Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
Jim wrote: "Poor Erin! At 3:30am, Jazz came running into the house & jumped in bed with Erin. She'd been skunked. What a mess. When will they learn?!!! :(""Phew", is right! What a way to wake up!
For horse lovers: I saw this touching photo at Facebook just now: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleThatTu...PS-If you can't see it at Facebook, see it here: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...
Nina wrote: "Yes, that photo is incredible."I hadn't realized that horses could bond to people the way dogs do. I wonder how they show excitement when they are pleased to see someone (as a dog wags its tail when it sees its owner).
Joy H. wrote: "Nina wrote: "Yes, that photo is incredible."I hadn't realized that horses could bond to people the way dogs do. I wonder how they show excitement when they are pleased to see someone (as a dog wa..."
It varies by the horse & is often difficult to describe since their faces aren't as expressive as a person or dog's. They tend to more full body displays. Ears go forward or sometimes can go sideways a bit when they're really content & relaxed. Tails can go up, nostrils flare, & heads crane around in various attitudes. Snorting & 'smiling' can also be used.
Some, like Marg's horse Indy, love to lip (groom) people. They don't have hands, but their lips can be very hand-like. Chip has shorter lips than Indy & doesn't do it as much nor as expressively. Topaz rarely does it at all, but he tends to get an erection when he's happy. It was pretty embarrassing when Erin brought him to school for a horse class & he was basking in all the affection. The farm kids didn't think much of it, but the suburban kids sure did.
All of the above can mean a lot of other things when taken singly or on different horses, though. It's something a person just learns. Might contribute to the notion of horse whispering, especially since people unfamiliar with them often get the signals wrong. My family has never had any problem knowing what a horse is feeling, but we were all raised with them.
I saw the picture you posted some time ago. Makes sense to me, just like having dogs around. They're family too. I don't know what the fuss is about.
Jim wrote: "It varies by the horse & is often difficult to describe since their faces aren't as expressive as a person or dog's. They tend to more full body displays. Ears go forward or sometimes can go sideways a bit when they're really content & relaxed. Tails can go up, nostrils flare, & heads crane around in various attitudes. Snorting & 'smiling' can also be used. ..."Jim, thanks for the lesson about horses. I've had very little real contact with them but I admire them. I know one thing... I'm very thankful for the affection of my dog. Eddie says he howls when I go out (the dog, not Ed). lol I consider that a compliment but I feel bad that he gets so upset.
Joy, when I would return home from long trips/sometimes six weeks away visiting a daughter and her family overseas my Irish setter would go out and run and run and run around the yard before coming to greet me as she seemed afraid her affection would so overwhelm her she might hurt me in her exuburence to welcome me home.
Nina wrote: "Joy, when I would return home from long trips/sometimes six weeks away visiting a daughter and her family overseas my Irish setter would go out and run and run and run around the yard before coming..."Nina, that sounds like a very considerate dog! After I come in the door, my routine is to immediately let the dog out into the yard. He waits for me to follow him. Then he dashes all around the yard, just as you describe. He's so excited that he has to get all that energy and excitement out of his system. It's so cute. I consider it good exercise for him. He loves to run!
Happy Thanksgiving, all.I took yesterday off, but spent quite a while fielding calls from work due to a piece of equipment (CSU/DSU) going out so the company couldn't get or make phone calls outside. I don't know why I bother to document anything. I even made a video for that section, but it was too much trouble to watch, so I wound up walking my boss & backup through troubleshooting & getting the ISP to send a tech out. Then a couple more calls when the tech got there so he could set up the new box with settings he should have known.
Marg has a bad cold & is miserable. She's been fighting it since the end of last week, but can't seem to kick it. She finally went to the doctor yesterday.
On the bright side, I spent most of the day in the shop working on Inkle loom designs. The first one I made for Erin was done based on Internet pictures with no real understanding of how the seemingly simple things work. It came out pretty well, although it needed some tweaking. Erin found she uses it vertically more often than not when we thought it would be used horizontally. Interesting stuff. I wound up laying out her 2 looms on a piece of hardboard, so we could easily see how the strings move & try design changes.
