PEP Badge: Oddball

Oddball submission for moving a temporary structure

I did this with my brother and it took about 2 hours.

I believe now that it could be done in an hour with proper skids rather than some homemade pipe racks and I had help so I am asking for .5 points.

We used a jeep a chain hoist and some pvc fittings.

Also had to use a chainsaw to clear a tree that was in the way.

I replaced a door knob with one that matches the rest of the ones on the house.

I've been meaning to post these pictures. Back in March, my son wanted to make a rocket stove, so we made one out of bricks, and learned to cook on one! This opperated both as a learning experience for me, as well as a teaching experience for him. Both kids learned where to find small dry sticks in the woods, too.

Here it is half made



And fully made with a fire going:



Eggs cooking:



And, video my son took of the rocket stove in action.



He now knows how to make one all by himself (the other day, I came out and he'd scrounged up all the spare bricks and made his own rocket stove and filled it with small sticks. I was so proud!)

I take care of foster kittens for local animal rescue groups: is this something that I can use for oddball points?
I have been fostering for many years and teach classes locally about how to care for infant kittens and puppies.

This includes bottle feeding, tube feeding (when medically necessary) and weaning. Weights are recorded pre and post feeding to ensure proper growth rates.
I also take care of neonatal kittens with special medical requirements, including things like respiratory infections, intestinal disorders, parasites, and fungal infections (ringworm is my specialty!)
I have recieved training as a Vet Tech (in my state you do not have to have a degree or educational certificate if you are trained hands-on) and can give medications, injections, do blood draws and perform lab analysis like fecal floats and run diagnostic tests.

I also take in pregnant moms and foster them through their pregnancy and while they raise their babies. I have assisted with numerous births, both at home and in my work at the local rescue shelter.

Here are pictures from my fostering over the years:
(I used to have a blog about my kittens: Here)











I currently have a house full of fosters, including some bottle babies, a little 6 week old with coccidia, and two 3 month old boys with ringworm.



Fostering kittens is my passion, and I've learned so much from when I first started years ago. I routinely field phone calls from friends and family about baby animals and how to care for them.

I think this fits in the Animal Care badge somewhere.  It doesn't get that in depth in the kitty department but there is a badge bit in the Sand level for supporting a farm cat as she raises 6 kittens.  And there's a Straw level BB for doing parasite checks for cats.  Neither has been turned into a post where you can reply for points yet...  But at least they exist.

I made a corset to help deal with the severe back pain I have. (Actually made 2, only photo'd one.) It's meant to be worn under my clothes, not to be visible. My back was damaged badly in a car wreck 38 years ago (yay drunk drivers :P) and I have had surgery, and for many years I sometimes have to use two canes to walk due to incredible amounts of pain. I have work to do, and I have been wearing a stretchy back brace from the drugstore, that isn't designed for what I need. I have made corsets before, so I made myself one designed to do exactly what I need.

I started with the same pattern I always work with from here Draft Your Corset Pattern Working my way through all the measurements, and marking here and there and connect them, etc, I got this:



Tracing out the cuts, these are my pattern pieces:



Sewed it all together into this:



It's hard to see on the black fabric where the steel coil boning is, so I marked them on this picture:



So the way it's designed, like I said, to be worn under clothes, is to support the L2-S3 area, where the vertebrae are damaged, and weak muscles can't hold it all straight. When my hips tilt off level, nerves are pinched, the pain is incredibly bad, and I tend to be unstable when I walk or stand. For what it's worth, at this point, when I'm not tilted, and my back is stable, the pain is tolerable, so that's the state I want it to be all the time.  

It fits tight against my ribs to hold the top still, that makes the steel coil boning have to push down into position, as it has no way to move upwards or sideways. The stays down each side of my spine, to the tailbone, support the damaged area and keep it from compressing or tilting off level. The pressure downwards from the top forcing the stays down presses the spinal stays so they open up the compressed areas, which relives a LOT of pain. The stays on the sides are just to hold the corset in position. The ones on the front help keep my stomach muscles from pulling my back out of alignment when they get tired and I can't hold them in. The effect of that is kind of how a pregnant lady's back arches weird to balance her tummy, it hurts really bad when my back gets like that, so the front stays help keep my weight balanced.

