When traffic tanks always check the links! Gods be damned Jetpack to LinkedIn coming uncoupled yet again, and the old view counter dips low, low, low, low. Nearly ground to a halt. Only the manual links uploaded to Twitter keep the view counter from building up a layer of dust. The link to Facebook hasn’t worked in a number of years, and I don’t push to YouTube, IG, Threads or any other socials to boost the readership. I probably should but trying to maintain a presence across so many shifting platforms feels like a part time job that I don’t want. You can join the mailer list on WordPress and get my rotten tomatoes delivered to an email address of your choosing. Do that. I implore you!
Here I am, melting in Clearwater during the 91°F heat last week.
For the life of me I can not recall a reason as to why I kept this writing streak going, other than compulsion, and daily habit. Even so, I’m awfully close to going a whole year without writing any short stories. I have written copious amounts of nonsense, and silliness though. Funny to think I felt my numbers of views were down in the year to year review, so I tried to write every day for a few weeks before I hit New Years Eve and was going to stop. Then the next calendar year had the best showing ever, and then dropped off again. Not as low as in years I posted almost nothing, but I failed to gain enough traction to warrant making the writing streak a compulsion. So what do I do now?
Did a few other things as of late too. I finished my sixteenth book this year, by John Scalzi, called “Starter Villain”. It was a fun little jaunt in a mixed up James Bondesque world of mischief and mayhem. Finished it in just a day or two. Very pleasant read. I’m back to the Adrian Tchaikovsky novel I tried to start several weeks ago. Hopefully now I’ll have the available concentration to read five or six hundred pages of science fiction. I’m still halfway through “American Prometheus “, so I should either finish that or hang up that particular book mark, and call it a day. It’s good, and thorough to say the least. A bit like reading a textbook. Something I haven’t needed to do in close to twenty years. I feel as though I should read it at a desk with a highlighter in hand. Gives off those kinds of vibes. Still a good read. Just more dense than I care for right this minute.
I got into the shop this week to work on my pine framed bed. I have some work to do on the box joints, as I didn’t go deep enough, and I need to square off the bottom of each joint, as I left them rounded over. But on the bright side I did some bandsaw work, some hand saw work, and got the project just a little closer to finished. I’ll take it!
We have a PA Day today, so the kids are up early, of course, not that we have to shake them and roll them around their beds to wake them up on a regular school day. Where they cry and moan about wanting to sleep in, but on the days they can do so, they are up earlier than usual without a problem. I can’t tell you what a surprise it will be once either, or both start to sleep in on weekends, summer days, and holidays. I imagine they’ll be up late making a racket around the house so not much of a win there anyway.
The other day I went out and picked all of the remaining apples off of our two fruit trees to send to my friends horses. I had a fair amount of quality sized apples this year. The red ones all fell off earlier, and the wasps terrorized those for weeks. Once the temp dropped enough to drive them away I came to claim what was left. A half a grain bags worth. No where near what was on both trees, but I don’t fancy getting swarmed and stung for apples. I thought we were going to get a bunch last year with all the blooms the trees had, but then no fruit was produced. This year however, whoo boy! If I had a bee suit and a cider press I could have picked all 2-300 apples between the two trees and made some cider or fresh apple juice!
Apple picking on the side yard.
Funnily enough I recently saw that an old acquaintance of mine was coming to the end of a contract position, and i saw a job posting that i thought could be right up their alley, and they complained to me about it. So don’t be alarmed should i not do things of that nature for other people. This year has really reiterated how bad of an idea it is to do anything nice for other people. Yet i keep on doing it. Going to learn my lesson at some point. Or become a jaded prick about it. Either way – we all win!
It is currently raining. It started to rain several hours ahead of schedule so I am happy we decided not to go back to Canada’s Wonderland for another Halloween Haunt adventure. Was supposed to start between eleven and midnight, but was softly pattering on the ground by eight o’clock. We’d have been there for little more than an hour and it would totally kill the vibe. Mist is one thing, but a full on rain would end the night. Precious few available days left this season. I think we might be finished, but perhaps we can get one last visit under our belts this year. I’d very much like to ride Yukon Striker one more time. It’s such a smooth ride. I like the articulated carriages. Plus I feel as though they weren’t concerned about the footprint so they were able to make softer transitions between tricks/gimmicks, and your neck and back are all the better for it. Five stars, do reccomend! Try it at night in the dark.
