My last long weekend off before the job starts
On Sunday we went into town for Reengarda crafts afternoon. I brought the chunk of twisted root that I had found when cleaning away down branches and stuff that the forestry people had left behind when doing the archaeology dig in Kiruna. The root looked like ot might make an interesting spoon, so I wrapped it in a wet paper towel and stuck it in the fridge to keep moist. Keldor bought me a spoon carving knife this week, since we didn't have one (and he doesn't have the special set ups for putting that sort of curved edge on a homemade knife).
Before we left the house he suggested that I use the band saw to do a rough shaping, and I did fine cutting what will be the top edge of the spoon bowl, but the rest of the root is so twisted I couldn't figure out good angles of approach for other cuts that didn't wind up getting the blade stuck. After three times getting the blade stuck I gave up and decided to do it by hand.
We arrived at 10:00, and only Pernilla and Sofie were already there. Pernilla had brought her massage table, so I asked is she wanted to trade or sellme a massage. Her budget said sell, and my muscles had bern craving massage, so I bought a whole hour massage. Boy did I need ir! Most of that time was just trying to get the muscles in my shoulders to release.
When we wrre done we came out to a busteling crafts afternoon, with 12 people working on projects. I started on the carving and managed to remove all the bark and started making the spoon end outer curve round, but then I was hungry, so I warned up my lunch and chatted with people as I ate. Then I noticed Ieva trying to adjust the s-curve of a sleeve to work properly, and I joined her to help pin it on her dress to see whst needs to change. We soon decoded that it is actually the fit of the shoulders of the dress thst will need fixing first. However, by then it was already 14:00, and the official time for the gathering was only 13:00, so people were packing stuff up. She lives in Vebomark, which is only 15 minutes drive from here (we both needed 35 to get to the gathering in Skellefteå), so we agreed to meet up on Thursday, which is her next day off, to work on patterning for her.
Then Keldor and I drove towards Skelleftehamn, tsking a detour to check out Harrbäckssand, a place thst was a popular swimming beack back i the 1970's. During the gathering some of the people had suggested we should have an informal barbecue and archery afternoon before it gets too cold (so, next weekend), and that was suggested as a good site, so we went to take a look.
I had never been there, and he hadn't been there in many years, so it was interesting to go into the official Swedish land survey maps web page and compare today's air photos with those from 1960, and 1975. These days the water is full of reeds, but back then it was maintained as a sandy bottom beach. Apperently the city government closed the beach as a public swimming area in the 1980's, when regulations as to what was needed to qualify as a public beach became more stringent, and it was cheaper to just close it. But Keldor has many happy memories of biking the half an hour out here as a kid to swim, and buy an ice cream from the ice cream stand.
These days the area is just used for occasional barbecues and picknicks, and ammenites like changing rooms and ice cream stands are long gone, though there are still a couple of outhouses.
After exploring that area a bit we continued on to his dad's, where I are the last coiple of handfuls of black currants from his bushes, we visited briefly, and then we went out to his work to piclk up the sheet of plywood that was being trashed, but is in plenttu good enough shape for projects, so we will give it a good home. He had already taken home the smaller pieces that they had removed from the disassembly, but this piece was full dize, so needed the van (and it barely fit)
Then home again, where he mowed the lawn, while I painted another coat of tar on the outdoor table. Tar is much harder to paint with than paint is. After I wss nearly done Keldor commented that I could thin it out with som linseed oil. Little late fir that suggestion! Instead I finished the final corner, and then poured a little of the oil on each board and brushed that over the tar. The oil is so much easier to work with that I did the whole table with oil in the time that painting a single board with tar had taken. Now, if only I can remember next time I need to coat wood with tar that I can thin it with linseed oil.
Monday I spent the day on needful tasks, changing the cat litter and scrubbed the box, washed the toilet, scrubbed the cat fountain, etc. I didn't sit down to the computer till Keldor was home from work and went outside to scrape fat from a skin before tanning its fur (the poor thing had been run over, so he decided to make use of the fur, rather than leaving it in the road. Even sadder, it was the hind end that had been run over, so it probably suffered a while before dying, though itcwas well dead before he saw it on his way to work and stopped to check.
But I made a little more progress on my thesis corrections before joininhmg Keldor for a little acroyoga followed by a game of Quirkel.
We stayed up late, as he has an appointment with a physical therapist at 11:00, so it isn't worth doing the half an hour drive to work ,as he's have to com home again before getting much accomplished. This gives me a bonus weekend day with him at home!
