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Post by 12540dumont on Dec 11, 2014 16:19:34 GMT -5
Templeton...cats, kids, clumsy dishwashers, concrete floors take their toll on plates. Even when we aren't pretending to be dwarves... Chip the glasses and crack the plates! Blunt the knives and bend the forks! That's what Bilbo Baggins hates— Smash the bottles and burn the corks! Cut the cloth and tread on the fat! Pour the milk on the pantry floor! Leave the bones on the bedroom mat! Splash the wine on every door! Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl; Pound them up with a thumping pole; And when you’ve finished if any are whole, Send them down the hall to roll! That's what Bilbo Baggins hates! So, carefully! carefully with the plates! Yeah, you can't expect the plates you bought when you were 17 to last until you are 57.....even with Moussaka. Steev even gave me a lovely piece of marble from the back of his truck  |
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Post by steev on Dec 11, 2014 17:03:18 GMT -5
Why not? I've lasted since I was 17; the chips, scratches, and stains are what makes "character".
Holly was all "I don't need that marble; I have granite counters." Let's see her put those granite counters in the fridge, so the butter doesn't melt while she folds and re-rolls her flaky pastry dough.
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Post by 12540dumont on Dec 12, 2014 2:13:20 GMT -5
Steev, I'm plenty flaky...
Yeah, you've held up great, but then again after the bike ride when you were bumped and bruised, I didn't try to shove you in the oven to stay warm.
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Post by steev on Dec 14, 2014 22:43:18 GMT -5
That's "Handsome", not "Hansel", Holly.
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Post by steev on Dec 16, 2014 22:37:04 GMT -5
Scored another load of stone slabs today; must get back for the other half of what was set out ASAP. Got to get to the bunny-store which prolly has a huge backlog, my not having been there for a week. It's not as easy being a hunter-gatherer as one might think, when one lives in a world as profligate as the USA sometimes is. An embarrassment of riches is what it is: so much to glean; so little time. One does what one humbly can to live off the fat of the land.
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Post by 12540dumont on Jan 18, 2015 16:39:10 GMT -5
Steev, speaking of fat! OMG you should have seen the golden backed gopher that "Spatz" took down. I hope it was pregnant. My back field looks like Swiss Cheese.
Nice score on the stones!
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Post by steev on Jan 19, 2015 0:29:10 GMT -5
Go, Spatz!
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Post by saopk on Feb 2, 2015 23:27:52 GMT -5
anyone have any idea what I should do with this metal frame?  thinking of making a mini cold frame out of it, its only about 80 cm long and 60 cm height |
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Post by steev on Feb 4, 2015 20:57:30 GMT -5
Serendipity rules in Freeconomics. Years ago, I found a rabbit-oriented pet-store which has been a weekly source of used bedding for mulch, fertilizer, and soil amendment; it was next to a barbershop and I got to know the barber; I got in the habit of dropping in ~once weekly, purely as a social venue, not having had a haircut since May 31, 1975.
So early December there was a guy getting his haircut I hadn't seen; turned out to be a Richmond cop soon to retire with 25 years; we conversed and discovered that we were both from the same end of Stockton; the talk turned to his impending trip to Utah, so his wife could bag a cow elk; we discussed the elk on my farm and our mutual appreciation of elk meat. We traded cards and he said I should call him after Christmas and he'd bring me some elk; I got around to leaving voicemail ~mid-January. but got no reply. Oh, well.
Today I went by the barbershop and Phil said Bill had left me some frozen meat (the apartment Phil had grown up in is behind the shop); no elk, just four pheasants, two packs of antelope steaks, two antelope roasts (and a cartridge in a bare treeeee)! Support your local POlice!
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 5, 2015 12:57:55 GMT -5
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Post by steev on Mar 11, 2015 20:53:41 GMT -5
The Granitry is gone; my p'up is no doubt relieved; however, I did score another ~300 sq' of floor (or wall?) tile; there were also a bunch of glass blocks, but I've not yet claimed them, as I think I have to knock them apart to handle them; they're currently mortared into heavy "windows".
Holly: Um, I have my own ideas regarding proper recipes for peasant, which I prefer to prepare with the Upper Crust. I'll let you know when I can get to San Martin, maybe next week, as this week has me knackered, bearing four defrosted pheasant breasts and a frozen antelope roast, which you must guard for another occasion. I tried that antelope/green chili with canned hominy (yes, I am a lazy bastard); PDG!
Of course, I'll also bring some Steev's Dry Wit Melon seeds; refresh my memory: is there anything else I should bring?
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Post by steev on Mar 15, 2015 22:13:57 GMT -5
Having that load of tile, I rounded up two narrow pallets and started sorting my stock; seems that every company likes to make their large tiles a few millimeters different from other companies, and some thinner or thicker; very difficult to get a good surface, if the tile is mixed dimensions.
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Post by mskrieger on Mar 16, 2015 9:41:22 GMT -5
Steev, I admire the way you operate. Pheasant is mighty tasty.
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Post by jondear on Mar 16, 2015 20:28:24 GMT -5
Steve, you can back-butter the thinner tiles so they don't sink into the thinset mortar as much as the thicker tiles if they aren't much different. If I was trying to use a bunch of mis matched tile, I'd make a design starting in the middle, using the tile I had the least of first. Think braided rug. Rows of different textures and colors in concentric "rings" around a central point.
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Post by steev on Mar 16, 2015 21:37:45 GMT -5
That's sort of my plan; I expect to have a very large stock when I get to using it, all nicely sorted by dimensions; I will lay out stakes to bound the field to be set, and have the design all pre-planned; being less-than-maximally concerned with the final esthetics, I will (wisely) engage my sweetheart to actually lay out the tiles for artistic color-flow prior to setting, thus keeping her occupied while I attend to more manly pursuits, like shoveling shit, thereby avoiding catching any, one hopes, (same reason I'll never buy a stick of furniture without her OK; I didn't live this long without learning to avoid unnecessary grief).
I will have a certain amount of lee-way in the bathroom, since I'm looking for a modified Latin bath, the floor sloping toward a drain from all directions, although I want a glass-enclosed shower, being convinced that a hot, steamy shower is the cure for many ills, including general dissatisfaction with one's lot.
Mostly, it's a question of having enough appropriately-dimensioned tiles for the project being attempted, before starting. I may be a past master of not starting things too soon. I think my sweetheart is convinced I don't start things soon enough; s'pose she's right, but sometimes circumstances intervene: financial; temporal; or social.
I currently find myself in the midst of the first "Spring Rush" of work since the 2008 Great Meltdown; real estate is rebounding, and landscaping with it; I was younger 7 years ago and had a better-trained crew; time will tell if I can get back up to speed to take advantage of the current bounty, rather than bailing, being over-matched. Being Germano/Celtic, the whole notion of going down fighting makes sense, but this seven-day work-week is more tiring than it was twenty/thirty years ago. Still, what else have I got to do? Play golf, like my brother? In the idiom of my Scots forebears, "Fook, no!"
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