Favourite past time of mine is to just go look on Kijiji or FB Marketplace, or some auction sights and browse endless ads for wood piles, tool boxes, bandsaws, air compressors, milling machines and so much more. Day dreaming about how I would fill out my dream wood/work shop if I ever managed to fall ass backwards into obscene wealth. It also helps me to organize my current shop too. Nothing like catching a monster break on a piece of equipment or tool by grabbing it second hand. I do love me some retail therapy, but some shit is just as good used, rather than paying the full MSRP. Need to work smarter now that Greedflation is so high on everything else.
Sliding cabinet saws, awesome, but way too big for my shop space. Still fun to look up & read about. Imagining how easy it would be to finally breakdown a full sheet of plywood without having to bust out a circular saw, straight edge, and my garage floor instead. Looking at the various motor sizes for said cabinet saw. If you go that big you want atleast 5HP, maybe even 7HP, and a 12″ blade on top of all that too. 1HP, 1.5HP, 1.75HP, OR 2HP bandsaws of all shapes, makes and models is another good one to look for. If I had an extra $1,500.00 laying about with no urgent household needs attached to it, I’d be out there in a heart beat, so that I could resaw all this barn dried Ash that I have. I’d love to turn these ten/quarter boards into three quarter or half inch boards to make them more useable. But the reality of our home and appliances says “Not so fast MF!”. Going to need a new fridge in the next few months. The AC will likely need to be replaced in a year or two. Vehicles are aging faster than we are. So the money will go into the household and not my hobby shop. C’est la vie.
Going to need to earn some serious cheddar to get the household straightened out before I can lay out good quality cash for new or improved wood/work shop tools & equipment. Oh well. Such is life. No point rushing to buy something inferior that I’ll need to also upgrade from down the line. Make do until I can meet or exceed my needs in a few months or a year (or 2 or 3).
Most of the fun is in the hunt for good deals and quality items anyway. Spending the money is the worst part! Compare and contrasting items side by side. Agonizing over technical spec’s. Doing a search to see which brand has the easier spare parts to find, order, deliver and the associated price point. Live the fantasy for just a little longer while looking.
I know when I went looking to upgrade my table saw I was able to find six or seven of the same model and the prices varied quite widely. Some folks overestimate the worth of a mid to low tier tool, and others are looking to move it out of their way as they have already upgraded and need the space back. These are the people/deals I’m looking for. They want to recoup some of the cost, but have already purchased something else and aren’t trying to make money on the deal, just soften the financial blow they took, and pocket some cash and reclaiming space. My people! That’s the ticket. “Looking to upgrade” nope, this dude is raising funds, going to be over priced. “Upgraded and need this thing gone“ Yeah Buddy – My Man! Looking for a little cash in hand, more excited about the space waster leaving than the sale price.
Also – side note. Expect everything to be heavier and harder to get to than you think it will be. 200 pounds? Probably closer to three. Take a dolly, wheelie cart, or whatever with you. Pray for no stairs, or too narrow walkways. Ugh. Save your back whenever possible. Bring a friend, or two.
Happy Friday before the holiday long weekend. Have a great Thanksgiving folks. Ciao Bella.
Five hours, seven hours, and then the big whopper of eleven straight hours at the fair in one fell swoop. And my hips, ankles, and lower back are done for today, before I even got out of bed they were screaming at me to do a whole lot of nothing. Just in case I had forgotten that my body is now into the mid forties. It’ll send signals. It will let me know. This body is not shy about voicing its displeasure. So now I bow, and scrape and heed the warning signs, and I’ll spend a good few hours laid up in bed resting these hips, and keeping my feet elevated. Gotta save up energy for this evening when we have to go gather up all of our entries to bring them home!
