Year 18, Week 46, Day One (week 984)

Year 18, Week 46, Day One (week 984)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-22-18 Thursday

68 degrees early morning, 81 late afternoon. Mostly cloudy all day with a little bit of broken clouds. They repaired the clouds a bit later. Some storm cells appeared over the Everglades, started east, dissipated, and reappeared over the ocean. Low humidity and a light breeze kept things comfortable all day long, making it a true pleasure of a day. Even people who live in air conditioning loved it. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

We were having a BBQ for Thanksgiving this year. I intended to just do a little bit of work and leave it to others. Yeah, Right!!! I was up and down, from one side of the house to the other, fetching stuff as I knew where they were.  We had eleven people and everybody enjoyed themselves, having their fill of just about anything. We all ended up with loads of leftovers. 

I did do some crochet. I took out a small ball of yellow yarn and started on a zig zag dish cloth.  With the zig zag dish cloth I made for mom, I made a mistake and then messed it up really good trying to fix the mistake. On this one, I put a good dent in the ball of yarn when I realized I made the same kind of mistake. I had skipped a stitch where you jump several previous stitches and pull them together to create a Vee in the fabric.  
I started correcting it and it was looking ugly, so I removed a bunch of rows until I got to where I made the mistake and started the rest of it right. I did not get to the point I was before as I ran out of time. I had to wind the rest of the yarn around the ball. The ball was one I had rolled to allow it to draw from the center. I will have to do a lot of stitches to get back to the center pull. I intend to finish this roll up, which was small, and then change colors to complete it.

Of course, I was involved in putting things away. I had help, but still I was running back and forth.

When I went to bed, I was hobbling. I had fun over-doing it. 

I hope to do some wood working tomorrow. I will see.

Year 18, Week 46, Day Two (week 984)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-23-18 Friday

72 degrees early morning, 83 late afternoon.  Lots of blue sky, puffs thin enough to where I don’t remember the sun being blocked. A nice breeze kept it comfortable. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

We headed out to a rummage sale (church yard sale). Everything was priced right. It was so tough to avoid getting things I already have too many of. They had a coffee grinder (I have four), a meat slicer (I have three), a air popper (I have three air poppers (one looks like a cart) and a popper with the wire that moves the popcorn around in the oil).  If I knew for a fact these things were not going to sell, I would have rescued them with the idea of passing them on, but since I cannot see the future, I left them.
This church made two mistakes. One was they did not put their address in their notice in the paper and we first went to the wrong church, and they chose Black Friday to have it. Everybody is out in stores buying new stuff on sale.  If they had it Saturday, they might have done better but still the wrong weekend..
People were walking out with a lot of stuff. They gave us free cloth bags to hold our  finds while shopping. I was somewhat good. I did have a bag full of stuff, but I feel I chose right. Later in the afternoon we drove by and they had a couple trucks they were loading. I think the stuff was going to be donated to something like the Salvation Army. 

I worked on my ornaments today. One spout on the tea pot popped off and went to the ground. I could not find it among the shavings already there. I cut a piece off a tea pot blank I had not started on, and glued the piece on as the spout. After the glue set some I carved some excess wood off. It will look good when done, but I need the glue to set more before I get aggressive. Most of the tea pots are close to being done. 
I hunted all over for a sanding disk I have for the lathe. I had rounded and flattened a two by board, mounted on a small face plate, and sized it for the 9" stick-on sanding disks. I also glued a strip of emery cloth around the outside. I could not find that disk. I have no idea where it went. It should be easy to find, but it was not there.
I decided to take the plate off the dead disk sander to mount it in the lathe. The screw, acting like a pin, holding it to the shaft, would not come out, damaging the screw driver and the screw slot. I even tapped (banged) on it. Then on a lark I plugged the sander in and the motor started.
I sanded each roof and base of the gingerbread houses to eliminate the bowing and roughness of the jig saws cuts I had made, and corrected some of the really bad walls (like when a knot was in the way). One I messed up house a little by holding it at the wrong angle and lost the eve on one side. I just cut back on the wall to create a new eve.  The peaks of several of the roofs are not centered, but that, I think, will add to the charm (hope, hope, hope).
The disk needs a new sandpaper but I have no idea where the replacements are so this will do for now. 

