Chuck Porter
Professor, Student, Writer, Reader, & Drinker of Coffees
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- Jul 04, 11
That's right, we're scaping the land around here.
Last summer, in our efforts to experiment with gardening, we totally neglected the flowerbeds in front of the house. We talked about them occasionally, but it usually amounted to this:
Wife: "We should totally get some flowers or something for these beds."
Me: "Yeah, ok. Great!"
Wife: "Yeah."
We never acted on these discussions.
Finally, 4th of July weekend opened up on our calendars, and to the local Blues and Oranges we went. In retrospect, we should have started at the local nurseries because they had way better deals and heartier looking plants, but that's how hindsight works, and we'll know better for next year.
Anyhow, we planted some knockout roses, and roses, and black-eyed susans by the shed. Black-eyed susans are our state flower, by the way. We also planted a whole bunch of impatiens and such in front of the house to liven it up. Again, hindsight tells us that we should have mixed up our color a little bit more, but again, we'll know better next year.
Take a good look at the rose pictures. Those bushes will probably never look this good ever again, now that they're in our care.
At any rate, it all breaks up the sand that we had fronting our house previously.
Scaping some land. - May 28, 11ith the holiday weekend upon us, I figured that this was one of the best times for us to upgrade our mailbox, especially considering that it could have taken us many days, not knowing which snags we may have encountered while doing the work. Fortunately, this was an easy one, and everything went according to plan.
The mailbox that came with our house was old and busted. The flag would spin way past upright, the box itself was covered in algae and lord knows what else, and the post--oh, the post!--was well, look at it. Nightmarish, right? It had seen better days to say the least.
So we hit up the local blue and oranges to get some supplies, namely, a new post, a mailbox, and some numbers. We also went to our local Sherwin-Williams and bought some paint from a guy with a personality like a used car salesman.
Two days, two coats of paint, and a few feet of dirt later, we've got a new mailbox!
It's a little red, but it's not too shabby, I think. - May 26, 11
- Apr 09, 11e have the loveliest throw pillows for our bed, but we've never had a place to put them.Often they have found themselves on the floor, stuffed in a closet or piled on a dresser. Ever since we've had a house, I've wanted a place to put those things while we sleep, so we don't have to stash them away, and maybe so that we even make our bed occasionally.
Well, enter a weekend with some time to spare--a true rarity around here, but this was one! We picked up four shelf brackets (sold in pairs), a 1x8x8, and two 1x2's one 6' and one 8'. (We didn't really need that much 1x2, but two feet cost as much as six, so we went for it.)
When I got home I pulled together a couple kitchen chairs for makeshift sawhorses and ripped the 1x8 down to seven feet (the width of our headboard). Then I cut the 1x2's to mitered corners and taped it all together with some finishing nails. A little wood putty filled the cracks and the corners where necessary and I stained it walnut with some leftover from the CD shelves we built a long while back. After the stain dried, I polyurethaned it and waited for it to dry.
Meanwhile, I measured, taped up a template, check to ensure the template was level, and then drilled and set my brackets in the wall. Hours and hours later, after consuming some steak and potato salad to refuel, the polyurethane had dried--mostly.So I carried the shelf back, marked out where the screws would go, carried the shelf back to my saw horses (by which I mean kitchen chairs) and drilled out the holes. Then I remounted the shelf and set the screws in place!Mission accomplished.In fact, the shelf even sits tight against the wall, which was more than I was hoping for considering the age and often unlevel qualities of our house.
So, there you have it. A pillow shelf.We'll add some action shots of the shelf holding pillows as soon as were certain that the polyurethane is, in fact, quite dry. Check back for that exciting development!Where do you keep your crazy throw pillows when they're not being pretty? - Mar 15, 11ell, after a year in the house, we finally decided that the neighbors had had enough eye candy, so we hemmed up, stamped up, and hung up some curtains to cover up my bathroom window.
- Mar 16, 11ell, at long last, I had one day to work on a fun house project, so here it is!A few months ago, when I last had a spare afternoon, I hung my dart board in my study. The study is also known as the downstairs bedroom, but I prefer to call it my man-cave.The dart board is good for breaks in grading, but it would be even better for friendly games of darts, but we didn't have a chalkboard to keep score.After searching all over this town, we finally struck gold at the local teacher supply store, where we got a chalk tray, a small blackboard, some chalk, and an eraser.All that we needed to do then was paint numbers on it for cricket and add some lines for scoring, so we picked up some acrylic paint at the craft store, and I set to work on it.All that's left is to hang it in the aforementioned man-cave!
