February 17, 20251 yr Yes, George, I need to spend some time getting reacquainted with my hobby room. I've got piano, guitar, ukulele, acrylic and watercolor painting, woodcarving, leather work, needle felting, and drop spindles just waiting for me to spend some time with them The sketchbook just happened to be next to the recliner since I've been using it for sketching project ideas. When I'm in the thick of anxiety issues, I'm not usually thinking clearly enough to consider that keeping busy will help I try to just sit down and relax. Never remembering that it always exacerbates, rarely helps.
February 17, 20251 yr 8 hours ago, Shainarue said: I've got piano, guitar, ukulele, acrylic and watercolor painting, woodcarving, leather work, needle felting, and drop spindles just waiting for me to spend some time with them I had to really cull down my list of hobbies in the past few years. I decided to get rid of everything that caused me frustration. Fishing boat: gone. Hunting equipment: gone. Guitar playing: gone. Wifey said she was glad she made the cut. That leaves my big garden, my woodworking shop, my smithy, and my kitchen to consume my free time. It's nice that I'm self-employed and don't have to work a 40 hour per week, 50 week per year job, too.
February 17, 20251 yr I like the sketches Shaina, you have a touch I lack. I spent so many years learning and practicing mechanical drafting I seem to have let any ability I have for more artistic drawing languish. I couldn't even get Bob Ross's wet on wet technique to make a decent mountain let alone a lake shore or happy trees. Regardless making does bring peace to me, even when I'm fretting and swearing over something in the shop I'm happier. Perhaps it's because no matter how well something turns out I can always see room for improvement, whatever it is can always get better. No upper limit is a good thing. I write my best most creative stories when cabin fever has me down. Having neighbors not far off feeling the same made it okay. My strongest cabin fever winter was my year living in a cabin in the woods north of Talkeetna. Almost every evening say around 4pm. someone would call out "Hallo the Cabin" (announcing yourself by knocking was a serious breach of etiquette) I'd call back, "Come ahead" or open the cabin door if I was handy and a group of folks would stop by for a visit or gather you up to visit someone else along the trail. Almost everybody had a large pot of something hot on the heat stove and either a pot of hot water or coffee ready so visitors could take the chill off. We'd sit and have an evening together, maybe have a bowl of hot stuff, maybe make a batch of sour dough biscuits or hot cakes and make a small party. Visitors almost always brought a little something for the pot or to top biscuits or pancakes. I learned to really love a wood cook stove, nothing does a better job of baking though you REALLY have to pay attention to turning pans or trays so everything bakes evenly. Cooking on the top was an infinitely adjustable range, the farther from the fire box the lower the temp. and if you're REALLY in a hurry lift one of the lids and heat directly over the fire. I don't think I ever did that after the first couple times I burned a pot of water. I only lived there a little over a year, it was just too easy and I was getting lazier than I am normally. Good times but not enough to do. Oysters, rocky mountain or otherwise clams, etc. are good breaded and fried crispy. Otherwise raw oysters and such are like swallowing fishy snot. Mtn. oysters aren't particularly safe to eat raw prions can cross species and a person really doesn't want any version of mad cow. Frosty The Lucky.
February 17, 20251 yr Wait... to me a mountain oyster is not an aquatic creature but part of a bull that is cut off, sometimes a ram. Chitlins, i will pass on but i do love me some fresh cracklins. There is a place in Baton Rouge, Ronny's BBQ, we used to get them straight out of the fryer. I have often wondered the same thing about many of the foods we consume. Who was the first guy to say hey i will eat that? But better question is why? Same with stuff like beer, mead, wine, etc. Who was the guy who thought that that pot full of berries, juice, sugar, and/or water was drinkable a month later? Fun folk tale: Back in the middle ages brewers thought their stirring sticks were magic. They would mix the ingredients in a pot and use the magic stick to stir it. Some having been passed down over the years. What they did not understand was that yeast had embedded themselves in the stick and by using it to stir they were adding yeast to the brew.
