Year 16, Week 02, Day One (week 747)

 These are what I am calling handle-gloves. They fit on the handles of your pans so  you don't need hot pads or oven mitts.

 My duckling bowl as seen at the turning club meeting.

 The cat head. The cat body needs loads of work to get close to being finished. both of these are out of two by twos.


Year 16, Week 02, Day One (week 747)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-24-15 Saturday
   
    60 degrees early morning 75 high at about eleven, 70 degrees around two. Heavy high clouds early morning that lead a front that was slowly passing across the state. Misty Liquid Sunshine started coming down around eleven, by three, sky was clear and nothing was on the radar over land. The wind in the morning was strong enough to blow my hat off once. It was lighter in the afternoon. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.
   
    THURSDAY
   
    I went to the Gold Coast Wood Turning Club meeting. There was a problem where it was not the normal night, many of the people were at a symposium or convention somewhere, and The normal access door was not available. I think I saw someone pull out when I came in that may have thought it was not meeting night.
    I could not figure out how to get in. I had to search for and find the calendar on my phone to make sure I had the right night. I then used my cane to reach through the chain link enclosure that is around the normal door entry and tap on the door, and then had to go around to the side of the building, not far and on pavement, to get in.
   
    The demonstration was on sharpening tools. It reminded me that all my tools need to be sharpened, and cleaned up quite a bit. I also saw I have not quite sharpened my tools properly. There is a technique to it. I don’t think my sharpest tools were as sharp as his. Now all I have to do is to take the time to sharpen tools. It is that old problem, Do I take the time to sharpen tools or do I use the time to just do the project that needs to be done? Decisions, Decisions.......
   
    The club has what is called the Instant Gallery. This is where you place your pieces on display. People can look the pieces over, examine them, develop questions about them. Later in the meeting, we then have a show-and-tell about what the piece is, how we made it and what treatments we did on them. The work, even by beginners, is excellent. Many times, you would not know they were beginners.
    We had some wood carvers who just joined the club. Their carving work was excellent. I showed off my ducking bowl. It was something anyway.  I did not hear any comments about it, but did not care. Was happy to show off something done since the last meeting I attended.
   
   
    SATURDAY
   
    The weather reports I read said rain in the morning, and more possible rain in the afternoon. I saw a heavy front crossing the state. It was slow and wide, but I figured it would come by noon and later.
    The sky was covered with heavy clouds. It was not uplifting weather.
    After Breakfast, we headed out to see if anybody had yard sales. We did find a few. One was a couple where they were moving back to Germany where the wife’s Mother is. They had beautiful furniture of the light yellow wood I like. I don’t have any place for it so I just enjoyed looking at it only there. Another yard sale was people who have had a yard sale before. I saw a clothes hamper that was interesting and forced myself to walk away. Later in the day, I was going for gas and drove by to see if the hamper was there, but they had already packed up. It is where, this is something you don’t really need it but could use it, but not exactly sure when. At least I am not kicking myself for not getting it.
    After Mom had gassed up, we checked the nearby area that sometimes have yard sales. One was at a home where a man had regular tool yard-sales. This time, his daughter was having a yard sale. She had moved from a house with a garage to a house without it. She brought a bunch of  her stuff down to her father’s house for the sale. I saw several things that would be nice to have but I would never ever use. I did see something first off that was interesting to get, but walked around the sale to see everything else. When I got back to where I saw the interesting item, I had forgotten what it was and could not find it. I didn’t get anything.
   
    Later in the morning, when I was coming home from the gas station, the front arrived with a light mist. I got home and took a nap to wait out the storm. The weather outside matched my mood.
    I woke for lunch and then later went out side to pet the cat. The storm was over and the temps had dropped already. The cat ate a whole lot simply because I took the time to pet her the entire time she was eating. We both had enough, me giving her attention and her eating and getting attention, about the same time.

    It was late enough to where I decided to go in and watch TV and crochet and basically call it a day.
   