Tina, a friend of the kids, is also in the Society For Creative Anachronism (SCA) & a very good weaver. She wants an Inkle floor loom, but they're pricey & she wanted some changes to the design. I said I'd look at it, so she came over & we all played with different designs. Looks like an interesting project. This is it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Floor-Standin...
$300 isn't a bad price for it, if it's well made with a smooth finish. It will probably cost me $50 in materials, but I won't charge her for labor. It shouldn't take too long, anyway. I got some good ideas for other designs, so it will work out. Interesting gal to talk to & we continued through a great dinner that Josh made.
I may wind up going to some of the SCA events next year. They role play pre 17th century everything. Most are very well versed in the history of their particular field. Some get into it more than others. One blacksmith (Josh's best man) uses completely period tools at events including a coal forge & even has a urine quench bucket which attendees are encouraged to fill. (He doesn't like transporting a full bucket for obvious reasons!) Yes, apparently that was a thing back then. Pee was used for a lot of things. Most aren't quite so thorough in their equipment & reenactments, though.
I was sort of an honorary member of the Nashville chapter when the kids lived down there since I made &/or fixed various wood items for the members. While I have better knowledge of Colonial woodworking & later practices, the results look the same. I also fiddle with a lot of other handicrafts, so can usually pick up on what they want & need fairly quickly. Erin is quick to volunteer my services which is great since it gets me interesting projects & people to talk to. I love learning about this stuff & the people I've met have all been really nice.
Jim wrote: "Happy Thanksgiving, all. I took yesterday off, but spent quite a while fielding calls from work due to a piece of equipment (CSU/DSU) going out so the company couldn't get or make phone calls outs..."Happy Thanksgiving, Jim. Hope Marg will feel better.
Hope Marge is now on the upside and not miserable, at least and you both have a peaceful thankful weekend. And Joy, have a fun time with family members old and young alike. In between eating I am devouring the Truman book.
Thanks. She's feeling better, still not great. Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.
Glad Marg is feeling better.We had a good Thanksgiving. Fourteen people are still here overnight... our family. And we also have 2 guest dogs. :)
You must have lots of beds or bedding/sleeping bags. Sounds like fun we used to have. We had a nice sort of mixed up Thanksgiving/some elsewhere and some here but all had a good time and full stomach.
Glad you had a good time, Nina. They've all gone home now except for one son. Seems too quiet now.
As I mentioned a few days ago, a gal in the SCA wanted an Inkle floor loom. It looks like this:
It's 3' wide & tall with the center body being 2' wide & 28" tall. It's bolted together so it can be taken apart completely & stored in a smaller space. I spent about 15 hours making it with a couple of alterations. A minor one was putting 10 pins across the top & bottom instead of the 8 this picture has. Tina also wants to do a really wide, long skirt bottom, so she wanted the pins 8" long instead of 6" & each to be capped so the string couldn't run off the ends.
Making the pins longer seems to be a mistake. The top crossbar gives too much, IMO. It's 3/4"x2-3/4" finished like the rest. After showing it to my daughter, Erin, we decided that I should make up a new crossbar. I think I'll go wider rather than thicker since that would run into issues with the adjustable pin on the far left. To keep the face flat, I'd have to dado in the uprights & that would lose the strength I need. Also, I don't have a hanger bolt (screw threads one end, machine threads on the other) long enough for the thicker stock. I suppose I could fudge something up or order it special, but Tina is coming by this afternoon to pick it up.
I made this out of a 1x6-16' Red oak fence board which I planed down. They're a really inexpensive source of good wood. They cost $8 each at the local fencing supply company. While most are Red oak, some are White oak. I have a piece of that long enough & about 5" wide finished. Between the extra 1-1/4", adding another bolt to the top, & it being White oak, I'm hoping it will be stiff enough.
