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Come Wednesday!

Posted on January 29, 2025 by Kelsey

12:23AM

I just woke up from a heavy sleep, deep in a dream where I was making a YouTube video. I was high up in a tree, leaning all my weight against one branch, trying to lever it between it and another, so I could not come loose and fall the terrible distance from the ground. I even thought of what I would do to try to effectively black myself out should I come lose, or at least relax myself and ignore the coming collision with the earth, so I would feel it as little as possible, and not die in the anticipation of it. Relax, breath, close my eyes, and just be. There is no drop. There is no ground. There is just me, and we will see what is next. And after that. But the branch I had all my weight on with my left leg, and only the lower portion at that, was shearing in half under the strain of trying to hold me. It did not matter the branch above and wedging my leg between them if the one below were to give out. And then, as suddenly as a loud crack and the beginning of a drop, I found myself awake, heavy as a crash, but on my bed, wondering what really woke me since none of the cracking and falling had happened. That is certainly my last YouTube video of me climbing a tree.

12:32AM

Going to try to fall asleep again.

7:30AM

Slept the rest of the night through. Maybe this dream was my mind telling me I am afraid to do a YouTube channel. Then you know what that means? Get to it! Hey, it is another way to make a little money while I am at home, and that beats crap out of going out for it. So maybe I should try. It is the only way to stop bad dreams. Or at least to change them. Why should I put up with bad dreams of failure over something I am not even trying at? If life is going to be bad in any way, then I would like to know I at least worked for it and earned it. Look, there is time in the mornings in the cold season to do editing and such, and when it is too hot, that could be during the too hot part of the day. So there is no valid excuse that it takes too much time. There is always a time of the day when I would rather be hiding from the weather. It’s just the silly making of the footage that is, well, strange. But I did that time late last year when I practiced at not talking stupid to the camera and making more like it is a person there, rather than a tiny little device. (I’m just not from the generation that is comfortable talking to a tiny little device. Especially one that does not even have someone else’s face on it responding.)

January 29th. Where do the days go? You know, the middle of my decade will be here after a short while. I remember when I started my venture into the 50’s and thought about that, and how I would soon be in the middle. Well, here it comes! I wonder to myself if I am where I wanted to be by now, or if I am messing about too much. I think I am messing about toto much. Some people are stuck in jobs they hate and doing that instead of living their dreams. I think I am close enough to living my dreams by virtue of not being stuck in that hate job that I need to just nudge myself. So, dear self, the middle of the decade is on its way.

Right, time to end this and get ready for the day upon us. I tried GrubHub this morning. There is a waitlist in Logan, and that is 20 miles from here with a university in it. I don’t want to fight that waitlist only to be in a slot that could better serve some college kid trying to pay for school. So, I won’t press on with that one from here. Light up the two apps I do use for the day and see what comes. DoorDash has provided a very few dollars. Uber has not even behaved as though it were connected to the Internet. That one is doing nothing but taking up battery and bandwidth. Gonna try going to Logan and seeing if it lights up while I am there later this week. Then maybe I can get some jobs. If that works out, then maybe it is time to GrubHub, too. Yeah, on with my day. Apps on, woodshop work, and some firewood.

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Deliveries & Not

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Kelsey

It looks like Uber works like Door Dash. You have to be out loitering in your car for it to work. I don’t love that. I don’t really want to be out and about loitering for jobs to come up. I would be happy to leave the house for deliveries within a certain range. There is just no way to set it to do that. So, I will have to figure this out. I would rather be able to work in my shop and leave when called for than have to pick times to hang around somewhere like some kind of stalker with no one to stalk. How sad and lonely is that?

If I am a good boy, I will go to the shop tomorrow and turn a couple of carver’s mallets from the walnut I have out there. I also need to see if there is a decent hook somewhere I can put into my chandelier to hang it from. I will see what jobs are on offer, again. I might have to be weird and hang out somewhere waiting for a job on the apps.

Looks like everything from Columbia is now going to have higher prices. Coffee, anyone? Must be nice for those who can afford the higher prices and tariffs. But for the rest of us, I think we will see what comes of this at our expense. Really? Columbia? Well that’s interesting. If coffee is hit, loads of Americans will be hit by the prices. At least we get to experiment and see results of tariffs on something like that, and not on medicine or something important like that. We sure will see. Watch the coffee prices.

