COLD DARK ROOM

[Cathie G]

Yip.

Is that short for Yippee? It will be for me. I've been stuck in the house for days on end.

 

[Momof4]

So Kathy... cold or warm temps with rain? Id think you’d want them out in a nice rainstorm if it was warmish? Our Sully would come out of his house as soon as it rained...walk about n get all muddy!

I think my car said 55.
I actually left my sullies door open. He puts himself away.

I have one red foot that puts himself away and the other will sit in cold dark weather! I tried to teach her.

So I lock her door and the others come and go until nighttime when I lock their doors.

 

[Momof4]

I’m so excited!!
Tomorrow my daughter and I are doing our 3rd annual Disneyland trip for the weekend. Friday should be dry and Saturday will be wet.

I picked this weekend because we were sports free and I was going to let her skip school Friday and then I found out they didn’t even have school!
Now I won’t feel guilty.

 

[Tim Carlisle]

I’m so excited!!
Tomorrow my daughter and I are doing our 3rd annual Disneyland trip for the weekend. Friday should be dry and Saturday will be wet.

I picked this weekend because we were sports free and I was going to let her skip school Friday and then I found out they didn’t even have school!
Now I won’t feel guilty.

Nice! I plan on spending the weekend indoors avoiding the brutal cold and binge-watching something on NetFlix that I'd otherwise never have interest in watching in the first place. Ain't life grand? lol

 

[Pastel Tortie]

An old wives tale advises that you rub vicks vapo rub on your back, chest and the bottom of your feet. But you must then make sure those areas stay covered with socks, and or pajamas and that is supposed to help with coughing. I feel for you as there is nothing worse than being kept up at night with coughing.

Agreed, that's worse than loud fans and crickets.

 

[Pastel Tortie]

The Tree Project - A Quick Review & Summary

As many recall, a few weeks back following one of our Winter wind and snow storms,wifey and I went for a nice brisk walk about our local National Wildlife Refuge. During the course of our stroll, we noted a tree had fallen across the trail but had been sawed up by park staff.

They cut this tree into a few pieces and just left along the trail. Not sure exactly the tree type. Not pine, not beech or birch, but could be a type of oak or a maple. I looked at the pieces and thought we could make something other than firewood.

View attachment 263578 View attachment 263579 View attachment 263580
The Logs as They Fell Waiting for a Project

After completing our nice walk about the refuge, we headed home, only to return the next day with the goal to look more closely at finding a good project log. We identified one that didnt have too many knots, wasnt too thin, or too heavy. Lugged it home in a backpack we brought to carry the log.

Now the fun could begin as the log sat waiting in the project room.

View attachment 263581
Log Awaiting

Cut the ends off to straighten them up a bit, and mounted to the faceplate for our lathe. Yes, we were going to make some type of vessel from this old forgotten log.

View attachment 263582
Sliced in Half

I had not used my lathe in some time for many reasons. Kayaking, gardening, Sully, travel, no wood, etc.....so thought this old piece of FREE wood would be a good refamiliarization with the lathe (and tools).

View attachment 263583
Mounted and Ready to Turn


View attachment 263584
Turning Log


After a few hours of turning and sanding and “project design” we settled on a nice simple solid bowl shape.

View attachment 263585
Spinning Away

Since this piece of log was “end grain” based on how I cut and mounted, I didnt want to risk some risky maneuver or breakage. So the simple bowl shape was great. Wifey got to use all the tools and did a lot of the roughing out!

View attachment 263586
Sanding the Bottom

In the end we applied a nice Walnut Stain tung oil followed by a beeswax finish. With the wood being fresh, not kiln dried, a very liberal amount of wax was applied. We’re hoping it dries slowly and doesnt crack too much! The End


View attachment 263587
The Tree to Bowl Project

What an amazing transformation!

 

[Pastel Tortie]

Hello, Roommates, it is I, Batman!
Love to you all and i'll pop back in a bit!

The Dark Knight returns! Or is it the Dark Lord?

 

[Pastel Tortie]

A meerkant variant spotted..

View attachment 263648

My, what interesting feet you have! But no huffing and puffing!

 

[Pastel Tortie]

It's not exactly warm here, but -6C (20F) is toasty compared with what's happening in the US.

I don't think I ever experienced anything that cold, while I was in the UK. However, one December many years ago, I was out at Yellowstone National Park when it was -47F, actual temperature.

