Anyone else Lose the "Last Snow" bet?

I did not change the tire last night because of the rain and the darkness. So what could be worse than rain? Well...SNOW! Of coarse! We got about an inch here. My dad says they got 6 inches up north of here. And I thought winter was over. Or at least global warming had stopped these cold winters. Today,I worked on building my own block plane. I 'm at an impass at the moment, with no transportation. But I will post about it later. So far, I'm encouraged by the results!

Another Flat tire! And I'm an idiot!

Well, how can you make a wonderful Saturday end up cold, dark and gloomy? Well, Go out after 10 pm with only 4 tires and no spare. Easy! Yep, That's right, We got a flat tire and our spare is still messed up from last time. Now a wise man would have fixed the spare when they fixed the last flat. Or better yet, they would have gotten all new tires and replaced the old ones. Ah, But I'm not wise you see. And how often does a tire go flat? Well, long story short, We must have run over something and the tire went flat before we got to the store. After failing to re inflate it with our emergency compressor, We drove home and totally ruined the flat tire now beyond comprehension. FUBAR! My only consolation is that I now know that adults are just as dumb as teenagers. because I have not gotten any smarter in my old age! At least Cheryl talked me into driving it home instead of walking in the dark , in the rain, and approx, 8 miles. Now we must figure out a way to fix a shredded tire on a Sunday with no spare or money in the bank! Yeah! Oh, and I did manage to carve tonight. After all that, I still have to make the Doughnuts. Hope your weekend is better than mine!

Birdhouse pictures!

As Promised, Here are the pics of the houses. I had to edit a few to show them off, since the bat houses were painted black and did not stand out much against the tree. Obviously I did not take a picture of all the houses, but as you can see in the area shot, I have a lot of them stacked on top of each other. As for tonight, My origami special is a robber fly. Have a great Weekend!

Birdhouse Instalation.

I know, I know! With a title like this there should be a bunch of pictures of all the bird and bat houses I put up tonight. Truth is, it got dark shortly after I put the last one up and I did not have time to snap any pics. I was able to borrow the neighbor's ladder tonight and put up 4 bat houses, 4 bird houses, and 2 owl/duck houses. It took a long time and I was totally tapped out. So much so that I almost didn't carve tonight. But Since it was Thursday and I only had two seats, I toughed it out and kicked them out. It has been rather humid lately, and the last batch took 24 hours to totally dry! They did not go out this morning because they were still tacky to the touch. Hopefully these two will dry a little faster. Hopefully, I'll get some pics of the installed houses tomorrow.

Wednsday carving

Four seats tonight. I was happy for the easy day, even though several of them were the "challenging" ones to paint. And I had to paint all alone. Cheryl painted the bedroom...again. She seems to want to repaint rooms every three months or so....I don't know why. Here is a re post of my old carving video once again....for people who may not have seen it yet. ( I know there are some out there) Until We get a new computer that can handle making a new video, I have to constantly replay this old one. I have a great line up on music and everything..... Enjoy!

Painting and Tropical Thunder

It was an easy night tonight since Cheryl and I worked into the late hours yesterday. I finished painting the 10 seats and touching up the two left over from the weekend. I had to make room on my table so I could fit them all on for drying. Tomorrow morning is going to be a bunch of fun when we have to box up and ship 12 seats! ( hope they all fit in the car!) I had time to work on a new beetle tonight and I really like the way it turned out. I still want to see if I can make the abdomen a little more round. And tonight Cheryl and I watched Tropical Thunder. I had heard good things about this movie, and the premise sounded funny. But then a couple of red flags. One: It was immediately available on netflix, despite being a recent release. Two: it only got three stars. The last movie we saw that had three stars but was talked up was a total FLOP! Well, Tropic Thunder delivered the bomb! Sure there were "moments" but Come ON! slow SLOW SLOW! RUN! they are right behind you ! RUN! BLOW THE BRIDGE!!! why are you MONOLOGUING???? IT'S NOT FUNNY, RUN! The entire movie was good at poking fun at the "over the top" action movies, but then continues to deliver the unbelievable over the top movie! WHAT? I want my two hours back! When I find myself yelling at the TV because the movie has shifted to " the Hollywood land" I know it is bad. Thumbs down here, save your money or time and don't watch. I have not liked Ben Stiller in anything since Happy Gilmore. and even then it was because it was a bit part. At least in Last Action Hero, When the Hollywood action star get beamed out of the movies and into real life, he gets hurt, the cars don't explode, and you can actually lose at "chicken"! The real actors should have been crying for their mommies like Robin Leach in "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here!" but no! They hit the "Real"camp with unlimited "blanks" and pull it off. But that is ok! In the "real" drug lord camp, the drug lords must have had unlimited blank rounds TOO! Cause NO ONE GETS SHOT, and no one runs out of ammo. Millions of rounds and none find their mark. I was in the Army, M16's have a 30 round clip and it goes fast on burst ( burst fires three rounds per squeeze, they don't fire automatic, sorry Hollywood, get your tech stuff right.)

Monday mayhem!

I took a big bite of work tonight and carved up 10...that's right, 10 seats! By the time I got finished sanding and staining them, It was almost 1:00 am. Cheryl helped paint a bit and we decided to quite around 4 am. So I'm very happy with our progress and quite exhausted. We will finish them up tomorrow and hopefully the boxes will come. I'm hoping sales continue for the rest of the week at this pace seeing as we have bills to pay. Be were able to pay a big one with this small bonanza! YEAH! Well, I'm rather tired so I'll just make this post short. Here is one of my favorite Barbershop groups. Vocal Spectrum. They were the 2006 national champs I believe. My favorite set is the one with "the street where you live". Listen to the tenor...

