Pottery and Bushes

Stephanie knows that she needs some artwork for her new home, but where does one find something unique?  Some people visit consignment shops to find treasures that are either so old that no one else has them anymore (thus making them unique once again), or they find goods that can be repurposed into new artwork.  Others do as we did yesterday by attending craft fairs.

ArtStreet is a yearly festival in downtown Green Bay that attracts juried artists from across the nation.  We went there yesterday both to have some fun looking at the various art media and to see if we saw anything for Stephanie.  A couple of times I wanted to Facetime Steph with possibilities, but art is such an individual thing that being there is still the best way to select something.  While we were at ArtStreet, however, we did find some treasures for which we really had not been shopping.

A couple of years ago, a potter at ArtStreet produced a large pot whose purpose was to hold kitchen utensils (spatulas, wooden spoons, etc.) next to the stove.  The artist had painted a palm tree on the pot, and since that was the "theme" of our newly-purchased house in Florida, I bought it.  I also picked up a much smaller pot with a palm tree that I use to hold pens and scissors in the corner of the kitchen.

These pottery items will fit in well with our Florida decor.

Yesterday, we came upon the booth of the same artist who continues to paint palms on various items.  We ended up buying a mug, a chip 'n dip plate, a spoon rest, and a small wall vase all in the same palm tree motif.  I have the perfect spot on the wall between the kitchen and dining room on which to hang the wall vase, and the other items will come in handy as we continue to cook and to live in Florida each winter.  Getting pottery shipped down there may be a challenge, so we may see how much we can actually take in our carry-on luggage when we fly down in October.

We had dinner with Lindsay and Chris last night, and they mentioned that they wanted to remove the overgrown bushes growing in front of their house.  They wanted to do the work next weekend.  This morning dawned foggy and cool with a promise of rising temperatures and humidity all week.  I suggested to Rick that perhaps we could go over and start the work this morning while the weather was still cool enough to work outside.

While Chris and Owen were at the store,
we trimmed away the branches of the
first bush.

Today is Chris' last day before school starts tomorrow, so he and Owen were home.  Chris said that he had to go to the grocery store, so we let Owen and him leave before we ventured over to their house.  While they were gone, we took our large pruning shears and had most of the first bush down before they ever came home.

Their bushes are terrible.  The limbs are all twisted and entwined, sometimes going back into the soil to root themselves all over again.  Although only two bushes were planted next to their porch, those bushes covered at least eight feet of territory.

Once the main branches were cut out, we put a towing strap around the roots and tried to pull out the stump.  Ha!  No go.  Rick and Chris had to do quite a bit of digging and snipping before the truck was able to extract the huge first root out of the ground.  The second root was smaller, but it still took more effort than we had originally thought.

Even cut up, the brush made a large pile
at the curb.

The stump of the first bush shows just
how tangled the roots were.  The stump itself
stands much taller than Owen.

Since Chris said to just pile the brush and roots at the curb for the village to haul away, that saved us a lot of time.  We actually were home before 11:00 a.m. which was well before the temperatures really started to rise.

Rick and Chris work on digging around the
roots of the second bush.

We'll try to tackle the third bush tomorrow.  If we can do one bush a day, then this weekend we might have only the two stumps to pull out.

Rick smoothes out the soil where the first two bushes
once grew.  The third bush awaits our attention tomorrow
with the fourth needing attention the following day.

Getting the stumps out and a few of their other trees trimmed should put them in a good position to greet the fall and the winter.  Then they will have the winter to decide what they want to plant in the spring.

Out of Chaos Comes Order

Almost 20 days have passed since my last blog, and we continue to move forward getting our house back to a semblance of organization.  Since I last posted, we cleaned out the basement, held a rummage sale, cleaned out the workroom, and made several charitable contributions.  Oh, yes, we also made a sizable contribution to the city dump!

Stephanie had given us an entire truckload of items that she did not want to move into her new house, so those items have been residing in our garage since early June.  I finally cleaned out our basement and added my own pile of items that were headed for a rummage sale.

A pile of unwanted items awaits its trip to the garage for
the rummage sale.

