What’s new on the farm today? Nothing much. There is obviously one less llama in the paddock next to the house. Maybe it is a pen? Whichever, it held her for many years and is now without her. There is a white llama in that pen still. He is kind of new there. I wonder if he would do with the other llama where the goats are? Might that be a good place to put him and start preparing that pen for when the lavender spreads? The shelter would be a fine place to put garden tools for minding the lavender. It is a potential plan. It would free a little fencing and a couple of small gates as well as a medium sized one. There is potential for those to be used elsewhere. So, I might go that way, especially come summer. I foresee the animals moving across the street and the lavender taking over. But there will also want to be a place for logs and such to be dropped off till they can be processed if I am going forward strong with the wood. Let’s see how it all goes!
When I took the llama away, I put her on the back of the pasture across the street for sky burial. I had to pass the front pasture where the youngest llama lives. I took her by and let him see, just as I did with the last one, to let him see that they are gone. I think that may be important to do. I don’t have any way to know, but I suspect they see and know.
I mailed off that hairpin lace loom early this afternoon. It was exciting to see something I made moving on to another person, and I sure hope it is helpful to the buyer, and that they enjoy it. That’s two! I might have to start working on the designs for the next batch soon.
I waited all day for an Uber or Door Dash order, but nothing. Too cold to work outside or in the shop, especially. Those tools are cold to hold! Tomorrow is also meant to be cold, but snow is also meant to come, which is usually something that happens in warmer weather. Not warm! Just warmer than tomorrow is meant to start out.
Oh, I just remembered! I need to cut some wood for the stove very soon! We are getting low!
Sometime between the check last night and this morning at 7:30, Mystique passed. She went in her little shed out in the paddock and at least was at home. I am glad for that. It was cold last night, which I am not too happy about, but she is a very furry animal, so she was warm. Hopefully she was as well off as can be.
I put her across the street with the other llama and goat we lost in the autumn. It is a messy year here. But I am not intending to put more animals on the farm at this time. I am thinking the farm will change direction, and as the animals die off, that will be a part of that. But the important thing here is the homage to a gone friend on the farm.
We bought Mystique a few years back, but I cannot find a post saying when because of the website crashed that happened some time ago. It was before that. I think it was the same year we got that goat. She was a llama with more than fiber, but quite a fair amount of hair, too. She was a mother and came with a beautiful young boy that we called Caffeine. He died within a year, which was a total bummer. I think we have had her for around six or seven years or so. It may have been longer. My memory ain’t that great. She was never useful for shearing and harvesting fiber. She did not grow anything fast, and there really was that much hair mixed in. The last couple of years she had arthritis in her hips. She slowly deteriorated and might have been put down a couple of years back on another farm. We let our llamas go naturally, so she made it till last night sometime.
She was always suspicious of people. Mystique was not the kind a person could just walk up to. She was always distant that way. So, she mostly just kind of hung around here. I cannot say any of us were close to her in the pet sense. But she was a part of the farm and will be missed as such. So, to her I say farewell.
It’s been a quiet time here on the farm these last few days. The warm winter continues, thought today and tomorrow are meant to be actually cold before it starts to warm back up again, bringing mid 40’s to the valley. There is still no accumulation of snow on the ground. Compare 2017 when there were piles of it, and the front windows of the house looked like they were nearly on the ground. Was that the year I fell in the back yard and hit my head hard enough to cause my grandchildren brain damage? The pictures of the house come up on my social accounts, and it is such a contrast to this year, and the weeds I am tempted to get to work on out front. But the hydrology monitoring up the mountains report that we are at 91% normal for this time of year, so it appears that this is okay.
I have been out to the shop working on the lathe with those pieces of walnut the neighbor gave me. I have turned two small bowls, then made one with a lid that I can give to one of the kids for his birthday coming up. I may try another and then give him that, but we will see how any future ones come out between now and Monday. If nothing is satisfactory, I have always got this one. I oiled it in olive oil so he can use it as a butter dish if he likes, rather than just a trinket tray. But now that I think on it, that might go rancid, so I better find out about that, and see what I can do to solve any potential issues with that.
