More "A-Door-Able Door" and Chicken Veggie Soup Day

Steveio has been working on his "A-Door-able Door". He finally got all of the varnish and old layers of paint removed. He's making quite a job of it. Honestly, if I had been doing the door I would have just sanded it lightly enough to get off the loose stuff, spackled up the few deep gouges, holes and dings, and then gave it some new coats of paint. But, in fairness, it did gum up the sanding belts pretty thick and was hard to removed that many layers.  So the heat gun did the job much nicer. 

Yes, we are going to paint the door. All of the other doors in the house are painted and we have no varnished woodwork other than the hardwood floors. So sadly, yes, after all this work it will get painted again. But Steve had wanted to remove all of the layers of paint and varnish that were on there to begin with. That's why he is going through all these extra steps. Like I said, he's making a job of it rather than a quick project or a hobby. That's my Steveio!

If you recall from a couple blogs back, this is the door in it's original shape. He was able to negotiate it for $20 and it is the perfect size to replace the modern one that is currently on our bedroom doorway.

Here below is the modern one on our bedroom doorway. This is actually a whole new doorway that was created when the bedrooms were shifted around to make a master bath. The previous owners did this work, and put in the new door.  Originally this section of wall had a big floor to ceiling bookcase. Once the bedrooms were moved around, this doorway was added. It's just a cheap hollow core modern looking door. It almost feels plastic in it's own way. I don't even know what it's made of. MDF?  Steve says it really bothers him and he has always wanted to change to an old wooden door that matches the rest.

Here are the original doors--- this one that leads into the bathroom from the master bedroom. That's why he was so excited to see this newest one on Marketplace because it exactly matches our other doors. It was taken out of an old home about 5 miles away that was being torn down to build a new home.

This morning, Steve wanted to carry in the door to do a trial run fit before he does anything else. Of course being an old house, nothing is ever square!!!  

I am the "door holder" and "tool getter" and "pencil sharpener" and any other task he needs my assistance on.  Even something as little as holding open and closing the front door to the outside as he goes in and out is helpful too. 

The door fits into the space but needs a little bit of shifting and shoving around to try and get it even. It's pretty much a close fit, but Steve is making much more of a job of it and is going to make it fit perfectly (of course).  Oh well, gives him something to do today. 

He shimmed it up to the correct height underneath and I came from the living room side to help hold it into place. This is going to work out quite well. We will need to move the striker plate and latching bore hole up a little higher and patch in the old one on the jamb. This old door has a higher knob then the other one. That's kind of strange, I thought in the old days that people were shorter and knobs were lower? No idea.

He marked the areas that he needs to cut a little bit off. Not a lot. Just a teeny bit on one side. Then he will bring it back in again and we can mark the hinges where he will have to mortise router out the space for the hinges on the door itself. Luckily he can leave the original hinges from the old doorway in place on the frame.

He only had to chisel out a tiny bit, 

and now the hinges will fit back into the doorjamb. 

tap tap tap

And there we have it!!!  (Steve is fond of that saying)  The pretty glass knobs we have throughout the house now fit onto the door and cover up the markings and cuts from the older 1970's brass knob. Steve put it all on for now to get things lined up, but he will remove it before we take the door back out to the garage to paint. 

Yes, we do need to paint it. 

It's only a pine door.

These are some of the flaws unearthed 

after all the paint removal. 

They will all be wood puttied up, and then sanded. Finally I will get out my paint and roller and brush and give it a good couple of coats with our trim color, so it will match everything else.  Now that Steve has the garage insulated, I can paint out there while it is laying flat on the sawhorses.  Much easier than painting it erect in the doorway in the house. Less runs and drips and the paint will lay more evenly on the wood. 

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While he was busy with the door, in between my tasks I started a big ole pot of chicken veggie soup this morning.  I chopped up the vegetables (yes, I chop the leaves on the celery for added flavor to the soup) and get everything ready to dump in the soup pot. 