We only get to go a few days every year so you have to make the best of it, and I think we accomplished just that this year. My oldest rode the Pharaohs Fury with her friend repeatedly, I lost count somewhere around their thirtieth go at it. It would not surprise me if they managed more than thirty five rides each on that particular carnival ride over the course of the afternoon, and into the evening. It was a huge hit. Those rides alone paid back the cost of both days worth of ride passes. Not that that ride was all they did either, we got them using the Scrambler, the Tornado, The Hang Glider, Alien Abduction, Cobra, spinning monkeys, the Bees, Monster Trucks, the Fish Tank, and atleast one more whose name I can not for the life of me remember. Bumper cars! Even I got on to the bumper cars this year. Very fun.
Three nights of fireworks too. All very nicely put together. A lovely change of scenery and wholesome family fun. I hope you managed to go and enjoy it too. Don’t forget: FREE PARKING!
Usually my painted ceramic sculptures get disqualified because they don’t 100% fit inside the category. This year that wasn’t even a choice to make in the guide book. So I split the difference and purposefully entered the open category for Technique not Previously Named. And I got a fourth place! I placed, which is very nice for a change. There were some very painstakingly gorgeous pieces in the category (No Needlework), so I’m just happy to get recognized and not DQ’d.
Ogre Rogue bust gets 4th place!Got my name on the card too!The whole category, lots of great & inspiring pieces here!
On the other hand neither of my Nuts N’ Bolts, nor my Rice Crispy Squares got anywhere near the podium for food stuffs. My Roses, Hostas, and Dahlias did pretty well this year. My wife entered all of those from our front garden. My BIL’s veggies did really well too. No surprise there, he enters 75-80% of all of the vegetable categories, so he is bound to win, or place in a good number of those. Even the kids got on the board with their crafts and photography entries. Nothing to get upset about. Fewer first place finishes, but still on the podium, or worthy of a 4th, 5th, and 6th place ribbon. No small feat given how large some of the more popular categories can be.
Spent more than five hours there in total yesterday. My hips and feet ached all last night, and my back was terribly uncomfortable for the last hour and a bit of the evening. We managed a ferris wheel ride, monster truck show, dirt bike air show, and the opening night fireworks display. My only gripe was that the Smazhed Burger folks didn’t come back this year. I searched the grounds for them last night, but to no avail. Had left over pizza when I got home instead. Now that’s not the fault of the fair, so don’t take my complaint that way. More disappointing that i couldn’t get a second bite at the burger i really, really enjoyed last year. Oh well. I did partake of a chocolate sauce filled churro, which was tasty. But not the Smashed Burger I was well and truly craving. Also at some point I will get some cinnamon dusted Tiny Tom’s donuts. Always a culinary favourite of mine. Tastes like the fair to me!
I did not intend to work on this item much while the sun was out, the temperatures warm, and my kids were home this summer. And for the most part, I did not. However I did pick away at one piece or another during the few short periods we were home and not busy with other people or things (such as the fridge or water softener).
However, new season, new me, sort of deal here. Kids are in school, and September has been quiet on the work front. Until now. Now I have two of the six confirmed paid projects lined up and ready to roll. But inbetween these quiet days I started to pick away at the resin kit again, and now all that is left to prep are the arms and shoulder flaps. So I’m considerably further along than in June when I stopped working on it. I will still have lots of putty work for holes, bubbles and seam lines, but otherwise I am nearly ready to primer the whole lot, then do the actual paint job, and final assembly with the metal parts. It will require extensive panel lining, and the decals are many! Will be a while yet before this thing is done. But forward progress is being made!
The frame.Buckets of red, yellow, white, and gun metal parts.The main weapon is roughly 10″ long! Yikes.
So that is where this resin model kit sits. I need to wire up the chest. Pin the chest together too. Lots to figure out still.
Not to mention I got started on my youngest daughters pine bed for the cottage too. Of course once I got stuck in I now have proper paid assignments to finish, but that’s freelancing for you! Gotta fill your time, and then do your hobby around the real work that actually pays the bills.