February 17, 20251 yr 6 hours ago, MeltedSocks said: I decided to get rid of everything that caused me frustration. I did that when we downsized last year. All the [indoor] hobbies I kept, live in the smallest bedroom of our new house. Of that list, they all have a deadline before they too get cut. If I don't do any painting in the next 2 years, then all my painting stuff will be donated. I forgot to list foreign language study in that list above. I have a lot of language study books, flashcards, worksheets, etc - they all take up space. In the day and age of apps that can hold digital flash cards and flash drives that can hold books/worksheets though - I really should just go fully digital on language learning (other than active writing/studying purposes - which can totally be a single spiral notebook, lol). Painting is the only thing out of that list which I haven't done at all in the past year. Blacksmithing truly is my main passion now. And once I discovered it, all the other hobbies started getting less and less attention. It's still hard to let go though.
February 17, 20251 yr I'd hang onto a couple of your favorites Shaina, blacksmithing is it's most exciting while climbing the learning curve. While still enjoyable and even with good technique it's hard on the body, arthritis in my thumbs has my forge pretty cold now. There are lots of names for them Billy, we called them Rocky Mountain Oysters. The Arizona ranch kids we visited, our Fathers were old friends, called them huevos, pronouncing the H. Sandy, their Mother called them cuttings or cuts. The Mexican kids called them cajones something. (I don't recall the second word but I don't speak Spanish.) Sandy called them, bull, ram, buck, colt, boar, etc. Fries, breaded them in corn meal and deep fried them crispy. Some of the old timers ate them raw in the pen while cutting stock. I had to participate cutting calves once actually doing the deed. We used a little noose of dissolving suture before cutting the tubes with surgical scissors and stitched up the scrotum. Even a clumsy 14yro first timer like me did the deed in maybe 45 seconds while catching grief from the cowhands for being so slow. I'll have to ask an Alaskan Native from the whale hunting culture and see if they ate the testicles and what they call them. The old timers didn't waste anything, it it was or could be made edible they ate it. Frosty The Lucky.
February 17, 20251 yr 1 hour ago, BillyBones said: Wait... to me a mountain oyster is not an aquatic creature but part of a bull that is cut off, sometimes a ram. Yes, there are oysters and then there are mountain oysters. In the USMC, I had a buddy from Oklahoma who used to rave about their "nut fries," which are similar to our "mullet festivals" down here, but with a different main course. Back when I hunted, I took a male feral hog with respectable glands the diameter of a kiwi fruit and twice as long. I figured, what the heck. I skinned, sliced, breaded, and pan fried them. I would describe them as the most tender pork chop you could imagine, i.e., melt in the mouth. Delicious!
February 17, 20251 yr Don't know if y'all remember the old generator/welder I got running a while back. Well I went a couple of weeks ago to start & run it again. Put fresh gas in and for the life of me, couldn't get it started. Pulling on the recoil pull starter wore me out and I pulled a muscle again in my left arm. I said to myself (self) there has got to be a better way to start it like with a battery. I checked and Briggs & Stratton has a electric battery kit to convert it but holy cow it's $500 and over what I'm willing to spend for it. I pulled the recoil pull starter off and that starter attaches to a square shaft with a clutch so when the engine starts it doesn't yank the cord handle out of your hand. I found a 7/8 in 12 point socket that fits the shaft perfectly and a half in. socket adapter that fits my drill. Put the drill with the socket to the square shaft, pulled the trigger and the engine spun over and after about 6 revolutions eureka the engine started. The old recoil starter only turned the engine over 4 times with each pull, tough on my old muscles. I figure if they can start Indy race cars with a starter like that the generator is a piece of cake. I have a Milwaukee hi-torque 1/2 in battery powered drill that spins it just fine too. I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~
February 18, 20251 yr Back in the early 60's I worked roundup on a ranch on a ranch in southern Arizona. We had fresh mountain oysters for lunch that day cooked in the branding fire.
