Give Thanks

           I’m always up to something.

          Right now, it’s porch signs but I’m dreaming of other pretties I’ll make this winter. Things with cardboard and clay and glass, things I can make inside while the winter winds howl outside and the snow swirls around in great drifts.

          “You can’t make porch signs inside?” you ask.

          I can paint them inside, but not sand them. Theoretically, if I have a bunch of boards ready, I could make porch signs all winter.

          Speaking of which, I did get a bunch of boards ready. I got ten boards sanded, but only got eight of them stained. You may notice the board on the far right is a little more red than the others? I was near the bottom of my can of stain and even though I always stir my stain before using it, there was a layer of red pigment sitting on the bottom.

          Ayi-yi-yi!

          “Mike!” I yelled, walking in from the patio. He was in the recliner watching Gunsmoke. “I need another can of stain!”

          In the meantime, that guy can just be a little redder than the others.

          The early part of the week was spent designing a Thanksgiving/Christmas sign for my best girl Joanie. I was working when she was working. The only difference being she has an actual job. I’d send her different samples and need her to choose. Sometimes I had to wait for an answer but I expected that. In fact, if she hadn’t’ve replied until she was off work, that would’ve been okay with me as I’d built that time into the project, but she answered me on her breaks. Christmas is taking some time. She has something specific in mind and I don’t know that I can deliver. We got Thanksgiving nailed down pretty quick though.

          “I like the one on the left,” she said.

          Figures, I thought. The one with the more complicated cornucopia.

          I need to finish Miss Rosie’s reversable Thanksgiving/Christmas porch sign, too, so I showed her these two designs.

          “I like the one on the left but I want the GIVE like the one on the right,” she said.

          Besides everything else that happens during a normal day in my house, I designed on Monday, made stencils on Tuesday, prepared the boards on Wednesday, then I couldn’t put it off any longer.

          I was not looking forward to painting this board.

          “Frankly, I'm nervous to try a new pattern, just because it's so complicated. Lots of layers. Maybe I'll do a practice run on a small piece of board,” I told my morning peeps.

          Then I was reminded of the advice I’ve often given.

"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Now, how do you do a complicated project? One step at a time! Just jump right in there. You never know what you can do till you try. I have great confidence in you,” my beautiful West Virginia gal told me.

Not regular confidence but great confidence. It made me smile but did little to dispel my misgivings.

          I pulled my stack of stencils toward me and started ‘weeding’. Taking off the stuff you don’t want. And I found a way to put off painting the cornucopia a little bit longer.

          I’ll paint my WELCOME sign first!

          I got my fancy-schmancy palette out and laughed at myself as I scraped old paint off. I’ve got a bunch of these, I could just toss this one and get a new one, I think. But do I do that? NO! I scrape away and keep using the same plastic oatmeal lid over and over.

          Putting on the stencil, dabbing white paint on with my sponge took all of fifteen minutes. I’ve got other elements to add to the board but can’t until the paint dries.

          Now I really was down to it. I had nothing else to work on.

          I sat there weighing my options and couldn’t make up my mind. That’s the thing. If I’m doing something for myself it doesn’t matter and I make a decision. If it’s for someone else, I want them to be happy. I called Miss Rosie. “I’m doing the same cornucopia for both you and Joanie. I can’t decide if I should do it on a scrap piece of wood first or just jump right in and practice on yours.” Before Miss Rosie could say anything, I rushed on. “After all, she’s paying me. I want yours to be nice too but what if I practice on scrap and it comes out good? Then I’ll be sorry I didn’t put it on yours.”

          Miss Rosie didn’t consider it very long. Maybe she has great confidence in me, too. “Just go ahead and paint it on mine.”

          “Okay, but if it doesn’t come out good at least you’ll still have the Christmas side.” That was the bright side.

          My stencil is a Cricut (pronounced cricket) designed stencil. It’s made in five layers so you can change the color of your material and lay one right on top to the other. It took me forever to figure out how I was going to work it. I decided I’d have to paint it rather than dab it, therefore I’d only need the outlines. To get the outlines of all the elements, I needed to cut three layers of the stencil.