Bed frame project is moving along too. Milled up the rough cut pine lumber. Cut my finger joints. Cut up, glued, and hand planed my individual legs. I need to test fit the frame together, and then I can start on the cross beams/slats that will hold up the box spring and/or mattress and then stain it all up, drill holes to pin the legs in place, and get it to the cottage. Potentially I may card scrape, light sand some outer sections, and round over some straight edges to make it less of a toe chopping weapon of a bed. But that will be done later. Like mid October later. I’ve got lots to do right now, with the fair, Thanksgiving, Halloween Haunt, Halloween itself, the damn fridge being stupid. Lots to get through before I can put any sort of significant brain power into my hobbies. Happy Domestic Duties Monday! Ciao Bella!
This whole weekend will be spent painting, crafting, sewing, baking and running around town to get the last few fair entries finished, and in some instances started & finished ahead of next Tuesdays drop off deadline. Could get rather tense! I need to grab pumpkins with my BIL to deliver to the fair grounds too. Lots to do around here in the next four days.
We need to review our photography and get those printed off, mounted, and ready for display come Saturday. We picked up our badges, ribbons and parking tags, so that much is taken care of so far. Probably need to go shopping for rice crispies so that I can make my last project on Sunday/Monday. Don’t want to make them too far in advance as they’ll go stale when it’s time for judging on Wednesday of next week.
I love fair time. If the weather holds out we always get some terrific photos of the midway and the kids smiling & having fun. Blooming onions, funnel cakes, burgers and ice creams, the occasional candy floss, or candy apples thrown into the mix. It’s great. I hope we get to see the horse pulls, demolition derby, and the monster trucks too. I’m pretty partial to wandering around the home craft building looking at all of the complex quilts and art work. My sculpting never wins any prizes but I enter them anyway no painted ceramics this year, so I have to go in for the “Technique Not Mentioned” open category. I just like having one thing to show to people.
The food trucks and the Smashed Burger folks have really good food. I’m sad that I can’t eat more of it in a day. I’ll be searching for their blue banner again this year. As much as I usually enjoy the chicken tenders and fries from the fair, the Smashed Burger really piqued my interest last year.
You should come out to see it. Parking is free, and there are nightly fireworks shows. It’s a really fun agricultural experience. Ciao Bella!
I am going to drastically underestimate how much time it will take me to break down wood boards into something usable for a specific project. Now I’ve had these 12″ wide, by 1″ thick by 8′ long pine boards since the spring of 2020, at the height of our flatten the curve, stay home whenever possible portion of the current dark time line. I had intended this wood purchase for making larger Harry Potter trunks, but after making four of them, plus a few tool boxes, trays, drawers and such it fell off my radar. Now I need a single bed for my youngest child at the cottage, I think now is as good a time as any to try to make some plain, but classy simple furniture.
Which brings us back to my original statement. Just how long it took me to break down three 12x1x8ft pine boards into the needed pieces on my improvised cut list. After all is said and done (assume all lengths as 8ft long and 1 inch thick here, I don’t want to have to repeat that part over, and over again) I have four outside members at 5.75″ wide, and three that are 3.75″ wide. I have not planed them as of yet, nor jointed them. I feel like I want to do these with a hand planer, and a card scraper. So smooth, but not an 800 grit buttery smoothness. Had I of chosen to use Cherry or Walnut I think I would go to those kinds of lengths when finishing. But here, hand plane or card scraper smooth will be just fine. I’ll round over the edges with a router, as I don’t own any type of hand jig shaper to do profiles and things of that nature. I’ll get to my point, as I digress.
Just a few simple measurements and a handful of cuts took me 73 minutes. *Face palm*. Yeah – I was not rushing in the slightest. I’m not sure I could have gone any slower though. Setting up the fence, double and triple checking my measurements. Getting my roller stand to help me keep the 8ft long 12″ wide boards horizontal with the cutting plane was awkward. Helpful due to the weight, but cumbersome. My featherboard only worked on cuts below 10 inches. I knocked things over, and banged the fence a bunch, so I had to stop and reset. Glad I don’t charge by the hour for this hobby of mine.
