Paint Job Improvement

The house next door is picture perfect, and now three tiny children live there. This afternoon when we came home we noticed this signature on the perfect white paint job. It reminds me of the story of the Velveteen Rabbit. It means the house is truly loved.

Sun Dog

Yesterday we saw a pair of sun dogs in a blue sky. The full picture has been altered by reducing the brightness to enhance the colors. The two smaller photos were taken with an optical zoom and a faster shutter speed to reduce the light.

Spring Flowers

It's cold and rainy here but the flowers are coming out in spite of it. Here's what I call these flowers: Purple Heart, Asian Pear, White Bluebells, Bluebells, Comice Pear, Lillie of the Valley, Blueberry, Japanese Maple, miniature Rhododendron, [unknown pink flowers], [unknown purple flower], Yellow Rose

More Spoons

Here's an interesting comparison. These two spoons were carved from Hazel wood. One has a coating of linseed oil and the other is bare wood. The linseed oil gave the spoon an amber tone. The bare spoon was eventually coated with non-drying mineral oil, and that didn't change the color of the wood at all.

This spoon was carved from Japanese Maple. It is coated with mineral oil and doesn't look much different than the Hazel wood spoon coated with mineral oil.

Here are two blanks cut from Hazel wood. They will be my next two spoons. Unfortunately I cut these out and then let them dry for a week before carving them. The big spoon developed cracks because there was so much mass in one piece. I need to begin carving them right away before they dry out, or put them in plastic, or under water, or in the freezer in plastic if I can't begin carving right away.

Possum Sighting

Yesterday I spotted a possum walking heedlessly across our back yard. It was about 10:00 AM in the morning so it was an unusual incident. He didn't look well, with ruffled fur and a wobbly gait so maybe he was sick and that's why he was out and about in the daytime.

He ducked under our garden shed so I ran to get Monya so she could see too. He came out from under the shed and walked around the house, heading for the street. Just then the garbage truck arrived and that scared the possum. He ran back and ducked under the shed.

I got out my camera and waited for about five minutes for him to try again for the street, but then decided he may elect to stay under the shed for the rest of the day. We didn't see him again.

This morning Monya was headed out the door to get her daily exercise. I asked her to keep a lookout for returning migratory birds since it's nearly Spring. She agreed to get her camera, grumbling "just in case I see a possum."

Spoon #2

Following up on the wooden spoon post, here are two photos of the second spoon I carved. This time I made an effort to put some "style" into the shape. The bowl of the spoon is tilted relative to the handle so it looks more like a gravy ladle than a stirring instrument. The walls of the bowl are much thinner than the first spoon, so it doesn't look so crude. I was more cautious with the neck of the handle this time and was able to get a more symmetric shape.

I applied a coat of linseed oil dissolved in turpentine for a hardened finish. The white Hazel wood turned a delightful shade of amber, very close to the color of the maple board in the photo background.

Wooden Spoon

The Wee One came over for a visit a week or so ago. I entertained her by giving her a very sharp draw knife and a stick of green wood from our freshly cut Hazel tree. She sat at my shaving horse and stripped all the bark off. A few days later she returned and requested that we do some more bark stripping. So I gave her a second stick of wood.

While I watched her shape that second stick, it occurred to me that the stick might be turned into a nice spoon. So after she left I pulled out my carving gouges and managed to make a half way decent shape of the bowl of a spoon. The photo below shows the roughed out spoon bowl, with bark still attached to the rest of the stick.

I took both sticks to the band saw and shaped them each roughly into a spoon shape. The photo below shows the two sticks after going through the band saw.

Several hours later, after removing lots of wood with the draw knife, straightening with the spokeshave, whittling with a straight knife and a little more gouge work, I sanded it down to a fine 180 grit finish. I'll let it dry a few days before applying a linseed oil finish. The two photos below show the finished spoon alongside the still roughed out shape of the second spoon. I rotated the second spoon to help demonstrate the shape. It has a nasty knot that will play a major role in determining the final shape of the spoon.

I read that wood is an excellent material for use with food service. Wood is naturally anti-bacterial, and it cleans up nicely with warm water and a little soap. It doesn't like (or need) the harsh conditions found in dishwashers. This Hazel wood is absolutely delightful to carve.

I'm Being Eaten by a Boa Constrictor

I'm Being Eaten By a Boa Constrictor from Jim Zimmerman on Vimeo.

The Three Bo's wanted me to send a video of the Boa Constrictor song they remember from a few years back. Lucky for me I had The Wee One to help with her flair for drama. She really makes the whole thing worth watching.

Stand up Computer Desk

Last weekend we decided to build a stand up computer desk using scrap wood. I scrounged up some 3/4" by 9" knotty pine tongue and groove planks and some used construction grade 2X4, probably hemlock. Then I found a good looking used fir 2X2 that didn't have a home either. We sorted through the pine planks and found enough to make a table top plus a shelf below the table.