Later in the day, mom needed to pick something up that she ordered so we headed out. After her stop, we went to Wal Mart. We have many Wal Marts in our area. I am not exactly sure how big this one was, but it was wearing colored tights and had a cape waving in the wind.  I am pretty sure it was the biggest in the county.
I walked across the store several times and then around the outside. My legs were not happy when we finally headed home. Mom had a trainee for a cashier and that girl had serious problems getting things to ring up properly. It took a very long time. Wal Mart really only has seats in their deli restaurant. I was at the other side of the entrance. We were lucky that we found a parking place right near the entrance at the store end of the parking lot. Somehow, I do not know how, I avoided buying anything.
I had to go out back when we got home and put everything away before I could go home. Talk about wore out. I did feel it when I laid down to sleep. 

I hope to get more ornaments finished before the weekend is over. 

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


Year 18, Week 46, Day Three (week 984)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-24-18 Saturday

68 early morning 86 in the afternoon. Nice breeze kept things feeling cool, along with low humidity.  Blue skies, mostly sunny,  some high clouds and low clouds but few times where the sun was blocked by them until late afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

After breakfast we looked to see if there were any yard sales in our immediate area, but there were none. We came home and I got to work. I needed to work on the ornaments, but decided I really had to find some stuff buried in the shed. 
I dug deeper than I intended, but did not check things out below knee level, which included a couple bins. I left some battery drill stuff alone. I was not in the mood to deal with them.  Most of the batteries are dead and some of the chargers are also dead. That will be a good long day on finding what works. 
I found the “chowder box” which has raw materials for metal turning and machining projects. I also found a lot of partial projects and materials for future projects. I found loads of tools and boxes for tools. I found my sand paper, and sanding accessories.  I have a couple cloth bags of partially made platters. I was practicing making platters for a demonstration for the club. A close passing hurricane stopped that and then all sorts of stuff happened later to prevent me from getting back into it for the past few years.
After moving stuff around, I ended up making loads of room in the shed. I got some power tools closer to the door so we can get to them. I have an idea where a lot of stuff is now.

Last week, I noticed that the center hasp for the metal tackle box, that I keep my dremmel in, was broke. I decided I would have to replace the box. I dug out all the tool boxes and cases with the intent of swapping boxes. I had consolidated a couple tool boxes and was ready to start moving dremmel stuff into a new box, when I noticed there were two latches to the lid of the dremmel tool box, one near each end. I slapped my forehead. How blind!!! the center hasp which is used for locking the box, was likely broken before I first got this box years ago. I always used the side latches to keep the lid locked so I could carry it. Somehow, I forgot they were there!!!! Sheesh. Talk about getting old!!!

I did find another box that can be used for dremmel stuff and moved some dremmel motors into it and a few items that go with them. More will be done later.
When I am completely done, I will have two boxes of dremmel stuff, one for at home and one at Mom’s. 

All the walking back and forth wore my legs out. I never did work on the ornaments but found a lot of stuff I have used for decorating ornaments.  I have glitter, fabric I used for snow man scarves, thread, just to name some of the things I have used over the years. I will have to go through that stuff with more care later.

I have an idea for my Christmas Cards. I will have to do a couple quick “sketches” to see if it works. It might also be good for another ornament. Not for this year, but for next. Will see how that goes. This year, I will only have the gingerbread house and the tea pots. The rocking horse and this other idea will be made for next year, at best.

I was done for the day, leaving a mess under Mom’s awning, but everything safe from the weather for a day. Tomorrow, I will have to finish getting everything put away, and then finish the last of the tea pots and detailing the gingerbread houses. I will paint them during the week. Both will need a couple colors so I will add a color to all of them and let that dry, then do another color until they are all done. 

I will see what I actually accomplish tomorrow.