 

[Pastel Tortie]

Sat 09/21/19 Barcelona, Spain

Depart 7:00pm
Sun 09/22/19 Toulon/Provence (la Seyne), France

Arrive 8:00am Depart 6:00pm
Mon 09/23/19 Florence/Pisa (livorno), Italy

Arrive 7:00am Depart 7:00pm
Tue 09/24/19 At Sea


Wed 09/25/19 Valletta, Malta

Arrive 7:00am Depart 10:00pm
Thu 09/26/19 At Sea


Fri 09/27/19 Kotor, Montenegro

Arrive 7:00am Depart 5:00pm
Sat 09/28/19 Corfu, Greece

Arrive 8:00am Depart 10:00pm
Sun 09/29/19 At Sea


Mon 09/30/19 Sicily (messina), Italy

Arrive 8:00am Depart 6:00pm
Tue 10/01/19 Naples, Italy (for Capri & Pompeii)

Arrive 7:00am Depart 7:00pm
Wed 10/02/19 Rome (civitavecchia), Italy

Arrive 5:00am

Sounds like fun. I haven't been to any of the other places, but I loved Rome.

 

[Moozillion]

Happy things post:

1. Before my trade show, I met with a school friend who I haven't seen in 25 years. She moved to the USA all those years ago and currently lives in Missouri City in Texas. She was briefly in London awaiting her husband who was flying in having been working in Poland; he is British too. I booked afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason and we spent 4 hours catching up. It was wonderful! ( @Moozillion when you eventually make it to London this is where I'm taking you!)

2. Proud Mum 1: Daughter has been nominated for two separate awards by her employer. "Graduate of the Year" with the National Apprenticeship and Graduate Training Awards. And "Rising Star" with the Institute of Ecologists which is the professional body for her line of work.

Her job seems a little less cute and cuddly this time of year - she was out all night Monday supervising a road maintenance crew digging a drainage ditch that had to avoid some important wildlife habitat. Apparently it was "<expletive> freezing". However, she has also been doing interesting historical research into some woodland to discover if it is "ancient" in legal terms (at least 400 years old) and is going through very old hand-drawn maps and historical documents.

3. Proud Mum 2: Son has passed his probationary period at his employer and been given a whopping 12% payrise! So he is doing very well too!

OOH! I've read about Fortnum and Mason

Happy things post:

1. Before my trade show, I met with a school friend who I haven't seen in 25 years. She moved to the USA all those years ago and currently lives in Missouri City in Texas. She was briefly in London awaiting her husband who was flying in having been working in Poland; he is British too. I booked afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason and we spent 4 hours catching up. It was wonderful! ( @Moozillion when you eventually make it to London this is where I'm taking you!)

2. Proud Mum 1: Daughter has been nominated for two separate awards by her employer. "Graduate of the Year" with the National Apprenticeship and Graduate Training Awards. And "Rising Star" with the Institute of Ecologists which is the professional body for her line of work.

Her job seems a little less cute and cuddly this time of year - she was out all night Monday supervising a road maintenance crew digging a drainage ditch that had to avoid some important wildlife habitat. Apparently it was "<expletive> freezing". However, she has also been doing interesting historical research into some woodland to discover if it is "ancient" in legal terms (at least 400 years old) and is going through very old hand-drawn maps and historical documents.

3. Proud Mum 2: Son has passed his probationary period at his employer and been given a whopping 12% payrise! So he is doing very well too!

OOH!!! I've heard and read about Fortnum and Mason!!!!! How lovely!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to daughter for such excellent awards!!!! Both well deserved, as we all know!
Her job is MUCH NEEDED and doing good for the world!! WELL DONE, Joe's sister! And even though it takes her to cold, wet and uncomfortable places, It still sounds like a FABULOUS job to me!!!!
And CONGRATULATIONS to son as well!!!! Your fledglings are well on their way and doing wonderfully!

You've done WELL!

 

[EllieMay]

Happy things post:

1. Before my trade show, I met with a school friend who I haven't seen in 25 years. She moved to the USA all those years ago and currently lives in Missouri City in Texas. She was briefly in London awaiting her husband who was flying in having been working in Poland; he is British too. I booked afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason and we spent 4 hours catching up. It was wonderful! ( @Moozillion when you eventually make it to London this is where I'm taking you!)

2. Proud Mum 1: Daughter has been nominated for two separate awards by her employer. "Graduate of the Year" with the National Apprenticeship and Graduate Training Awards. And "Rising Star" with the Institute of Ecologists which is the professional body for her line of work.