I started my day with a half hour workout, and then returned to bed for a short nap before deciding to type this. Now he is starting to stir, so it is time to post this, and wish you all a lovely Tuesday.
Before we left the house he suggested that I use the band saw to do a rough shaping, and I did fine cutting what will be the top edge of the spoon bowl, but the rest of the root is so twisted I couldn't figure out good angles of approach for other cuts that didn't wind up getting the blade stuck. After three times getting the blade stuck I gave up and decided to do it by hand.
We arrived at 10:00, and only Pernilla and Sofie were already there. Pernilla had brought her massage table, so I asked is she wanted to trade or sellme a massage. Her budget said sell, and my muscles had bern craving massage, so I bought a whole hour massage. Boy did I need ir! Most of that time was just trying to get the muscles in my shoulders to release.
When we wrre done we came out to a busteling crafts afternoon, with 12 people working on projects. I started on the carving and managed to remove all the bark and started making the spoon end outer curve round, but then I was hungry, so I warned up my lunch and chatted with people as I ate. Then I noticed Ieva trying to adjust the s-curve of a sleeve to work properly, and I joined her to help pin it on her dress to see whst needs to change. We soon decoded that it is actually the fit of the shoulders of the dress thst will need fixing first. However, by then it was already 14:00, and the official time for the gathering was only 13:00, so people were packing stuff up. She lives in Vebomark, which is only 15 minutes drive from here (we both needed 35 to get to the gathering in Skellefteå), so we agreed to meet up on Thursday, which is her next day off, to work on patterning for her.
Then Keldor and I drove towards Skelleftehamn, tsking a detour to check out Harrbäckssand, a place thst was a popular swimming beack back i the 1970's. During the gathering some of the people had suggested we should have an informal barbecue and archery afternoon before it gets too cold (so, next weekend), and that was suggested as a good site, so we went to take a look.
I had never been there, and he hadn't been there in many years, so it was interesting to go into the official Swedish land survey maps web page and compare today's air photos with those from 1960, and 1975. These days the water is full of reeds, but back then it was maintained as a sandy bottom beach. Apperently the city government closed the beach as a public swimming area in the 1980's, when regulations as to what was needed to qualify as a public beach became more stringent, and it was cheaper to just close it. But Keldor has many happy memories of biking the half an hour out here as a kid to swim, and buy an ice cream from the ice cream stand.
These days the area is just used for occasional barbecues and picknicks, and ammenites like changing rooms and ice cream stands are long gone, though there are still a couple of outhouses.
After exploring that area a bit we continued on to his dad's, where I are the last coiple of handfuls of black currants from his bushes, we visited briefly, and then we went out to his work to piclk up the sheet of plywood that was being trashed, but is in plenttu good enough shape for projects, so we will give it a good home. He had already taken home the smaller pieces that they had removed from the disassembly, but this piece was full dize, so needed the van (and it barely fit)
Then home again, where he mowed the lawn, while I painted another coat of tar on the outdoor table. Tar is much harder to paint with than paint is. After I wss nearly done Keldor commented that I could thin it out with som linseed oil. Little late fir that suggestion! Instead I finished the final corner, and then poured a little of the oil on each board and brushed that over the tar. The oil is so much easier to work with that I did the whole table with oil in the time that painting a single board with tar had taken. Now, if only I can remember next time I need to coat wood with tar that I can thin it with linseed oil.
Monday I spent the day on needful tasks, changing the cat litter and scrubbed the box, washed the toilet, scrubbed the cat fountain, etc. I didn't sit down to the computer till Keldor was home from work and went outside to scrape fat from a skin before tanning its fur (the poor thing had been run over, so he decided to make use of the fur, rather than leaving it in the road. Even sadder, it was the hind end that had been run over, so it probably suffered a while before dying, though itcwas well dead before he saw it on his way to work and stopped to check.
But I made a little more progress on my thesis corrections before joininhmg Keldor for a little acroyoga followed by a game of Quirkel.
We stayed up late, as he has an appointment with a physical therapist at 11:00, so it isn't worth doing the half an hour drive to work ,as he's have to com home again before getting much accomplished. This gives me a bonus weekend day with him at home!
I started my day with a half hour workout, and then returned to bed for a short nap before deciding to type this. Now he is starting to stir, so it is time to post this, and wish you all a lovely Tuesday.