spring flowers and good food

[chuck123wapati]

On 2/12/2026 at 6:04 AM, Handstitched said:

@chuck123wapati  all foreign  territory  to me reading those  posts, but sounds expensive, but I have to remember  how incredibly  cold it gets over there  I have a solar hot water system on the roof.   Nothing  technical,  just a booster switch  for the winter months, but the water in our town can be quite salty and high in calcium,  so the brass fittings pressure valves etc  and element , and the tank  corrode resulting  in periodic ex$y replacements. Our local plumber gets plenty of work 😆 Needless to say  i never drink the tap water unless it's boiled,and bottled water is very  popular. 

Keep warm 

HS

You're lucky i wish we could be a little milder in the winters !!  We have decent water, but I still have a three-stage filterthat takes out all the added chemicals  plus one of those  black light filter things. 

[Darren8306]

8 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

Very cool, I've seen some folks using them, it's a dandy idea, especially for logos and such.

I suppose hand-carved may have some value there too, but my skills aren't ready for market in that arena yet (in my opinion)

Wallets have sold from at least 2 of the three shops I'm stocking, and in the case of the airline shop, I'm quite surprised. Didn't really think it would fly alongside some of their other branded items.

At the airline shop, they are currently just sitting on shelves for display. (pic showing 2 black wallets) I'm starting to think I may be able to do something better to show them in-store. Going to think awhile on it though, since my lumber stock is currently under a couple feet of snow.

The biggest gallery has them in a glass display case, very near the checkout. I am a bit flattered, because it does look like a very good spot in their store. 

The last (smallest gallery) has them in a small shelf cubby, along with some other leather goods. Not optimal, but we'll see how they do with sales. On the one hand, there is other leather there, but on the other, I think mine looks like better quality.

I also have been closing in on another leather worker in town. He sells at some of the galleries too, and has very good designs and skills, though he machine sews. His inclusion of sealhide will surely catch more eyes, but bigger pieces are a bit tougher to sell, and tougher for a tourist to fit in their bag to go home...I'm now given to understand that he wears military fatigues, and looks a bit younger than me. I may decide to send him a message to go snoop around his shop, or lure him to mine with some whiskey or such. Be good to know someone around me who pursues this. Most 'artisans' selling here have shifted focus to production. While this leathercrafting lad may do the same, he still seems to be small and experimenting.

 

Lastly, the young man from the airline suggested again, that more story would sell them better. I should write something, since he is probably correct about that. Not sure why I hate the idea so much, but I guess it's because I wanted the work to be the only thing being judged...

 

[Sheilajeanne]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

I'm glad you're warm and safe. They can clean those condensers, so if it's still a sealed and working system, there would be no need to replace it. What sucks and i dont know about Canada, but here, a heating tech can red tag your heating system and pretty much make you replace it. I'm lucky that I have the knowledge to keep mine up and running lol its old but in good shape still, I keep some spare parts. 

Well, that's good news! 

A heating tech can do the same thing here, but only if the problem is bad enough to be a danger. I can see an unscrupulous HVAC person doing it to force you to buy a new system, but I knew when I hired this guy that he was a good person. He replaced a furnace for very little cost for someone whose furnace was totally broken and not repairable. Conditions in the home were so filthy that he told me he burned his clothing when the job was done. Other heating techs who had been to the home had refused to work there due to the unsanitary conditions. A community group had a fundraiser to help pay him for the work he did. 

1 hour ago, Darren8306 said:

In the end though, it may not have outpaced your sensitivities anyway.

Darren, the condensation drain hose for my furnace was clogged up. The furnace guy fixed that on his first visit. My allergies have 90% vanished since he did that!   I can't explain it  - may be the problem was mould, not dust!

[Sheilajeanne]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

We have decent water, but I still have a three-stage filter that takes out all the added chemicals  plus one of those  black light filter things. 

When I moved to this town, I'd been on well water for quite a few years. The smell of the chlorine in the water here just turned my stomach. I bought a water cooler, and at first was using spring water. Then, I found the Home Hardware store sold water without any chemicals in it and it was only .98 cents to fill a 5 gallon/18 l. jug! You could also clean your jug at the time you refilled it! 

Someone told me that the water I was getting from them was exactly the same as what the Coca-Cola company sells under the Dasani brand name, charging $1.98 for half a liter! (That's half a quart, for you non-metric folks.) Bottled water has to be the world's biggest ripoff, unless you're travelling somewhere where the local water isn't safe to drink.