I found when I went to England in 2002 that the one thing the English famously hated most about Americans was what they called American Arrogance. I think they are going ot hate us more this year than ever before!

My youngest cleaned the car out today. She wanted to do that so I could use it to drive clients. What a great kid! She is amazing! She cleaned everything out, wiped down surfaces, and vacuumed. I will have to clean the outside. It is due for an oil change, too. I have some catching up to do!

I am watching an interesting video about a guy who is building a custom cabinet and veneering the base which is made of MDF. He is raising the question of if that is real woodworking, and talking about how some see real wood working as building only from solid woods. I don’t see it that way since wood stability is impossible to achieve with solid woods. I cannot count the number of pieces I have seen in the hundred plus year old category that were warped and broken to pieces because of wood moving with temperature and humidity. So I think the question is a made-up controversy. However, that said, watching the guy build he is highly intelligent. Hmm. Now he is gold leafing. Way out of my league! For now, anyway. But the man has got skills. Pedulla Studio is the name of the YouTube channel.

Best message from the video is, “If you are enjoying yourself, just do it.” Great!

Right. I am up early tomorrow. Off to sleep soon.

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Work, Work, Work

Posted on January 26, 2025 by Kelsey

So I got Door Dash to give me two deliveries last night. Perhaps it is meant to be an earn ad you drive along the way kind of app. It is not really for stationary use as a driver. Not really what I am looking for. But the two deliveries from last night were not too bad. I need it to give me more, though, to earn a bit. I have still not heard from Uber.

The first delivery was Mexican food like six blocks from the restaurant. The app gave me $7 for that. No tip. From my pizza days, that was usually a sign of a bad economy when people stopped tipping or dropped down to $2 or less. Right as I finished that up, I got an alert for a second delivery. Well, I hit accept right away. I don’t want someone else picking it up, do I? I have not scanned the screen fast enough to get details about the delivery, but the pick-up was close. It was the delivery that was a bit mad. I had to drive it down to Richmond. The app called that 16 miles! I called it a long delivery! I was figuring it would be limited to the area designated in the red boundary on the map, but that is apparently just the pick-up area. My kid will tell you, I was cussing all the way. But the app paid me out $12.99, and the guy gave me a ten dollar bill as I was telling him it was probably cold by now. He said he didn’t care. Okay! All set then! Pleasure doing business with ya! Hey, $25 is $25! But that was all for a Saturday night. It don’t look like there is a lot of earning potential in this thing. Certainly not enough to live on!

So, while it is better than nothing, and I can probably get some groceries in town while I am up there, such as bread and milk, it is nothing to live on, especially when wear and tear and fuel are considered. Will I carry on? Probably just to get a little money. That is a need. It is not the future for raising a family, that’s for sure! So, I will keep my eyes peeled for a job, and I will keep working on my stuff in the shop. But I am not confident in sales. Missus is having a hell of a time even getting anyone to stop by her little shop. She is spitting nails. I am with her on that. Does not one person see us opened up out there, and think, ‘hey! I think I will stop in and see what is going on there!” That’s right. In over a year of opening up most days. Not one. Well, one. One family did stop in once last summer. Three guys I know from around the neighborhood have stopped in, and one bought candles. Otherwise, the shop has been for naught. And that is so aggravating! People are just not into the things we are.

What are we into? Llamas, fiber, spinning and weaving. Missus also makes lots of things like her bookmarks, and wire flowers. The bookmarks include ones made from wood, paper, and even leather. She has prints for sale and has made little quote signs on magnets. She has put together tons of stuff for her shop and for her Farmer’s Markets. The Markets were always sort of break even. We would make back what we spent on some beef jerky and some drinks for the evening, and that was it. I don’t think we ever even made back the cost of the fees for the markets. Never mind the cost of the booth or the tables and chairs and such. I’d love to figure out how to do that still. It would be great to pull through this year. But I know she is not feeling it. That is a polite expression for what I know she is feeling.

