Saturday, September 10, 2011

September 9, 2011

Good Morning... Jerry had yesterday off. An accident at the job site had to re evaluated. No one was hurt but they still had to find out how and why it happened and who was at fault and how to prevent something like that from happening again. Since it's now 10 am and he's not called. I'm going to say at least he and the rest of this company are still on the job. Now, because he was out Monday for Labor Day, Tuesday was a rain day, and Yesterday.. We are in hopes that he will work tomorrow. He hopes he doesnt have to work Sunday and I'm sort of iffy either way. I want him to have time off, but we could use more on next weeks paycheck as well.
 
He didn't pick up the fire pit I wanted because of all the days off this week.  I'm sure that there are going to be still more meetings and safety issues taken care of in the next few days.  It's down right frightening to think of all the things that can happen on a job this size.  Jerry went in early, as usual, cause he's still on water duty but didn't know if he would have to take care of the water or not. He'll let me know when he gets home tonight.  Only one more week of this, But I think he's still wanting to go in very early so he can get a good parking space close to the gate.0
 
Ok, so, while he had a day off (again) I decided that it was time for a "Honey Do" list. Seems a few things I've been wanting or needed has been put on a back burner for too long and he had thoughts of just siting around again today... Not going to happen three days this week.  First thing I had him do, was mearsure the sink for a board to go on top and make me  more "coounter" space for when I'm cooking. I had the board from when I made doors for the small book case to keep the cats from scratching up my note books. (And it looks nicer, as well)  He did that. Then I had to ask him to round the corners off for me. You know make it look nicer and fit a bit better.  Got that done, Good we still have a piece of Scrap left over from that, Take the scrape and place it on this candle holder we bought last weekend and give it a good tap, then cut me out a round of wood to go on top, using that hole that's now in the wood for a center point. Well, after turning everything upside down, there was just room enough to cover the top of that candle holder.. Not as large as i would have liked but now I have a wood piece on top to make a good place to put my coffee cup when I have my coffee outside. Or an oil lamp. Speaking of... that was the third project.. Only it was suppose to be My project.  I gathered up the jars. finding a small ring in a drawer. I don't recall putting the ring in that drawer and I don't know where it came from. I think it may have a diamond in it, though. I'll have to see if it will cut glass to find out, I guess. I was searching the drawer for metal lids to all the jars I've been saving to make lamps out of.  I also hunting up some small Nuts. I do have to be carefull when I ask Jerry if he has any Nuts.. expcally if there are others out.  I amended my self and said Nuts and Bolts cause I needed the Nuts.  He said maybe in that orange bucket by the door, if not in that one then in the white bucket in the van, maybe. So I go looking through the Orange bucket and find and Indrustrial plate cover with just the right sized nuts I need. Very small ones.
 "What do you want those for?"
"they are just the right size to put wicks in, for oil lamps" "I want to put Oil lamps on these yard hooks I bought the other day."
"How are you going to do that?"
 
Well.. I got out a lid and tried to put a hole in it.. forgot that my neighbor worked last night, but it was ok, we heard him yelling at his t.v. He was playing a game. So I tried again. and Jerry said "Here, let me do that" and took the lid, philips screwdriver and wire cutter from me. I told him, Not too big a hole. I need it to stay on the small side don't wham it, just tap it. Ok.  So he did and made just the right sized hole I needed.. Good, now I need another hole from the other direction, for an air hole. Ok.. bent the lid, that's ok. unbend it enough it will screw onto the jar. ok.. so I'm trying to push the sharp edges of the second hole back into the jar when he took it back again. and asked me what I was doing. I told him, I don't want to get cut by the sharp edges when I light the wick so I was pushing them back to the other side. "OK". and he then did that for me. and unbent the lid again.  I then took a thin, 10 inch long piece of old tshirt and pushed it up through the hole in the lid and then through the nut. and then pushed the nut down to the top of the lid with a bit of the cloth still sticking up through both.  A oil lamp wick is now done.
Then I picked up the wire and he wanted to know how much did I need.  I asked him for the wire cutters back. I didn't know yet.. I took the wire and unrolled some from the roll then went around my jar twice with a bit extra. Cut that off.. and he said ok, and I said I'm not done yet. and started to put a hook on the end of the wire still on the roll and he asked me why I was doing that. I told him, I'm making a bail for it. don't put the hook on yet.. Ok.. so I then measured off more wire and cut it off, and figured I'm do a bit different than I first though. I wrapped the first piece of wire around the rim of the glass and gave it a twist, Not a tight twist, yet. then I started to put the end of the second wire though the first and Jerry took it from me and did that for me. I told him I not only wanted it to hook but I wanted to twist it a bit so that I'm sure it won't come apart with the weight of the jar and oil in it.  "Ok".  Now, do the same thing at the other side with the other end of the wire. "OK".  Put the oil in the jar. place the wick in the oil and tighten the lid.  Holding a finger over the air hole, give the jar a shake to help the wick get wet with the oil.  Once the wick is good and soaked, light. At first the wick is going to put off black smoke, that's the cotton of the shirt burning as much as anything but soon the smoke won't be so heavy and the light will change to more yellow and you can then tell that it's burning the oil and not the cotton. 
 