We were blessed with two beautiful summer days for the sale this past Friday and Saturday, but I must admit that I had the worst sale I have every held.  I do not know if the construction in the neighborhood scared people away, or if holding a sale in August is just too late for people.  Perhaps my ad on Craig's List was just not appealing.  At any rate, I never had a crowd the entire two days... just a slow trickle of people coming to browse and occasionally to buy. In the end, I was happy that I made the money that I did for items that I no longer wanted, but I am not sure that it was worth the two days of organizing the sale and marking the items, and then the two days of the actual sale itself.  To add to the misery, both Rick and I are down with summer colds, so neither of us has been a ball of energy.  Stephanie made a little money that she can use to decorate her new house, so I guess that was worth the effort.

For the last two days, Rick and I have concentrated on the one room we did not sort through before the sale: his workroom.  As he started to pull things off the shelves and to sort through 25 years of accumulations, the room seemed to get worse!  (I attach the following picture to prove it!)

We had so much in the workroom that even Rick
did not know what some of the items were.

However, as the hours passed by, we started to make some progress.  As the pictures show, out of chaos can come order.

Just getting the cobwebs off the wall and the
dirt and sawdust off the floors helped to make
the room habitable again.

Naturally, that order resulted in one truckload of goods to the Habitat for Humanity Resale Store and the afore-mentioned load to the city dump.  We still have to take a final load to the city hazardous waste facility, but that has to wait for their drop-off day on Thursday.

Look!  A floor and room in which to work!

Bins and tool chests and labeled storage boxes
add to the organization.

Highlights of the newly organized workroom: Rick took down all of the fluorescent "shop light" fixtures and replaced them with between-the-rafters cans.  Now the lights are more evenly distributed and we no longer have to worry about fluorescent tubes disposals (after Thursday!) Another highlight is that I took a box, some file folders, and the massive pile of sandpaper and organized it into an easily searchable system.

Even the sandpaper is easily accessible now.

This room was a lot of work, and we still have some "fine tune" organization to do in the tool chest and in some of the storage bins, but overall the improvement is incredible.

We both are tired, but we both feel so good looking at a basement that is now clean, organized, and actually inviting to use.  We have neglected this northern home for the past few years, so I find our efforts rewarding as we get it back into order.

Missions Accomplished

As we were taking our traditional evening walk today, Rick commented, "You know, this has been a very productive week."  I hadn't thought about what we really accomplished this week, but he is very correct.

On Monday he made the second of two stands for our rigid shuttle loom.  We wanted to make the looms easy to use, and getting back into weaving has been one of our goals this summer.  His efforts will make having two working looms easy for us now.  He put a finish of Danish Oil on both stands so the wood is protected and the looms are ready to use. We'll take the smaller 20" loom down to Florida and leave the larger 25" loom here in Green Bay.  Now I cannot wait to get a warp on one so I can weave again.

On Tuesday we traveled south to Brookfield to a shop called the Dent Clinic.  This shop was recommended to us by Steve after he saw the "ding" in the rear passenger door of our new truck.  Apparently someone opened a car door into our truck door while we were stopped in LaCrosse getting the license plate for our truck.  The poor thing was dented before we ever had a chance to drive it into our driveway!  The workmen at the shop did an excellent job; within half an hour they had our truck repaired so well that we cannot find the location of the dent.  The paint is intact, and the truck looks new again.

We also wanted to travel south to visit Steve and Chris to give them back the tools that they lent us and to give them a few other diesel truck accessories that we no longer needed. We had a very enjoyable lunch and visit with them.

Yesterday we decided that we did not want the City workers to add dirt to the sawdust pile that they left in our front yard after cutting our tree and then to try to plant grass.  Their handiwork in other yards in the neighborhood resulted in uneven ground with more weeds than lawn growing in the affected patches.  Instead, we spent the day digging out the area, removing over eight wheelbarrow loads of dirt and wood chips, and leveling what was left in preparation for sod.  We were told by an area nursery that for approximately $50 we could have enough sod to cover the area, but they would not receive a shipment of sod until Friday.  Since the weather forecasters predict badly needed rain tomorrow, we decided that would not be a wise move.