So what now? We don’t have the next big trend for sale, apparently. We have always worked on a ‘back to basics’ mindset of self-reliance. Neither of us is into the trendy, but believe in the stability and reliability of traditional crafts, and their products as a means of securing prosperity. Why buy everything you need from cheap Chinese manufacturers when you can make it yourself or buy it from a local maker with higher quality and support. I know that speaking for anything I made, if it came back broke, I would fix it, and for free or minimal cost at all. We are set up here so we can do that. For me to make a new table leg is just a matter of a little time and a piece out of a log I have out back. I have access to the full supply chain that way. And I can replicate anything I have made with no trouble at all. Or in a worst-case scenario, I could just replace the whole piece outright. But that is will, and availability a the moment, and I have both. I don’t know what else to do. There is paying the billionaire on Facebook for ads. We are reluctant, I admit. That is aggravating. That is reintroducing to our model what we want to get out of it. But it may have to come to that. Will it target correctly? Or will we be pissing money into the wind?

What a looney situation it is! We can’t even get sales on the used car market, or with the saddles we have listed. It’s shit.

So, here we are. January… Wow! 26th already! Is it? That surprises me! That has gone speeding along! Must be the distraction of all the medical issues and everything Missus has gone through.

Anyway, so here we are, January 26th, already. And we need to figure it all out. I am trying to see if I can earn anything doing what I can best do for my old body, which is driving. I enjoy it. I enjoy the customer service aspect of it. I really enjoy meeting with new people, even if it is only briefly. I will try to build a few things, again, for the house to start with. Then I’ll replace them or maybe build a few for fun items and put them up for sale. I have got some happy enough workspaces set up now, and the tools I think I need to do just about anything I think I need to. I can do it and do it my way. From tree to furniture. Right in my own shop. That is such a happy place to be! January and February are meant to be the coldest, most awful months of the year. But thanks to that non-existent global warming, it is quite nice out, and perfectly fine on the front porch, though I find space a pretty big issue out there. So I am trying to figure out a nice little niche somewhere where I can push into and work. I have not figured out upstairs yet, because of wood shavings and carpeting. I cannot figure anyplace in the house where I could just go all day and evening, or night if I wanted. Everyplace else gets cold as soon as the sun is down, which is early this time of year. So… I’ll work something out. Imagination. That’s what I need.

I think come spring I will just plot out to the shop or under the willow tree with the Roman bench. That will be nice. I know that in the heat of the summer it is likely going to be night shifts for me if I want to get work done. If I am doing this myself, then I have that kind of adaptability. I won’t if I have to work to someone else’s schedule. One thing that has to hit the priority list is to finish that woodshed. It was jarring hitting the mallet the way I was. Maybe I can get used to it more? Then I could finish it and get the thing filled with next winter’s wood early in the season. That would be quite lovely! The dried wood we have been using this year has kept the house pretty easily warm. The wetter stuff, not so much. Well, like that comes as a surprise!

Oh! I got to work on some of that black walnut that the neighbor gave me. I turned a candlestick last night. It was a chore getting through that wood. Keep the tools sharp! That is for sure! But man, is it pretty! And it is tough wood. I am going to turn a couple of carver’s mallets from it and give one back to the neighbor. But I am also going to make a couple for me. Any more hand tools I need real quick? Holy crap! What a rich resource! I wonder if he can get any more? That is some nice stuff! He says he knows people who cut it down and throw it away. I’d take that stuff all day long! I may have to start a new scrap bin, and throw just walnut scraps in it, because who would want to waste the stuff? Holy cow! Which is a Hindu expression, I think.

Right. I am going to go back to sleep. An hour or two more, then get Sunday going. Why not? It is still dark out. Ain’t no sunshine just yet. But it will come.