Her job seems a little less cute and cuddly this time of year - she was out all night Monday supervising a road maintenance crew digging a drainage ditch that had to avoid some important wildlife habitat. Apparently it was "<expletive> freezing". However, she has also been doing interesting historical research into some woodland to discover if it is "ancient" in legal terms (at least 400 years old) and is going through very old hand-drawn maps and historical documents.

3. Proud Mum 2: Son has passed his probationary period at his employer and been given a whopping 12% payrise! So he is doing very well too!

I am so proud for you.. how awesome for son and daughter !!

 

[EllieMay]

Buzz lightyear actually, but who is taking note of these things. !!

Snap

 

[EllieMay]

And some unusually easy to sex Tortoises
View attachment 263695

Lmao!!! [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

[CarolM]

Is that short for Yippee? It will be for me. I've been stuck in the house for days on end.

LOL. Short for yes. But that works too.

 

[CarolM]

I’m so excited!!
Tomorrow my daughter and I are doing our 3rd annual Disneyland trip for the weekend. Friday should be dry and Saturday will be wet.

I picked this weekend because we were sports free and I was going to let her skip school Friday and then I found out they didn’t even have school!
Now I won’t feel guilty.

Enjoy it. Remember post cards please.

 

[CarolM]

Good Friday All.

I am in desperate need of a nap. Just waiting for lunch time to come so that I can disappear for a mid afternoon nap. I worked very late last night and unfortunately I am not a person who can function very well the next day without 7 to 8 hours of sleep. My husband does not understand it, as he on a regular/daily basis functions on three to four hours sleep. And I cannot understand how he does it. So basically we confuse each other.

I am soooo glad it is Friday. I have been dying to be able to work on my enclosure again. I have wanted to add a second tier to the enclosure to create more walking space for my little ones. And on Wednesday night while trying to sleep, I was thinking about it and eventually came up with an idea which i think will work. In fact the little hill that I created last week is quite pivotal to the whole project. Then I am getting isopods and earthworms tomorrow to put into my enclosure to make it a bioactive one. I also need to get the little enclosure (that I built for Kang when I first found him) running and established. So I will be planting plants and making that one a bioactive enclosure as well. I need to do this soon as I want it nice and running smoothly for when the egg that was laid last year hatches in March April this year. (That is if it hatches) if it does not and I don't find any other hatchlings then it can be a bioactive plant idroponics system for tort food. So either way I want to get it going soon.

It is also my younger sisters 40th birthday party on Saturday evening so I will be quite busy this weekend.

So what is everyone else up to this weekend?

 

[Maro2Bear]

Happy Friday

We’re busy watching it snow again - only looking for a few inches today

 

[Maro2Bear]

Good Friday All.

I am in desperate need of a nap. Just waiting for lunch time to come so that I can disappear for a mid afternoon nap. I worked very late last night and unfortunately I am not a person who can function very well the next day without 7 to 8 hours of sleep. My husband does not understand it, as he on a regular/daily basis functions on three to four hours sleep. And I cannot understand how he does it. So basically we confuse each other.

I am soooo glad it is Friday. I have been dying to be able to work on my enclosure again. I have wanted to add a second tier to the enclosure to create more walking space for my little ones. And on Wednesday night while trying to sleep, I was thinking about it and eventually came up with an idea which i think will work. In fact the little hill that I created last week is quite pivotal to the whole project. Then I am getting isopods and earthworms tomorrow to put into my enclosure to make it a bioactive one. I also need to get the little enclosure (that I built for Kang when I first found him) running and established. So I will be planting plants and making that one a bioactive enclosure as well. I need to do this soon as I want it nice and running smoothly for when the egg that was laid last year hatches in March April this year. (That is if it hatches) if it does not and I don't find any other hatchlings then it can be a bioactive plant idroponics system for tort food. So either way I want to get it going soon.

It is also my younger sisters 40th birthday party on Saturday evening so I will be quite busy this weekend.

So what is everyone else up to this weekend?

I’m looking forward to seeing lots of updates on your new bioactive enclosure. Such excitement! Worms n bugs! I “kind of” had one going inSullys first enclosure. Pillbugs, worms, a few flies and such. All seemed “natural”. / it kills me when i see or hear new keepers tossing out the substrate often /. Fingers crossed on the egg.

 

[Maro2Bear]

A few birdies happy at our deck feeder (hastily cobbled together from my last tree project)