          I put the first stencil down and traced around it. Tore it off, put the second stencil down and was tracing around to get the details when it hits me.

          Maybe you know where this is going. Maybe you’ve got it figured out already. But you know me! I’m a slow thinker. It wasn’t until I was halfway done with this that it hits me.

          I could’ve printed the picture on paper and used a piece of carbon paper to put the design on the board, accomplishing the same thing without using three sheets of the much more expensive vinyl.

          Aye-yi-yi!

          Done’s done and done bun can’t be undone.

          I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but the first thing I did was block in a very light coat of basic color — where I knew what color I wanted. Brown for the cornucopia, red, green, and yellow for the apples, orange for the pumpkin.

          I didn’t overwhelm myself trying to figure out the whole scheme of it, I took it one bite, one color at a time.

          Six hours later I was down to the goblet and didn’t have a clue how to do it. Regardless, I was done for the day. Maybe if I let it rattle around in my head overnight an answer will come to me.

          The next morning I put the problem to my peeps and they came back with some fabulous suggestions. I made the stem and base bigger, rounded some lines, painted it dark green with lighter green and white highlights, and added gold accents. My photo makes it look black, but it’s not. All the colors look darker because I’m outside and I’ve sprayed it with a top protective coat.

          Once it was dry, I had Mike take me down to the Kipps.

          “She’s gonna die when she sees this,” I told Mike. She didn’t. In fact, I wasn’t even sure she liked it.

          “Why’s that?” you wanna know.

          Well, I know now she likes it, loves it even maybe, but I didn’t get a wow like I usually do. It’s pretty but maybe it’s not a ‘wow’ kinda pretty. I’d have to say, with the wisdom hindsight gives us, that maybe she was taken aback. Stunned might be too strong of a word.

          “Peg, that’s really good!” she said.

          I exhaled a breath I didn’t even know I was holding and grinned.

          Later, Miss Rosie explained the look to me. “I was surprised. It didn’t look like the picture you showed me.”

          Lamar took down the fall board and put Christmas up.

          “Flip it over,” I said. “Thanksgiving comes first.”

          “If Joanie’s comes out as nice as this, I’m sure she’ll be pleased with it,” Miss Rosie said.

          One thing’s for sure. I won’t be as nervous.

          >>>*<<<

          We made a couple of forays out into the world this week. We made an early morning shopping trip to Tunkhannock. The fog hadn’t even burned off yet.

          “There’s the sun!” I told Mike and snapped a picture. “He finally decided to come out and do his job!”

          The closer we got to Tunkhannock, the less fog there was.

          I love this picture! I was going for the cow under the leafless tree and when I saw it on the computer, I saw I’d captured a hawk sitting in the branches.

          I’ve kinda got a thing for birds on wires.

          They’re fixing up this barn, for what, I don’t know. But I see it’s got a couple of garage doors installed.

          There’s still a little fog lingering over the Susquehanna. 

          >>>*<<< 

          I keep telling Mike he needs to get a hobby rather than sitting around watching TV all day. He doesn’t want to build bird houses.

          But he has decided to finish out the newly enclosed patio.

          We have a lot of pieces of one by six knotty pine left over from various projects. Mike went to the upper barn where it was stored and brought it all down. He set up his saw and his lights and he goes out and putzes.

          “I need a few longer pieces,” he told me.

          I’m thinking, great! I need a can of stain. “Let’s go to C.C. Allis and get some,” is all I say. That’s the lumber company way out in the middle of nowhere.

          “Nah. I’ll just use what I’ve got.”

          The more Mike worked, the nicer it got, and he changed his mind about buying a few boards.

          Our second trip out was to get Mike’s pre-surgical COVID test.

          “Pre-surgical?” you query.

          Mike’s developed a surgical hernia after his cancer surgery. They’re going to fix it on Tuesday. It shouldn’t be a big deal because they do it on an outpatient basis.

          “While we’re in Wysox we can take the back way to C.C. Allis,” Mike says.