My main concern is doing a three prong box joint for my main bed frame. Some legs with pegs to keep them in place. And some hand cut channels to drop in six (or so) cross braces or slates, so that the mattress or box spring can’t fall through the center. If I get a bit overzealous I can give one end a headboard to stop pillows from falling off. In accordance to the room it’s going into, one side and one end will be up against the walls, so I don’t have to go crazy. I want it to be sturdy. Have no sharp edges, and try to inset the legs to avoid stubbed toes. I want the legs to be tall enough I can get a vacuum head under the bed, but not so high the mattress feels like it’s up in the air. Little kids and falling onto hard floors won’t make me anyone’s favourite human. If I can keep my cuts flush and not full of open gaps I’ll be a happy camper.
I have lots of dark stain. Walnut, smokey green, ebony even. I’ll have to ask my kid if they want it to still look like wood when completed. I really just want to get her mattress up off the floor now that the day bed slash crib is going to a very pregnant cousin for continued use.
I’ll take numerous photos if I manage to get any further into this over the coming days. I know I have six large projects coming between now and Christmas, so if I work smart I should be able to do this without too much of a problem. If I get the legs sorted out, and the slates cut down, I can pick away at the main frame box joints and have it ready for late November or by Christmas at least. I make no promises.
Follow along as I shoddily remake other people’s famous designs like a hillbilly gone blind on moon shine. You like cupped boards, with twists and knots? Have I got the perfect project for you to follow. Adios muchachos.
Finally have the chance to go see the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!Mutant Mayhem to the rescue. Whee! I’ve been looking forward to this. One bonus from the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike is that movies have the chance to stick around a bit longer rather than washing out of the theaters after two weeks. A less crowded launch schedule means we can wait to find a suitable time to go to the movies. I’m pumped. We’ve watched the original feature film, plus Secret of the Ooze, with people in suits. Then the two CGI heavy versions with Megan Fox as April, and my kids were watching a more recent animated tv show on Netflix. So near total TMNT saturation has been hit, and we can go sit through a feature length film. Still up in the air as to whether the youngest will join us too. Not known for being able to sit still for two full hours. Either way I think we’ll get a kick out of this new version.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this very youthful version of the turtles is not geared to me, but to my eight year old, and I’m ok with that. I got to see the original when I was ten, and it is still – by far, my favourite version of the franchise. Although this art style, much like across the spider verse, really piques my interest. I like this new stylized animation that is coming out of Sony. We are also not going to see it in 3D, so that should also make it easier to watch. I think I’m the only one who enjoys that gimmick in my immediate family. My kids don’t wear sunglasses either, so it may just be an eyewear thing, and not the added depth of field that is giving them pause.
We have had a pretty glorious lazy Sunday morning so far. Even had a hot breakfast delivered. Very bougie, I know. But it was kinda fantastic. I would have made a hot breakfast but our bread has gone mouldy, and I can’t make bacon & egg sandwiches without any bread. Could have done bacon, eggs and beans, but we were looking toward sandwiches. Blinders on I guess.
I see that Angry Birds is on tv. Might take a brief moment to watch some of that. Red is about as far away from Ted Lasso as an actor can get. Lots of range in that Sudeikis fella. Ciao Bella!
Edit** Made one of the classic blunders by getting the show times wrong by pushing the date ahead in the app to see showtime’s, but not waiting for the shift to take effect, and then not double checking the next day. So we wasted an hour driving around to get to a non existent movie showing. Didn’t feel like waiting the three hours for the next actual show time. Came home and ate lunch instead. Going to try an evening show tonight, and this time we’ll do snacks and should get to see the movie! Fingers crossed.
Thought we could swing it in two days, but this patch absolutely requires a third visit to remove all of these gods be damned thistles and stinging nettles. Holy shit are there a lot of these little bastards. The straw bedding seems to bring all the prickles to the yard, huh. My gloves are only so good at keeping that nasty shit from getting embedded in my hands. Good rule of thumb for pulling thorny stuff is to grab it as close to the ground where there are fewer stingy bits, and pull it out with the roots attached. After a rainfall is best. Ground is pliable. Still sting you though, so not foolproof by any means. Cover your arms in sleeves too. That itchy shit will get you, and ruin your morning. Going to need to steel myself to go back for a third time to finish the job. There’s just so many in such a small patch left to go. Ugh. My Crocs aren’t so good at keeping those thorns from jabbing my feet either. Handy for quick clean up, but offer little to no protection at all. Full boots seem like a bit much for this job.
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 
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