- Mar 16, 11he lack of activity on this blog is inexcusable, but I've been terrible busy.
First we had the great flood of oh-nine. Then I had my semesters to finish. Now we have bats getting in, so I've been plugging up holes in our house like it's my job, which it is.
The latest in efforts of plugging holes that bats may be entering through is the dryer vent. The dryer vent has never closed fully since we've moved in. So, we bought a new one, with closing vents and a screen over the top to keep the pesky critters out entirely. I won't name-drop the brand because I wasn't really impressed with the quality. It's really flimsy plastic material, and I had to tape the screen on to be sure it was going to stay in place. That is partially the fault of the manufacturer and partially the fault of the previous vent going into the house at an angle instead of straight through, but I got it up, sealed it, caulked it, and hopefully it will be one added guard against potential flying-rat intruders in the future.
Pictures explain more fully.
See how the old one gaps almost a full inch when it's upright! That was a pretty big access point for frogs, bats, etc., but hopefully we've got it sealed up now! - Mar 16, 11o, I had to work for a week, and then I had some holiday-with-family time, but here, at long last, are the pictures of the finished shelving unit.Apparently the pictures are in anti-chronological order and I don't feel like fighting the HTML code to fix it right now. (Thanks alot, Blogger!) So scroll down and see the shelving unit unstain itself.If you look closely at the first picture you can see the backing material for the shelves was high-dollar reused cardboard from soda 12-pack boxes, but that's how we roll around the Snicklefritz ranch.
Also, it should be noted that the shelves are now covered in construction dust because shortly after we finished the shelves, we had some water seepage in our basement, so we had to get some contractors to waterproof the place.
:(
Still, we got some shelves, and soon we'll be able to put everything back together. - Mar 16, 11or quite some time, I've had too many CD's. The racks have overflowed, and it was finally time to do something about it.With a handy Lowes gift card, I picked up a circular saw and with a bunch of cold hard credit, I purchased a bunch of lumber.Armed only with a crude sketch and some ideas, we started construction at the Snicklefritz ranch.We spend the first evening measuring the lumber two or three times and returning to the sketch and a calculator to refigure the measurements. Then I made sure to read the instruction manual for the saw to ensure safety and proper precautions.Early Thanksgiving morning, we started cutting, sanding, gluing, and screwing the pieces of lumber.
At the end of the day, we had exhausted both batteries for the cordless drill and were forced to call it a night.Early Friday morning, I finished attaching the bottom six shelves and puttied the screw holes to the best of my ability. Sanded everything once more and now I'm waiting to pick up the last piece of lumber, for we were one shy. That way I can add a kick plate and we can start staining.Not bad for two days' work and little real construction skills. - Jan 07, 09
I made my first shirt. It was from McCall's 4079 "Three Hour Shirt" pattern. I, however, did not find it to be a three hour project. It took me about two days, but it was my first shirt.The project wasn't too tricky. I think the hardest part was finding the packages of snaps I purchased way back before vacation, but that wasn't McCall's fault!The pattern calls for buttons, but I swapped them out for some pearly snaps, and that went pretty well, but nobody told me how easy it is to crack pearly snaps! I think it'll hold up alright though.At any rate, I finished it today and I screen printed the bird on the pocket.Ta-da! - Jan 06, 09
I don't deal with spare time very well.
I have to be busy, always flitting about from one project to the next.
Today's project is screen printing.
I picked up a silk-screen skit at a craft store in Ohio over the holidays. I had been looking for one for years, but apparently they aren't in high demand on the Eastern Shore of Maryland because nobody has them.
Today, I finally got it out and started working with it.I started by finding some source pictures on the internet. I wanted to do some birds and also I wanted to experiment with some wind turbine designs. Then I traced those designs right onto the screen with a pencil. I filled the outlines in with "Drawing Fluid." After that stuff dried, I squeegeed the "Screen Filler" across the screen. After that dried, I washed out the "Drawing Fluid," and I let the screen dry again. Then I was ready for a test drive!