There are some things I need to work out on how to turn a piece, then hollow it out without leaving a foot of some ort on it. I made the foot for the lid a part of its design. But that will not always work out. I also need to work on matching the grain on two halves of a log. I had such a time trying to cut this one in half though. Perhaps it is better to halve it on the lathe than on the bandsaw. The wood bound on the saw and kept getting stuck, which was not doing the saw any good at all. The rubber wheels on the saw burn out on the blade. That can cause them to melt, so I have found out before.
Another option with the foot is to put it there, then carve it when I am done with the holding and make it something like leaves or a ripple or some interesting shape that changes the nature of what the container appears to be. Make it an apple, or something.
On the more depressing side of the farm, we are losing a llama. I will walk out later and check on her, fully expecting to find her dead. If I were the kind, I would have shot her by now. She has such bad arthritis that it is difficult for her to get around, so even if she was just lay down because she was immobilized by the condition of her hips, it is time. She cannot get around well, and watching her walk, one can see she is in a miserable condition. Nature will take its course with her. Were she in the wild, some predator or accident would likely have taken her down some time ago. She has not had to look for food, or traverse dangerous ground. So, I think she has had the advantage where she has been in the paddock for some time. She is old, and we have had her for quite some time. It is her time. Or the end of it, rather. I will be surprised if I find her alive still when I walk out there after taking the kids to school.
Okay, back on brighter subjects.
We are signed up for three markets coming this spring. I need to make a few things I do intend to sell there. I have worked out a small income with Uber and Door Dash. It’s not much, really, at all. I hope it comes up though, as I really like the work scheduling. I can keep the apps online and wait for orders to come in while I am at home working in the shop. That suits me just fine! Ideally, I would get an alert, go to town, then while I am up there, get a couple more. Or yesterday was okay when I went up and got food, then brought it to the customer fairly close to home, and got a okay price for the trip. I keep DoorDash and Uber online, but Uber is not in this market properly, and nobody seems to know. That’s a shame. They are offering me a bonus this week of $30 a trip. They should have advertised. I am not making it my mission to advertise for them. I have got other things I need to do with my time and effort. But if anyone does call in, I am here. Making it available then not telling anyone is just another brilliant way in which these services work. I have not found them entirely friendly. DoorDash lets me schedule, but I cannot log in till there are actual orders coming. Then the zone turns red, and I can log it to get alerts. So, I have to keep checking the app throughout the day so I can get logged in. Uber just lets me go online, and that’s that. I’ll get alerted. That makes much more sense for someone in a rural setting just working the way I would like to. So far, I have only delt with food, not passengers. It’s been nice. I have had one of my kids coming along with me on many of the deliveries. Hopefully that encourages her to be able to work in the future. I also get a chance at showing her how to be polite and how to put a customer first. A lost art these days.
The time to get up for the day has arrived. I may be best to spend time splitting wood for the stove today. The pile is shrinking, and we are barely past mid-winter. Let’s not be fooled by the warm weather. I have an expensive weather station whose main purpose is to warn me when it is cold enough to freeze the pipes under the house. An occurrence so frequent that I needed that solution. It also looks like it is time to look at the spark arrestor on the chimney and maybe beat it clean, as there is a little smoke sometimes from the open door of the woodstove.
This weekend we were promised by the weather prognosticator, Punxsutawney Phil, that we would be getting six more weeks of winter. This is a strange forecasting tradition that is placed right smack in the middle of winter and probably has more of a root in the idea that the weather will be cold or warm for the remainder of the winter than the actual length of it. I remember when I was so young that I thought there might be some truth in the forecast of the famous furry rodent. Was I ever that young? But now it is easy to see that the date of his festival is in mid-winter, and that he is used as a marketing and tourism scheme for a town. I am not going to knock it. I know how hard it is to get people to come to your planned event, but to do it regularly for decades upon decades? They have my respect over there in Pennsylvania. But the weather should call Phil out of his burrow more often now than it once did, if he is looking for warmer weather to guide his forecasts.