   
   
   

Year 16, Week 02, Day \two (week 747)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-25-15 Sunday   
   
    46 degrees early morning. It was so far below the 56 degree tropical frost temperature of South Florida that I had to put a heater at the door to thaw it since it was frozen shut. Luckily the place was warm enough that the pipes didn’t threaten to freeze. It rose to about 60 degrees at about ten and 65 about one.  The sky was as blue as I have seen it in a long time. There was no haze of any kind so the blue was richer than I remember seeing. There was a light breeze but not bad. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.
   
    I got to Mom’s house. It was brisk, at least for me. I fed and petted the cat a little bit, then remembered a project someone suggested to me this week, which was to do a carving of his cat. His cat is a calico cat, with splotches of many colors. Considering how cool it was, I decided to take a chair out by the sheds with my carving basket and sit in the sun and enjoy the deep and rich blue skies. In the sun, I didn’t need my sweater.
   
    I cut two pieces of that really soft whitewood at the bandsaw and started carving. After several cuts,  I glanced at the edge of my knife and noticed there were a few tiny points of light when looking at the edge of the knife. Those were nicks or chips. They make carving a bit harder and leave fine lines in the wood where you cut. These were not bad. I usually don’t grab a sharpening stone as that mainly is for removing metal. That is not actually sharpening. Grind stones are to shape the blades. Honing like with a leather stop, polishes the edge and straightens the “wire” or Burr, on the edge and that is actually what sharpening is. Because of the nicks, I grabbed the stone. It took me a bit to remember that with a sharpening stone, you move the knife edge as if you are trying to shave the stone. You do a few strokes, then flip the knife and do a few strokes. Part of what you are doing, is building the wire or bur edge. When you have removed any signs of the chips in the edge, then you do single stroke on each side a few times so the burr is as straight as possible.
    The next stage is to go to the strop. A few years ago, I glued a piece of leather belt to a block of wood with a handle I had made. When you drag the knife on the leather with the back of the knife leading you start the process of honing. The idea is to polish the surface of the knife and to polish that burr, straightening it out to a fine wire that can shave hair. Once I had the knife where I wanted it, I started carving again.
    The rule of thumb is that any time you stop carving for any reason, even if it is to get a little better view of what you are doing, you take a moment to strop the knife and it will stay sharp for several carvings as long as the edge does not get chipped.
   
    Now there is a problem when carving any animal. What makes a figure a cat, rather than a dog, a bear, a cow, or a mouse? That is sometimes a hard thing to figure out. It is where some skill appears for the artist. My luck would have it that Momma kitty stayed away for much of the time I was carving, and when she did get near, she was always in the wrong position to give me a clear look at her for comparison. I had to go by memory and guess. It is not always easy to know what very slight changes to body shape dictates what animal is which at a glance.
    My first carving was just the head of the cat. As I carved, I found myself getting closer and closer to what a cat looked like. There were several cuts I could not do because of my left wrist. I had to change the work’s position because the wrist could not take the pressure. I was able to get the cuts but not as easy as I would have liked.
    I had the head and face quite close to what a cat looks like (a bit long) and had to do a little bit more on the ears. I accidentally popped off the tip of the ear. I found the tip among the wood chips (I was lucky to see where it went, along with the three times I did not get a good grip on it and dropped it again) and glued it on (Whitewood is prone to splitting easier than Basswood which is the preferred carving wood). I decided to leave the head as it was and let the glue dry over the weekend.
    I took another block I had cut, and started the process of  hogging off wood on it. I had only a slight concept of what this was to look like and developed an image as wood came off. This was a reclining cat. Part of the problem I ran into was with the sides of the head that was end-grain.  It would have been nice to use the bandsaw to remove a bunch of the excess wood but I was not sure exactly what I wanted when I started and it is always worse to remove more wood than you intended with the saw, then to leave less.
    The grain of a wood is in some ways like glued-together straws. Cut along the direction of the straws will split them apart. Cutting them on an angle will slice them easier, but is a bit tougher. It is when you cut across the ends that it is much tougher to cut. Much of the wood above where I wanted the body to start split off, using a deep slice across the piece ( a stop cut) to stop the splitting. The head, though, is facing the side of the wood. This means that the sides of the head (which was too wide at the start) is end grain and tough to cut. The muzzle, which is facing to the side, and can easily split off.
    These pieces of wood were a two by two by about four or five inches. It is small so any mistakes add up quickly. When I stopped, from being sore of sitting and carving, I had the basic shape done. I have a long ways to go and do see some mistakes in the design. They are correctable.
    I showed the cat head  to my mom and brother and they thought it was pretty good. But. I got “is that a bear?” on the reclining cat.  I have a ways to go on that, especially the head.