Sunday Painting

Finished painting the seats tonight and already I have 7 seats for tomorrow! YEAH! Cheryl's shop has also been doing well. I may have to carve them up if we continue to sell since The number may surpass my max number of carvings for one day. These seats were rather challenging since there are all the colors. I love the way they turn out each time though. Oh! And Red, the shop cat, gets a lot of attention, but we do have two other cats that sometimes make an appearance. Rasha, the other shop cat, loves to get herself stranded in tight places. I snapped this pic before Cheryl loaded up the dryer. Rashi is on her 8th life, so she can't keep making bone headed moves like this. But she is sooo cute. She also loves to run into the closets when you are not looking and get trapped in. Good thing Hiro and Red notice and bring our attention to her.

Carving weekend.

I carved up 6 seats tonight, But it was too late to paint them. It just makes my Sunday that much easier. Besides, we only have 4 boxes left and even though Cheryl ordered more tonight, they will not arrive until Tuesday. Regardless, I'm happy they are carved up. And our supplier has a nice stock of seats! ( well, it was kinda a slow week for us, that may be the reason there are so many left over) My shop layout seems to be working well! The fans control the dust and circulate the air nicely. My latest origami creation is a wasp! I really like the way it turned out. The base is the same as the Pegasus from a previous post. ( don't know the name of it off hand) My shop cat took some time out from my shop and decided to hang out in Cheryl's. He was with me for an hour, while I drew on the designs. But when the tools began to roar, he heads for quieter sleeping grounds. Cheryl's fabric basket! And since it is kinda a small post tonight. Here is Nightlife! the 1996 Quartet Champions. Listen to the Bass, You will know why...

Friday night Misc.

Tonight was one of those nights where you just hang out in your shop and wonder what you can do to improve things. Well, after cleaning things up, sorting things out, and putting stuff away. I decided to implement some new air filtration strategy. I did a Little research on line last night and found an Idea I could put into practice. I put the two fans up close to the ceiling so they were out of the way and have better access to filter the air. The benefit is that they are now off the floor. I liked it so much, I experimented by putting my vacuum up there. ( still don't know if I will like that as well. But it does free up even more floor space! I also worked on another owl house and several more small bird houses. Nothing too fancy, but they did clear up even more scrap wood. I even worked on some dovetail joinery. There was no point, I was just practicing. I still have a ways to go for a tight fit, but at least they look a little better. ( I could just buy a jig for the router, but where would be the fun in that? Besides, I'm a starving artist! Who has money for all those fancy gizmos?)

Painted boxes.

Just took my time and worked on boxes tonight to finish them up. These pictures are them without the tung oil finish on them As it is, they are drying now. One of my air filter fans has been acting up lately, so I took it apart and I'm questioning what I should do with it next. I could reassemble it and set it back up as it was....OR...I could see about making a more permanent fixture/ air filter up on the ceiling. I have not made up my mind yet.

Bird houses, flying horses, and a helpful cat!

So tonight I worked on getting rid of even more of my scrap wood in the form of some small birdhouses. We have quite a few chickadees and titmouse's around here. I thought the small pieces of wood I have left over would be perfect for these types of houses. I also made a Owl house out of one of the last carved panels. I might have enough wood left over for one more. I have not made up my mind on whether I want to paint it yet. Maybe the owls will like color! With the night still young, I worked on finishing the inserts for the boxes. Red, the shop cat, offered to help. In fact, he couldn't wait! He was pushing at my door the moment the tool sounds had died down. This is how he "helps". Stand in the box, and look up at Ethan... Isn't he the cutest?? I wanted to give the origami bugs a break and work on another version of a Pegasus. I think it turned out pretty good. Oh! and before I forget. Cheryl wanted me to say something about her new wristlets. I think they look even better than her felt ones. She wanted to create something for spring and the felt does not seem to be "In" I can't wait to see how these things are going to fly off the shelves!

Easy Tuesday

Just finished three seats tonight. They were easy since Cheryl had to paint two out of the three. I worked a little on painting my boxes. I also painted the Bat houses outside tonight. The weather was nice today and I didn't need a coat. It did manage to get dark before I could take a picture, so I had to use the flash.. Hope it turns out ok. Next step is to find a place to put them up! Red ( the shop cat) tried to help me out by showing me a "really good place" in the dark. In adding a little spice to the blog. Here is a great carving in Thailand ( I believe) they have access to the greatest carving wood in the world. Teak! Its is naturally water resistant, hard, and easy to detail... just take a look at the video and see what they can carve!

The Good, the Bad, and the UBER UGLY!

So tonight I worked on some birdhouses and my Bat houses. I was making them out of old carved panels that where destined for the burn pile. As you can see...they are rather colorful. ( check out the Koi!) But it won't matter after they get painted black and put 20 ft up in the trees. The good thing is that I made them tonight. I had enough bracket's for four and that should be enough. I still have a couple of panels and a bunch of scrap wood left. My next project will be an owl house, a woodpecker house and a wood duck house. We have a barred owl that hangs out around here but I think he has a nest down the street. We also have a Piliated woodpecker and I would love to get him to investigate a house in our woods. If you are wondering why I don't buy good wood and make a pretty one....well that is not the point! I have small scraps of lumber I want to use instead of burn. Maybe the bats will find it exciting as well. Oh ! and with keeping the barbershop tradition. Here is a group I think Has a great sound. I don't know if they are champs...yet!

Quick monday post...

Just have a few minutes while Cheryl wraps up the seats for shipping to show off the finished cabinet. We added the butterfly to the doors last night with a epoxy glue. No tacks or screws to hold it on, just the glue. I think it looks great ...finally!