Oh, projects. (aka minutae)

Yesterday, I took one of the two blocks of beeswax I brought back from Arizona, melted it down, and poured it into two jars set up with wicks. Candles! They smell wonderful, and appear to burn okay, too.

Today, I briefly looked for jojoba oil at the quasi-conventional local grocery store, to no avail, to make wood polish. So, olive oil instead.

I also added sugar to the jar of prickly pear extract that's been sitting in the fridge for over a month. Surprisingly, it's still good, and makes for some tasty syrup. I canned half of it so J can send it off to a friend of his. J still hasn't touched any of the honey or prickly pear juice set aside for making mead. We all work on these things at different speeds, I suppose.

While out and about, I paid a visit to the closer Big Box Hardware Store, in search of boat repair supplies and worm bin bench-building supplies. This was the second trip where the saw at BBHS was out of commission. I just can't haul an entire sheet of 4x8' plywood in my bike trailer. I'm going to take it as a sign from the gods that I should not be working on constructing a worm bin right now. The alternative would be to cart along a saw and cut things up while at the hardware store, which could be entertaining, but the way the weeks are looking right now, I just won't have time for that. Instead, after I got home I migrated the worms from the tiny bin (sweater-box size) to the medium bin (built out of stacked Rubbermaid containers). The tiny bin has been quite wormy. Worms are happiest in wood, which helps with moisture regulation, but they'll be happier with the bin upgrade, at least. Boat repairs are ongoing - I still need to research and think about methods for hatch cover and skeg reattachment, and the best paint types to use. I know I'm going to have to go back for at least one, if not two, more hardware store trips to pick up the appropriate adhesives and paint.

In the meantime, there are plenty of other projects deserving of attention. While in Arizona, I made scrottie transport me on an obscure mission to a paper-crafting store to acquire some circular paper punches. Apparently the brand I was looking for no longer exists (discontinued store brand), but I was able to find some potential replacements. Even better, they punch through the reflective stuff:



My helmet now has a couple of fresh googly-eyes on it, and I'm starting in on decorating my safety vest with large reflective sequins. Apparently the Randonneurs USA are setting a new standard for how much reflectivity is required on one's reflective vest, so the large sequins should be useful. I can put this project off until December or January, at least. If I'm going to dress like a traffic cone, I'm going to be as silly and obnoxious as possible, which is completely in line with my spandex-wearing strategy (these aren't the most egregious example).

I'm almost finished with the first of two arm-warmers for my dad (for some reason people like these things in pairs). I want to work on a leafcutter ant schematic drawing, but I can already see that it won't be started anytime soon. Maybe I'll be able to pick up good paper while I'm up in Seattle, seeing as the main "options" out here (ha!) are Religious Extremist Hobby Shop or Depressing Chain Hobby Shop. Ugh.

Then there's the silk-screening failures, and the quilt. I'm going to see if I can get one of the local print shops to just burn a screen for me, but of course they aren't open on weekends. Oh, and the sisal cat-scratchers, and the neverending bike maintenance. The cat-scratchers are a project that takes ~5 minutes of work per day for about a week, once I get one last supply (binder clips, to clamp things while they dry). I'll set one up for Emma and one for Creature.

At least I won't get bored anytime soon. *grin*