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Door Dash

Posted on January 25, 2025 by Kelsey

Door Dash is difficult. I have to set up a schedule and where I am going to work. That seems simple enough. Time and location. Nothing more to it. Then it seems like it should be telling me when there are deliveries to make in that area during that time, and I can accept the deliveries and earn money. So simple. But when it comes time, I have to log in. The trouble is, I can only log in for about half an hour before the app loge me back out again. It logs out because of inactivity. How am I supposed to know of activity if I am logged out? So I have to keep it logged in, which means battery eating babysitting of the app. Not that I have better things to do. Then it argues with me about logging in and being IN the area that I am trying to log in to work in. I live a few miles out of town, and do not have the time to sit up there in town waiting for hope’s sake that an order will come through. I have things to do. I can drop and go from home if I need to. And I will. But to hang about in town is not even an option. Yet that’s what Dash wants me to do. So I get it logged in, and so far after three days, I have had two deliveries. One of which was very problematic, but that’s a different story. Another problem is that the area they want to have deliveries in barely covers town. There are a little over five thousand people in town, and 12,000 in the county. Why don’t they cover more area? I wish I had the code and could set up a Dash for the whole county and deliver to the whole county. It is not that big of a space, and if everyone in this county could order food, I think they would.

I reached out to the help desk and got the runaround that I needed to go to town and wait there for orders, I also got that I understand how the app works and need to use that knowledge to make it work rather than a solution to the problems. I think that is what they were telling me. It was plenty useless. It sure made no sense. I gave up after two people and finally being promised I needed to be put on with a supervisor then dropped from the chat. It was pretty stupid. I have got to say, I have made about $12 in the last three days. On the other hand, it was a pain in the butt. So that’s where I am at.

I am trying the Uber app, but it seems to think it is a standalone app that does not have any information in it.

So far nothing there.

Okay, that is my report. I cannot even say I will still be doing this at all this time next week.

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Dash and Uber

Posted on January 24, 2025 by Kelsey

Well, we did the Meet and Greet. How disappointing. Lovely that two of the guys who live in the neighborhood came by and visited a bit. They both arrived at near the same time. So it was a good chat, and Missus came out for a bit then went in finished her lunch. Otherwise, nobody showed up. I need to figure this out. There has got to be a better way to advertise the shop. I hate seeing Missus going through the effort and nothing coming of it. It really hurts to her hurt.

I did my first ever Dash today. I took a run from Burger King to a house about a block and a half from Burger King. I drove over five miles to do that. Oh well. It was a little different from doing the pizza joint I used to do back in the day. I had to get drinks and such. I would like to have a way of doing it without being so clumsy. So I need to work that out, and I would like to be sure I am getting the food to the customer hot.

This one run may be all I get this whole weekend, but I do think that tomorrow and Saturday will actually come up with some drives. I’d like to see how it goes, but just in case, I did go ahead and start the sign up for Uber Eats. I may go ahead and taxi with them, too. It is the right pace for my old body.

So there we go. I got some wood chopped up today. I also tried to jump the two trucks, but I got one running, then tried to jump the other, and it immediately killed the first one, and then neither one of them would start. I will have to try to start the first one again tomorrow. Maybe it just still had a dead battery. I dunno.

I will see how this whole thing goes. It is not a job in the practical sense, especially where I am working as a contractor at the whim of an app. No idea of it will produce enough work for me to earn enough to live on.

I am trying to keep my head around what all is going on with the new political situation now. Honestly, I don’t have a clue. Nothing makes sense. Well, maybe tomorrow.

Spoke to my oldest friend today. The one who lost his mother recently. Hopefully he is doing well. They have arranged her service. I wish I could go and be there. She was such a good lady. And he is a good friend.

The cold is here still. Looks like it will be warm again by a week from this weekend. Temps are meant to hit the 40’s. Well, this I have got to see! Off to bed for now. Goodnight! Or, good day, if that is when you are reading this. Or good morning.

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The Open House – Tomorrow

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Kelsey

Tomorrow we are opening up for a Meet and Greet. That is just a fancy way of saying we are open as normal, but we are really wanting to have people come by and say hello, and to talk about the things we have on sale, or the things we can make bespoke for them or their event. I’ll do a proper Open House on the Saturday following. But for now, I would just like to see if we can get someone through the door and to meet up with us and see that we are here. We have been opening up for ages with nobody coming by. So, since we are offering items for sale for everyday and for events, maybe we need to have events. Maybe we need to have them every day. But this business of opening up for nothing is really, really old!