I’ll say this for our own little rodent of a forecaster, which is the weather app on my phone, it overpromised for this weekend. I was expecting a decent layer of snow on the ground by this morning. I was looking forward to the possibility of sitting on the front porch and carving at some wood on my bench there while looking out over a yard covered in snow. But when I looked out jus a couple of minutes ago, rain. The weather app says it is 37F outside. Way too warm for snow. (For some reason my weather station is offline. That will need immediate attention.) I can see Punxsutawney Phil would be up for a day like this. It is warm enough that the temperature in my room when I got up was relatively stifling compared to the expected normal. I have a little heat panel on the wall in there that uses 400 watts and kicks out a radiator like effect of heat in the room. Above a certain outdoor temperature, that is too much. It seems that certain temperature outdoors is around 35F. I only tossed in a log and two other smaller pieces of wood in the stove when I came down for coffee and morning solace.
If I were running a prognosticating festival today, I would have my little rodent crying for more winter, while pointing out that it is too warm for the middle of winter in this place, and that my ancestors used to crawl back into their hole and hibernate the rest of the next six weeks, but I am going to be up in my workshop more than expected, and to please stop by the craft booths and help the other crafters clear out their stocks and make room for what they will be making with their extra time in the shop this year. Whew! I’d have a lot to say in one sentence!
I am not running such a festival, but I am running a workshop. And I am not keeping stocks. I don’t have room for it. But I do make the things I need when I do. Recently, my oldest daughter asked me where the sourdough starter pot was that I had bought from Kings Mill a couple of years ago. I reminded her that the last time I saw it up close, the lid had been cracked, a situation that developed almost as soon as I had it delivered. Then I reminded myself that I have a lathe. So, I made a lid for the pot yesterday, and put it on the kitchen island, ready for service.
I need to work on creating a foot on the item and doing a better job at the top of the handle. Well, in future. This one is as it is. I will likely carve the top center with the carving tools. I’ll use that as motivation for making a jig as a work holding piece on my Roman bench on the front porch. Then some sort of scalloped piece, or a flower or nut if I am feeling particularly adventurous. We’ll see what comes of it. A leaf, maybe? Whatever I add, as long as it adds to the piece. Anyway, I love the walnut wood. The finish looks fair in this photo, but to the eye it is marvelous. It adds to the pot. The angle of the photo at close up with such converging lines makes the lid look too big in this photo. It is not. IT is just right. If anything is too big, it is the handle. But again, that is exaggerated by the photo angle. You can see why I have such a hard time with doing my own marketing!
Well, my coffee is gone. My fire is burring low. The light has not begun to lift the starry curtain, but it is a good time for me to get a start on that massive pile of dished next to the sink. I enjoy doing them. I had such a problem with my joint inflammation and cracking skin for so long that I truly welcome the opportunity to do this chore for my family. I had to duck out of it before. Now I can do it all I want with things feeling much better. So, I do, and they look at me with curiosity and wonder why I enjoy it. They have never had something like this opportunity to be helpful and do a service for others taken away from them. Off to the suds! And not the ones in the pub, I say!
Today I got out one of the walnut pieces and turned it on the lathe. I was after at least one woodcarving mallet, and I got two! I got a full sized one, and a mini. I was pretty happy with that, and even happier how they turned out for a first try.
I made them, brought them into the house with linseed oil on them, took the picture with my cellphone, then saw there was a couple of spots that needed to be touched up. I used the oil-wax mix in the house for it, and now it has a similar silky-smooth finish on them, but without missing a spot. There are some things I have learned from this make and now have some idea on how to do the next one or set. For one, the large one has the handle reversed. I like the dimensions quite a lot, but when held upside down in the hand. The handle feels quite comfortable the other way. My only worry is that it is too weak to be made upside down like that. The narrow bit will be up towards the mallet head!
I see more coming, and I hope to put a few up for sale on this site!
I spent yesterday waiting around for the delivery driving jobs to give me work. I got one in the evening with Door Dash. That was it. And that was to take a personal pizza two blocks from the shop to the house. It was an interesting one because the shop said the pizza that was ordered was on their website, but no longer one they had the ingredients for. They could not get the customer to answer a call to let her know. Then, as it turned out, the only thing that was different from one they could make was basil. I suggested she just make it and I’d explain it to the customer upon delivery. However, the app did not show me the delivery instructions till I got there, and only then I saw that it was to be left on the step and ‘don’t knock or ring the bell.’ I don’t understand. But whatever. Sadly, I rang the bell before I saw those instructions. So, we took off having left the pizza on the step. No tip there. Just five bucks for having drove all the way to town with my youngest daughter along to see how it works. Well, that’s not how it works. Anyway, that was that. Sorry to whomever the customer was that there was no basil. But it was otherwise the same. I’d of explained it to you had you answered the door, and the shop would have confirmed it with you had you answered the phone. All this for a personal sized pizza. I hope it was okay for you.
