Year: 2010

The Kids’ Drawings

On the left is a drawing that Sean did recently. I've annotated it with indentifying tags for each element. He walked me through it, and told me what everything was. On the right is a drawing Carter did - both figures are supposed to be me. She drew the arms and legs all fuzzy because she said I have hairy arms and legs. Heh.

First Week of Kindergarten!

Last week was Sean's first week of public school! We were so nervous, but it's been going great. The night before his first day, he started talking about how scared and nervous he was, and how he didn't want to go. He started saying that he was going to miss the bus on purpose. We were really worried that when the bus pulled up, he was just going to flat-out refuse to get on it. But then, that morning after breakfast, he shocked us by getting super-excited and happy. He was practically dancing at the end of the driveway while we waited for the bus. Once it got here, he got right on and sat right down. That first day when we picked him up, he couldn't stop talking about how much he enjoyed his new school!

Haircut

The kids sometimes like to set either Lori or I up in a chair so they can pretend to style or cut our hair. This particular time, they got pretty serious about it. Once I got tired of sitting on the floor, they moved on to cutting the bear's hair.

Carter’s Turn

Carter finally got her turn to drive the mower the other day. Look at the grin on her little face! She nearly crashed into just about every obstacle in the yard, but she had a blast. She loved to head straight for Mom, who would pretend to dodge and run away.

Garden – Typical Haul

This is a shot what is a 'typical' weekly haul from the garden. It's been consistently this much every week for about the last five or six weeks. As you can imagine, I am drowning in produce - especially hot peppers. My freezer is full almost to overflowing with bags and bags of hot peppers. I need to decide what I am going to do with all of them. Going to pickle some, make some salsa with others, make a chile, and after that, I may have to get creative. Any ideas?

Jackson’s Landing

Just some cute photos from a trip we took to Jackson's Landing on the weekend before last. The weather was perfect, but for some reason there was absolutely nobody there. We had the whole place to ourselves, right up until right when we were getting ready to leave. Weird.

Lathe Project – Bowl

Here's another project I've been working on using the lathe - a small bowl. I actually started this project several weeks ago, but have been sidetracked by other projects in the meantime. So it isn't really any further along yet than you see here. All I've done so far is rough out the shape of the outside of the bowl. But what I like about these pictures is the before-and-after effect. You can see how much of the wood blank gets turned into shavings even from just this first step. It was fun to do, so far. But I can tell I've got a lot to learn. I kept getting 'catches' with my gouge. I don't know if that's because of my technique, or because my chisel was starting to get dull. I've sharpened all of my chisels since then. So once I start working on this bowl again, I'll have a better idea where the problem was.

Marble Machine

I haven't posted anything about it yet, but I think a lot of you have heard about it already, as Sean talks about it constantly. He and I have been building a modular marble machine based on plans from this site. It's taken a long time, and it still isn't finished - but it's definitely in a 'playable' state right now. Next time you're visiting, ask Sean if you can see it. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to oblige!

Sleepover Pics

Sorry it's been so slow here lately - I was having some trouble with my web host, and wasn't able to post anything. So expect a small burst of posts over the next day or two, as I get caught up. Here's one to start - some pics from a sleepover last month.

Lathe Project – Pens

I've been noodling around on the lathe at night over the last week, and here's what I've made. These are pretty fun to make. They're a good project for someone new to the lathe, because they are pretty easy to make, and I can take one from a raw blank to a finished pen in a single evening. Plus they're a good way to use up some small offcuts of figured wood that I can't really use for anything else.