I had two frozen chicken breasts to cook up, so I popped them into the pressure cooker with some water and Knorr's soup broth powder.  In 20 minutes they are ready to fall apart and soooo tender. 

I shredded the chicken up with a fork and knife, and dumped it into the soup pot where the vegetables were starting to simmer.  I also dumped in the broth (after straining it) from the pressure cooker for added flavor. 

Our local store carries these big jars of bulk spices they buy from the Nutmeg Spice Company.   https://www.nutmegspice.co/   They are re-packaged and labeled from our local store, but can also be ordered directly online.   I love the mixed  dried vegetables that I can add to soups for more flavor and a bit of color.  They are pieces of red and green peppers, spinach, dried tomatoes and also the same carrots, celery and onions that I already have in the pot. 

  

Oh my.... the house smells so good!!!  I love simmering soup in the middle of the day for lunch.  It's one of Steve's favorite lunches.  After all of his hard work on the door, he deserves it. 

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It's still another cold day in Wisconsin, but we've escaped the snow that has fallen to the north of us and to the south of us. The sun is out today, only kind of halfway cloudy. It does look like the weekend may warm up into the low 70s! 

I am scheming to get the motorhome loaded up on Friday morning so we can take off for one more camping trip before winter comes. Steve already winterized the water lines on the motorhome, but they can easily be dewinterized for one more weekend.  Tomorrow he and his brother Pete are going to spend the day helping their father get things settled in for winter in his garage and haul in firewood etc.  So I will send up the rest of the soup for those hard-working guys! 

Locally Created Red Oak Spinning Wheel

A couple of weeks ago we saw a very intriguing ad on Facebook Marketplace. Steve is always scanning the ads for anything of interest and he came across this handmade spinning wheel for sale.

An elderly gentleman who just lives 25 miles away in Menominee, Michigan was selling a spinning wheel that he made out of beautiful Red Oak hardwood. We decided to answer the ad and go check it out. I really didn't need another spinning wheel, but I thought this one might be nice to take along camping instead of my good one that I would prefer to keep at home. 

For a while now, I wanted a wheel with larger bobbins that I could do bulkier yarns with. Usually I only spin fine thin sock knitting yarns. But I have quite a large amount of wool roving in storage that I have wanted to spin up into thicker yarns. I would like to knit some thick hats, and having larger bobbins and a wider flyer to accommodate them would let me do it.

The wheel in the photos on the Marketplace ad appeared to be what I was looking for...

We made arrangements to meet at the woodworker's home in his little studio. It was a delightful afternoon meeting Bob, who was more than happy to demonstrate all of the creative parts of his handmade spinning wheel. He showed us all around his woodworking studio, demonstrating the other items he makes as well.

The wheel is rather primitive in nature and put together from all of the experience and talent that a wonderful old woodworker could come up with. He was rather inventive on some of the features and was so proud to show us how he put it all together.

He enjoys making the woodworking parts, and shows us how he also manufactured the metal parts. He made the orifice and the flyer to spin as evenly as he could, and added ball bearings on the main wheel. He made the pittman arm of metal instead of wood to make it last longer. 

He told us how the beautiful red oak lumber that he uses came from a tree that was cut down on his son's property. It turns out his son's property is in Peshtigo, which is a mere 10 miles from our own home!!  Can you imagine how thrilling it is to have a locally grown tree made into a wheel and about 10 miles away from where it grew????

What was extremely interesting is that this huge marvelous red oak tree that came down is that it tells a historic tale. It had telltale markings counting back at a certain number of rings where it had survived The Peshtigo Fire that happened 150 years ago. If you don't know about the horrific Peshtigo Fire, it was more dangerous and killed more people and was the same night as the ill-fated Great Chicago Fire in 1871.   