We screwed the table top planks to a pair of 2X2 to form a stiff table top. Then I had to take the end planks off again so I could cut some dovetail ends on the 2X2 to join with the 2X4 legs. Then I cut the dovetail mortices out of the ends of the 2X4 legs. I clamped two of them together at a time and sawed through them both with a back saw to form the sides of the mortice. I inserted a coping saw to cut out the bulk of the wood, then finished cleaning the bottom with the 3/4" wood chisel and mallet in the photo.

We needed "spreader" rails and a way to stiffen up the legs, and that would be a good job for the 2X2 fir. I decided to make them long enough to have the tenons pass all the way through the 3-1/2" leg. I took off the tenon cheeks with a dado set mounted on the table saw.

The tenons were 1/2" thick so I needed 1/2" mortices in the 2X4 legs. In an effort to make an accurate fit, I used a drill press with a 1/2" Forstner bit to drill between the mortice markings. The bit could only reach 2-1/2" deep but a mechanical engineer I know advised me that 2 inches would provide plenty of strength. The problem became a non-issue. I just revised the rail tenon length to be only 2-3/8" long.

After the mortice holes were drilled I squared up the holes with wood chisels.

NOTE TO SELF: In the future use only good quality wood chisels that will not bend or break when cutting hemlock. My Stanley chisels were fine but the Master Craft and the "ToughTest" brand were not.

This photo shows the dovetail joint in the top of a leg that will join to the 2X2 screwed to the bottom of the table planks. The rails must be attached to the legs before the legs can be attached to the table top, as seen in the next photo.

The fit was tight enough that we had to tap it together with a the wooden mallet.

I didn't like that precarious assembly so I added the back two legs as seen in the next photo. Having them in place allowed me to double check the measurement for the rail. Surprisingly it was exactly the same length as the front rail.

We wanted a shelf below the table top, so we needed to attach rails in the long direction too. I decided to use another 9 inch pine plank to provide some stiffness in that direction.

I had to notch the shelf planks in four places to allow them to fit around the legs. I set the table upside down and laid the planks on it for measuring and fitting. Then I measured, cut, and attached the 9 inch planks as side rails while the table was upside down and the bottom shelf was laying on the top shelf. When I turned the table right side up the bottom shelf dropped into place.

The only fasteners we used were screws. Each plank on the table top has four screws in it. The 9 inch rails each have six screws in them. If the table becomes wobbly we can take the screws out, disassemble all the joints and re-fit them with glue. First we need to let the table experience some swelling and shrinking, and some aging and see how it fares.

Chasing Santa

Yesterday Monya and I tagged along with the mermaids and The Mommy and The Daddy to downtown Seattle. La Grande mermaid performed in several dances with her performing group at the Center House at Seattle Center. While we were waiting for La Grande's performance, The Wee One and I explored. There was a wonderful toy train in a complete miniature village with snow on the ground. Then The Wee One spotted Santa Claus sitting in his chair, talking to children.

The Wee One wanted to go talk to Santa but we had to go watch the dancing. When the dancing was finished Santa was gone. Needless to say there were some tears.

The Daddy found out the reason why Santa wasn't at the Center House was because he had gone downtown to see more children. Outside the Center House, at the foot of the Space Needle, the ever resourceful Daddy found a monorail station where we could catch a ride to Westlake Mall.

After arriving at Westlake we had to struggle through the crowds of people to find a line where they were waiting to see Santa. Each time we found a line we discovered that the people there were waiting a long time because Santa was in a different place. He certainly moves fast!

Finally we found him at Pacific Place and the line was very short. When it was the mermaid's turn, La Grande happily sat on Santa's lap but The Wee One was too shy. She hid behind The Mommy.

I don't have a photo but The Wee One finally did get bold enough to hide behind her sister, close enough that she could talk to Santa.

Note that both girls are wearing very nice dresses. The Wee One is also wearing her brand new rubber boots with fluffy pink trim.

Speaker Repair

Last weekend we noticed our stereo speakers were rattling when a loud bass sound was being generated. Taking off the grill cover we saw that the foam ring around the perimeter of the speaker had deteriorated, and was mostly missing. There were crumbs of the foam in the bottom of the grill cover.

I ordered a pair of foam speaker ring repair kits on line and repaired the upper 12" speakers last night. You can see in this photo the upper large speaker has been repaired, but the bottom speaker still has a hole in the foam ring.

Here's a close up photo of the bottom speaker so you can see where part of the foam ring is missing. The foam on the upper speaker was about 90% gone, but the lower speaker is only about 10% gone.