Our day started today with Rick going in for his yearly eye exam.  After he came out, we ran some errands, and then he called the Sod Farm to see if they would sell to private individuals.  They would, so we ordered 15 rolls of sod for pick-up in early afternoon.

After lunch we made a not-so-quick stop at the Hazardous Waste disposal site to get rid of old paint, stain, and chemicals, and then were on our way to Black Creek to get some sod.  For $28, we -- or rather Rick since I could not lift a roll of sod -- loaded 15 rolls of sod and were on our way.  I cannot believe how weak I have become; I get really frustrated when I can no longer lift or carry what I used to in the past.

Just one more roll of sod will complete the once bare 12 x 12
foot area in our lawn.

Once home, the sod went down very quickly.  What was once an unevenly outlined patch of mud and wood chips is now transformed into a beautifully lush area of grass.  A good watering in late afternoon hopefully got it off to a good start.

Water will both keep the lawn lush and will
allow it to take root.  A good watering also
will help the rest of the lawn change from brown
to green.

Rick is right; this has been a good week full of accomplishments, and we have not even made it to Friday yet!

Weaving Wishes

Long before we retired, Rick and I acquired two rigid heddle weaving looms. These looms are not terribly sophisticated, but we were way too busy while we worked to really even try them.  We have owned a large, eight-harness Schacht floor loom for many years; sadly, that loom, too, has sat idle for many years.

At last, though, we can start to get back into some of the hobbies that we enjoy.  A few years ago we bought a table loom at an estate sale in Door Coounty.  Rick refurbished it, built a stand for it, and we took it to Florida.  In the course of all of our remodeling, I only found time to put one project on the loom.  The tension on the warp (the threads on the loom itself) was uneven, so the whole project was not a great success.  I would like to try a new project when we return to Florida this fall.  With two looms, we both can weave if we both want to create something at the same time.

As we have been cleaning out our basement, I came across the two rigid heddle looms once again.  One is a full loom, and one is a loom that folds for easier transportation.  I mentioned to Rick that it would be good to have a rigid heddle loom in both states, but we really have no table on which to rest a loom when we return to Gladys.  Our dining room table is small, round, and glass-topped, so that is out of the question.  My desk in Gladys is new, large, and also topped with glass. It would work, but I really do not want to give up the space for a loom.  The solution?  Buy a stand for the second loom.

We looked in the catalogs and discovered that Schacht wanted over $200 for a stand for their rigid heddle loom.  "I can probably make the whole thing for less than $50.00,"  Rick said, "And I can make it out of maple to match the loom."  That notion sounded good to me.  I know that he is talented enough to make a loom stand because he already did so for the table loom that sits in the Florida room at Gladys.

For the last two days, we have been shopping for parts not only at the big box stores but also at Woodworkers Depot, Woodcrafters, and various hardware stores.  Once we had the raw materials gathered, Rick was set to begin.

The router table is heavier than it looks, so
we both had to carry it up from the basement workshop.

The bottom supports for the stand await drilling,
sanding, and securing to the rest of the stand.

We hauled the router table out of the basement, setting it up temporarily in the garage.  Rick wanted to work there because using the router creates lots of sawdust, and cleaning the garage is much easier than cleaning sawdust out of a workroom full of tools.  He started the task mid-morning, and by mid-afternoon he was finished.

The completed stand looks simple, but it took
both design skills and woodworking skills
to make it functional, collapsable, and adjustable.

I am delighted with the results.  I now have an adjustable loom stand that will allow me to work comfortably, to tilt the loom to make weaving fun, and to fold neatly when I want to store it out of the way.  We visited a yarn shop in Neenah where I was able to buy a skein of variegated yarn in shades of blue, navy, and purple.  I cannot wait to warp the loom and to weave a small scarf as my first project with a rigid heddle loom.  It should be fun, and the best part is that I can weave in the living room, in the den, or even on the back porch since the loom and new stand are so portable.

Making the adjustable slides by routing a
track through solid maple took time and
patience, but it works great!

I enjoy being retired and having enough time to finally pursue some of my hobbies. This stand will make weavinf on this loom easy and fun.