Treasure finding at Hoffmaster!

It started out as another great day at the state park. We ate our Subway and set off exploring another trail. Little did we know that on this particular trail, we would stumble upon a secret cashe of goodies! While walking down the path, I noticed what looked like a rock way up in the dunes. Rocks of this size do not normally belong up here in the sand, so I took a little closer look. At first, Cheryl and I thought it was a first aid stash for the park people in the event someone got hurt on the trail. But then our investigation revealed that it was part of a global scavenger hunt! Apparently, people with GPS's are all looking for things to do with their new toys. So the website started putting these little secret stashes with locations on their website for people to find and log their findings. The3 plastic container was loaded with goodies that you could take one if you left something else in return. Cheryl wanted to take the toy truck, but later settled with the Jacks in exchange for one of her Key Fobs. We then logged our findings in the little notebook and replaced all the goodies for the next lucky person to find. It was pretty fun! Then we walked down to the beach and left the park. After that, there was not much else to mention as that was the highlight of the hike. As for the rest of the evening..I continued carving. I have not been able to get very far on my project as I keep getting interrupted by the neighbors! Not that I mind much. I love talking about carving to anyone who will listen. I may chip away at it a little more tonight. the weather has been pretty nice and it seems to be getting warmer. It will be a good night for having a nice soothing fire! Hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Subway in the Park

So Cheryl had this great idea to head to the state park with our Subway sandwiches to have dinner/lunch. It was a pretty nice day with the temp in the cool 60's with a little overcastness. After eating, we went on a little bit of a hike down one of the trails. The park is open, but still not charging you a admission yet. After that, we snapped a couple of pictures of a massive carved ( I think) hand hovering over someones yard. Then back to my own carving. I decided to go with some koi again to see if I can make this one work out better. So far so good and I have not lost my motivation. so that is a plus. It got dark so there is not much else to show. Hopefully I'll have more pics tomorrow. But Cheryl already has a busy day planned. We'll just have to see how it goes...

Wonderful Weekend Weather

Remember when I said I was going to work on carving up a koi? well scratch that! I ran into a little problem when I was unable to work on it because of it's shape. Now I know I could have done a couple of things to aid me in this task, but in the end, I decided to scrap it and start over. I just wasn't "feeling the koi in the wood. So instead, I worked on repairing an axe that I had broken some time ago. After seeing a video of a guy making a handle with a knife, I thought i could do that at least. I think it turned out pretty good. and I can always repair the handle again if it happens to break again. Then I set upon my next project. I cut a slightly larger piece of Cherry from the fallen tree and got all the bark off it before the daylight faded on me. It's been so nice outside I have moved my work station outside on the back porch. Hopefully, i will keep the blog updated a little more regularly in the future. Hope everyone has a great week!

A day in the life of the Great Ethan Allen

I didn't do much in the way of anything yesterday so I decided to use some of the pics that Cheryl took yesterday on our walk. She wanted me to pose a little for some scrapbook memory thing, so I agreed to help. While on the walk, we found a few treasures that Cheryl thought could have a place in one of her future projects. There are a number of blue crayfish around here. I believe it is a genetic strain instead of an exotic invader. Normally we have brown or green ones around here. But the blue is quite striking and might make a cool jewelry item in the future. After that we went to Culvers for dinner. Cheryl couldn't resist taking a pic of me munching on a butter burger! The wrappers are a cool shape so we left the token burger wrapper bug there for the employees to discover. They just LOVE it! It's our way of saying" thanks for the food and..by the way, this table still needs to be clean!" Tonight I will be working on carving a koi out of Cherry. I'll let you know how the progress goes!

Some outdoor carving.

Yesterday I got bored and decided to carve outside on one of the trees. Nothing too difficult, just something to use some of my newest tools on. The weather has been pretty nice lately, and being outside before the bugs get bad is pretty nice. So here she is... Just a face, something I could do in just a couple of hours. Perhaps I'll work on one a little more involved a little later, but for now, the yard is wet with rain and it's just a little chilly outside. Even the shop cat doesn't want to be out there too long. Enjoy the pics!

Sands of Destruction! Funimation Presents...

Lately we have been watching the Sands of destruction on Funimation. Its an Interesting story about a world where sand in where the oceans are and beast men rule instead of humans. The World destruction committee are humans who want to destroy this world. It's full of talking teddy bears and sand monsters that should keep anyone entertained no matter what age. Here's the Opening! It's got a great techno beat to it so sit back and try not to disco too much.

The Bats are BACK! Along with some flowers and frogs..

The last couple of days have been well into the 70's! And three days ago the bats were out and checking out our boxes. It was very exciting! If you have been following this blog for over a year, then you know that I have put up several bat houses around our yard as well as our neighbors on both sides. I was a little disappointed when the bats chose my neighbors box over mine half way through the summer of last year. But that is still close enough for them to be effective against the bugs that linger in our yards. Well a couple of bats were inspecting both our boxes and for a small time, rested in mine for the night! It was only temporary as they eventually moved back into his later the next day. As for today. It has been raining all day and its a good day to stain inside where it is warm and dry. The frogs are out, which inspired me for my next origami project. The frog still needs work, but I think I can make it look better. As for the flowers. The spring flowers are on track, and with all the Easter candy out there, I have been experimenting with small roses made out of Hersey mini wrappers. I need more colors to make the flowers stand out, but Cheryl likes them. Perhaps I'll have enough to make a small bouquet. Enjoy your weekend everyone!