As for today, I am reminded of the value of our Amazon Prime account with its promised two-day delivery. We are waiting on the fourth day now for a battery delivery for the alarm that sounds every time someone opens the door to the shop. Ours seem to have died, and we have not been minding it because we have no way of knowing when someone is there. That needs to be fixed, soon. But if I have to, I suppose I can put my new work bench outside and work through the day. After all, that kind of mobility is what it’s for. Also, I need people to see what I can make visa vie the workbench, and with my own mill and such.

Whatever the case, we need this to amount to something, and hopefully more than just a person or two coming by. But honestly, we would take that with a certain amount of overwhelming joy!

Speaking of the workbench, I don’t know if I want to put in dogholes, or just a couple of channels I can insert a square stick into as a stop to work against while running knives and the like, or should I build custom jigs for spoon carving? So many options! I need to see this able to work in the front porch where it is much warmer, so I can get a profit turned from it in these cold winter days. And again, being able to build it myself gives me the options! And I can offer such options to clients! I would think I could do it for $400 or $500 or so custom made, but I may look at it after and decide the fit and finish is not what it should be, then give a discount of $50 to $100. There are a lot of variables. Some to do with the wood, some with the final product and how it turns out, and then the cost could go up again based on moving parts or specialty work holding pieces. The more dogs and jigs included, then obviously the price would go up, too. I am talking the base price of a simple bench like the one in the pictures. But bear in mind, that one has a removable tabletop, and can be used with or without it.

Well, six AM is rolling up on me. I got up twenty minutes ago and put wood in the stove to warm it up downstairs. I best plan on getting up out of bed here real soon!

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Remembering When

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Kelsey

I remember going through the shop my great-great-grandparents had in West Virginia. It was an old-time gas station and local shop. As I remember it, it was complete with soda fountain. The building was pretty old when I was there in about 1978, and unbelievably, it seems it still stands. The gas pumps are long gone, of course, and now it is attached to a greenhouse in front of Erma’s old house. It was Erma Foor that owned it, and if the current owners were to go into the cemetery behind the house, I think they would find her grave there. Talk about a small world that Erma lived and died in! Work and home and a grave all within maybe 300 feet of each other or so! The place was called The Plant Cult when the more recent people had it, and I don’t know if it is still. I am relying on Google Earth to find this out. The cemetery is Mount Calvary. And the house is now hidden behind the old greenhouses that are in what once was the front yard to Erma’s house. I wonder if that closet next to the front door still has the pull chain flap in the floor where the laundry can be dropped down next to the washer and dryer in the basement? When I was a little kid and visited there, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. What a convenience!

It was not the only place I visited around Morgantown back then. Go up northwest to Black’s Run Road and there just before the Pennsylvania State line you will find Willa and Lester’ Raber’s house on the left side of the road. There was a hutch built-in in the dining room and to the right of it was a door that opened to a very steep set of stairs that lead upstairs. There was also a screened in porch on the back of the house and in it was a glider rocker that would sit three or so. That old thing is still out in my back yard now, 47 years later. Their kitchen table is in pieces out in my shop. Ask me why. Anyway, I will have to get it back together someday, maybe this summer. That would be nice. (I started to restore it to use for myself, and the minute I did, my grandmother suddenly went from not interested in it to wanting it for herself the moment I was done. I stopped work immediately, because that was not the first time I had been through that shit-show with her.) When I was there with my grandparents, granddad and I did something remarkable. He took me for a walk up the road so we could have a piss on the Mason-Dixon Line. What a momentous occasion! Still sticks with me till this day as one of the most amazing trips we ever took, and we took a lot of them together when I was a kid.

All this came back to me again tonight. I am sure I wrote about it before. But it is there, lingering in my mind, wishing I could grab it all and pull it out and walk my kids into that world at that time, and let them see somethings that belonged to people who were born more than 100 years before them. Hell, Lester was 92 in ’78! That would have put him as born in 1886 or so. Do these kids realize I have known people born that far back? Do they know how close history really is to them? If the people we met were simply neighbors in the next house, that would put the late 1800’s right next door to us. They don’t know. I mean, we have a picture that comes up in a digital frame every now and then of the guy who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. When was that? June 28th, 1914? That means Lester was about 28? It’s crazy. If my math is correct.

I am off to get some wood on the fire and find a light meal for supper. I wanted to leave this here though. Who knows? Maybe the people who live in the old houses will find it one day and get in touch. I wonder how things are that way. I have always had a place in my heart for that part of West Virginia.