It will also mean the top pins will be 1/4" shorter than the rest since I'll have to cut them off the current piece. I set all the pins into a 1/4" hole, glued & screwed them in. I shouldn't have glued them until I tested everything, I guess. The glue is a good idea once everything is finalized, but I don't think it adds much strength initially, just keeps things solid over time. Oh well, live & learn.
Another alteration was in the feet. I turned them 90 degrees & put them on the outside with 1/4" dados to lock them to the uprights. I put in 2 hanger bolts so they're bolted tight to the sides. Very strong. They're flush with the base, so need some feet on the bottom to pick them up a bit. I thought I had some around, but couldn't find them. Tina is going to stain & poly the finished project, so she can find some she likes.
The last alteration was the caps on the end of the pins. Those were interesting to make. It's a PITA to take a dowel down to leave a cap - fussy work that takes forever - so instead I just used 3/4" Red oak dowels & then cut some oak into 1/4" thick boards. I used a Forstner bit to drill 1/8" into them & then a 1-1/4" hole saw to cut the outside. I super glued the caps onto the ends of the pins & then turned them on the lathe using sandpaper to smooth them out. That leaves a rather ugly hole in the center of the cap, but Tina can put some decorative upholstery tacks into them once everything else is finished.
Quite an interesting project. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished work that comes off of it. I've seen some of the fruits of smaller looms & it's awesome. They can make really cool designs, but I don't know how they manage it. It takes forever & many require very careful counting.
Interesting project Jim. Did you have a pattern to go by or just wing it?
Jim wrote: "As I mentioned a few days ago, a gal in the SCA wanted an Inkle floor loom. ... "Loom? What's a loom? (only kidding!)
Nina wrote: "Interesting project Jim. Did you have a pattern to go by or just wing it?"I had this picture to go by plus knowing the overall size. I pretty much winged it with some input from Tina on what she wanted. I find these looms fascinating in what they can do & all the shapes they come in. This one can do a ribbon about 17 yards long by 6" wide. Most are smaller. I'm not sure if there is a standard.
The first one I built for Erin was similar to this:
Here's another odd looking one:
Apparently almost anything goes with their shape! That makes it kind of fun.
I hooked a rug once. Pretty monotonous work.
Joy H. wrote: "I hooked a rug once. Pretty monotonous work."Ditto. I did one embroidery project & found that was a little better since I could vary the stitches for different effects, but I didn't care for it too much. Weaving will never be my thing, either. I liked it better than hooking a rug, but not as much as embroidery. Part of it was the size of the loom & the need to look at it all the time.
I find simple knitting & crochet much more to my liking when I'm inside watching TV. I can do either without looking too often & the projects are usually small enough to be set aside & left next to my chair without being a bother. A little counting is OK, like for a knitted hat when I'll K2P2 or even for the top of the hat where I need to evenly drop stitches, but I can't keep complex patterns straight. I don't want to think that hard & get interrupted too often.
I don't consider sewing relaxing. I always have a purpose when I do it. Generally they're repairs like usually patching my jeans or sewing buttons on shirts. (My jeans all tend to wear through at the right pocket.) I'll make curtains or a pillow or some other simple project as needed, though.
I've never understood how people can knit without looking at what they're doing. I must be lacking the DNA for it. :) It's not that I haven't knitted before. I knitted a sweater for myself once when I was a teenager. By the time I was done, I had outgrown it. It had the cable-stitch design.I even tried knitting argyle socks in my teen years but never got very far... all those bobbins! When I forgot to switch colors, I had to take out lines. By that time, I gave up! But at least I had learned to understand how those designs are made.
One thing that bugs me is when a member of an in-person book group sits and knits while we're talking about books. You get the impression that they aren't fully engaged in the conversation.
I think you tried projects that were too hard too soon. A few simple knit scarves using big needles & one type of yarn is a good way to go. Then you get the practice & a finished project. I found that I don't like socks either just because the yarn & needles I used was so small. I had to keep looking at it or I couldn't pick the stitches up correctly. I prefer to knit mostly on autopilot which allows me to keep up with conversations &/or TV. I can always stop when/if I need to concentrate more, but it actually helps me listen better to have something to do with my hands. I don't get bored.