The Peshtigo fire was a large forest fire on October 8, 1871, in northeastern Wisconsin, United States, including much of the southern half of the Door Peninsula and adjacent parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The largest community in the affected area was Peshtigo, Wisconsin which had a population of approximately 1,700 residents. The fire burned about 1.2 million acres and is the deadliest wildfire in recorded history,^[1] with the number of deaths estimated between 1,500^[1] and 2,500.^[2] Although the exact number of deaths is debated, mass graves, both those already exhumed and those still being discovered, in Peshtigo and the surrounding areas show that the death toll of the blaze was most likely greater than the 1889 Johnstown flood^[3] death toll of 2,200 people or more.^[4]

Occurring on the same day as the more famous Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo fire has been largely forgotten, even though it killed far more people. In total, the Great Chicago Fire took one-fifth as many lives as the Peshtigo Fire.^[5][6] "Everybody's heard about the Chicago fire, and that got all the publicity at the time," said a volunteer at the Peshtigo Fire Museum, named Ruth Wiltzius, whose great-grandfather perished while trying to escape. "Peshtigo was a backwards lumber town then—who had ever heard of it? Chicago was the big city. Which one was going to get more attention?"^[3]

Nonetheless, several cities in Michigan, including Holland and Manistee (across Lake Michigan from Peshtigo) and Port Huron (at the southern end of Lake Huron), also had major fires on the same day. These fires, along with many other fires of the nineteenth century had the same basic causes: small fires coupled with unusually dry weather. ^[7]

More info on link:

Peshtigo Fire on Wikipedia

 

So this huge stately red oak tree that survived the Peshtigo Fire had now died and finally come down. It was split up by a portable sawmill and cut into planks. Bob has these beautiful planks and pieces of red oak wood that has been dried and cured. He is now using it to build various wooden spinning wheels, starting with one first for his wife and then one for his daughter. The third one he had made for his granddaughter, who apparently didn't want it, so he decided to sell it on marketplace. He also makes drop spindles, flyer spinners, kick wheel spinners, ball winders, and spindle type wheels.  He even makes these little primitive orifice hooks that can hang from an eyelet on the spinning wheel. 

Of course, I bought the wheel and took it home with me.  It's a much more rugged wheel in terms of spinning, and not as balanced and refined as my Wee Peggy from New Zealand.  But it does the job and spins the thicker bulkier yarns that I was wanting to create. 

He also makes lazy kates with a tensioning device to prevent the bobbins from over spinning as you ply off multiple strands to create finished yarns. I went back a week later and bought a lazy kate along with three more additional bobbins.  The thin tensioned string on a spring runs around the bottom grooves of the bobbins to prevent them from over-twirling when I pull off the yarns to ply them together.

When we went back to purchase the lazy kate, I asked Bob if he would please sign the bottom of my wheel for provenance, as well as the bottom of my Lazy Kate. I think I will print out a copy of this blog and keep it preserved with the wheel for anybody in the future when I am long gone.

   

He used to do craft shows, before Covid put a squash on that. He makes the most beautiful brooms! He makes full size brooms and also the smaller whisk brooms. He very generously gave me this one after I purchased the spinning wheel.

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Now that the wheel is home, it sits in my She Shed when it's not in the motorhome on a camping weekend. I was going to leave it in the motorhome, but it's nice to grab and pull over to my chair on occasion when we are watching a movie or just looking out at the deer in the backyard. 

Here is the yarn that I first started spinning on the wheel. It was a beautiful rich brown but I didn't have enough of this particular brown wool to really create a complete hat.  It was kind of a "sample" to get used to the wheel.  Spinning thick is hard to do after spending so many years spinning thin! 

I pulled out some beautiful silvery gray wool and I then spun up enough to ply against the brown.  This is how the Lazy Kate works: I set the bobbins of single ply spun yarn onto each of the little metal spindles.  Then I gently pull the yarns off those bobbins and spin them in a reverse direction on the wheel to ply into the thick bulky yarn. 

With two full bobbins,

 I could now knit up a hat.

While we were traveling last week I brought the yarn along with me and started to knit up a thick hefty winter hat.  I usually never knit this thick, so I took a guess as to needle size, gauge and number of stitches around the head to start with. 