    After dinner, I had to leave and visit a friend in the hospital. She was at a hospital I never knew was there, even though I had driven by there many times. I parked near an entrance and found I had to walk around the corner of the building to get to the emergency entrance. I then had to walk to her room with an elevator ride in between. This is a small hospital so that made it nicer. Some hospitals are humongous. Also she had been moved to another room as her neighbor was screaming and my friend could not sleep.
    We uplifted each other’s spirits for a short time, while which I sat and rested, then had to walk back to the truck. Have you ever noticed that the trip back is always twice as far as the trip there? The knowledge that once at the truck, I could sit and rest, kept me going.
   
    I have no idea what I will work on next weekend. I could paint the cat head during the week, but might wait for the weekend and work on it more. I might work on the other carving also. I could, though come up with something else.
   
    I will see what I actually do next weekend.
   
   

Year 16, Week 01, Day One (week 746)

Woodworking - 88
   
This like an on-line diary. I write my activities in my hobby of wood working, bragging about my accomplishments, crying about my failures, and mentioning what else is going on in my life.
In spite of the fact of my regular postings, anybody can post here, on any subject, at any time. Join in the fun and let us know what you are doing.    

Year 16, Week 01, Day One (week 746)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-17-15 Saturday
   
    55 degrees early morning. Roads were slick from the frost because the temperature was below the 56 degree frost temperature of the tropics. 74 degrees as a high, almost no breeze, sunny with some clouds around the horizon. This Weather Report it brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of tourism.
   
    Back in 1999, I would go to my Mom’s house each Saturday and spend some time. While there, I finished an unpublished (and now lost) novel, and was work on making buildings for my model railroad using scale sticks of wood.
    In 2000, it dawned on me that my dad was in his 80s. I realized I did not want to have one of those “I wish I had said, I wish I had done” feelings at his passing. For a couple years before, he had asked me to learn how to carve. I was not interested at that time.
    On Saturday, the 17th of January, I borrowed one of Dad’s knives, and took a small stick of wood, and started a carving. When Dad was learning to carve, he had a problem of not removing the corners of the wood so his carvings were still somewhat square. I think this was from a fear of making a mistake. He quickly got out of that but he still retained the reputation. I decided I was going to be bold and dig in deep.
    The carving I was doing was supposed to have a hat with the brim going all the way around but it kept breaking. I did a fairly good carving of a man from the waist up. He had a big nose, which was intended, and the brim of his hat is on an angle. He looks like a French Foreign Legionnaire with his hat on a slight angle. I am still proud of that carving.
    I used to keep count of my carvings but lost count when I did some real tiny carvings for a scene I was thinking of doing, which never was done. I did not know whether to count them all as one or individually.
    I saw an article about making bells, Christmas trees, and Snowmen on a lathe. Dad had a tiny Craftsman lathe but the motor had a problem. It would run for a short time and then die. After a few attempts, I realized I could make the ornaments by hand and started carving. When I had a bunch made, I decided to make a dozen of each, which also included some sleighs, I never realized how big a project that was as a beginning carver until I had most of them made.  48 little carvings!
    In October 2000, Mom got me a lathe (Chicago Electric made of sheet metal. They can still sometimes be gotten through Harbor Freight).  That got me into Wood turning also. I used it to make the bags of presents on the sleighs as my first wood turnings.
    I joke that the way dad taught me to carve was to pat me on the head and tell me to do another. Over the years, taught me how to make my own knives from files and how to keep the knives sharp.
    Since that time, I got a better lathe and developed my carving skills and created some impressive works. When my dad died at the age of 89, I kept carving and wood turning, both as I enjoy them, but also because it was a memorial to my dad.
   
