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temporal1 wrote:

Neto wrote:We had rain yesterday & evening, then turning cold again, with everything covered in ice again this morning. (I spent quite a while chipping ice off of our drive yesterday, which would have all melted if I would have just left it, and now it's all covered again. And I have "tennis elbow" from over-doing it in a remodel job a month or so ago, and now it's worse again.) Anyway, our services were all called off for this morning. No Church.... Anyone else?

ice coating everything today, temps to be minus 7F tonight. looks better for Tuesday.

it's tuesday, 29F, risking life+limb, i ventured out on glare ice for awhile. the main roads were good.

i stopped at my small P.O., asked if they were delivering mail during this cold+ice snap -
she looked at me and laughed, "not out where you live!"

temporal1 wrote: you know, you really should think about going into the sign business.

There are days I consider getting out of it...

Signtist wrote:

If anybody gets sick of my play-by-play just let me know and I'll stop.

I have made in the last year or so a church sign and had to redo it because the letters I used lifted and separated. The second time around I went to a regular sign shop and had them make the letters using their process of peel n stick, which is commonly used on automobiles, as I understand it. It has been less than 6 months and the letters on the sunny side of the sign are all peeling, twisting off. The shady side is mostly intact. I used an exterior grade paint for the base and even sealed it with exterior grade urethane spar varnish (Minwax). After applying all the lettering, I again sealed the whole thing with the same urethane. I did have raised wooden letters for the first of the church name and those now are de-laminating as well.

The open bible logo I tried to do in decoupage the first time around, and then hand painted it the second time around as the first de-laminated as well. No problems with the logo this time...

The sign shop said I shouldn't have any problems with their lettering, that it was exterior rated and I told them how I was using it...

Any suggestions? I won't be redoing it until Spring now... If I have to go to stencils and painting all the lettering I will, but that takes even more time and my hands aren't as steady as they used to be.

Without actually seeing it, I don't know. Was it just the vinyl curling, or did it pull finish as well? There are various grades of vinyl, you would want something with an 8 or 9 year longevity. Also I'm not sure about topcoating the vinyl with varnish, certain products can weaken the adhesive, or the primer coat between adhesive and vinyl. UV would make this fail quicker. Then there's the issue of whether or not everything was cured appropriately before you applied the vinyl. Was the wood new? So many variables to premature graphic failure.

That sign shop you used? They should be able to cut you a nice removable stencil that you can paint and then remove without damaging anything. Makes you look like a hand painting genius. Just make sure your brush strokes follow the contours of the lettering, or they'll all know you cheated!

Signtist wrote:That sign shop you used? They should be able to cut you a nice removable stencil that you can paint and then remove without damaging anything. Makes you look like a hand painting genius. Just make sure your brush strokes follow the contours of the lettering, or they'll all know you cheated!

Thanks for the tip, that is what I probably will do the third time around... What is it they say about the 3rd time?
(superstition I know...)

Seen a hawk land in a tree on the property... Someone gave us a telescope so if they land I can spot them, tried taking a picture but I can rarely get them to work when I try through a telescope...

In our Peterson's Field guide the only bird that comes close is the red-shouldered hawk but it says they don't come this far North? I would maybe it was a broad winged but it was very distinctively red on it's head too?

Wade wrote:Seen a hawk land in a tree on the property... Someone gave us a telescope so if they land I can spot them, tried taking a picture but I can rarely get them to work when I try through a telescope...

In our Peterson's Field guide the only bird that comes close is the red-shouldered hawk but it says they don't come this far North? I would maybe it was a broad winged but it was very distinctively red on it's head too?

Perhaps your library has a National Audubon Society Field Guide for North American Birds? Many libraries do. We've found these very complete and easy to use for identifications.

There's two editions, Eastern Region and Western Region. I'm thinking that your area is Western Region? Here's a link to what that Edition looks like
NASFG NA Birds Western Region.

Wade wrote:Seen a hawk land in a tree on the property... Someone gave us a telescope so if they land I can spot them, tried taking a picture but I can rarely get them to work when I try through a telescope...

In our Peterson's Field guide the only bird that comes close is the red-shouldered hawk but it says they don't come this far North? I would maybe it was a broad winged but it was very distinctively red on it's head too?

There are often minor variations in hawks even of the same kind, often depending on what part of the country they are in. Most bird books don't do justice to the minor variations, sometimes you have to look for a single identifying feature of that particular kind.
We have a Northern Harrier around right now which it took us quite a while to identify until we saw him from the right angle.
We also have had a Peregrine Falcon come to check out our bird feeding facilities' patrons. Now that is a beautiful bird!
Interestingly enough, the small birds seem to know that the Northern Harrier won't harm them, he makes them a bit nervous when he is flying around but they don't usually leave.
When the Peregrine Falcon shows up however, there's total panic.

That's all for today. Mount it to the post tomorrow, put a bow on it and call it Christmas!