As the hat grew and grew, I realized it was going to be much heavier and larger than I originally intended.  OH MY! 

It actually turned out to be a very large man's hat. I guess I'm just not accustomed to knitting with such thick yarn. Next time I will have to do less stitches around to begin with and then the hat will be a little smaller size.  I didn't have the heart to tear it apart and start over. 

I enjoy knitting hats as we travel or if it's during a time when I need to wait, like doctor appointments. I enjoy knitting while we are traveling in the car because it's a small portable way to create something and keep my fingers busy.  Usually I just use scrap yarns and leftovers or combine thinner yarns to make thicker hats.   (the new extra large one is on the far left)

I should get a bunch of these listed in my Etsy store this week. It's gotten cold and windy and blustery and snow around areas of Wisconsin. Perfect time to get a winter hat! 

https://kareninthewoods.etsy.com/

Now I pulled out some rich caramel colored wool and llama blend for the next batch of yarn.  I think I will ply with a strand of creamy white wool for a hat.  This time I will start out a bit smaller? 

I spoke of watching deer up higher in this post.  Yesterday, as I was sitting in the She Shed, I saw two young deer wander into our yard in the middle of the day!   

 

They snuffled around underneath the bird feeders a bit, and then I went out and clapped at them and shouted to scare them off. They should not be so brave in the middle of the day, hunting season is coming! They need to learn to fear humans, not get so complacent around the houses here in town. 

The sun is shining today, but it's bitterly cold and windy. I am going to stay in and work some more on my quilting, and maybe do a little bit of spinning on the new Peshtigo Red Oak Spinning Wheel.

Tire Minder TPMS - Early Birthday Present For Me

We got a few things in the mail on Saturday. 

A special package came early in the mail for my birthday! Steve and I have decided to start buying our presents for our special holidays to gear them along the line of things we really NEED rather than trying to surprise each other. 

For years, we had a really nice Hopkins brand from N-vision tire pressure monitoring system, known as TPMS for our motorhome and toad. Although it worked really well, the sensors only had built-in batteries that could not be changed. Every year or so we were buying a few new sensors at about $50 a piece! They would only last 2 or 3 years. It was getting kind of crazy. 

We did some research on the brands of monitoring systems that had replaceable batteries.  We decided on the Tire Minder system which had good reviews and priced in a range we were willing to pay. So we got rid of that old Hopkins system this spring and kept our eye out for the Tire Minder to go on sale. 

We mostly liked the idea of replaceable batteries. Just the easy cheap lithium 1632 disc batteries is all that is needed to put in the sensors. We had kept an eye on one model for a while, waiting for it to go on sale. Finally it went to just about 20% off on Amazon. So we got a complete setup for 10 Tires for only $379.00. Normally it is $469.00 for this model.

Amazon link:

TireMinder Smart TPMS with 10 Transmitters

Everything included in the kit including a signal booster to wire in near the rear of the motorhome to help amplify the signal from the rear tires as well as from the tires on the Saturn being towed behind. It includes a charger cord, an extra set of batteries, extra set of o-rings, and of course the main bluetooth unit itself and 10 sensors and even a handy dandy carrying case. Oooh and a Tire Minder Sticker!  wheeeee

Here are one of the sensors in my hand. They have the replaceable 1632 batteries inside and they can be locked onto your valve stems so nobody can come by and take them off again.

The programming is really easy with the app loaded onto our phones. The system is a lot handier to use than our old system. Plus you can disconnect either the motorhome or the Saturn from the screen if you are using only one vehicle or the other and not both together. 

Steve and I set it up yesterday in just a few minutes. Either or both of our phones will be able to monitor the tires as we drive, as well as putting the app on a tablet if we want it stand alone on the dash. So there are a lot of options to the system and we are quite relieved that we finally have a tire pressure monitoring system back on the rig. We just put brand new tires this spring, we have been running most of the summer without a tire pressure monitoring system and it has made me very nervous. 