Here you can see I've taken the lower speaker out, but where is the wiring? Where is the voice coil on the back of the speaker? Apparently I was ripped off by Sony when I bought these speakers 25 years ago. They made it look like there were two big woofers in the speaker cabinets when in fact the bottom "woofer" is just a paper cone.

Turkey Washcloth

Here's my version of the Turkey washcloth, done with Sugar N Cream in worsted weight, with #3 needles. The idea came from HeidiCoaster along with a pattern she found on the web. I didn't quite follow the instructions so I'm looking forward to seeing how her version turns out.

Pumpkin Curry

We had some uncarved pumpkins left over from Halloween this year, so I decided to make pumpkin curry from them.  That was my favorite entree at the "Rice N Spice" Thai restaurant where I used to have lunch in Bellevue.  So I started by cutting one pumpkin in half, removed the seeds, took off the skin, and chopped the rest into bite-sized chunks. Here you can see how I quickly filled my bowl before I had chopped up even one quarter of the pumpkin.

I got a bigger bowl to hold the rest of the half pumpkin, then started cooking some onions, garlic, coconut milk, coriander, cumin, turmeric, red chili pepper, and chili powder. Since I had so much pumpkin, I cooked these ingredients in two of the biggest 8 quart pots I could find. Then I added the pumpkin to start it cooking and chopped up the other half of the big pumpkin.

When the pumpkin curry had finished cooking, I had two gallons of curry. Enough to keep me eating for a week or two. I had to make space in the refrigerator for a two gallon Tupperware container, plus room for the big bowl of chopped pumpkin. I'm not certain at this time whether or not I will be able to cook up that bowl of pumpkin before it starts to mold in the refrigerator. I can't eat pumpkin pie so that's out. Hmm.

One of my dietary requirements is to eliminate salt, so this recipe is very bland. It's not very red either, and it's supposed to be a "red curry" so I must have missed something. Maybe I can improve the next batch, if I can eat this first batch fast enough. On the other hand, by the time I finish the first batch I may not want to see another pumpkin until next Halloween.

The other day LaGrande showed me this recent photo of her pet hamster, using her iPod screen. My eyes being what they are, I was shocked to see the size of that beloved rodent. I asked her for a copy of the photo so I could post it here on a full sized screen. The little guy has obviously been well fed.

Comice Pear Harvest: September 30

Our Comice pear tree did not fare well in the drought this past summer. That may be the reason why about half the pears dried up and cracked like the one on the left.

The pear on the right represents what happened to the rest of them. They were all infested with some kind of worm. I was able to cut away small portions that were still good, but these pears aren't ripe yet. We should wait until mid October before picking them, if the worms and the birds haven't eaten them.

It's a Bird, it's a Mouse, No, It's a BAT!

Monya called to me with an unusual sense of urgency, "Come here!"

We both knew there had been a bat sleeping under our new outdoor window shades, but today she found one still there. I climbed up a ladder and lifted the shade carefully to look behind it. The shadowy little creature looked nervous but held his ground. I climbed back down.

From inside the house we can see him clearly and he isn't frightened away even when we get close with the camera. Maybe he can't "see" us through the glass. The bamboo slats in the photo are about one half inch wide and the camera was only about twelve inches away from him. You can see his ears in silhouette.

Great Grumpy Turns 85

Poor Great Grumpy had to pose for this photo at least four or five times before the camera finally worked properly. It was a short but fun little mid-week celebration with ice cream and cake. The most fun was hearing him tell about the two chickens he's been raising, and how they follow him around.

Great Niece's Wedding

Yesterday Grumpy and I attended his great grand daughter's wedding. I'm her great uncle so we were both something great. We got there early and were able to play with the bride's siblings.

How can brides always be so beautiful?

What is This Thing?

My home office is a mess, so lately I've been making an effort to organize it and maybe get rid of things I don't really need. Yesterday I found a box of strange things with a label on it: "Diffuser, Deflector, & Lube packet enclosed" Inside were two of these white things with a black ring, and a tube of silicone lubricant. The "things" were very good quality so I decided they must be valuable, but for what purpose?

Under the box was a packet of warranty papers for my scuba diving BCP, so it is somehow related to my scuba gear but it doesn't look like it would attach to any of my scuba gear.

Then I thought, "is this thing supposed to attach to my under water camera housing?" By golly it does! And that white thing is exactly positioned in front of the flash unit! This is just like what I've seen professional photographers using! It's a camera flash diffuser that softens harsh shadows and eliminates a dark shadow cast from the housing's lens ring.

So now I'm wondering if I can figure out what this other thing is. It's a black ring with a metal insert. There are several seams and at least one hinge, but I can't get it to open or unlock. It's marked "Patent Pending...made in Italy" so it has a purpose.