PEP Badge: Oddball

Congratulations, Mike! You are now the very first person to have attained Straw Badge level. Very well done!

My ducks kept getting eaten by bobcats, and I didn't want to keep them in their house all day when I was away. So, I made a "duck tractor" for the times we're away from the house!

Local homesteader was getting rid of the trampoline frame, so we picked it up. I assembled it, wrapped chickenwire around it and on top (securing with wire from the roll of chickenwire). It works well! I drag it to a new spot each day. It takes all of maybe 2 minutes to drag it. It takes longer to refill their waters and bring their food out, than it does to move it. This allows them safety, fresh grass and bugs, and clean place to be. The 17 ducks and 2 geese make a lot of poo in one day!

I have crazy amounts of video of me assembling the thing, as my son had possession of the cellphone. No pictures of putting the wire on, as he didn't have the cellphone at the time. That was, by far, the most time consuming part, though!

My son wanted a red hackysack, so I knit and felt him a hackysack.

I felt it so that the little gaps between the stitches are filled and beans don't fall out everywhere. Here's the pattern I used  (from Diagnosis Knitter):

• CO 4 sts
• joining to work in the round, kfb all four sts: 8 sts
• k 1 round
• kfb all sts: 16 sts
• k 2 rounds
• kfb all sts: 32 sts
• k 12 rounds  I I I I I I I I I
• k2tog all sts: 16 sts
• k 2 rounds
• Time out.  Turn the bag inside out and weave in the inside end a little, or if the original end is on the outside, weave it to the inside and use it to close up any gapping that may have occurred due to the kfb’s.
• Turn the bag right side out again
• Fill the bag with beans.  Fill it right to the top and make sure to pack it a little, they never seem to be packed in as tight as you think they’re going to be.
• k2tog all sts: 8 sts
• k 1 round
• Cut yarn, pull tail through remaining stitches, weave in remaining end and cut tail
• Go play!!

Instead of the cotton worsted yarn and size 5 needles it called for, I used size 9 needles and worsted weight wool yarn.

I got the root cellar cleaned out for the storage season.  This isn't just a little scrubbing and washing, I gutted it since the woodwork in there was decades old and moldy.

So first I had to install a small fan to keep the disturbed mold from getting into the house.  Then I put on protective gear and gingerly removed the wooden shelving and supports along with any other wood I could remove.  The pieces went into bags and were gingerly taken out of the house to the fire pit.

Next I had to scrub down the whole thing with a borax solution and then a mold killing essential oil spray that the missus got on line.  I also had to wipe down 40 bottles of wine with the borax solution to remove mold spores that could have been sitting on them.

Then I got to make lime wash for the first time ever but thanks to the great info I got in this thread.  I mixed it up in the yard and then applied it with a brush to the walls and floor.  It soaked in and was rather thin so two more coats were needed.  The missus is adverse to mold so after the first coat, she could do the second two.  So I don't get credit for the second and third coat.  We figured out to make the lime wash thicker on the last coat and now it looks like white paint in the cellar.

My watchband broke. I don't know how to weave yet, but I do know how to make friendship bracelets, so I knotted up a watchband with yarn! Thankfully, I just happened to have yarn that matched the watch perfectly. Score!

I've made a lot of friendship bracelets, especially in my younger years, so I'm pretty quick. I wish I'd started with the chevron pattern. Instead, I'd started with the diagonal pattern, which made it go a bit sideways. I didn't want to unknot everything, so I just switched midway to the chevron. The chevron pattern also was great for making tiny holes in the middle for the buckle to go through (I just didn't tie the middle two strands together every 2 or 3 rows.)

I needed a niddy noddy for my yarn. I was going to do the PVC pipe version that everyone mentions, but then I realized it looked like something I could easily do with roundwood. So I did! And, it was totally free other than the 2 hours or so I spent on it.

I used green wood for the long middle piece so it would be easier to carve and could spin more easily in the dry wood ends. I chose dry wood ends to reduce the chance of the wood cracking as it dried. Niddy noddies are often made to spin and take a part, so I wanted the connection to stay loose. I also carved down slight depressions toward the edges of the end pieces so the yarn wouldn't slip off too easily.

This is 160 feet of yarn. I need to make a pouch to go on my purse and I wanted it to match. I didn't have matching yarn, so I made my own yarn! The yarn isn't part of this badge bit, as it'll probably count toward a textile badge bit.

I submit shorting and putting a new end on a coaxial cable.

The problem: long ugly trip hazard sticking out of the wall.



Because the installation guy jammed the wire between some studs, I don't have enough room in the wall to coil up the extra wire and put a blank plate on it as I had planned.  So I headed to the DIY shop and found some supplies.



The part where it said "no special tool required" made me happy.  And it's purple.

I cut the hole a bit bigger so there would be room to manever the cable inside the wall and cut the cable to the right length.



Next, I practised (MANY TIMES!) on the spare length of cable to learn how to cut it just so.



First try on the real cable = SUCCESS!!!



Once the room is painted, the wire will plug into the back and the plate will fit on.



But that's something for a future badge.  Today I'm just applying for the oddball point of "shortening and putting a new end on a Co-X cable"

And for fun, here's a thread about renovating the Loom Room.

I submit plastering the wall (in preparation for painting).
more photos and details about the project here.  One thing that makes this room especially difficult is the 12 windows and high ceilings.  The fourth wall is a half-wall shared with the kitchen, so we are doing five walls instead of the normal four.  

Preparing the room for demolition.  



Once the old trim was removed, the wall was sanded.



Plaster...



...applied to divots in the wall...



...as well as nail holes, cracks, and anywhere the wall was uneven (which was practically everywhere).



24 hours at 75F and I could sand.  I used a combination of the mesh on a stick and the battery sander depending on the severity of the sanding needs.



Fingertip search to find rough spots



When I was finally satisfied, we cleaned up.



And washed the walls with a slightly damp cloth



So ends the plastering. It took a lot longer than I expected because of the complexity of the room.

I submit making a scoop from a bird house gourd.  I grew these a year ago and this one had a bent neck.  I needed a scoop and saw the gourd on the shelf and figured I'd make one.  I cut the side off, cleaned out and saved the seeds and it works!

Would someone doublecheck my math and see if I have the five points required for the sand badge?

0.5 points - https://permies.com/wiki/pep-badge-oddball#945623
0.5 points - https://permies.com/wiki/pep-badge-oddball#945644
1.0 point - https://permies.com/wiki/10/97787/PEP-Badge-Oddball#946067
0.5 points - https://permies.com/wiki/30/97787/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1037873
3.5 points - https://permies.com/wiki/30/97787/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1038706
= more than five

I'm really looking forward to having an oddball badge!