A tire pressure monitoring system is very important especially when towing a vehicle behind, the driver cannot feel or see if suddenly having a tire problem. Our old tire pressure monitoring system has saved our butt TWICE. One time we had a tire low on the Tracker towing it behind and it gave us the warning before it totally lost all of the air, due to a puncture. Another time, the tire pressure monitoring system gave us a warning on an inner dually wheel on the motorhome that we would have never known was low, due to a bad leaking valve core in the stem. 

If you've ever been through a horrible blowout on a motorhome driving 60 miles an hour on an interstate (like we were in our old Coachman), we realize that we really do need a tire pressure monitoring system to be safe!

So when we were debating about what we should get for my birthday, the first thought in my head was to get the Tire Minder!  Happy Birthday To Me!  (not till the end of the month) 

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Yesterday, I was walking past the flowerbed between the She Shed and the garage. I happened to notice this crazy clematis plant is now blooming! This is after two heavy frosts in the middle of October, believe it or not. I planted this tiny clematis wayyyy back in the spring and it never grew much more than about 12 inches out of the ground. I wound the tendrils up this lattice and they just never went anywhere. I kind of forgot it even existed because I stopped watering all of my plants as of mid September. There was no need to water things that were going to be dying off anyhow as soon as we had frost. So I kind of ignored it. Suddenly I looked at it, and it has grown way up over 5 ft tall and I have all these beautiful purple blossoms!!!  I hope it comes back and does even better next year. 

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This morning was kind of icky damp and rainy, but not quite snowing. The temperatures are in the mid-30s and it's quite cold. I decided to work a little bit more on my quilt and do a couple more swaths back and forth.

I just love the way it's turning out and these

 Hooks and Swirls

 really dress it up.

The machine is running smoothly and everything is going along just fine (knock on wood). I don't want to tempt fate by saying that. But I do see that I'm getting rather low on the variegated thread. I probably have enough on here to do a couple more swaths back and forth ---  each swath across is about 7 to 8 inches deep by the full width of the quilt.

ACK!!!!   HALT to my quilting! 

Got to go get more of this particular variegated thread

after the Packer Game today. 

Luckily I saved the label

 so I can get the exact same color

 when I go back to the fabric store.

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While I was working on the quilting today, Steveio went back out into the garage to work on his "A-Door-ble" door. He has one side in pretty good shape already. The heat gun is working well to remove the old layers of paint and varnish. 

And now he started the other side.

 Keeps him busy and out of trouble.

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Got something else in the mail that was kind of funny. I got my acceptance of Social Security and on the exact same day I also got an application to join AARP! Boy oh boy do they ever have that planned?

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And the last special thing we got in the mail were our new eyeglasses. Yep, we're getting old and our eyes seem to change more often. Just about every year now we go back and get our eyes tested locally. They don't change much, just a little bit. We get our prescription and pupil distance measurements and then head over to the internet. 

We go through Zenni Optical online and upload our prescriptions. We have both been wearing the same exact pair of glasses frames every year for the past 4 or 5 years. The frames are $6.95 and the no line bifocal progressive lenses are $27.95.  At only $34.95 a pair complete, it's a good deal. Plus this time we opted to order prescription sunglasses at the same price, instead of using the clip on sunglasses. 

They came in the mail and they fit perfectly and they are exactly what we needed. Mine didn't change much but things are just a little crisper and clearer on the bifocals than they were before. Steve's are a huge difference because his old glasses get pretty pitted up and marked up with the things he does. But for only $35 a pair, it's not too bad to replace them every year for a fresh pair.

Link to Zenni Optical

https://www.zennioptical.com/

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Saturday just kept getting better and better!!! My older brother was on his way back from all of his medical tests in Green Bay... he is cancer free again!!!! Only one more year of tests and he should be considered completely in the clear from prostate and bladder cancer.  Whew!!! He stopped by just in time for dinner.  We had such a nice visit.  

Time to get this checked over for errors and then post it. The Packer Game will be on in 15 minutes. Let's hope they do better than last week!!!