It has laces so I can adjust the tension as I need to, two laces, from the center upward, and from the center downward, so I can control exactly where I need it looser or tighter. It's counter-intuitive, but due to how I designed it, I can lace the top tight, and the bottom looser, and it's very supportive and comfortable. You'd think I'd need the low part tight, but that really doesn't work as well. The looser low half lets my body do as much as it can, keeps me from getting weak muscles due to disuse and stiff due to lack of flexion, but supports it when it starts to get tired so it can't go into the most painful position.

All in all, it works really well, and so far has caused me no problems. The elastic one I had been using, to hold anything in place has to be cinched so tight it compress my intestines, and doesn't allow any movement, so the muscles get weaker, making a vicious cycle. It also slides out of place all the time. This one doesn't do any of that, and I wore it one day when i was up and down on my knees planting, and walking on uneven ground, and should have been hurting bad in an hour or two, I worked about 5 hours and felt fine.

Skills used: Structural design, ergonomics, anatomy, alt-med, sewing, drafting, grommet installation, metal stays cut shaped and the ends dipped in heavy paint.

Can't guess the time it took, made 2 of them, 2 different fabrics, slightly different cuts, not continuous work, both finished in under 2 days.

I'm submitting another project for potential Oddball points. I didn't see anywhere else where this might fit (didn't see anything specific in the Textiles stuff).

So one of our couches died a terrible death recently: the frame collapsed while a friend was sitting on it and the wood splintered in at least three places. *Friend was not hurt, just very embarrassed and startled* I HATE shelling out for brand new furniture, so I've been looking for something secondhand to replace it. Found some good stuff online, but realized that my husband's Jeep and my small Honda are not particularly suited for couch hauling. Poop!

The cosmos aligned earlier this week and our next door neighbor tossed their old couch out to the curb. It had some major fabric damage under the cushions but looked structurally sound. I dragged it into the garage and gave it a good once over. I found ANTS!!! Ew!!! Had to spend the next three days treating for ants (since it's going to be inside around our foster animals I had to kill them off naturally, so I've had to keep going back and re-applying the DE. Then had to vacuum it all up).

Yesterday I tackled the torn upholstery. The lining material under the cushions is thin and easy to work with, but the actual upholstery fabric is REALLY thick and I couldn't get any of my normal sewing needles to punch through. I was also worried that normal thread would just snap as soon as anyone sat on it. I got to use a new (to me) tool that I've never used before, so it was a fun experience! I decided to use a sewing awl and the accompanying waxed twine to sew the couch up. (I ended up having to watch some videos online for how to use the awl).

Took me about three hours, but I was able to completely repair the couch! Since the repaired edges will be under the cushions I wasn't particularly worried about how it would look, but it actually turned out semi-decent.

I definitely feel like it was a a success. I fixed the couch, and I learned how to use a new tool. Woohoo!

Here is my submission for an Oddball.

We want to start regular selling of eggs from our driveway, and periodically other things like plants, garden produce etc... we wanted a weatherproof box to do this from. I had hoped to do this entirely from scrap we already had, but we didn’t have quite the right mix of materials. We reached out on Facebook and were able to salvage three pallets in good condition from a near neighbour.

With pallets in hand we roughly planned what we wanted and made a start. Busting apart 3 pallets carefully, and pulling every nail for reuse took quite a while. Probably an hour alone in just preparing the wood. The nails were really tough, annular rings that were nearly impossible to pull.

The roof is pitched slightly to allow rain water run off, and topped with a scrap of roofing felt.

The vast majority of fastenings were reused nails from the pallets. I did have to use some screws from my stash in a few places, and a few short nails for the felt.

Tools were hammer, Stanley knife, battery drill, battery chainsaw, a couple of pieces of 2 by 4 to use as a lever to pry the pallets apart.

I have not made something like this before from a salvaged pallet, so there was a fair learning curve, but I’m very please with how it worked out.

EDIT: it took me about 7 hours with my “helpers” joining in. Longer if you included sourcing the materials. Likely 4 hours for someone a bit more proficient and not distracted by little people.

I put up a curtain set on one window and a valance on another.  

I installed some wood blinds today on two windows!  Hoping to cut down on solar gain in the afternoons on the west side of the house...