what a difference a day makes. eh?

Off to the Finish

     I did make significant progress yesterday after a low tire on the tractor, a bald tire on the dump truck, and a multitude of things to go wrong that seemingly have nothing to do with what I am doing but then again it does. To just grab an extension cord reminded me I needed to have my air compressor back out at the greenhouse. Well to do that i first needed to pump up the tractor tire. Well and good, but I was going to put the compressor in the tractor bucket to take to the greenhouse. OK but first I had to grade the lane due to washouts from recent storm before loading up the bucket, knowing full well I would need the front bucket to grade the lane. But the tractor was nearly out of diesel fuel so I needed to take the dump truck to town to retrieve the diesel fuel because the pickups ignition lock cylinder was screwed up and since I couldn’t start the pickup till I bought a new lock cylinder. One thing led to another and it all interfered with my carving. Typical day. You start to see a pattern of work that needs to be done. It is endless and if that isn’t enough I could easily have ten different projects going on in some state such as standby to fat chance. Some I get done.

     I managed to knock off about six things and I am working on a bunch more including writing on here carving, and taking pictures. Daily I make a duck walk to the pond and shuffle my way out with Whackers and her tribe who come to escort me, carrying  with me coffee cans of bird food and duck food aka as fish food. PS. don’t tell the ducks. They still think it is fish food. After all is fed I still have George and Babe and myself to take care of.

     Finally I get around to working on the totem. With grinders in hand I started finish off the rough spots and lending the totem to a more finished look. I rolled the log straight up so I work on detail sanding of the faces thus far. Usually by this time I have worked out most of the finished carving that there is to do. And I finish with a flap sand disc from Harbor Freight. For about 16 dollars they have a decent four and half inch disc grinder that when  equipped with their flap sand disc gives anyone a good to excellent way to add new finished look to old boards rejuvenating them or any other project where wood removal is desired. It will polish nails  and fingers to a bloody stub even. Be careful with the dust and the use of the grinder as it will bite you when you are not looking. I have had some sore raw knuckles primarily to stupidity, so you must be serious with this piece of equipment. Usually all I need after this is a drill in terms of power equipment to finish but have picked up a couple more finishing tools I plan on incorporating on this carving to just see how well they would do.

you can see some of the scale detail of the fish. will be ditto for other side.

       I added the scale detail to the back of the fish and carved out the detail of the fins with the carving saw. I managed to make it most of the way through a tank of gas carving plus doing the grinding is another couple of hours. At this point I have roughly 8 hours of actual time in the carving from day one. It does go quick but it would be impossible for me to stand and carve for 8 hours straight. People wonder why I don’t do this all the time and that is because it would kill me pain wise. A little here and there is OK but straight through I get to hurting so bad it isn’t worth it. To be able to carve at all is a blessing, I am grateful when seeing others in worse shape than me. I think if I had not already sold this carving I feel it would be close to 1600.00, a hefty price but keep in mind I am not done yet and I still have considerable time to put into it. That 200 /per hour is going to come down a lot till I am done. At some point I may have to take a loan to pay the client to take it as it is. That is usually the way it goes.

will try and start the wings to be attached this eagle today

      Well if I was a young and everybody out in Never, Never land had a feather up their butt we would both be tickled, as then I could recapture spent youth and finally start making some money whipping out statue after statue making sure I don’t lift the wrong way and hurt it, thus taxing my creative talent. Doubt if that is going to happen now.  

     In tradition you need to throw a party for the carver to welcome the carving, a potlatch is what it is called.   I intend to do this to show the carving before it is handed over to the owner. This will be a chance for all you viewers of this blog, as well other friends, to stop by the farm and view in person. The date of this showing is still up in the air as the totem isn’t. I will have it standing and hopefully on its own. But in case if I feel it will be unsteady then I can tie to the bucket of the tractor. It will be a potlatch party. Date and times to be announced.