Narrow Escape

Yesterday on the way home from work I got pulled over by a Kirkland police officer. I was going uphill at 18 mph and that made him think that my Quest was motorized and possibly an illegal, unlicensed motor vehicle. After explaining to him about the electric assist motor, and how it cuts out at 20 mph he was satisfied that it was legal. Then he asked if he could take my picture. I said "yes" and if he didn't mind I'd like a shot of me with the police car in the background, with the blue and red lights flashing. He took my email address and emailed the photos to me last night. He was a friendly guy and I enjoyed chatting with him. Now I can say I've been officially pulled over by the police while riding in my Quest velomobile.

Comice Pear Harvest 2013

Today we decided it was time to take the Comice pears off the tree. They're not ripe but we've been losing so many of them to the raccoons and the birds that we decided it was time to cut our losses.

About half of the pears have either fallen off or been picked off by raccoons. They were all from the lower branches, leaving only the highest pears still on the tree where they were ravaged by birds.

This second photo shows what we managed to salvage from the upper branches. We've had so many fruit flies around here lately that the pears will not last sitting on the counter, so we'll have to eat them or make something with them while they're still not quite ripe.

As green as they are, they're still very sweet. They taste sort of like a Red Delicious apple.

New Bat Photo

Last week Bugsy the bat was hanging from the window screen rather than the bamboo shade. So this time he was facing the camera. It's still not a very good photo but you can see his ears, and it is definitely a bat in this photo.

Why doesn't he like the nice new bat house I built for him? It's much more private, and it's located right over the flower beds so his little bat droppings won't fall on our window sill. Best of all, the bat house doesn't roll up at night. When that happens, he still hangs out between the roll of bamboo and the outer flap covering the pulley and pull string locking hardware.

Sometimes he doesn't return in the morning. We suspect he may have a girlfriend.

STP 2013

Last Saturday, July 13, Lief rode his bike with his friend Tim from Seattle to Portland, participating in the annual "STP" bicycle ride.

They left the University of Washington campus in Seattle at 4:45 AM and I waved them by at 5:41 AM in Renton. Then I packed up my car and headed south on the freeway, to catch up with them in Centralia. They picked up three friends along the way, so there were five of them when I found them in Centralia. Notice Tim, in the blue and black kit on the left, still wearing his leg warmers in 75 degree weather.

The next photo shows them across the Columbia River from Longview. Tim is still wearing his leg warmers, but when they stopped here to take advantage of the spare water I was carrying, he finally took them off. The temperature was 85 degrees.

The bike in the foreground is not part of their group, but unfortunately by this time they had left two of their new friends behind. The one remaining new friend is Adam.

In this photo you can see Tim is still leading the group, with his leg warmers off. Another thing you can see here is Tim's strategy to keep the group going as fast as possible. He would push the pace a bit faster, then when they began falling behind, as in this photo, he would back off and let them catch up again. In this photo they were cruising at about 27 MPH with a tailwind.

Except for the shuffling of traffic lights, all three would have arrived at the finish line at the same time. Here is Lief just prior to entering the finish line gate. If I had a faster camera I could have also captured a photo of Tim and Adam.

Finally, after crossing the finish line the three intrepid cyclists posed for a photo together. Notice the lighting of a late afternoon (6:00 PM) rather than an evening twilight (8:00 PM) photo like it was when I rode that route. Their average speed, while moving, was more than 20 MPH.

Not included in this collection, are photos of salt encrusted shirts and wind blown hair both on heads and on legs.

The Bat is Back

After all my work building a nice house for bats, that crazy little creature decided to come back to the bamboo shade outside our living room window this summer. The bat house is empty.

Those bamboo slats measure about 3/8" and if you don't count the one leg stretched out that he's hanging from, he measures about four slats from the tip of his rear end to the tip of his ears. I measured four slats on another shade and found four of them measure 1-5/8" so he's just a tiny little guy.

Maybe as the days progress, and he moves from one place to another for maximum sleeping comfort, he may still find the bat house I made for him. Then maybe he will bring some friends to stay with him, or maybe move the rest of his family in with him.

Monya seems to be taking it well this year. Last summer she nearly freaked out about having rabies or something, until we did some research and found out that they don't really cause any problems at all, and they eat their weight in bugs each night.

What I find most interesting is that I can hold the camera right up to the glass and take a flash photo of him. That doesn't bother him in the least. He must be blind as a bat. Probably if the glass wasn't there he could hear me approaching and then he would fly away. This photo was taken through dual pane glass and an insect screen. Without the window glare captured by the camera you can see his claws and watch him wriggle and stretch his wings.

Hot Weather and Mermaids

Last weekend we had a rash of hot weather. It was 92 degrees here in Renton. I set up the inflatable swimming pool in case the mermaids happened to stop by. Here's a photo of them just moments before their legs turned into mermaid tails.

Eventually the water looked so good that two adult bicycle riders climbed in. The mermaids tried to defend their turf by splashing them but the bicycle riders were able to hold up a wall of water with their legs going at 90 RPM.

When the splashing stopped the water was milky white with dissolved air.

Graduation Party

Last week my nephew Ian graduated from high school so we hosted a celebration picnic at our house.

We had a graduation cake provided by The Frosting Angel featuring the Hazen High School colors of blue, green and yellow.

The weather was perfect for an outdoor barbecue. Here's a photo of the sky.

We took turns riding around the block in the velomobile. Some people didn't have long enough legs to reach the pedals, so they just used the electric motor. Here is a photo of cousin Denise after she had taken the little mermaid for a ride.

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.