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.