          So now we’ve got road pictures from a road we don’t travel very often. 

          I thought these people had decorated for Halloween with a creepy green monster peeking out of the window. 

         On closer inspection, I see it’s leaves with sunspot highlights for eyes.

          C.C. Allis, like a lot of places, is having trouble getting and keeping enough help.

          Mike and I walk up to the counter to order our lumber, Stacey says hello, and the phone rings. “Hang on a second,” she says and answers the phone. We wait five minutes as she gives the caller prices and availability for a bunch of lumber. I can tell she’s almost done when another line starts to ring. I’m afraid she’s going to put that caller ahead of us, making us wait even longer, and I had the perfect snarky comeback ready. “What‽ Someone who’s calling is more important than someone who took the time to drive down here‽” I don’t mind if they answer the phone — if they put them on hold! I didn’t have to use my snarkiness though as someone else picked up the ringing line. She finally hung up and apologized.

          “It’s okay,” Mike says amicably.

          I almost screamed, “NO! It’s not!” still feeling a bit snarky, but I let it go.

          “Can we look at the number four, one by six knotty pine before we pay for it?” Mike asked.

          “I don’t have anybody to show it to you,” she said.

          I’m thinking, So if we order it you don’t have anyone to load it for us? We can’t buy it today or what‽ Doesn’t sound like any way to run a business if you ask me!

          Stacey started calling for a yard guy when one walks in. She recruits him to take us up to the shed.

          Inside, I see someone decorated!

          While Mike and Ed load our twenty boards, I take pictures of the machines.    

      

          On the way home I took more pictures.  

          Raini has learned a new trick.

          Remember the light switch deal? She’d jump at me every time I turned the light off before going to bed? She knows the switch turns the light off and she could probably be taught to turn the light off herself. Instead, I discouraged her jumping at me. But she always watches intently as I turn the light off. And I watch to make sure she isn’t about to jump at me.

          “I’ll turn the light off,” I tell her and she races in to the bed.

          This week she’s made the association between the doorknob and the door opening. She gets so excited she jumps at the knob when I reach to open the door. It if was a lever latch, she could probably open it herself.

          “Why is she so anxious to go out?” you may wonder.

          That’s a good question! Especially since she can let herself out through the pet door any time she wants.

          Raini has this thing about the birds. She races out the door, gets to the edge of the patio, and leaps into the air to scare the birds like it’s her job! And I guess for now, it is. It seems harmless enough so I don’t feel the need to correct her behavior.

          The page on Blue Heelers said you should give them a job, even if it’s to go get the mail with you. I know that my oldest, much-adored sister Patti gave Dakota, her Blue Heeler a job. Every night they would walk around the perimeter of the property, then Dakota got a pig ear for her reward.

          I can’t think of a single job for Raini to do. I don’t trust her to stay with me because the last time I took her out without a leash, she took off. She did come back, five minutes later.

          And Raini chases cars. Her fence line runs parallel with the road and when she sees one coming, she’ll run the length of the dog run after it. That’s more than sixty yards. I wish she wouldn’t chase cars but I guess a sprint inside the run is a good way for her to burn off steam.

>>>*<<< 

          There’s only picture left in this week’s picture file. It’s this beautiful buck that someone hit with their car down in town.

          “I wonder if someone will stop and take the antlers,” I mused out loud.

          Later, on Facebook, I saw a post by Trapper John. “Sad to see them like this. A pretty 9 point, not far from where I got my 11 point,” he wrote.

          His picture was better than mine since he stopped and I snapped mine as we drove by.

          “Do you know what happened to it,” I asked Trapper.

“Someone picked it up. Normally if nobody picks up a roadkill the commission takes it to a dump or sells the horns. The game commission has a deer dump at those building down the road from your house,” he told me.

“Do you have to get permission to pick up a roadkill deer?” I asked.

“You’ve gotta get a permit for the meat, and you’ve gotta surrender the head and hide to conservation officers as well,” Trapper told me.

And now we both know. 

Let’s call this one done!