The Total Elimination of my carvings!

Yesterday Cheryl and I had a yard sale to get rid of some of our stuff that was cluttering my workshop and the house. I put all of my carvings out there thinking, "who knows?" I was wanting to get rid of many of them anyway because I have held onto them for far too long. They have not been selling on Etsy so there was no great risk involved. Little did I know what would happen. I sold it ALL! That is correct, everything is GONE! The ONLY carvings I have left as proof of my last 9 years of carving is the outside tree carvings and my blue ribbon elk. Before we set up a guy showed up and purchased some taxidermy and 4 of my carvings. Then another guy bought all of my panels and several boxes. The first guy came back and bought three other panels and two more "deer of the world" The last few trickled out to people who stopped in. In the end, Every one of my Deer of the World collection found a home. Including the obscure ones like the barking deer. All my boxes, panels, and card cases are also history. I even sold the UNFINISHED KOI LOG! Talk about a feeding frenzy! Now to be fair, They were priced to move. However, they were not all priced at the absolute rock bottom price. I have priced them even lower at shows before and people were not interested in them. Cheryl made the observation that almost ALL of the yard sale shoppers were men ( kind of unusual as it is mostly the older women that visit yard sales around here) I'm just happy that I didn't have to put anything back into the dusty old garage. I'm also happy that I have a little more spending cash for the moment. Cheryl hopes that I will not fill the workshop or house back up now that there is new found room. We'll see about that...I have not been in a carving mood much lately, with the heat getting warmer etc. So if you look on the right....the Etsy shop is empty because for the first time in a LONG time ( or EVER) I simply have NOTHING LEFT TO SELL! YEAH!

Full Metal Alchemist....Is ours! Well, Part one anyway.

I didn't blog about this when we got it, but on the day it was released to stores, Cheryl and I ran out to purchase the English Dubbed version of Full metal Alchemist Brotherhood. Target was supposed to have it, but we found our version at Best Buy. After watching the first several episodes on Funimation, You just have to conclude that it is not the same as the Original Full Metal Alchemist. But sticks to the Manga more faithfully. I DO find it very entertaining on a different scale, however. It is much more action driven than the first one. I'm sure you probably have read most of this before in a previous post, But I just wanted to say that Funimation has done a great job dubbing it ( Of coarse!) and managed to talk most of the original cast to play their old roles once again. Edward just would not be the same without Vic! As for the new Alphonse! Maxey Whitehead does a GREAT job! She almost sounds like the old Aaron Desmuke from the original. (Sorry for the geek talk folks, If you are not a big Anime fan, you probably do not know who these people are. I understand.) So I'm giving it 4 stars ( out of five) at this point. ( Comeon, Nothing could be better than the original...there can be only one that good) I would recommend it to anyone. Go get your version now from Funimation or your local Best Buy. Enjoy!

Stag Beetles Battle!

Last night I was privileged to witness something you usually only see on the nature Channel. Three stag beetles were in our front yard and two of them ( I'm assuming the odd one was a female and the two that were fighting were male) were duking it out in the classic beetle wrestle mania! I snapped a couple of pics after the battle was over and they just would not fight again after the winner clearly won. However, someone on the Internet at least has a similar pic of larger beetles to give you an idea of what was going on. It was cool seeing the winner pick up the loser in the show of strength. You never know what you will see in the late hours after dark. In other news...Looks like some ants have found one of my carvings and have started to work their way into it. I'm assuming its to get the fungus that is growing inside the heartwood. It's no biggy because I knew the heartwood was rotting anyway and the ants are just making the process move more quickly. I'm sure within a year the log will be little more than sawdust and firewood.

A Trip to Michigan City...Indiana.

I know what you are thinking....Why didn't you check out the Perch farm while you were in Indiana? Right? ( of course that is what you are thinking!) Well, it just happens that the Perch Farm that is currently the largest producer of Yellow perch is found along the Indiana/Ohio Border. However, Michigan city is found along the Lake Shore next to the Chicago side. So what did we go there for you ask? The Outlet Mall! Nesteled in the shadow of a COOL ( and CLEAN>>>>ALL YOU GREENIES!) Nuclear Power Plant. I must say that it was a pretty nice one. Very clean with a large selection of stores. The main focus of my trip was to get another shirt from Eddie Bauer. They simply have the best closes for me. I have rarely come away from an Eddie Bauer without a purchase of some article of clothing that matches my look and feel. I was sad when our local Eddie Bauer in Holland Mi. left us. In the end, Cheryl and I got to leave the state once again ( if only for a small amount of time) and were able to visit a new place that was fun. I would recommend it to anyone in the area. Don't be intimidated by the power plant. Instead look at it as "why don't we have one of those in our neighborhood?"

Baby Pileated Woodpecker!

Yesterday on our daily stroll with the cats, we were witness to a somewhat rare event. The pileated woodpeckers babies first flight! I was seeing the pileateds flying around all day yesterday, but for some reason the flight struck me as odd. They were hopping from tree to tree instead of their usual flying. Well, my questions were answered when one of them dropped out of the tree and stood by the base on a flower bed. Red ( the shop cat) was on it in an instant! Luckily for everyone, Red is not what you might call a "killer". So after running up on it he bapped it a couple of times then stood back and watched. I didn't have my camera and the bird was not going to wait around for me to get it. I could have picked it up, but I didn't want to mess with it. He seemed no worse for the fall and flew up to another tree when he caught his breath. Enjoy the video I found on Youtube. They are so CUTE!