    Back in 2012, I had an auto accident and have been trying to recover from the injuries. Since the accident, Iwrote these posts because I did not want people to worry about me, I wanted to tell what projects I’ve been involved in, and writing the posts are fun and uplifting for me. I did a bit of bragging of doing better than I really was. Again, I did not want people to worry about me and my condition. I also pointed out stupid things one should never do. I hoped it would help others who ran into difficulties
    Back in December, I got some discouraging news and stopped posting because I was depressed. I could not bring myself to write uplifting posts and gave up on them entirely. I am still a bit depressed, but since this weekend is the anniversary of my starting wood working, I decided I really needed to start these posts again.
    
    I have to have a knee replacement. My knee is collapsing and wear a brace to help with re-aligning  my leg. That leg does not respond as quickly as my good leg and acts like it is slightly shorter, so I have a bit of a balance problem. Also, if I am on my leg too long, either walking or standing (standing is actually harder on my leg) my leg hurts worse than it normally does.
    I have back problems from injuries from the wreck also. Bending over and picking things up is painful. Bending over slightly, for long periods of time, to do certain types of work, such as working with the big lathe, making pasta or bread, painting, model railroad, and so on, does me in also. My tail-bone was also bent from the accident and sitting is “a pain.”. Since I am always sitting in my work and other activities, I use special padding or ignore the discomfort.  I dislike taking pills of any kind, let alone pain pills, so I will ignore the constant low-level pain as long as possible. I tend to practice avoidance of activities that aggravate my leg or back.
   
    As for the period without my posts, I gifted most of the Christmas ornaments I was making.  I also finished a bunch of dish cloths and scarves using Crochet and gifted all of them. They were really appreciated. I also was able to paint my Christmas cards. It took me a whole week to paint them as I could not stand long enough to add more than one color in a session and then had to sit or lay down to recover, which made adding a second color in that evening impossible. Some people actually got their cards after Christmas because they were not done at the time to give them when I saw them before hand. I was told by some people though, that these were the best cards I had done to date. That is nice, but I know every single mistake I ever made in them, and had wanted more detail and quality in them. I did not have the time or physical ability to do more on them.
   
    After the Christmas rush of making ornaments, dish cloths, scarves, Christmas cards  and wrapping, I my depression really set in and have not done much of any wood working since I looked around at projects I could be working on and there is always something that prevents me from doing them. Most lathe projects require me to stand way to long to get to finish them up. I have not had luck with stuff left on the lathe over night, let alone all week. Most carving projects requires the use of hard wood, which my left wrist cannot handle, or getting covered in dust and I have found I am not as tolerant to getting covered in dust than I used to be. A few projects require chisel work such as ladles, and my wrist cannot handle the pounding either, and usually I have to be standing to do themand I am limited there too. I have more than enough wooden crochet hooks right now so I don’t need to make more for a while. There just isn’t a whole lot I can really care or can do right now.
   
    I have done yard sales since I last posted. I have a problem where my balance is such that I have to watch where I am placing my feet, rather than where I am going. When we arrive at a yard sale, I am uusally Mom’s passenger. She parks at the side of the road and I get out on uneven ground, mostly in grass. I have to watch carefully on where my feet are being placed, concentrating on my balance using the car to help me. I am better on the road or drive ways.
    At the yard sales, if they have stuff on tables I am all right. The problem is when they have things laid out on the ground. I don’t like stepping over things for the balance reason, and to pick something up off the ground, I have to place my cane in front of me and use my arm strength to bend over with my weight on the cane, and use my arm strength to straighten up again to keep my back from doing the hard work. It is a real bother since my arms are not really strong and I do enough of this in normal activities. These problems generally prevent me from selecting things that are laid out on the ground. It would be too embarrassing to ask them to show me something, especially if I choose not to buy it. My yard sale purchasing has been limited because of this.
   