I have six flour-sack towels that I use to dry my handmade papers. I often get confused mid process about which towels are wet and which are still dry because they all look alike. I was thinking about just Sharpie-ing some numbers on them, but with the screen, I had a better idea. I used the towels as my test runs to see how the screen printing process would turn out.
After moderate success with a couple of the towels, I tried a handkerchief or two.
Here are some snaps of the results!
- Jan 03, 09
I know, it's been months since I made a book, but I've been a bit busy with school and school and the holidays and everything.With the last few days of my break, I got the bug again, so I made quite a few sheets of paper; in fact, my arms are sore! I also picked up a trashed leather skirt from a thrift store for about $3 so that I could try my hand at a leatherbound book. I didn't want to waste the handmade paper on an experiment, so I tore some plain computer paper, and I stitched it together to see how it would turn out.Here are the results! - Dec 11, 08
I think I was rambling off topic, so I deleted this, but it's too good to not share... or at least my 2:15 a.m. brain says it is.
"Perhaps this is the unavoidable nature of instruction—the end of the semester leaves all involved parties with too much work and too little time to complete it. So we all, teachers and students alike slug through, zombie-like, with pen and pencil in one hand, books and papers in the other, and an otherworldly lost gaze in our eyes that leaves us tripping over our own feet, stumbling along for the last week or two of classes, and our friends and family are left with but one question: 'Are you ok, man?'" - Nov 30, 08
Here is an update to my previous post.After much thought and experimentation, I decided to not robotify my mittens. The deciding factor really came down to how feasible it was. I tried (on a spare piece of fabric) to Sharpie the design, but it didn't work out--I think the 10% of nylon and 10% of spandex meant that 20% of the Sharpie was not going to stay on. (Lots of marker rubbed off on my fingers, even after I let it dry for a full day.) I tried paint markers too, from an old project about a decade ago, but that didn't work too well either. Furthermore, my PIC said she could embroider the design, had I not already assembled them, but hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20. So, I guess the NEXT pair will have to be robotted up.Meanwhile, I did cut a pocket off of the original felted sweater and I added that to the left mitten, as you can see here!Also, Bosco approves of the messenger bag. I'm sure that most of my readers already know about his helpfulness in the sewing room from all of my PIC's allusions to him, but I thought I'd let you know that his helpfulness knows no bounds!Furthermore, Kim had asked about the Playmobil nativity set that was mentioned over on the Snicklefritzes. Yes, it is now set up. FINALLY, she let me assemble it and proudly display it in our kitchen on a lit bookshelf. It looks pretty cool in the evenings when it's lit up. Here is a picture. Joseph, as you can see, is missing his headband. I have already contacted Playmobil and expect to receive a replacement part at their earliest convenience. I'll keep you posted.Also, doesn't Balthasar look pretty crunk? - Nov 27, 08With my four days off, I've been able to work on a few projects that have been in the works for a while! Three total, and now, I need to return to the papers that I've been avoiding with all this fun.Project 1: A lap desk.I had seen lap desks at B&N and other stores around town, and I looked at them until I saw the price tag: $40! (They get $40 for a hunk of wood or plastic and some fabric with styrofoam beads in it!) So, I figured, heck, I can make one of them myself! Not too long ago we replaced the freebie coffee table that we inheritied with our apartment with a brand new one, but not before I salvaged some of the scrap wood that was barely holding the old one up. I took one old piece, about lap size, and some leftover fleece from a project from a while back for my PIC, and some foam from the stadium seat we constructed (yet to be blogged about). Ten minutes, and a staple gun later, I had a lap desk. I took out a chisel and carved a little pencil tray at the top, did a little sanding, and called it done.Project 2: A Messenger BagSome time ago, I made a messenger bag for myself out of some blood, sweat, and canvas. Since then, I've been schleppingpapers to and from work in it. Initially it caught quite a bit of attention. My boss even asked me to make one as a graduation present for a young friend of the family. A few months later she again asked me to make one as a Christmas gift for another young family friend. I'm not sure when else I'd get an opportunity between now and Christmas to make one, so here it is: a plain black messenger bag.Project 3: Felted Wool MittensThe PIC got a book from the library called Warm Fuzzies a while back. It included a ton of neat projects making use of felted wool, "upcycled" from old thrift-store sweaters and the like. Inspired she bought about nine old wool sweaters from Goodwill, and felted them. But then we got cable, and she didn't do much crafting. (For more on that read her blog.) Well, I have been inspired by all the amazing items on Etsy to get crafty again, and I've also been inspired by these 20 degree temperatures we've been getting to stay warm. Warmth and craftiness go together to make cozy mittens!I sewed them up and lined them with fleece. The whole project took about an hour, maybe two. Now, I'm not sure if they need anything to spice them up. I'm thinking about sketching or stenciling on a robot (see the last picture for a draft of this idea). What do you, my dear readers (by which I guess I mean, Kim) think?I like the robot and I like the plain subtle mitten. The PIC feels the same way. We can't decide! Help us!
