Joanne Ramone

Commercial weld.  Would be a weird shaped candle.  But maybe the glass vessel that held the candle broke.  Hence, it wound up on the side of the road in a free pile.

A beaker holder?  Doesn't look very Lab Worthy.

It does have a bottle-like hoop situation, but how would it stay in there?  And why would you need the fancy handle?  Seems out of balance as a carrying thing.  It sits flat and stable on the big ring.

Ok.  Got a new side of the road freebie mystery.  

I used it to hang a lantern filled with solar fairy lights.  But really, what is it designed for?  Bananas?  A candle?  More silly jewelry?

WOW YOU FOUND IT!  You win - uh, kudos and hurrahs.  At least my initial assumption on this was pretty spot on.  But I will attempt to find another use for it and report back.  

Thanks everybody!

I tried ball caps on the Thing but that was silly.  I'm at the age where my arms are neither long nor short enough.  So I have many pairs of glasses that wind up scratched or misplaced.  I'm giving this a try now:

Two suggestions - and I should be outside working but there's a steady drizzle that's disheartening.  Not unlike the dating scene, but I digress.  

When I worked in the produce dept of my local co op I noticed that the same people came to shop at the same time each week and were clearly scoping each other.  The produce dept had become a real meat market, in other words.  

A friend who worked as a guard at the Met in NYC reported the same thing.  Friday nights in particular, the singles were lurking near their favorite paintings every week.  Of course I was a lifetime younger then, but I decided to test this Same Bat Time Same Bat Channel method.

Scene:  Hannafords at 4 pm on a Thursday.  Two different guys, one with his employer's logo on his shirt, loose in the aisles, flirty, but moving fast.  Interesting.  And the truck drivers who have been delivering building supplies and crushed rock have been very chatty and enthusiastic about my property.  Especially the returning drivers who have seen it evolve.

Oh, and the third is a geographic group meet up.  If you could drive an hour (two?) or less for a Permies meet up - at a farmers market or co op or farmstand / coffee house or picking blueberries etc.  would you risk it?  I would.  I'm afraid I'm in Central VT so I'm two hours from the border on any side.  But I could get to MA, NH, NY or even ME if I push it.  Canada is attractive, but that's a lot of driving.  

So any Permies in New England game for a no - small talk, activity-based, no-pressure group meet up?  I am informed that there are no map features on this site but we could develop our own organically.  PM me to get it going.  Tell me your one? two? hour radius.  If you're not in my radius, maybe I can link you to someone elses.  No car?  Perhaps a train or carpool.  Cheers.

Donna Lynn wrote:[quote

Awww, this is an adorable story and photo... BUT... are you sure Smudge is a 7 pound kitten?  She looks like a 15 pound adult cat in the photo!  My 13 pound cat looks smaller than she does, LOL!

I think it's a trick of perspective.  She's so small she can't reach the levers on the excavator when she's driving it.

My kitten Smudge really wants friends.  The squirrels and birds yell obscenities at her (sometimes she comes slinking inside with a "they're being mean to me," look, so she made friends with a doe.

If ya can't get it at home you're gonna go looking.

Every morning after breakfast the doe comes looking for the cat, peering into the porch door.  When I let Smudge out she goes trotting over to start the flirting Come Here, Go Away game they play for about an hour all over the property.

Only one deer plays this game.  We call her Fanny.  The others stomp and whuff and try to scare scary 7 lb Smudge away.  The one time I saw Fanny with other deer, she ran between them and Smudge to protect the kitten from the other deer.

I've seen the cat-stomping deer youtube video but this is not that kind of relationship methinks.

I have been sure since childhood that non-human animals have a far more complex social structure and intellect than we bipeds give them credit for, and that it is pure convenience of justifiable domination that prevents us from acknowledging furred and feathered sentients.  I poo poo folks who dismiss me as an anthropomorphist, because I am an Anthro - what else would I do?

This is a great thread.  Everyone has a piece of the puzzle.  No two situations or solutions alike.

Re: basements and lofts

Age in place
Single level living
Worth thinking about
When you're young you don't consider worn out knees & hips, and falling off ladders.

Stairs, clutter and too much maintenance were the primary house hardships for my elder clients when I worked as a case manager.
In VT we are experiencing flooding more and more and so basements are becoming a liability.  Plus many homes are sitting on ledge.

Recent mandates to "densify" and greater acceptance of ADUs has increased the ability to have a live-nearby helper when the day comes.
I'm a curmudgeonly loner and have a hard time imagining the day I would "need" a protective presence but am practical.  So...

Plan A:
I'm living now in my future ADU.  It will be an income-producer when I move into my larger home as a guest house, rental, AirBnB.  Thus acclimating me gradually to having other people around.  It's really hard to suddenly have a stranger in your space when you are 80.  Better to work up to it.  
Then, when the day comes, it can be a Home Share situation where a person pays a minimal rent and trade the rest as helper.

In the larger home I'm building the open concept (as several people have already mentioned here) because I know my needs will change over time and I want the space to be flexible.  No interior fixed permanently - divider walls using screws so it can be altered.  Beds do not get their own room, but are berths tucked into the walls and hidden.  

Really high ceilings  and lots of light make  the smaller footprint tolerable.  And they allow for a free standing loft area for storage if desirable.  My "big" room will have a 21' high roof line.  

Re:  Building permits. In our town the building permit is for 2 years during which time you have to start something.  I'm in year 2 and already know I'm not going to be done, so opted for the 2 year extension in advance.  They can see I'm making progress so no one is hassling me.  Good to develop a working relationship with the zoning and listers departments, however they exist where you are. Also recognize that there are probably politics involved, so stay sensitive to that.

Pearl Sutton wrote:Looks like it was sold as a jewelry organizer

Yamazaki Tosca Earring Organizer

Looks fairly useless for that to me, maybe because I have a LOT more jewelry than that :D

I think a better question is "What cool things can be done with this object that doesn't do it's job well?"  :D

WOW YOU FOUND IT!  You win - uh, kudos and hurrahs.  At least my initial assumption on this was pretty spot on.  But I will attempt to find another use for it and report back.  

Thanks everybody!