February 18, 20251 yr A fine solution John, one I've used a few times myself. The electric starter may not get my Lincoln Ranger portable gen set started but there's a nut on the crank shaft plainly visible and my 1/2 hp hand drill motor spins it nicely. Trying to pull start a 4 cyl. Onan is a non-starter even if it has provisions for a pull rope. Frosty The Lucky.
March 6, 20251 yr Had to cut out a bush, along with some poison ivy, tear out part of the lattice around the front of the house. Then crawl on my belly under the porch. Why? Becuase the wife's cat got out last night and went up under the front porch and would not come out.
March 6, 20251 yr Not even for a can of tuna? I suppose the Missus wouldn't go for the, "s/he will come out when s/he gets hungry" technique. I know Deb won't, she could NEVER be a doctor, she has no patience, not even one. Did kitty extract much blood for it's rescue? I feel for you Billy but it's a man's lot in life. Heavy, dirty, dangerous, smelly, etc. It's man's work. Frosty The Lucky.
March 6, 20251 yr I watched my dogs vie for the primo spot on my lap in the morning, then I got set up to spray 50 doors/drawer fronts in my finishing room above my workshop. It was a very nice day today. 60F and sunny.
March 6, 20251 yr Sort of like going for a ride with our dogs. They're not allowed to mess with the driver at all, ONE turn around and into Kennel until Deb and I get home did it. Both dachshunds learned from one example. Anyway, it's pretty normal to experience them squirming for best position in a lap. While they don't sit on each others heads it's pretty common for the top dog to curl up with it's butt crowning the other. I pity folks who don't share life with a dog or two. About what's on your computer screen. Do you have a large garden, lawn, etc.? The Alaska Zoo helps defray it's costs selling ZooDoo and it's pretty high end fertilizer, better than most bagged but limited and kind of expensive. I'm unfamiliar with Circus Poo though, is it the good stuff, worth the cost? Frosty The Lucky.
March 7, 20251 yr No blood drawn fortunately. I was sitting in the house while she went out to feed the barn cats, i heard her at the front of the house and went out to find out what she was going on about. We did not try tuna, i do not think we even have any, dont eat it, i just cut to the chase and went in. You may remember the little guy. He was born in our barn and the wife brought him in. We were having trouble with naming him and i made a thread asking for suggestions. Friar Tuck, or just Tuck, is what we call him.
March 7, 20251 yr I SUPPOSE not having tuna around might excuse you from using it as bait. Kidding aside, I'm with you doing what you have to to keep them safe. Yes, I do remember once you mention it. Give Tuck an ear scritching for me please. Frosty The Lucky.
March 18, 20251 yr Not just today but over the last several, I played carpenter. We bought a new 10X16 foot storage shed and it needed a good sturdy shelf, so here it is finished. It's made from all reclaimed materials, with the exception of the screws & nails. I did forge 3 nails to anchor the legs which came from a 10X10 canopy destroyed in a storm & christen it when done. The top is made from 3 in. native pine tongue & grove boards that came out of the City Hall building, that was built in the late 1880s For Colonel Charles Burton "Buck" Saunders and left to the city in his will in 1953.
