To make room, since there was space at the front of the shelf, I stacked about 12 patties in one zipper bag standing upright. That made room so that I could slice and freeze my pork steaks. I used the same setting as the hamburger on my slicer and made about 36 pork steaks that are about the size of the palm of my hand, not including the fingers.
The meat slicer I am using is the last one I purchased. Several years ago, I had picked up a commercial style slicer and realized I did not want to have to clean it. I saw the meat slicer I am using the next week which is stainless steel plate and frame, with a removable motor, and talked myself out of it. I already had two slicer bodies and one motor. I came back the next week, thought it was gone, mentioned something about not having to buy it, and they had it buried. I came home with it. I had a friend pass on the commercial meat slicer for me. I have been satisfied with the meat slicer I am using now. It was exactly what I was after I can stick everything except the motor into a dishwasher or dishwater and clean them properly. It really made slicing the meat this weekend easy.
I need to do some stuff during the week in preparation for a 4 day weekend.
I will see. What I do next weekend.
2046
The drum sticks I showed off at the turning club meeting.
The left hand pair is in sea-grape.
The right hand pair is in black walnut.
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