Well today I took my 9”x9” frames and mats with the 5”x5” openings to A. C. Moore, local craft store that does frames. The lady there cut the openings from 5”x5” to 7”x7” (the best she could do with her mat cutter) and did not charge me anything. When we got home from some other shopping I set to work on getting the last 6 pictures on the wall. In a little over a hour it was all done and here is the results, let me know what you think.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Adventures in the Cranberry Bogs
Today Barbara and I went on a trip put on by the Ocean County Park System called Cranberries: Wet/Dry. The day started out by driving to the Wells Mills County Park were after signing in we got into a county park van and drove to a working cranberry farm. We were met by the farmer at one of his bogs that was being wet harvested. A cranberry bog is a field that has an earthen damn all around it with a ditch that is about 6 feet deep just inside the damn. The field were the cranberries grow is about 4 feet below the top of the earthen damn so that it can be flooded for harvesting. The first step in harvesting the cranberries is to flood the bog. They do this by opening flood gates that let the water in from the reservoirs that are upstream (if they need to they can use pumps but they try not to). The first field we visited was already flooded and they were getting the berries off of the plants with a boat that has large mixer type blades set sideways to churn the water and get the berries to come off of the plants. The berries float because they have four little pockets of air in the middle. After the mixer is done they then put out a cranberry boom (much like the oil booms used for oil spills) to corral the berries so they can pull them out of the water. They use blowers and men with rakes to push the berries away from the sides of the damns while they drag the boom out and corral the berries. While they were getting ready to put the boom out we went across the road to an un-flooded field and the farmer explained the growth cycle of a cranberry vine. Not sure I could explain it very well so I will not try, I am sure if you are that interested you can look it up yourself. You will notice in the pictures of the close-up of the cranberries floating in the bog that there are red and white berries. They are not two different varieties but the white ones are berries that did not get as much sun because they were not as close to the top of the vines. They are all ripe berries and when they are processed it all turns red. We then went back across the road and saw them putting out the boom. Then because the weather here was going to get nasty we left as we had other places to get to. We did not see them getting the berries out of the water but we can go again another time and see that. Ocean Spray has a transfer station about a mile from the farm and while we were there I saw at least 3 tracker trailers and one dump truck go by full of cranberries.
Our next stop was the Chatsworth General Store where, after going in and looking around, we sat outside on a bench and ate our lunch that we had brought with us. While we were there the store owner put out a box of Jersey Devil Chocolates so of course Barbara sent me in to get some. They are Dark Chocolate with Chili and Cranberries not sure if we will like it but we will try it.
Our last stop (because of the weather) was Cloverdale Farm County Park. The county park system has acquired this old cranberry farm that still has a bog that produces a crop. It had an old farm house that the county had fixed up to be a visitor center but just before it was going to open someone broke into it and burned it down, what a waste. Well we got out and were allowed to go into the cranberry field and pick cranberries. The berries were not as plentiful or as big as the ones at the first farm but it was fun anyway. Just as everyone had gotten all the berries they wanted it started to rain, but we did it all.
Here are some pictures from todays adventure.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Bedroom Finished (almost)
Yesterday I replaced the threshold with a new piece that matches the floor in the hallway and it looks much better. The baseboard was put back up with all the nail holes patched and painted. Then it was time to install the new baseboard heat unit. I made two holders to raise the heat above the baseboard so I did not have to try to hold the heat with one hand and try to screw it to the wall with the other hand, like I had in the past.
Today Barbara and I got out the new bedding. We changed the sheets and then because the bed skirt was so wrinkled Barbara got the ironing board and iron out (does not happen very often) and ironed the bed skirt and the curtains. We then put the bed together and hung the curtains and it looked great. I then held up two of the picture frames to get the placement right. I got out my laser level and carefully put the nails up into the wall for the frames. The four frames make up one whole picture. I took one of my pictures from Longwood Gardens and with Photoshop I cut it into 12 sections. I then sent the 12 sections to CostCo for printing. Look at the close up of the four frames and you will see the complete picture. After that we tried putting the club chair from the living room in the corner of the bedroom and it works. Barbara always wanted a comfortable chair in the bedroom and now we have one. We then decided we wanted more pictures frames that matched the ones over the bed so we had to make a trip to the Christmas Tree Shop, before they ran out of them. At the Christmas Tree Shop if you see something you like you have to buy it then or the next time you go it might not be there. We also got a new floor lamp for behind the club chair and red storage bins for the two shelf units on either side of the bed. The storage bins do not fit by a half inch. I am going to try to redo the shelf units so that the storage bins will fit. I have some white shelves that I should be able to cut down and use for the top and bottom and middle shelf cut to the right size for the new bins.