More sites from Ohio

Here's a few more things that we found interesting on our travels. A really cool bridge between the Michigan/ Ohio Border. There were a lot of trucks on the tollway. Many of them had this little placard on the back. Cheryl thought it was cool and worth forwarding. Then there is the close up of the foods from Japan. the little balls are sweet and sticky, Cheryl didn't like the texture, but they are made of rice paste. The orange bag had like a cheese puff only dipped in Carmel instead of cheese. Very tasty! I'm still formulating a plan with the aquaculture thing. I could not sleep at all last night ( don't know if that is a good thing or not) perhaps it was excitement, or maybe all that coffee I drank in the afternoon. Whatever it was, I'm feeling this sense of urgency. We'll post as I find out more.

Our trip to Blue Ribbin Fish Farm

As stated before, Cheryl and I went to Ohio this Wednesday and Thursday to take a look at a fish farm that is producing Bluegills to the seafood market. The trip took 7 hours, but we made it a small vacation checking out a few sights along the way. Nothing really fancy, Just a small Japanese store in Novi Michigan. There was a lot of cool stuff, but we could not read Kanji, so mostly we stuck with the stuff we could recognize. I got some origami Paper and Cheryl bought a necklace. Then we ate lunch. I didn't get much of a tour of the facilities, and even if I had, I left the camera in the car. Ah well. On the return trip we saw some Bison and ate at a Waffle House. To those who do not know this, Waffle house has the best pecan waffle I have ever had ( better than Perkins, Denny's, and Sambo's just to name a few) They do not reside in Michigan, so whenever we are able to leave this state and find one....Well it ends up being on the "must do" list. I don't want to make this post too long, so I will add details as I remember them and as the experience sinks in. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Aquaculture in Ohio!

I just wanted to post a quickie to the blog about what We have been up to this past week. I found a small operation that Farm Raises Bluegills for food! They invited me to come down and check out their operation. Forget the 7 hour drive down there....This was an operational Bluegill farm! There is much to tell and not much to show. I'll post some pictures later. But the gears in my brain that have for a long time been silent have once again clicked to life! I'm not sure where I should go from here, but something deep down makes me think I have to do something! More to come!

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood English DUB is HERE!

That is right full metal fans! It's FINALLY OUT! As you might recall if you follow my blog, I have been posting the periodic update as the Subbed versions of FULL METAL ALCHEMIST BROTHERHOOD come out on Funimation. Well....The English DUBBED versions are beginning their long awaited debut! The fist episode is on Funimation right now! and we are waiting for the 20Th of this month to purchase the entire English dubbed series ( at least part one) I will continue to watch the subbed version until it is finished, but let me tell you the dubbed version is better. Most of the same actors are there with their original parts but it is refreshing to watch the show instead of having to read the subtitles. So GET READY! FOR FUN! FUNIMATION IS THE BEST! Enjoy the First opening once again!

An afternoon at Rosy Mound

Rosy mound is a small but scenic county park in our area. Cheryl and I have known about this place for several years, but the city of Grand Haven ( Ottowa county?) has recently ( within the last 3 years anyway) upgraded this place from a small dirt trail through some public land to a wonderful groomed park with bathrooms and parking as well as steps taking you up and down the dunes. For several years Cheryl and I heard that there were rare stray butterflies there, Back in the day when we collected butters. Well today we found one. An Olympia marble white! I had to snag this pic off the Internet because I forgot my camera and besides I doubt I could have captured him anyway. There were several sightings all over the dunes so I would guess that the population is fairly established! I'm guessing the reason we never seen it before is because they probably only come out in the early spring. There were others butters there as well. My favorite the red admiral was all too common. Looks like Grand Haven is poised to have another awesome year where the population of Red Admirals is HUGE!

Quick carving post..

I know I have just not been posting everyday like my normal self. There is a good reason for that, but for today, I want to post a little bit of the carving I have been chipping at for the last month. I basically just worked on the last fish tonight and didn't do much with him. But I thought I would at least try to break up the blog boycott. Not many pics to show, then again, there was not much done tonight. Enjoy...

Gad Guard is HERE!

I've been watching gad guard for the past several weeks. At the time of this posting. Funimation has posted 20 episodes and is posting about 2 aditional episodes a week. It's not too bad ( I am watching it after all!) Not really like your typical Mecha show. The people do not climb in and control them. If you are looking for a new Anime to check out, Give this one a try! Enjoy the intro!

300,000 MILES! GO! GO! SUBARU!

Alright! To all those American Auto manufacturers? I know there are a few trucks that can pull this off. But how about your car? Tonight, the Subbi tipped 300,000 miles! I'm quite proud and amazed that I have now had a car that was able to pull off a feat like this. Then again, I'm also terrified that now anything could happen! It's like when grandma hits 100 years old.....How many more birthdays does she have in her? For the time being, I'll just savor the small victory with Cheryl......