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Somethings Special

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Kelsey

It’s a Sunday morning. The fire is going in the stove, and I have a lovely cup of tea next to me as I type this. It is from a teapot. If you know your English teas, then you know that brewing in a pot is better than in a cup. I woke up to the briefest of mentions of some exciting news today. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law may be out come July. Nothing in stone yet, but at least it is being thought of. That would be really cool. I have not seen mum since 2012, just before we moved up here to Idaho! Ans sis is always wonderful to see. She has been out a couple of times since we moved up here, and I love having her about. She gets involved with things and is always helpful. But if they both come for a visit, I think it would be wonderful to see them. The English think of themselves as world travelers. It would be lovely to see them more, then.

It is a Sunday morning. The fire is going in the stove, and I have a lovely cup of tea next to me. The cups and pot are ceramic. Nothing too fancy, but fancy for us. I am thinking of how else I can market the open house I set up for my wife’s business. It would be great to get some people through the door. It has been so frustrating for her to open her shop up most days then have nobody come by. I want that to change for her. I want it changed now. The ringers on the doors have died, and we have to sort her out so they will ring again. The shop is small, and no place to plan to hang around for a whole day waiting to see if someone comes. Se we have a fix in the works, batteries to arrive on Tuesday. Till then, we are closed. But if we can get people coming over on Thursday, and even just a little traffic that she can manage, then even that could be worth opening for.

I am also thinking on building an outdoor workbench. I could work under the willow tree and then watch for customers there in the good weather. I would not mind so much working outside. that could be really nice. It could also serve as a means of advertising. What could be better than building primitive furniture with primitive tools under a tree? Fresh pile of lumber close at hand. I think it could make a lovely picture.

I am excited to see what becomes of our lavender that we put in in the autumn. I can see some ideas in my head if we can get that to grow. I know Missus has ideas, too. But I would like to see a little larger shop in for her, and she could make the trailer one she can transport to venues. I think it would be lovely to have a little lavender field in front of a little shop. I know there was the concern before about a shop that side being too far back. But visibility is always going to be a problem for her. It is now, with the trailer. I think we could make it a space that is more accommodating year-round though! If we can get some money coming in, then we can set up properly on a last building. Of course, the county will oppose us having anyone through the doors. Maybe the shop itself can be outdoors? I don’t know. I have to admit, the ‘rules’ are opposed to anything for small business. It’s like how the state’s SEC rules don’t allow a person to do peer to peer lending unless they are basically millionaire’s then only a small amount. They are protecting us from risk, they say. They are Republicans, I say! What the Hell?

Okay, I think I better get up and moving and go get something done. Anything! IT is a fine time of a day to have a day.

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Trying to Knock Off for a Mid-winter’s Nap

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Kelsey

Nothing like waking up only minutes after falling asleep and finding oneself a pretty darned sight not sleepy anymore. Boy! So, Garrison Keillor is telling the News from Lake Woebegone. and I have been trying to focus on that and go back to sleep. But I gave in and ate some carbs before bed, and now I am feeling hungry. Had I not, I would no doubt be sleeping peacefully by now, or if not, at least I’d be more comfortable, and could think of something else. But the carbs leave a pain the belly, and that gets interpreted as hunger pains. Be it or not, I sure feel it. So, I will try to ignore it and go back to sleep here again in a few minutes.

I put together an event in my wife’s webpage today with a plug-in that allows free and paid events with ticket sales. I then put that on Facebook, and I have a half a dozen responses for it so far with Interested and Going responses together. That is more than I have been able to get to reply to anything else I have put up on the Facebook page. I have little confidence in Facebook because I have posted information for the businesses before and got nothing. So this is significant. I’ll see how it goes and if I can figure out a way to keep pushing the Open House for her and get someone to show up to it on Thursday. Just look up Antiquary Artisan on Facebook and see the Open House next Thursday to know what I am on about.

I cut up some more firewood today and put some on the woodpile and some in the tractor bucket. It is set to be wintery cold tonight and for four nights in total before it should come back up again. I was not even in bed yet before the alarm went off to tell me about the freezing temperatures getting extreme enough to solidify the pipes leading to the kitchen tap. It’s 11:30 in the evening and the temperature is already down to 7.4F. That’s pretty cold to you and me.