March 18, 20251 yr On 3/6/2025 at 5:47 PM, Frosty said: About what's on your computer screen. Do you have a large garden, lawn, etc.? The Alaska Zoo helps defray it's costs selling ZooDoo and it's pretty high end fertilizer, better than most bagged but limited and kind of expensive. I'm unfamiliar with Circus Poo though, is it the good stuff, worth the cost? Hey Jer, I can see why you asked that. It's actually "Circupool," the brand of salt water chlorine generator I ordered. I do have a large garden, and have been gardening most of my life. I put down a few cubic yards of cheap "bloom compost" that a county utilities authority makes out of biosolids and yard waste. I read the county's website on how it's made, how it exceeds standards set by the compost producers association, how it's fermented at a higher temperature and much longer than required to meet the best rating. How it's tested for heavy metals. It was less than $30/cu yd, and I was transitioning to no-till gardening. Seemed like a good thing to do to add organic material to this Florida sandy loam we have down here. But it was contaminated by some type of persistent herbicide, like Grazon. Ruined my soil for a time, particularly for growing nightshades. I'm not growing anything this year. Hopefully, it will be diluted enough by next spring so I can garden again. I'm one of these prepper types who wants to be able to grow his own food independent of Big Food and Big Ag. I do use Chickpoo. I'm making this concoction called JDAM. Basically liquid fertilizer made from garden waste, leaf mold, and chicken manure. Chickens give us plenty of eggs and rich manure, so the $17 bag of feed I buy every couple of weeks is worth it. How about you? Do you garden up there in the tundra, or just eat moose and caribou? On 3/6/2025 at 5:47 PM, Frosty said: I pity folks who don't share life with a dog or two. Me too! I truly believe dogs are a gift from God. I'm currently blessed with five. Each one has such unique personality and their own funny little quirks. Cats, not so much. If you fell into the pool and were drowning, your dog would freak out and try to save you. Your cat, however, would emotionlessly lick its fur while watching you bob up and down, gasping for air. And as you slipped beneath the surface toward the bottom, eyes vacant, the last little bubble leaving your mouth, your cat would yawn, stretch, then slink away without giving you another look. I'm kidding, but you know it's true, cat-lovers!
March 19, 20251 yr My area has been under Red Flag warnings nearly every day for the past week so not much forging. I'll be participating in the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics this Saturday so I've been using these open evenings for working on our team's costumes. I figure I'm the team member that brings in the least donations, I can step up and do this for the team. Plus creating brings me peace
March 19, 20251 yr Good for you Shaina! I hope you collect lots of pledges! I couldn't find any decent pics of polar bear plunges up here, they all seem to be copyrighted and want a donation of copy. <sigh> I've been through the ice several times and it isn't so bad. It's the not being able to get out of the weather for a while that sucks. Frosty the Lucky.
March 19, 20251 yr Yeah, these plunged are pretty tame and mostly just a fun fundraiser everyone can join in on. Here's a pic from the one year we actually had a body of water with ice still in it. They had to cut away access for us to wade in and we weren't allowed to let the water go above waist level. At least not intentionally, lol. I fell a few times on that run. All the other years have been above ground pools or wading pools that we run through. Our team is always a good sport and we drop and lay down in the wading pools, lol If you search the words Special Olympics St Joseph Missouri Polar Plunge, you should be able to see past coverage.
March 19, 20251 yr Okay, let's see if this works. I'm not sure where this was taken but it looks like it might have been at Goose Lake in Anchorage but there must be 40-50 communities around Alaska that hold Polar Plunges for Special Olympics and sometimes for folks in need or just for the heck of it. Two Alaska senators and various "names" here took the plunge. Makes me "think" it was Anchorage or maybe Fairbanks though Wasilla has lots of lakes that freeze to safe depth, etc. https://youtu.be/QNHrofbyCmk Frosty The Lucky.
March 19, 20251 yr Yeah, the St Joe plunge is definitely a cake walk compared to that, lol I think a few of the plunges closer to where I live actually jump into a lake but I don't have any connections to the people that participate in those. St Joe is basically where I grew up, about 20 minutes from where my family lives. When I worked at United Cerebral Palsy it was at the St Joe location. I return there about 3 times a year just for fundraising events I either participate in or volunteer with. I return more often than that just to visit with friends we still have there. So yeah, it's more of a hometown than where I've lived for over 20 years now, lol, so I guess I'll stick with my piddly trapsing through wading pools, lol
March 19, 20251 yr 10 hours ago, Irondragon Forge ClayWorks said: The top is made from 3 in. native pine tongue & grove boards that came out of the City Hall building, that was built in the late 1880s For Colonel Charles Burton "Buck" Saunders Pretty cool the history behind that. I looked up the good Col. and quite impressed. He was a good shot from what i gather. My dad after he retired took a job working at an Atlas moving company. They had a warehouse and in it was on of those sheds. After it had been there for a long time my dad offered the owner $150 for it. He said no and my dad said let it stay and take up space in your storage or here is $150. Me and him put the shed up that weekend.
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