Wednesday, June 2, 2010
I worked on an article most of the day. It’s one I sent a query on and got the go-ahead but I’m having problems putting it together. The editor asked for a specific slant to the article and I think I’m going to have to deviate from that slightly to write it up. I guess if he likes it he’ll buy it. If not I may be able to sell it to another publication that pays less. One thing that’s made my writing life easier is digital photography. No more film to buy or send in for developing then wait for it to come back. I can take the pictures, boot up the computer and download them for evaluation and if they’re good I’m finished. If not, I can do it again and stay on schedule. I took the dog out and fed the buffalo this afternoon then sanded down one of my honing stones. It had gotten worn to the point I couldn’t get a good edge sharpening knives on it anymore. It’s the first time I’ve done it (only heard about it last week). It’s pretty simple, just lay a sheet of sandpaper down on a flat surface (I used a piece of plate glass) then work the stone around on the sandpaper. I’ve done it for automatic transmission valve bodies to flatten them but never thought about flattening whetstones that way. It would have worked better with wet/dry sandpaper but I didn’t have any and wasn’t going to drive 40 miles round trip to get some.

Susan sorted more baling twine to make some “rope” (the cat didn’t help this time so it went faster), went through our seed crate and sorted seeds out, started some pots of pumpkin, and squash (three varieties) inside. Some of it was seed we’ve saved. She planted broccoli in the garden and made the most absolutely wonderful dinner tonight. She also making rhubarb coffee cake for dessert.

We got a Netflix movie (The Road) to watch tonight. We’ve read the book so expect the movie to be a let-down. (The movie version if a book is almost never as good as the book was.)

Photos: 1. Breakfast on the woodstove - Frying eggs in the skillet and toasting buns. Our “toaster” is a piece of aluminum foil placed flat on the stove’s top. With bread we fold the foil over so that the bread is in kind of a foil sandwich. That way the bread stays flat as it toasts. (Without foil over the top the bread curls.) The buckets in the background are drying out so we can store stuff in them. We had one of our kids pick them up from the bakery where they work. We're always on the lookout for good plastic buckets with sealable lids for food storage. 2-5. Our water system. The barrel holds about 20 gallons. We pump it out of it and through the lines to the overhead tank (salvaged from an RV). From there it’s gravity flow down to the sink faucets. We took out the regular faucets because the water didn’t’ have enough pressure to flow through them. The faucets pictured have good water flow. The hose in the line above the pump (also salvaged out of an RV) is used to drain the line. The valve is for switching to pump water to the second tank for the gravity flow shower (which I don’t have hooked up yet). The switch above the pump is for turning it on/off when needed.