    SATURDAY
   
    We hit a few yard sales today. We went to two church sales and a couple individual sales.
    One church yard sale was in a play yard. Tree roots above the ground, the ground uneven and covered with wood mulch, made it a bit tough. They had a lot of tables filled with stuff. I tried using the tables to help with my balance, but when one table wobbled threateningly, I decided that was not a good idea. I found I had to watch my feet and take a couple steps, then look around me at what was nearby, then look to take a couple more steps.  I forced myself to ignore the yelling of teddy bears asking me to take them home. My seven teddy bears on my computer desk had threatened me should I came home with another. They say they don’t get enough love as it is.  I saw a motor tool (like a dremmel) but I have too many as it is. I considered getting it as a gift for someone but they were not worth that price....
    Another Church yard sale was inside a small dining room. I walked around the place, and talked to some people I knew there.  There was a sewing machine there and I considered getting it. It would be like the scroll saw at Mom’s house, though. “I have other things to do.” I sat a couple times to rest while mom examined everything in the place.
    The sewing machine was eventually purchased by someone else and eliminated my thought of getting it. There were really pretty and interesting stuff there, but I am not into decorating my home for entertainment. I did see a bunch of cook books but I don’t use the ones I have and none had anything I really wanted to make. I don’t buy clothing if I can avoid it. It was nice to look at a dozen yard sale’s worth of stuff in one climate controlled place.
    Two of the individual yard sales had nothing of interest and the people didn’t have an interesting story.
    One individual yard sale I went to was really good. I found that the guy makes prosthetic limbs. I also found that one of the couple’s fathers built boats, the other did wood working and they had tools from them. He had a air filter unit for wood working on display (great for clearing saw dust and dust particles when working indoors A hose runs from it to the machine you are using and it clears the air and reduces sweeping ), a really expensive hand powered miter saw (I have several and don’t use them either)  and a power hacksaw. A power hacksaw turns the spin of a motor into a reciprocal motion, moving the hack saw back and fourth. These saws are patient and will cut for hours if one adds a little cutting oil when cutting large bars of stainless steel. Also standard hack saw blades last for a lot of projects as there is no twisting which using a hacksaw blade by hand happens to suffer.  My brother made a power hack saw and has used it often. Each time he thinks about rebuilding his, he has a project that needs it. This one was a commercially made unit. I will let my brother know about it and see if he is interested in getting it. We have the address so we can send my brother there if he wants it.
   
    After settling in at home, we went out back and petted the kitty, walked around the garden to see what plants are blossoming and what mom has done since I last saw the yard. She had extended the paving stones almost to my shed, making it easier for me to walk there. She says she has a little bit more to do to make it easier on me to get to my stuff in the shed.
    Mom had some sticks of wood for stakes to stake up plants and stuff, and she had me bandsaw points on them so she can drive them into the ground easier. That was the only woodworking I did today.
   
    I did do a little bit of crochet. I am making covers for frypan handles. I have steel and cast iron pans and they get hot after a long period of cooking. I got some crochet patterns for  Christmas and one pattern was for these covers. I look at this as a step towards making stuffed animals. I have to follow the pattern which is good for me.
   
    Besides a nap after lunch, that was the total of my day. Not great, but it was a bit fun.
   
    I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I will at least look at all the projects in process and all the wood I have and think about what they can become. If I actually do a wood working project, I will be much surprised.
   
    I will see what I do tomorrow.
   