So I have heat pouring off the woodstove and will be able to put some more in later tonight if I wake again later. If no, then Missus can, as I have a few pieces on the rack next to the stove. The rest is out in the bucket still, and I will have to go out and get it when the wood on the rack is gone. There are worms on the wood outside, and the pieces I put in were from a piece that has been lay around here for quite some time now. I think it is Russian Olive. That stuff cuts up and looks like maple but is quite a bit darker. But it tends to show the same rays across the medullary splits. It is quite hard, too. I might have to work with it sometime in the shop. But not this piece. It is going to keep the house warm while the temperatures drop tonight to an anticipated 0F. Tomorrow it is meant to drop to -2F. Cold! What a thing it is to have proper winter temperatures here again! It’ll be warmer again by Thursday. But still chilly like it was today. Not summer. Just laughably cool like it has been so far this winter. I have so often said it would not be so bad if the winters here were like Denver when I was growing up, and now it almost is. Yet, it could still warm more. I am nervous for what summer will bring, though.

Well, let’s see if a couple of melatonin tablets will just knock me over to sleep now. I hope so! They usually keep me till around two or three in the morning. It is easy to wake though, and a good night’s sleep is to be or not based on my bladder.

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Middle of the Night

Posted on January 18, 2025 by Kelsey

Here I am awake at 4 in the morning again. I have been awake for an hour already! Where did that go? I went to the loo about an hour ago. While I was up, I shut off the alarm that sets off beeping on the weather station receivers whenever the temperature drops to 20F. That is an important alarm. Below that temperature the pipes that lead to the kitchen tap are susceptible to freezing. So I have to be sure the water is running ever so slightly to prevent that. I put it on last night before I went to bed, so that was not so important tonight, but there was other waterworks that needed to be run, so I went downstairs to sort that out. While I was there, I noticed there was a very good bed of charcoals in the woodstove, so I put more wood in to keep it going till morning. But the wood is outside in the tractor bucket so none of the bugs wake up and crawl into the house. Keep them cold, keep them dormant. Bring them in and, well. First thing I noticed when I opened the door was the little layer of snow on the ground. Not much. Maybe a half an inch or so. Just enough to make me with I had brought my slippers down with me. But I didn’t. It was a good reason to put my feet up in front of that fire a bit before coming back up to bed.

With the water run, and the alarms shut off on both weather station receivers, I came back up the stairs. A quick scour of YouTube revealed to me a channel I have never seen before. It is from an optimistic fellow who put a few videos up 13 years ago and has now apparently decided to put some work into the channel again. I have not watched any of the old videos yet, but of the three or four I watched from his new ones, it looks like there is some serious potential there. The channel had beautiful cine work, and symbols styling. It deals with the woods in his hiking and in his woodworking in Canada. It is called Woodlore.

Reminds me. I proposed an idea to Missus that I build an outdoor bench and put it in the newly formed room under the tree in the front yard and use it as a space to do some woodworking in the warmer months. I could use it as a vantage point to watch her shop from. But I also could maybe draw some attention from passersby and use it as a space for shop visitors to observe the building of furniture and such for sale. I am thinking that it is nice working outdoors but, in the shade, too. So that might be a good workspace for me, a piece of wood or two, and a few hand tools. I like the idea of the natural setting for the work, under a tree.

This summer I would like to finish the final push on my weight loss. I am doing good, but I need to drop a few more pounds. I have no idea what my weight is, but I could love to see me a bit thinner. I am already happier with where I am at so far. I’ll bet that will turn to euphoria if I can get rid of the rest of my belly.

And now you know, again, what kinds of thoughts I entertain in the middle of the night. I am going to go watch a few more of the videos from that channel and see what the old ones look like. There are some interesting thumbnails and titles about making a wood screw. I have ideas for what I can do with that skill.

You know? Maybe a fire ring out from under the tree, but also in the front yard, would be a good place to do some outdoor cooking? Make supper and do woodworking all at once. What a life!

Posted in Weather, Woodshop | Comments Off