Year 18, Week 46, Day One (week 984)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-25-18 Sunday

66 degrees early morning 84 late afternoon, super high pebbled cloud cover with chem trails from the Fort Lauderdale Air Show crisscrossing the sky. I finally figured out why it feels so good these days at these temperatures. The humidity is low enough that it feels good. During the summer, when the humidity is 80 to 90 percent, it is oppressive. You get wet without doing anything. At below 70 percent, it begins to feel nice.  This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

When I got out to work, I had to put a bunch of stuff away, sort some others and put some in new containers. Zipper baggies rotted, cardboard boxes slumped from the effects of years of humidity. 
I found another dremmel, this one has a flexible shaft attachment that allows the motor to hang and one handle a smaller end of the bit. Somewhere, I have no idea where, I have a FORDUM which works with a flexible shaft. I found the bit set for it, but not the fordum. I know mom has an off brand one also. 
In machining, they usually have what is referred to as a CHOWDER BOX. This has bits of metal that can be used for many projects. I located mine and emptied it out and had a look at what I had. Wow. I have a couple pieces that are on the idea of half inch, by three inch by two inch. They are likely smaller, but they can be made into a number of things. One looks like I or my brother was machining it to size as there is a pass with a bit on one face, partly in from the side. I have a lot of interesting metal working projects to do. Some will be points for tail stocks or for drive spurs. I did not have the ability to make them the way I wanted at the time. I now have the tools and knowledge to make them.
I found some basswood and some partially done projects my dad had. I located a lot of great tools and had to put most of them away.  I also found some blanks for Christmas ornaments I made year before and did not complete the set. 
I will have to, at a later time, completely empty out the shed. I found traces of some bugs eating wood and tossed out several pieces. I will have to examine all them and get rid of some of it. Everything will have to be stacked properly so that stuff I will not need will be buried the deepest. 

I touched up the tea pots and sanded the bottoms to level them out. I then did all the windows and doors on the ginger bread houses. I have some “feathers” where bits did not cut separate properly, to remove, and then I can paint them. These will work nicely.

Mom gave me an idea for an ornament. I won’t be able to make them for Christmas this year, but can make them and the rocking horses for next year. I will eventually make the horses.  I do have an idea of how to improve the design. I want to carve them once I have blanks made. It will require a bit more cutting and gluing of wood to make it work.

I have this weekend to get everything done. I don’t have to have the complete dozen made, but I want to have some to show after the first. The rest can be made as opportunity allows.
I intend to pick up some card stock for my Christmas cards during the week. I also will start painting the ornaments. I am hoping they will look good. One thing I will do is leave the bottoms bare wood, other than a varnish coat, so there is no question of what they are made of. I will also sign the bare wood before the varnish coat. 

I will see what happens next weekend. 

2698

Mom put some of those light projectors up as her Christmas Display. Pictures seldom show colors other than green

The book in back is one I wrote and got published with the help of my friend Nancy, who also posts on this blog. It is available on Amazon along with other book sellers as either an E-read or a paper book.

My knife is in front.  My unpainted ornaments are on display for the picture. 

The gingerbread houses are across the back except for a short one in the middle. Then there are 8 tea pots (one is really a coffee pot) in the middle group and then there are four tea pot blanks along the left. 

Year 18, Week 45, Day One (week 983)

Year 18, Week 45, Day One (week 983)
(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.

Year 18, Week 44, Day One (week 982)

Year 18, Week 44, Day One (week 982)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-10-18 Saturday

74 early morning 87 late afternoon, a little tinkle on the grass during the night but dry during the day. Clouds appeared and disappeared from time to time.. A breeze made it nice. 