I knitted my husband a tie once and he had to loop it over his belt buckle until I had help shortening it. And I managed to knit my father some house slippers. Then I gave it up.
Jim wrote: "I think you tried projects that were too hard too soon. A few simple knit scarves using big needles & one type of yarn is a good way to go. Then you get the practice & a finished project. ... I prefer to knit mostly on autopilot... "I can't imagine knitting on autopilot!
One of my problems is that I never learned to knit with the in-coming yarn looped around my finger (as I see most people do when knitting). I have to pick up the yarn each time and wind it around the needle. I tried re-learning but never succeeded.
Cleaning bathrooms is at the bottom of my housekeeping list. And I am happy not to have to clean ovens and defrost refrigerators.
Nina wrote: "Cleaning bathrooms is at the bottom of my housekeeping list. And I am happy not to have to clean ovens and defrost refrigerators."I agree, Nina. Those are probably among the WORST chores!
The kids settled on the house last night. They got it!!! It cost them almost $10K more than they planned on due to back taxes & penalties the guy had incurred, but it was still a good deal. That cut into their moving money severely, though.On the downside, the owner needs a week to move out. Unbelievable after all this time, but that's the sort of stupid, lazy jerk he is. they told him he has through next Sunday, but they're moving in Monday, 12Dec. Hopefully he won't tear anything up in the meantime. Worse, he's got an old trailer in the woods behind the house that I'm sure he's going to want & it's finally started raining, so he'll tear up the lawn if he can even get it out now. Rude jerk.
Anyway, we're planning to hit the house hard next week & get all the cleaning & painting done before moving anything in. We'll put up the backyard fence when the weather allows. Hopefully they'll be able to move in the weekend of 17Dec, the weekend before Xmas. It's an odd coincidence that we moved into our last house the same weekend about 20 years ago. At least they don't have kids, so don't have to put up a tree & all. I wound up borrowing a strand of Xmas tree lights because I couldn't find ours in the mess.
Jim wrote: "The kids settled on the house last night. They got it!!! It cost them almost $10K more than they planned on due to back taxes & penalties the guy had incurred, but it was still a good deal. That cu..."Good luck to the kids with their new house! It will be a busy holiday season!
We also bought a house at Christmas time. We were actually en route to get a Christmas tree and found the road we were driving on didn't go any further so we turned the corner and there was a house on a cul d sac with a For Sale sign and I suggested we go look at it. We walked around the yard and after seeing that the deck wrapped around the tree in the back I said, "Let's buy this one."
I wish your son and family good luck in their new home. Hopefully all will work out to their benefit.
Nina wrote: "We also bought a house at Christmas time. We were actually en route to get a Christmas tree and found the road we were driving on didn't go any further so we turned the corner and there was a house..."Nina, that's what they call "serendipity"!
We lived there for twenty eight years and the view from our deck and kitchen was great with a row of hedge trees/Osage orange/going down the yard in a row from our deck and our deck wrapped around the trunk of one of them. It seemed like living in a tree house.
I spent the entire day painting, one of my least favorite chores. A good audiobook makes it a lot nicer, though. We got the kids' living room & kitchen done. Left them working on the master bath, but they should be done shortly. Hopefully everything will work out to get their stuff from Nashville on Friday & we can move them in Saturday!!!
Wow! Fast work! They're lucky to have your help, Jim! I wish them luck in their new home... just in time for Christmas! What a doubly busy season!
Good luck to them in their new place. What fun to be able to be in a new place at Christmas time.
Today we left about 4:30am & returned 12 hours later with all the kids' stuff from Nashville. It's about a 4 hour drive each way & in the middle we emptied a pretty full 10'x25' storage locker into a 26' U-Haul. My oldest boy will be here tonight until about 1pm tomorrow, so he'll help us empty the truck into the house.Erin had to put a 2d coat on the master bedroom, so we still have 3 walls in the dining room & 1 wall in the living room to paint. They should be easy enough to keep clear & finish up Sunday or one evening next week. The kids still have a lot of work to do, but they should be spending tomorrow night in their house, not ours. Yay!!!
