Two Posts for the Price of One

Ok, here's a two for one post.  Last weekend we went to Bob and Jenn and Zhora's house for a night of ballet, tomato soup, aggressive balloon swatting, magnetic stone gaming, and Valeria June dancing.

Sarah and Zhora set the tone for the evening with some dancing and lots of high energy play.

After a wonderful dinner of tomato soup and chicken sandwiches we played some magnet game that everybody got in to.

The magnets were a little noisy as they crashed together.

But we all had a good time anyway.

After that, it was back to balloon swatting.  Bob won this game when he swatted the balloon into the pencil behind my ear, which elicited giggles from the girls.

This is just a little picture of a Hot Wheels car that was sitting around at the end of the night.  I slapped a little vignette action on it to make it pop!

In addition to the wood, I've been playing around with a little bit of leather.  Originally this was going to be a pair of chaps.  But chaps are complicated and I'm short on tools, so I thought I'd play around a little bit and just get used to working with the leather.  Some sheaths and wallets came out of this work, but I wasn't really pleased with any of those.  Then I hit upon the idea of making a shop apron.  Starting with a few odd square feet of leather, I managed to find enough to cut out a roughly aprony shape.

Using webbing came naturally, and the grommets were both aesthetically and technically pleasing.  Pockets are always handy, so I added a couple of those, too.  Everything had to be hand stitched since we don't have a sewing machine or anything.  Hand stitching is like hand crafting in woodwork, very gratifying and very time consuming.

I love working with the carpenter's pencils, but they don't sit well behind my ears and I'm forever searching for where I set them down, so this pocket was a no brainer.

The clasp is actually a piece of horse tack.  Don't know if it'll ever come in handy, but I think it looks cool.  I also sewed a hammer loop on the side, which I'm sure will come in handy.  Ready to finish up my little end table project now and get on with the kitchen table.

Cheers!

A few pictures to share

So we're having the normal Ithaca spring weather.  Growing up in Northeastern Ohio prepared us for this, hardening our souls to the prospects of sun and predictability.  We started gardening a couple weeks ago in spite of cold temps, grey skies, and snowflakes.  I was not thrilled to begin with.  Dressed as Nanook of the North it was hard to get into the spirit.

But Sarah "dug right in" and her enthusiasm and smile warmed my heart, and soon the day itself began to warm, if ever so slightly.

In addition to our almost 200 garlic plants that are already coming up from last fall, we planted two rows of beans, a row of spinach, two rows of lettuce, some carrots, some onions, and some green onions.  For better or worse, our available space is full, so I grabbed one of my favorite tools, the mattock, and went to work pulling up sod on another 12x12' section of lawn.

Sarah mentioned, as I stretched my back and then collapsed onto the ground, that "this is why people have bigger plots and then use horses to plow".  That is my new goal in life.

Cold grey mornings make the coffee taste better.  I love standing in my backyard and looking out at the trees, and am looking forward to this scene with buds, and then leaves.

Saturday morning I got up early and went to cut some more trees.  These are the four pines that were in the middle of the lawn.  They shaded the whole lawn and one side of the house and were where Rob wants to put his garden.

I cut a couple trees in the morning, then Sarah picked me up and we took our first trip to the Farmers Market for this season.  It was surprisingly crowded with both people and produce.  In addition to veggie dumplings and breakfast burritos, we picked up some carrots and some fresh beef for a minestrone soup that Sarah mad for dinner.

Then it was back to work, and down they came.  I'm really proud of this one.  It's overall lean was toward the house, and had a really large branch coming off the trunk that pulled it awkwardly 90 degrees to the direction of lean, but still away from where I wanted it to fall.  With some careful planning, wedging, and a good cut, I dropped it 3' left of the marker I'd put down, 180 degrees of the lean.

The yard as it stands now.

This is another awesome scalloped potato dish that Sarah made.  It has eggs and broccoli and tomatoes and bacon on top.  It's a great take on the traditional eggs and hash browns breakfast.

We went for an incredible ride Sunday morning.  Sarah rode Rambo who hasn't been out in awhile and they did great!  Rambo was so happy and alert; he nearly ran half the ride and Sarah had to try to slow him down!  I rode Bodie in a new snaffle bit bridle.  I've wanted to get him out of the mechanical hackamore for awhile and this was the opportunity.  He did great and had no major freak outs.  We've been working on his gate more, too and trying to keep him in his gated walk for longer periods of time (partly his laziness and partly my lack of ability to communicate clearly).  He did much better on Sunday.  As you can see, the sun was out for a bit, too.

Just some of the ingredients that go into my trademark macaroni salad.  Maybe I'll make up a big batch for the wedding this summer.

On my quest to expand my wilderiness, I cut down a tree with my knife.

I was successful in both cutting down the tree and in learning to bring an axe whenever possible,

After school Tuesday I cut trees until 8pm...

Then I rocked out in the truck on the way home, which makes me happy, healthy, and free.