- Nov 04, 08Things like this make me glad that I'm out of your state.Seriously, "Write In Candidates."Oh, cripes!Love,-Chuck
- Sep 14, 08
I took pictures of the end-of-pew carvings from the First Lutheran Church while I was there for my sister-in-law's wedding last year. Now, thanks to Picasa3, I was able to make a video out of them and upload it to YouTube with one or three easy clicks! Eventually, maybe I'll figure out how to set it to music.
In the meantime, enjoy! - Aug 14, 08
My dad plays the banjo in an Ohio band called Bridge County. As I was talking to him on the phone least night, I found out that there's a great new venue for bluegrass music in northwest Ohio at the Glass City Opry (see the new link in the right column of this page). Upon scouring their website, I found a podcast (Bridge County is featured about 22 minutes in) and YouTube videos featuring his band. Apparently the band is getting quite the online representation. Check them out!
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- "I asked Monk what it was called...[H]e looked past me to a fixed point somewhere in infinity and intoned, 'Let's call this...let's call this...let's call this...' So I named it 'Let's Call This.' The second number...'We'll think of one,' he said. Since he didn't, I called it 'Think of One.'" -Ira Gitler regarding Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins sessions (Prestige 7075 and 7053)
- "Thirty-five years after it was recorded, John Coltrane's Ascension remains a good way to start an argument. To some it was Coltrane's breakthrough album...To others it marked the beginning of a talented musician's disturbing slide into chaos." -Lewis Porter, Rutgers University
- may not need food for a week.
- wonders where the Red Wings are tonight. They aren't in Montreal.
- is always confused by facebook profile pictures that have many people in them. Who posted that? I don't have time to read the name!
- totally random trip to Baltimore for a concert? Okay.
- 's reading list for this semesters class includes, White Privilege, Class Matters, and Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. I guess this is probably a feel-good class.
- is taking a gamble on a few titles from Greying Ghost Press. I'm betting they're all winners. Regardless, as long as I get a pamphlet of that Adam Tavel piece, it'll all be worth it.
- HOLY TEBOW!
- Wings/Stars goal-fest?
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Recent Tracks
- Good by Good Old War
- That's Some Dream by Good Old War
- Diet Mtn Dew by Lana Del Rey
- Wash. by Bon Iver
- Hinnom, TX by Bon Iver
- Michicant by Bon Iver
- Towers by Bon Iver
- Holocene by Bon Iver
- Minnesota, WI by Bon Iver
- Perth by Bon Iver
Michael KiwanukaChildish GambinoNick Cave and the Bad SeedsBon IverZaoThe Six Parts SevenCharles MingusThe CreationYael NaimThe StoogesThe Blues MagoosJeff BuckleyDonald ByrdBrendan BensonFunkadelicRufusBill WithersJohnny CashJoe HenryDavid T. WalkerEugene McDanielsGary Bartz Ntu TroopThe ShinsIke & Tina TurnerThe Sweet TalksThe KooksVetiverThe PharaohsSharon Jones and the Dap-KingsMatisyahuJaymayTesfa-Maryam KidaneVetusta MorlaRobin PecknoldMGMTEdward Sharpe & The Magnetic ZerosOrchestre Poly-Rythmo de CotonouFlanagan SmithGood Old WarFoster The PeopleLana Del ReyNile Nash- 3 plays
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- Ravage Ritual by Zao1 plays
- Fifteen Rhema by Zao1 plays
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