Yup, thats what we did!!!! And we had a good time doing it. Stayed pretty close to home to ensure RV Awning stayed with us. We have it tied down with tie down cables, but its still flopping a little. Thought we came here to get away from the wind. Appeared it followed us all the way to Texas. But at least it's a warm wind.
Jan 17th (Tuesday)
Now since we are going to be here for 3 months, we both need to find something to keep our Old brains and hands occupied and not let senility set in (any more than it already is). There fore I have decided that I would like to try my hand at some stained glass art. I have always had an interest in soldering and cutting glass, and as this hobby should not take up too much room in ELTORO, it seemed like a perfect solution. I still like my bowl turning, but to bring along a lathe, that would do the bowls, I like to do, takes away too much room. Rule that one out!! I hoped I would be able to get into this hobby with a minimum of cost too. Denice, on the other hand likes her pictures, so she is going to do some scrapbooking. Now she has many different project subjects, so she has lots of different ones to work on. I think the first is her "Front Step Pictures." She has been taking them of almost every body that has ever visited us since to 1960's, so this will be a biggy. Then there is "Highway Signs," "Birds," "Mail boxes," "Sun Sets," "Flowers," "Rail Car Graffitti," and "Scenery." This is going to take a lot more than 3 Months!!!!
So now to kick our hobbies off we need some supplies. I had looked on the web and found a stained glass shop in McAllen, and also a Scrapbooking store as well. I have already covered the search for these stores in a previous blog , so will not delve into that again. Anyway, now that we know where McAllen Stained Glass is, we haeded on down there this morning and bought my supplies. Here is what the nice helpful Lady at the store recommended, and since I was in no position to argue, this is what I came away with:
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| My Tools |
Glass Cutter ( The best, with lubricated cutting wheel)
Glass ( only 4 or 5 sheets for first project @$10 per)
Foiler ( auto thingy to place copper strategically along the edges of the glass)
Pliers ( what they call Groziers, whatever that means, and breaking pliers, but a must!)
Soldering Iron ( 100 watt with a steady 700 degree Fahrenheit temperature maintained)
Copper Foil ( to wrap the edges of the glass with)
Solder (about 5 lbs of 60/40 roll)
Flux ( help stick the solder to the copper)
Hammer (A special one, like a hammerhead shark with plastic end on one side and a rubber one on the other)
Nails ( Horse shoe nails, no less - Thought this was going to be stained glass, not how to shoe a horse)
Training Books ( I need lots)
Patterns ( God, I hope there is some esay ones)
Lord I thought I needed a soldering iron, a cutter, and some glass!!!
Jan 18th (Wednesday)
Today went walking in Wildlife Refuge, Benston Refuge - Lots of birds! This is the best birding area we have found so far. A long walk is not even required since they have a feeding station right at the information center just inside the reserve. There are birds in abundance, Green Jays, Kiskadees, Orioles, Chukalakas, Cardinals, Vermillion Fly Catchers, doves, and a whole host of other ones that escape my internal bird data base. For those more adventurious, a tram is available to take you around a 6 mile loop through the park. Many more feeding stations are along the route and you can jump on, jump off, where ever you please. Today we chose to ride over half way around and stop at the Hawk viewing tower. It was just past noon when we got there, so we climbed the long sloping ramp to the viewing area. No hawkes were there, but we did stop and enjoy a great picnic lunch, Denice had put together before we left home. Spent an hour or so there, then caught the tram back to the entrance, and were home by 2:00PM
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| Vermillion Fly-catcher |
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| Denice climbing the stairway to the heavens --- and hawk observation tower |
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| An Eggret |
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| A Golden-fronted Woodpecker |
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| Him having a little lunch |
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| The Sassy Mocking Bird |
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| The Cardinal |
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| A kiskadee |
Jan 19th (Thursday)
Down town for some minor shopping. HEB for a few supplies, on to Michaels in McAllen for some scrapbooking things that Denice needed, (how could I complain after I spend a bundle on stained glass supplies to satisfy my hobby), and then to Home Depot for a few items. To deal with the wind here I need to tie down the awning better. I hate to put it up every time a little breeze blows through and it seems most common that the strongest winds are in the neighborhood of 20 MPH. Everyone else in the Park seems to leave their awning down and staked. We have the awning proper anchored down with tie straps, but the skirt from the awning down is not tied well as there is only a grommet at each end, so I want to add some along the bottom edge. At Home Depot I buy some grommets and tools to apply them, as well as some more bungee straps. Then home.
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| "Spook" - Our neighbors kitten |
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| A Blue Heron in Mexico |
And speaking of Mexicans, here their Party Boat Comes!!
Spent the remainder of the day reading up on stained glass instructions. Maybe more to learn than I had bargained for!