We had a visit from our youngest granddaughter yesterday, and her mother. That was great! We were glad to see them. Missus has a cold starting up, so did not hold the baby. I took her turn. What good times! I really enjoyed that! Them babies are sure cute!
My other great task was fixing a drainpipe for the washing machine. It had an ice block that I had to clear so we could do laundry. So, I got that sorted out and set to drain properly without freezing again. It might, but it shouldn’t. So the kids got started on clearing a lot of backed up laundry. I insisted on putting Missus’ through for her instead of doing mine first. She was grateful. I was glad to let everyone get theirs caught up. I look forward to getting mine through after Missus’ last load is done.
I ate Tater tots for a late super last night. I covered with fine chopped onion, then cheese and some pepperoni. I shared that with everyone. Nobody complained about that. I will this morning as I am feeling it on my blood sugar. Yuck! I need some meat! Get this balanced out. I never used to till I got on this diet last summer. I guess I was on a pretty bad course back then, so it’s best I feel like this now, and at least know how to control this. I’d have eaten it before and just gotten heavier, but now I know that this is not the kind of meal I should be eating, and certainly not for supper a couple of nights a week.
Our son who works in the oilfields is thinking of his escape from there, and into another company. So far, there is no promise of more work for him where he is at. He is getting the treatment, so he wants to get into a new place where there comes a little respect along with the paycheck. Meanwhile, Missus and I are both looking for work from here, and don’t find anything. So, we are not sure about the potential for work. I will have to get the firwood going here to see if I can pull in a bit of money from here. There is not a lot more I can do. Missus is now thinking on opening her little shop on Saturday’s because nobody ever stops here, so it is not worth opening it every day. It feels like casting a net into an empty lake. A lot of work for nothing. I don’t know why none of the neighbors will stop in. Too busy, I guess. Or the economy just isn’t what we are told it is. But I am with her that it is not worth opening most days for nobody. The hours are published online. They can stop by then, if they are interested.
This is not the most positive post. It is only this one aspect that has me bothered. Everything else is fine. I think I may be able to get some furniture built soon and start trading it out in the house. Some of the wood in the shop seems dry enough to work with. So, I might be giving that a try soon as the weather is set to warm up at the end of the coming week and maybe access to the shop will be assured. Or I can work on the front porch now that I have the top added to the Roman workbench.
Tonight I got out to the shop a few minutes and got a piece of the pine tree that I have cut to boards out there. IT is probably not quite dry, but I am using it for a removable table on the Roman workbench anyhow. The idea is that the grain is set so it will do me two favors. The first is to cup in such the direction that the legs will spread wide if it does cup. So it cups upwards, in other words. Then the legs spread outward and since they are set into the tabletop, and into the Roman benchtop, it will pretty well stay in place against the cupping. I think so, anyway. The second favor is that the grain is put in the direction so that I can sit and plane it forward and it will not blow out. The grain is going uphill from where I sit. That will make it easier to flatten the top as needed. The top is two inches thick.
The Roman when it was first finished. One of the original legs broke on the tenon, and I have replaced it.
The raised top is simply four legs with tenons on both ends so it can fasten to the top of the Roman. Then I can sit on the end of the roman and work at chest height on the little table in front of me. I think with a clamp I can basically have a shave horse.
This photo is a bit dark, but it gives scale to the bench with some tools on it. I have a stick clamped down to the top to work as a push rail that I can push against, but I am thinking on how I can do the same with a notch. I also am thinking of how to do pull strokes against the workpiece.
I think this will make a good bench for under the tree out front where I have made a room under the willow.