   
Year 16, Week 01, Day Two (week 746)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-18-15 Sunday
   
    64 degrees early morning 76 in the afternoon, light breeze that moved leaves and loose bits of paper, mostly sunny with lots of cloud puffs everywhere. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I stopped at Home depot and walked around in hope that there might be some inspiration to be found there. They still have the really soft whitewood I used for carving my ornaments this year. I had examined a blank I had from last year and there is a big difference between the woods. Whitewood is not consistent in hardness. It is raised as a fast growing wood, not for qualities used in carving. The really soft wood I got this year was why I was able to do my Christmas ornaments in spite my wrist. It did not need a lot of pressure to slice through it. I do not know how long Home Depot is going to have this wood. I forced myself NOT to get another stick of it “just in case”. I instead walked away grudgingly.
    In to toy, I mean tool section, I found an interesting chisel. It is thick and it one side is angled so it can be used as a side chisel, a saw, a regular chisel, and a knife. I had a gift card in my pocket so I decided to get it as an experiment.  It might be useful for some projects I am thinking about.
   
    A couple years ago, I made some little bowls with the idea of making bird heads for them. Last month I carved a duck head and last week, I fitted and glued it to a bowl.  Today I did some final touch-ups and filled some gaps in where it met the bowl. I need to paint the head and tail and give the whole thing a good coat of varnish. The bowl is not well sanded but I had decided to go with it.
   
    After I was letting some glue dry on it, I examined my knives and then sat and read. Mom found out my brother wasn’t coming up so we went out for Chinese Buffet. Other than packing everything up, that ended my day out back. Good food is always nice.
   
    There is a turning club meeting this week. I have to see if I am in condition to go to it. If I do the paint and varnish on the duck bowl before then, I can take it with me to show off.
    I have no clue what will happen next weekend. I really do feel I need to do something, though, even if it is to embarrass a piece of wood a little bit.
   
    I will see what I do next weekend.
   
   

BOOK REVIEW: THE LAST DRAGONLORD by Joanne Bertin

Okay folks, here it is.
My first book review for the new year.
Enjoy!

From Tor, circa 1998

FROM MY LOCAL LIBRARY...
The Last Dragonlord is the opening book of a new fantasy series by Joanne Bertin.
Within its pages Linden Rathan, the title character because he is the last of his kind to appear in more than 600 years, joins a contingent of his fellow Dragonlords (very long lived humans who can change into dragons and back again) to decide who shall become the new Regent of Cassori when their Queen dies under mysterious circumstances.

There is more than just the standard political intrigue happening, for a group of pure/true humans seeks to eliminate the Dragonlords, starting with the group in Cassori.
Of course the fact that there might also finally be a new Dragonlord on the horizon, who is also a potential soul mate for Linden, further complicates matters.

In Bertin's debut novel, she wisely changed the name of the secretive group of humans from The Fellowship to The Fraternity. Unfortunately, someone along the way didn't make all the necessary changes, for there are still occurrences of the J.R.R. Tolkien inspired name used within the early pages and on the cover copy.
And despite how it is presented on the cover, Dragonlord is only one compound word.

Some might say the circumstances that keep Linden and his true love separate until the "proper" time are cliched, but you will find yourself rooting for everything to work out for both the new couple and everyone else involved.

Dragonlords/weredragons is definitely a new concept to me. When I came across this book at my local library, I decided to give it a try and found the novel an entertaining read. The characters were believable, although why some members of the Fraternity would want to master dark magic when they're proud of being true/pure humans seemed a contradiction to me.
Other than the title species and magic in general, there isn't many of the other fantasy trappings one might expect to find. Not that there's anything wrong in that per se, but your opinion might vary.

_____________________________________________

Lee Houston, Junior, one of the founders of this fine blog, is the Editor-In-Chief of The Free Choice E-zine and the writer/creator of Hugh Monn, Private Detective and Alpha the superhero.
When not busy writing, in what he laughingly calls his "spare" time, he wishes he had more spare time to finish the manuscript for ALPHA, BOOK 2: WAYWARD SON, among other projects.
He maintains a presence on G+, Facebook, and his own writer's blog. His creative work can be found in both print and e-formats at Amazon.com and other outlets.