A friend showed up at the Restaurant when we were nearing the end of our breakfast so we invited him to join us and we sat and talked until he was done. It made breakfast really nice. We had seen in the paper (there are two pompano area papers that are about ten pages on average and they cover really local events) that there was a multi family yard sale. We decided to check it out. It was starting at nine and we figured they would be open by the time we got there. 
We hit several yard sales. I had my hands on a number of items but talked myself out of getting them. I did end up with a pipe clam kit. It has the jaws. You have to add your own pipe. 
I also found a NOOK. This is one of those “white paper” text readers. You download books onto them and read them on it. The older woman said she the text was too small and her husband said that he would change it but never did. She was happy with her phone. When we got back, I plugged it in to charge and when I could turn it on, I found the documentation on it and read about 35 pages before I found the format it uses. I added a couple books on it. It could not address the web site it was designed to get books from. I was able to use my computer to get books from Gutenberg.org and load them.
I later found it was easy to change the size of the text and to change the font it used. None of them did what better than what was already on there, I was really after so I set it to the default again.  This is supposed to have a really good battery and get days of reading out of a charge. I dug out my Sony reader tablet and found it uses the same formats and loaded a lot of books on it too. I now have the entire Oz series, some 10 books, on both of them. They were not the books I was really after, but they do for now. 
Mom happened to find exactly what she needed for some projects. She was really happy.  
Once in a while, you get demented yard sale people. One person stuck a really cute teddy bear in a chair at a condo yard sale. How sick can you get, to show a teddy bear in a natural habitat rather mixed in within a bag with all other kinds of stuffies. It is easy to ignore a bag but it is really hard to ignore a lone teddy bear sitting in a chair begging to go home with you. It took all my will power to avoid showing any interest in it. How can people be that cruel?
It is fun seeing what people have for sale. It is also interesting to hear why they are having a sale. Some are moving either to another part of town or out of state. One family had a flood in their house and had to get rid of a lot of stuff so it could be repaired. I did not ask the details of the flood. I heard them telling someone else. Usually, when someone asks me how I am doing while on yard sales, I say, “I’m here!” they like that. I always say good morning to them when I come up. Sometimes it helps me pick out who is running it. Once I said good morning to someone and he said I was the first person to say that and he would give me a deal if I got anything. Yard sales are hard work. Hauling the stuff out and later putting things back, and then you got those who want to haggle when you have a fixed price and you have idiots and bubbling fools coming by. I try to be pleasant at all times. 
It was a nice not to have millions of candidate signs out and about. One could actually see yard sale signs. While political season is entertaining, it does make things a real bother.

I decided to mow the lawn of Mom’s neighbor. The back really needed it. There was a section between the fence line and the hot tub slab that is near the property line. I decided I needed to hit that area. I had to work slowly as the weeds in back were long. I noticed that the back area which I never mowed was as high as the stuff in the rest of the lawn. I would push the mower into the “grass” and then back out then push it in. Some of the flower stalks of the weeds are stiff. I basically hacked at them with the mower, on the first pass then diced them up when I went over them again. Once I had cleared some area, I went back and forth. I had at least half an overlap of what I already mowed in order to get some more of the long stuff that was just knocked down. 
When I got to the back strip. I had to stop and move some pieces of wood, a piece of concrete and a brick. I then caught on something and it stopped the mower. It turned out to be a bundle of wire. I have no idea what it was too. I ended up pulling it out of the grass easily. It was like it was laid there and the grass grew over it. 
I went in and got an office chair and sat down, unplugged the lawnmower  and unwrapped the wire from the lawnmower blade. Other than one thick strand, they were all wrapped around one blade so I was able to slide it off the end of the blade. There was a lot of grass built up beneath the underside so I pulled a lot of that off. Some came in clumps but some I just left stuck to the plate. 
I finished that stretch of grass, then took a break. I went back out and finished the rest of the back yard except beneath the tree. The grass did not grow near as much there. I just hit two tall clumps and left it as that. The front yard needs to be mowed again. 

I baked one of the lasagna I made last week and we had that for lunch. There was one layer where I got the order of ingredients wrong, but it did not matter. I had used no-boil lasagna noodles and was afraid they would not get enough juice to soften. Other than that one layer separated from the rest, the lasagna came out really good. Mom liked it. The sauce is what makes all the difference in the world. I will not worry about any of the others. They will cook and taste good just as well. 

Right after lunch I headed for a mid day nap and really needed it. 