Things that still need to be done are to hang the mirror above the small cabinet we use for laundry, choose pictures to use in new frames and get them printed in the correct sizes and hang the rest of the pictures.
Here are some pictures.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Bedroom Project Winding Down
Just a quick update on the bedroom project. I took yesterday off (I’m retired and I am allowed to). Today I got the rest of the baseboard sanded and got two coats of paint on all of the pieces. I also put together our picture project that will hang over the bed. We got 4 collage frames from the Christmas Tree Shop that have places for 3 pictures in each. I then took one of my photographs from Longwood Gardens that has red flowers in it and with the magic of Photo Shop Elements I cut it into 12 individual photos. I then sent the 12 photos to CostCo to get printed (cost less then $2.00) and then put them into the frames. I will be putting the baseboard back up tomorrow and patching the nail holes. After that has had a chance to dry I will touch up those spots with a little paint and then move the furniture back in. So it looks like the room should be back together by Sunday afternoon. Sorry no pictures today (did not think a picture of baseboard drying in the garage would interest anyone).
One side note I had to wash the glass from the frames in the kitchen sink, needed to soak them in hot water to get the price tags off, and I cut my fingers up on the edges of the glass when I was drying them. Barbara took real good care of me and bandaged all my little cuts.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Floor all done
Well the floor is done. As I started I rolled out the last of the moisture barrier I had (hoping that it was enough) and finding that I was about 2.5 feet short. I am glad I found out before Barbara took the car and went off to the CGL library (our community has their own little library) to do her turn as librarian or I would have had to either walk to the club house and get the car or sit and wait until 12:00 when she came home. Oh well I took her to the library and then off to Lowe’s for me. Bought another roll of moisture barrier and the piece for the threshold. I did not have a piece of the floor with me so I had to make a best guess on the color and I got the right one. When I got home I rolled out the 2.5 feet of moisture barrier that I needed and then started putting down the rest of the floor. When I got to the wall I was about 2 inches short and would have to rip down (cut along the length) planks to fit, not a problem with my table saw. The most complicated cut was for the doorway to the hall, I had to rip a piece down to the correct width and then cut out for the metal door frame (not as bad as I thought it was going to be). The worst was the threshold piece. It comes as a kit that has a metal track that you attach to the floor (cement in my case) and then tap in the cover piece you need to use. It comes with different pieces for different types of transitions. Laminate to laminate floor, Laminate to rug or laminate to step down. I cut a piece to fit in the door (or so I thought) but some how I had measured wrong and cut it to short, not a problem I measured again and cut the correct length. Seeing as we had laminate in the hall way and had had carpet in the bedroom there was already a transition piece in the door way and I planned on using the metal track over again, mistake. They changed the width of the metal track so after trying unsuccessfully in putting the new transition piece in the old metal track I wound up taking the old track up and putting the new track in it’s place. Of course the holes did not line up with the old holes from the old metal track and I had to drill new holes either in the new metal track or into the cement floor, I decided to drill new holes into the metal. Put the new metal track down and then started to tap the cover piece in place. Well I must not have had it lined up just right and I wound up bending the side of the the metal track down. Well lets just say if I can not get the one side of the threshold glued down tomorrow I will have to buy another threshold kit ($30.00) and try again. Here are the pictures, enjoy.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Bedroom Floor Continues
Well I did not start working on the floor until after lunch but I got a lot done this afternoon. The trickiest part was the cuts I had to make to get around the closet door opening. This house is not like your normal house with wood frames for the doors, our frames and the built in molding are metal. Normally when you are installing a wood floor (or laminate) and you come to a door frame you under cut the door frame with a special saw and slide the wood floor under it so you do not have to be very precise. In my case I had to cut out the floor to fit around the door frame. I got a very tight fit and am very pleased with the results. Enough of me complaining here are some pictures of what I got done today. Just four more rows to go by my calculations (and I think I will have 2 unopened boxes that I can return to CostCo).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)