Where do I belong in the economy? I am no good at marketing, but I am trying to figure it out. I am no good at relentless work, but that’s due to lifelong health issues that I am working on overcoming, but which has to be done at a practical pace, or I risk going right back into it again. I don’t want to do that. It was inflammation that I did not realize was not just normal felt for people, and now that I know the difference, I do not want to go back. But I want to get the most out of me now, because I can. If that makes sense. So I have applied to jobs around and about. I don’t need a fulltime, work overtime and get underpaid job that is out to use me to death. I just need enough to pay the bills and keep the cupboard full and give a little for hobbies and fuel for the tractor and sawmill. I would be good earning a few hundred a week till I can get on my feet with this marketing thing and get some things sold, I think. I need to keep looking this week. There is the transit district, which will put a fella through the training to get a Class B license with a P endorsement, which is to say, licensed to drive more than 16 people on a bus. Just having the class B would be good if it helps to drive the tractor around on a trailer responsibly. That would be worth doing to get that. Then there could be other driving options available if I need it. But the goal still would be to work from home on our own businesses.
I don’t think all the money is in candle making. I enjoy it. I want to make things in the woodshop, too. That is my primary goal. I keep learning where I can, even when it is too cold or too hot to work out there. I would like to get that sorted out. I can work overnight in the summers. I need a better heat source in the winters. Hell, even a good place to pile firewood would make a difference. I really should get that worked out here. Especially since there is no snow piled up and interfering with doing it. Still getting into the idea that I can do things that I am in the habit of not doing thanks to a lifetime of inflammation. I am still not in the habit of just getting at it like the people I envy are. I’ll work on that this week.
Seriously! One of the kids just reminded me that the inflammation has been such that I could not even pile blankets over me in bed without waking up sore from it. I am sleeping warm this winter, which is a change for me! But that’s an example of one of the ways in which life has changed for me, and how stupid it is.
I’ll keep job hunting this week. Building off the firewood cutting I have done this past week, I will see what projects I can keep busy at this week, too. I need to clean up in the shop. I have those classes posted up, and though I don’t think my website gets the traffic required to fill them, you never know! I’d hate to be caught with my shop a mess.
This winter being so generally warm and dry, things here are sure different to what normal is in my mind. I should be taking better advantage of it! I have tried to do a little digging with the tractor, but that spot where I needed to go down a little in the yard if frozen and the tractor cannot get through it. It is a hole I need to dig. But it looks like there is no luck in getting it done right now, even with the weather better than normal. Hey, at least I know for sure there are seasons to the work I can do.
Oh, I want to set up a schedule for tractor work for this year. I need to be able to till gardens to earn some money. I also need arborists to drop logs off at my place at no cost to them, and to help me procure firewood and sawlogs. It’d be all good stuff.
Today I put together two classes in this website and set them up to sell two tickets each for them. One is a beeswax candle making class and the other is a is class on hand planes. The candle class is $30 for an hour, and the plane class is $60 for two hours. I have them set up for the coming week with room for two pupils per class. I doubt anyone will sign up, but I wanted to see how it is done so I can install the plug-in on Missus Bacon’s site and do the same kind of thing there. It allows me to set her up classes, too, but I need to get the payment portal set up for her to sell classes. So for now, I set up two open house days. Those are free. Then I shared it via Facebook and have managed to drum up a little interest. It is more than I had before, anyway. I have put up posts before and got no interest at all. So this is a great thing! Before bed, I have two listed as going, one of which I think is just me. There are three interested, too. So let’s see how it goes. There seems to be people who are not on my friends list that are interested and going, too. But I am not clear on it, and the numbers match the number of people listed as coming or interested. Really, I am just trying to get around the marketing costs Facebook wants because hey, they make billions, and we have got next to no money at all, and we still need to eat. So, it behooves me to try to get business drummed up on the cheap.
So, if you would like to learn to make beeswax candles, I will be doing a class this coming week on how to make 3/4 inch wide, six to nine inch molded or hand dipped candles. I have room for two. I also have a class on how to tune and use a hand plane for woodworking. We will prepare a board for use on a project. The student can keep the board. We’ll pick it from the woodpile and help them make it useable. The classes both work out to $30 an hour per student. Materials and tool usage is included.
So, this is where we are beginning 2025. Finger crossed we can get some interest and get together some more courses to help others along! I am trying!
