moving on
help ROUX! by raising incremental donations from everyone so she has a safe, comforted feeling throughout her pregnancy! (read all 2 entries…)
done
Me been very busy and not have time to post, have lots of wonderful photos of sun going away into the night, thees from Jan 2007, this one, better in comments -
(man fish, will he catch bird???)
. . . kinda like Spring Cleaning, maybe it can be known as Fall Let Go.
. . . I will give this some thought, there is an opportunity here to search out something significant to let go of.
. . . we are having end of the summer sunsets, mostly fogged in every evening . . . but still, there are glorious moments at times.
. . .The process is 99% dialed in, just finalizing the “booties” and giving the go ahead on getting the steel cut—and I need to reconnect with a supplier for more ceramics.
. . .The difficulty at the moment is desiging the packaging and still staying under 4 pounds, so as not to bump up to a 5 lb tariff on the package. Weight yesterday was at 4 lbs 1.3 ounces, so I need to get 2-3 ounces out of the packaging material somehow . . . will be looking at using balloons to “fill space’ with no weight and swapping out some double wall material for a stiff single sheet . . . the devil is always in the details, but here is a picture of completed unit on its new stand - yeppers, you can actually get the heat out of a candle and into your room with this - and it works!
This world is not my home
I’m just a-passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me
From Heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home
In this world anymore.
(chorus plus more verses)
. . . For the past month I have been finalizing the necessary components to manufacture 1,000 Kandle Heeter tm Candle Holders. This is a product of my own invention. I made the first one in October of last year, made several small production runs until February, and am now preparing for a major push for this fall and winter. (We are pulling about 500 total pages on google.)
. . . The Kandle Heeter tm Candle Holder is a steel and ceramic radiator suspended above a candle on a steel frame. The heat from the candle flame builds up into the radiator and then begins to radiate into the room. You actually get the heat from a candle into your room.
. . . Getting the product from the “artsy-craftsy” stage to a full scale production run has been daunting. And I am going to chronicle as much of this as I can for the benefit of those who wish to invent, manufacture, and market. It is not an “easy get rich quick” activity—rather a painstaking process of false starts, dead ends, disappointments, and frustration. But, perservance and hard work can prevail.
. . . The actual construction on the radiator assembly is well dialed in and is efficient (time and materials)—the greatest difficulty has been the design and creation of the solid steel stand/platform which supports the raditor in space above the candle (which sits on the platform). WE have had five different designs, all of them functional, but all of them time and materials very expensive.
. . . The design we are going with now is functional, practical, and estestically pleasing (I hope). It is created from 14 guage steel and is “cut out” by a computer controlled abrasive water jet machine. The resulting cut out has the legs and platform all in one piece. The legs are “folded up” and rotated a bit to create the stand. It works! And we are in the process of having 1,000 stands cut within the next two weeks.
. . . There remained two additional problems, one small, one very large. Last years stands were finished by spray painting. This is a time consuming and environmental/ecological demanding process. It has been our goal to find a natural finish for the steel bases that would be beautiful and pleasing and unique. This is what we have done.
. . . The natural finish for steel is rust. But it takes time for rust to fully form to a uniform patina over a piece of steel. (Weeks, months) We needed a fast (very fast) method of producing a uniform rusted surface on the steel. So, off to the net for a weeks worth of research on rust and making it - a fun time if not somewhat frustrating - the steel industry is more interested in preventing rust than making it! But again, that hard work and preseverance thing paid off, and I finally came across an obscure post about making rust with a concoction of weakend muriatic acid inhanced with some copper in suspension/solution. And it works! I have been able to “rust” the completed bases in 24-48 hours. The rusting process is held in check with two coatings of Baby Oil (of all things!) and the results are quite pleasing, expecially with the natural terra cotta of the radiator.
. . . The last detail which I am now working on is a rubber/plastic “shoe” for the ver bottom part of the stand—a scratch resistant feature, so the stand does not scratch fine furniture. I am actively pursuing leads this week, and am hoping for inexpensive results.
. . . I will update as things progress. The photo is of a completed stand (un Baby oiled), minus its shoes.
. . . this was fun, great evening, mild, no wind, and a very nice sunset—thought I would share a glass with you all . . .
(couple more in comments)
. . . no fish that night, but still, what a nice evening . . . that’s a line of brown pelicans in the background
. . . what fun this was! Took a lot of shots of this spider working its web with the sun going down behind it—a very fun series . . . some more in comments.
. . . all those little black things - and yes! lots of blossoms still in the blossom stage and getting ready to set - I am amazed at the eggplant production, there are over a dozen fruits already. I have harvested all the beets, turnups, carrots, cilantro, spinach, and lettuces - and have retilled and replanted (crop rotation) - so I am working on my second crop—more pictures in comments.
Very limited progress - got a form letter back from Frist’s office - at least someone read it (hopefully), and a reply from a medical ethics blog—but they have no “letters to the editor” section, so nothing forward there either.
I take the New York Times headlines—and have sent my opinion off to a couple of writers who have done articles on stem cells, but nothing yet.
It may take time, but eventually I will “hit” the right link—and my take will get some debate, and hopefully, add to the push for reasearch.
. . . sorry I have been busy, but it is summer! Pulled all the beets and turnips a week ago, and the spinach is out already, the carrots will come out this week. The Eggplants continue to make blossoms, and have baby eggplants growing on them! Yah! And finally, I have got a couple of ripe tomatoes off the Better Boy - I don’t know if it is the variety, but it seems the Better Boys take a whole lot longer to go from green to red than the Early Girls - but finally, tomatoes and cheese under the apple tree for lunch—that is how I measure summer.
. . . The zukes and crooknecks are making, and the okra is struggling along, maybe even a blossom or two. And the brocolli is outrageous! Brocolli is hard here because of the intensity of snails and slugs, they come from miles around when they “smell” it—if smell it they do, so the greenhouse is about the only way to get blemish free brocolli.
. . . I have to get a good heavy watering in (today) and then a re-seeding for second crop. This one will be a bit slower, but will still make over the next 60 days. Then I will be switching to the winter run of cool weather stuff.
Happy Gardening everyone!
. . . Rehearsals last night went well. And I actually got up and sang in a quartet, missing only a couple of notes, I tend to flat out a bit, my ear is not the best, but I make up for it in enthusiasm - sang “heart of my heart” - an old barbershop standard.
. . . Our show will be in October, and the music is progressing very well, it will be a bang up show, so if you can get here, you will not want to miss it.
. . . I am investigating how to put the audio/video on the net—anyone know what that would take? The venue for our first nights performance has a 100 mpbs cable connect, is this sufficient?
remember . . .
. . . Singing is Life!
. . . This is from a little know overlook of the Eel River Valley. Back in the ‘60s we had a major major flood here, and the entire valley was filled with water—hard to believe until you see the high water marks on some of the trees.
. . . Again, thanks to Malc, I am shooting a bit differently these days when the opportuity presents itself.
(a few more in comments)
. . . this is, or course not for everyone - and I have never publically displayed or shared this collection before - but it is representative of something I love and appreciate—something I keep going back to for more and more.
(see comments for more)