Year 18, Week 44, Day two (week 982)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-11-18 Sunday

We had some drizzles early morning but things dried out as the day got started.  Mom can wait a day or two before she has to water all the potted plants. 74 early morning 87 late afternoon. Clouds appeared and disappeared from time to time.. A breeze made it nice. 

I gathered all my dremmel equipment and basically dumped it out. Somehow I accumulated five dremmels. Two are single speed. One of them has a special power cord attachment that allows me to adjust the speed. 
After I dumped everything out, I started putting things back together. I actually did it wrong. I basically put it all together, rather than splitting them up between the different dremmel kits. I will have to dump things out again and split things up properly. 
I found things I forgot I had and found things I had searched for and figured I never had them. I found I had a lifetime supply of the little drum sanders and sanding sleeves. I have a lot of bits for holding cutting disks. In my search, I found one of the adjustable chucks that dremmel has. I now have four of the dremmels with an adjustable chucks.. One of the dremmels will have to work with the replaceable chuck jaws, where you pick it according to the diameter shaft of the bit. 

One of the wooden chairs I got at a yard sale or on the side of the road, I cannot remember which, had weathered so bad that mom removed the back and tossed the arch. She gave me the rungs. The tenons that went into the seat had rotted and would not hold. This chair had sat out in the weather in back all year long and it was not in great condition in the first place. I had repaired the back once. I had intended to do it better but never did. 
I sat on it today quite a few times. One time when I sat down, I turned and heard a crack. I changed chairs. The tenon holding the leg in the seat broke. Mom will toss the chair. We can get another some place if the opportunity comes up.
I considered making a chair like that but I am not out back long enough to make it worth the effort. 

I have a metal tool box for my main dremmel kit. I found I had half the lower area filled with bamboo and wooden dowels. There was a time I was making crochet hooks and kept the stock with the dremmel since I used the a cutting bit to carve in the hook on the rod. It was also a good place to keep the dowels from getting damaged. A couple months ago, I wished I had known the dowels were in there.  I put them in a temporary place.

I was done with the dremmel stuff about the time my brother was heading home. 
I wanted to work on ornaments but this felt like dealing with the dremmels needed to be done.  I brag about how far I am with my ornaments. That time disappears vaster than you would believe. 

 My brother made some hold downs for the mini lathe. He also gave me a bunch of different length screws with it so you use just the right size screws that don’t stick way up above the work you are holding onto . Some other week I will have to include pictures of these in use. Mom wants to build a lighthouse for in front of her house. She had one years ago, but it finally rotted and fell apart. My brother is going to make it out of sheet aluminum . 
       She and he were making a mock-up out of cardboard to see what it would look like. They designed it as a six sided light house, but in playing with it, they overlapped two sides and made it five sided and with their patterns, it developed a better angle/ they could use the pattern and made only five sides, or change the angle of the pattern and make it six sided. They will look at it and think about it over the week. 
       I will turn a disk that will be the walkway for it. I might try to talk mom into letting me turn the roof also. She has a large jar that will be the light, and will have a light inside, she will put in dowels and run wire or string between them for the rail. 

      My brother has a problem with his big machining lathe. There is no fine control when using it in the machine position, with the chuck facing down. He took a small hand crank grinder I had and is going to see if he can use it to give him fine gearing for the controls. He might cut it up, or he might disassemble it. He was looking at the crank drill press for this but the grinder seems better for his needs. 

        I have a turning club meeting this week on Thursday. I will show off my drum sticks since they were turned this month. This will be the last meeting of the year. We will have a party on December first, but won’t have any meetings until January. I have no idea where we will meet.

I will see what happens next weekend.

1846

My five demmels. The two on the left are single speed. the one on the far left has a special cord that has a slide switch to adjust the speeds. the second and third from the right has the chucks that have to have different inserts for different diameter bit shafts. the other three have chucks that go from wide to nothing. I later found another chuck.

A bun

A bunch of the stuff that was among my lathe boxes. all the wood on the right is stock for crochet hooks.

A mock-up of the lighthouse. they likely will make changes but this is good for the moment.