One oil lamp out of a jar..
"Ok". I handed him a second jar and said, Your turn. I need two, one for each hook. "OH, OK".. and he only wrapped his wire one time. which is ok. but I like how doubling the wire around the neck of the jar, under the lip looks more. He made his bail longer. which is ok,  I didn't want them looking that much alike, anyway. And it gave him something to work on. And he lit it, and it only burned the cotton.. pulled up more wick, and tried it again.. This strip of tshirt was a bit thicker than the one I used in the other lamp and it wasn't able to wick up enough oil fast enough. Jerry ended up removing the nut and instead of fighting to get it back on, just left the wick, which works but the lid can get hot if you do that. don't hurt any thing. may but off the paint of the lid a bit though. but it doesn't make the lamp work any different.  Once it was working right. we blew out the flames and decided we had better go do laundry.
Before we could do that, I had to remove the bread dough from the breadmaker and form it into rolls and two small loave's on a small cookie sheet, then put in the freezer to stop them from rising. Remember, I said earlier that I had found a ring in a drawer? It just fits my little finger of my left hand.  I didn't want bread dough in it, so I took it off. and... forgot where I put it, after I was done with the dough. I just forgot I even had it on, and had taken it off.
We go to Erin, drive down to the Piggly Wiggle and find out that laundry mat has been closed for a while. Go back the other way. and we "Know" we have seen a laundry mat in the area but can't find it.  We go past the end of the busnesses in that side of town and go "Hummmm."  We turn around and There right before town is a Tennessee Department of Housing".. ok stop here and I'll go in and ask if there is a laundry mat around here... Sure is, we even pasted it going to town. It's tucked up behind a car wash. It cost about about 1/3 rd more than if I had been able to do it here at the campground, but the machines here are still a mess. To be able to do it there, in three larger washers, then just bring it home to fold up was worth it. I then took two of the pans of rolls out of the freezer to thaw and raise for our late night snack.
 
So, we did get a lot done for his being off work again.
 
Yesterday as a gray day all day long. A slight breeze but no rain. Today, when I finally got up at 9 am. It's nice and sunny and the first thing I did after getting dressed, scooping the catbox was take the dogs for a walk. We were out for about 20 minutes just walking around. They loved the walking and sniffing about. We "met" a kid on a bike. He's home schooled and was taking in some fresh air between studies. He's was out again a few minutes ago, taking to my neighbor. Kim is nice. She told me about a job that may be hiring in Colorado. and told me the name of the town. I had to look itup and I had to look it up. It's near Rifle.  I hope we can spend more time out this afternoon. I try to get all our walks in, before Tom gets home after 5:30. He lets his dogs out then and they sometimes come to visit with us. The dogs have been nose to nose. It was an ok, meet.
The cats have been spending time in Kitty jail, agian. Two just will not stop jumping on the kitchen counter. We will yell "Off" and they jump off, then go into a kennel, I guess they know that's where they are going to be put and will take care of that part on their own rather than be picked up and put in.
Jerry fixed the chicken tenders for dinner last night, He did really good with them. He seasoned them with cajon Seasoning. He fixed alfredo Noodles as well as a salad. Tonight, I'm making another hamburger helper meal.  Tomorrow will be hot dogs.
I have "Mooseport" on, I think once it's done, I'll ask Jerry if he wants to keep it, and if not, I'll put it in the laundry room so someone else can enjoy it. I'm sure that's what he'll tell me to do.
I wish I had taken Eragon with me to the laudry mat yesterday.  I still need to finish it before I start another book. I use to do a lot of reading, before we got a computer. Now I seem to do most of my reading on the comptuer. I think I need to learn to turn off the computer for a couple of hours each afternoon. I've been playing "Bookworm". It's a spelling game. There are times that I'm sure I've spelled a word right but it won't accept it, then I will just randomly click on letters and it will tell me it's a word. Not sure what up with that.
I need to check the mail here in a bit. It's a nice little walk to the box.  The grass is being mowed and I asked if there was a push mower. It's broken. Ok.  got a weed eater? yeah, she'll bring it to me in a bit and I can do around our area. With the canopy up, it's a bit of a tight squeese with the legs and oil lamps in the way.
 
Billie C

http://thelifeofbilliec.blogspot.com/

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