Jan 20th (Friday)
Craft Fair at Park today. Bought a few small items of interest, but nothing of to much importance, then went back to ELTORO and decided to start a stained glass project out of ordinary glass as trial run. Now everybody says, "You really should take a beginners course," Not, Na Na I'm not that kind of guy. Lets just do it, and learrn real time what mistakes I make. Then have to fix them, now I will never forget, right? Ok thats the way I am going to go. Lets get started. Unload my box and bags of goodies and lay them out on the table to "Get a Feel,"for them. First the glass cutter. Its a nice little green pistol griped one with a reservoir for lub oil. They tell me kerosene and motor oil mix is best. Then the foiler. Its has a base with three pins arranged in a circle, and about three more little thingy-a-bobs sticking up around the outside, then one with a slit in it just before a little wheely thing with a raised rims and a rubber o-ring in the center. Behind and above is another small flat pad, and that completes the so called "Foiler" Guess I better read!!! Against my better judgement!!! After perusing several pages, it says I should put my roll of copper foil over the three pins arranged in a sort of circle, with some talc powder on the base to keep it from sticking. Talc Powder? isn't that something you put on a baby's bum? Now why would a couple of old Q-Tips like us be carrying talc powder? How about just a piece of plastic that the foil is wrapped in to ensure nothing sticks. Now pull the end of the foil out and go around these 3 thingy's around the outside and then pull about 6 inches of the protective coating of the start of the foil and place the foil through the slot of the last pin and then center it in the rimmed wheel with the o-ring. Simple eh!! now we are ready to foil some glass. Next item is the glass grinder. This is a sort of table about a foot square with a grid work top surface and a shaft sticking up. I guess some where down below is an electric motor, hidden from my view, but I know it must be there as there is a plug in cord attached to something. More reading on its directions!! Now to get it put together. Directions say to remove the grid and fill reservoir with water to overflow and replace grid. Now take the 3/4 inch DIAMOND bit and insert it onto the shaft and tighten the set screw so that the glass will contact the diamonds. Now place the splash shield around the diamond bit with a sponge pushed down onto the water and contacting the diamond bit on the opposite side to where you will be grinding the glass. Sounds easy!! But it only sounds that way!! After several attemps was finally able to make it work. Now what else?? Various smaller stuff like learning proper way to use this fancy glass cutter, stting up the soldering iron holder and iron and how to use the pliers. And More. But after the first Day pretty well had it all together and reaady to start the project. Tomorrow!!
Jan 21st (Saturday)
Today is the day we try all this new stained glass stuff. Set all the stuff up again, as I have to put it away each evening as I am working outside. Take out my pane of clear glass that I bought at Michaels, and open up my pattern book and choose a sailing boat design. Now my instructions say to lay the glass on top of the pattern and trace with a marker pen each individual piece of the design, making the best use of the glass with a minimum of waste. taking into account the pattern on the glass you are using. Mine is just clear for this test so no issue there. Directions say that alternately a more experience person should be able to cut right on the pattern without tracing onto the glass. Thats me!!! so lay the glass on the pattern and take the cutter and "voila" make the first score on the glass. Lift the glass up and tap on the back side, and break it off, Success! Nothing to this! Now try an inside curve. More difficult to follow the line with precise accuracy. Found better to push the cutter rather than pull as when pulling its difficult to see the line you are attempting to follow. In the next hour or two was able to cut out all the pieces for the project. Once cut, I placed them on my table top on the sheet of 1/4 inch plywood I purchased. Arranged them all into the shape of the sailboat pattern. Some do not quite have the accuracy to make a perfect fit, but I surmise I should be able to just filll those cracks with solder. I now start up that grinder, I purchased and smooth all the edges of each piece. Now, (a few days later) hindsite is always 20/20. If I had known then what I know now, I would have done a lot more grinding th make each piece fit together with its neighbor, a whole lot more accurately, it would have simplified things a whole bunch - "Live and learn." Lessons?? uh uh!!! not yet convinced.
Jan 22nd (Sunday)
Start the day with the usual two cups of coffee and some reading and catching up on the internet of Calgary news, then we do the Sunday Morning weigh in and blood pressure check ( Blood pressures not bad, Denice good, me a little high, but about normal for me, but weigh in - bad news, both up a little, must quit eating). Then about 9:00AM the full meal deal breakast of bacon and eggs, hash browns and fried green tomatoes. Now I know that just after saying we must cut down on the food intake, this sound like an oxymoren, but it is Sunday!! Sit outside for a while watching the birds, We now have an assortment of feeders out the to try and attract all those exotic birds from down here. The most we attract are the Red Wing Blackbirds - They are here by the thousands, and make short work of my bird food, But we are getting an increasing amount of Kiskadees, titmouse, and an odd green jay. After all that breakfast we SKYPE the kids and talk for a long while. Always good to hear from them. Kids, Grandkids, and Great Grand kids! Seems the day just went too fast. Never did get back to my stained glass today.
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| A Water Skiing Paradise |
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| Here Comes the American Cruise Boat |
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| Nice Afternoon for a Boat Ride |
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