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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15834
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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 21 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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Well it is like this -the library reopened and then closed again. But hopefully this time it will keep going for a bit longer that one visit. Nothing exciting happened recently, but I have got it into the little girl with the grazing agreement, that, when I say she has to go, she goes! and she has a grazing agreement which will end on the last day of September, signed and sealed today-fingers crossed for me please folks! She didn't understand the meaning of the heading "Summer grazing", but she does now-April 1st to September30th. I explained that if I allowed her to exceed her date then she could claim a tenancy, which is out of the question. The alternative is to put the horses back where they came from across the road which is where they I will put them if she doesn't go when I tell her go.
Not much else happened. But I do have a reasonable quantity of kindling cut and I will be concentrating on that from now on for a few weeks to get the stock to be winter ready-a minimum of 500 nets by September will mean I can have breakfast in bed in winter and in time for start at 8am instead of starting chopping at 7am and boycotting breakfast! That hour makes a big difference-you chop like mad to keep warm in winter! I don't remember if I told you about my neighbour who has made a stick chopper for me using a design he found on the internet-I now chop much quicker than before and my right arm doesn't ache anything like it did when I chopped by hand, even if hand chopping is faster.
Thankyou for the second sock bulletin, MR, I look forward to their inauguration! You must tell me how much money they are.
I will be back as soon as they say I can come, been good to read some of your posts. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15834
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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15834
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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15834
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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Posted: Tue Jul 27, 21 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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Well I said I was hitting the firewood as hard as possible, it appears that the 'fire lighters' of this area are having more fires to compensate for being at home, and so I am hardly adding to the winter stock. I have got 2 new suppliers for pallets, one by accident and the other was recommended to come to me as I used a lot! I am getting enough wood to keep me going. The lads are keeping the wood I would have normally taken from where I worked, for me to collect as often as I can get there, which surprises me as I have never set out to win or be part of a popularity contest, or was popular when I worked there, and also was not popular when I used to go looking for my tools when they disappeared, which they thought was funny, move the old man's tool box was almost a game, but wasted so much time. Now I waste my own time! I wondered how I ever fitted in a job as well as working at home!
At least the stock is building up for winter-about 300 nets in stock now and I am doing about 15 nets per day due to getting up earlier in the morning an improvement on last week by 300% a day The incentive to get up early is no longer there, but when I see the wood pile getting bigger, I have to get up. The hand operated "chopping machine" does a good job, and I split three blanks at a time, so I am more productive than I was, at least twice! I also find it easier to put the bad splitters on one side till I am at the end of the blank cutting and then demolish them all at the end of the "run", chopping them by hand. I have become more efficient by demolishing all the available pallets, de-nailing first then sawing and then chopping straight into the nets, a massive improvement on how it used to be!
The local 'phone works dept. have decided to replace a telegraph pole which has been knocked down a few weeks back and have now closed the road to my local village from the local town. I was just coming down to the library earlier when a woman from the doctors needed a route to get to the next village, but the road closure stopped her, so I went on a 15 mile detour to show her the way then returned back, via the same route, all for a medicine delivery-I wonder if it could have been my medicine?
My horse grazer has taken the horses away to a new pasture across the road from me, leaving all the piles of manure in the field which I told her to collect up, and where to place it in a heap at one end of the field. So she will have to go. I don't understand why these women don't follow simple basic instructions of good husbandry! got to go time up. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15834
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2538 Location: New Jersey, USA
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46052 Location: yes
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Posted: Mon Aug 16, 21 1:27 am Post subject: |
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not a charcoal expert however i have used and made charcoal in assorted ways
for drawing, willow is good, small metal containers such as sweet or baccy tins are useful kilns for such things, fill it with sticks, roast em in a fire til they stop smoking, cool well before opening
i have no idea how to make a large batch of drawing quality
re ink , paint etc
massive subject, i know a bit
plant pigments are fugitive, pretty today brown stain in a few weeks
minerals, iron oxides in many forms can be made into very good art pigments
how to do it depends on what you have, any iron rich swamp, stream or deposits?
a fe2+ spring that oxidises to fe3+ is a good start
if you have i can give you useful "sanguine chalk recipes
a bit of fancy sieving by fancy i mean rough but precise, a bit of mixing the slime and "glue"(maybe some talc depending on how hard you want them)
carbon minerals(ashes and tings as well) have assorted properties, most will make a mark or can be ground and used as part of a material
charcoal in the raw, or ground and compounded is sort of black, special charcoals are quite black
oak gall and fe2+(see spring, mine run off or other)gives a decent black ink
other minerals are fun
slate makes a good grey, chalk does dull white etc
to make nice stuff takes pigment and media, the latter is also important when making "paint" or "crayons"
if the pigment is gritty it is not as good as fine
pestle and mortar is not ideal
muller and slab as it is known to colourists is ideal for grinding pigments
basics is you can make marks with many things, some are easier than others to get the look you want, some last some do not |
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2538 Location: New Jersey, USA
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46052 Location: yes
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46052 Location: yes
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15834
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Posted: Mon Aug 16, 21 8:04 am Post subject: |
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Yes, that would work Jam Lady. We have made charcoal in the kiln using a larger tin. We put suitable lengths of willow offcuts in and packed it out with sawdust to keep them as straight as possible. Sand might be an alternative, but some might stick to the charcoal if it got too hot. This is real drawing charcoal. A friend is experimenting with a variety of materials for making charcoal in her kiln; I know she has used bramble, and I think things like ash and birch might be worth a go. We are thinking of trying some of our willow, which is not the normal basketry type, but it means debarking it first, which might be a bit of a chore.
There was a small section on the TV last night about pigments. They were in the Lake District, and some of the slate there contains iron pigment that is fine enough to use as paint without any further treatment. As they were using charcoal and probably chalk as well, I would think they would stabilise the work after finishing it, with some sort of fixing spray. |
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