Moving isn't easy but the end is rewarding on both sides.
Jim wrote: "Today we left about 4:30am & returned 12 hours later with all the kids' stuff from Nashville. It's about a 4 hour drive each way & in the middle we emptied a pretty full 10'x25' storage locker into..."Wow! You all have been working hard! What a big project! I guess it's all very exciting and you're probably working with the help of a lot of adrenalin. I remember back in 2003 when we moved into a new house at the age of 69 and 71. We hired moving men and painters but we transported a lot of boxes ourselves, using our RV as a truck. It was hard packing everything (especially all the little things) but we had the energy because it was such a positive move for both of us. Motivation is a big factor! You certainly will enjoy having family nearby! I often wish for that.
Thanks. Yes, it is exciting. Erin, along with her 2 dogs & 2 cats, moved in about this date back in Feb for a 'few months'. Josh joined in about 1.5 months later. We'd been empty-nesters for several years by then & I loved it. For the past 2 months, closing on the house was going to happen almost any day, so it's felt like even a longer time coming. It's worth it, though. Now they're right next door, just a couple of hundred yards away at the end of our south field. That's close enough to help, far enough away for privacy.
Jim wrote: "Thanks. Yes, it is exciting. ... Now they're right next door ..."You have a lot to look forward to!
I know the feeling. Our daughter, husband and two grandchildren lived next door to us for ten years; then husband and daughter lived one floor beneath us in our condo building and then a few years later lived up the street from where we now live for a couple of years. It was great while it lasted but now she only lives a couple of miles from us. Still, not like next door. Enjoy this while it lasts.
A quote for the first day of winter:"Winter came down to our home one night quietly pirouetting in on silver-toed slippers of snow. And we were children once again." Bill Morgan. Jr.
What am I doing on this first day of winter? I am nursing a cold as my husband brings me a delicious hot toddy to ward off the sniffles as I read a novel set in Provence; not that the writing is that great but as I had traveled to France around seven times and once stayed for a month in a rented chalet in the Alps I am immersed once again in that enchanting atmosphere. However, I did just finish a book I thoroughly enjoyed for the writing as I either almost cried or laughed out loud at the antics of the protaganist and either one would love this book or not I sort of recommend it for the sheer joy of reading something off the wall but for the awful language it is just fun. Written originally in Swedish it is easily understood in English. It was recommended to me by my librarian daughter: "Britt-Marie Was Here," by Fredrik Backman. He is also the auther of the book that has been on the NYT best seller list for weeks; "A Man Called Dove," I rest my case.
I spent the day at work & came home to hunt the kids' septic tank so it can get pumped tomorrow. We tried our best; dug over a dozen holes & knocked in a steel rod down well past deep enough it the tough, clay soil. Never found it. I called the original owners & they're going to stop by soon & try to show me about where it is. Nice thing about a small area. Tracy sometimes rides as a monitor on Marg's bus, so I had her number. I knew she & Jay were moving & hadn't wanted to bother them, though. I guess tomorrow will be spent finishing painting the kids' living room (just one accent wall) & cleaning their gutters, then getting the septic tanks for both houses pumped in the afternoon, whenever Jesse gets here. He was on time the last time I scheduled him to do this 4.5 years ago.
Actually, I guess I need to dig down & find the clean out on the septic tank first thing in the morning for the kids so I can get Jesse to bring the correct ring(s) so we don't have to hunt next time. I do not know why anyone buries a holding tank without putting in an access hole. They should be pumped every 5 years - just long enough that folks move or forget where they were.
Nina wrote: "A quote for the first day of winter:"Winter came down to our home one night quietly pirouetting in on silver-toed slippers of snow. And we were children once again." Bill Morgan. Jr."Nina, winter doesn't have silver-toed slippers here. They're just cold and icy. I've been chopping ice our driveway for the last two days.
I'll look into that book, Britt-Marie Was Here.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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