BLURT Blogger

Homeschool Math Curriculum Review ~ Life of Fred ~

2009-10-21T19:56:00.004-06:00

All right, time for another Blurt Blogger moment!! Shall I give yet another stale excuse for my lack of blurtiness? NAAHHH ~ All yah all who homeschool know that time is precious ~ all yah all who have kids know it too, and all the rest ya all ~~...lol.. well..... ( does ANYONE even READ this blog who doesn't have at least ONE of those things goin' on?) yah all have lives, eh?

ok ~ So this year we were on the verge of craziness about Math in our homeschool, because even though we liked our Creative Thinking, well, we just weren't being Creative enough. Believe it or not ~ there is an even MORE creative way of thinking about Math ~ May I give you

LIFE OF FRED

Can I just say WOW!! I want you to know something ~ We LOOOVVEE Life of Fred! A bit of background ~ My kids are 17, 16, 14, 12, & 11. They are bright, beautiful, intelligent children. They love to read & reason, they excell at strategy, music, & the arts, & they have a firm foundation of faith in God.

BUT.....(And this is a tremendously LARRGGEE BUT...) Math peeps we ain't. Well.... Until now, anyway. Hold onto your seat, because this is a stunner... my kids actually wake up, run downstairs & , get this, ( & I am not lying, or even stretching the truth a teeny bit) actually EXCITEDLY TEAR OPEN the Life of Fred books!!! (without any actual harm to the books, it might be noted.)

Even I enjoy these books and Fred's adventures!!! And more importantly, even I UNDERSTAND them. (And I am a 38 yr old confirmed non-mathmatic, excessively right-brained, creative, crafty, musical and, may I stress it once again ~ VERY non-mathmatic mama.)
I must seriously congratulate Mr. Schmidt on the very best bit of crazy wild, unconventional & yet HIGHLY AWESOME & EFFECTIVE bit of comprehensive tutorial math texts EVER written!!! Because if he can bring MY brain, and my kids' brains to not only understand ( & I mean TRULY GRASP COMPLETELY) but ENJOY math..... well, my friend, he has accomplished a literal miracle.

My Dear Readers, you should know that I have been struggling with what to do with our math for years now. We had been using the Creative Thinking books, & while those are better than the average text book, ( in fact, I think they were the best thing going till we found LOF) they pale so far in comparison to LOF that the difference becomes black & white. May I even say ~STARKLY~ black & white.

So, I was praying to know what to do, because I was so stressed about the math & where the kids were with it, & my own lack of ability ( my husband can't be there to teach it everyday, he was my fallback). I got down that ginormous Rainbow Resource Center book, hoping to be inspired, & quite literally opened it to a long & very humourous description of LOF. I knew it was the answer I had been praying for.

And seeing my kids, with their actual DELIGHT in math now has been yet another blessing as well. Do you know, just today, ( & actually every day since we started the series, which has been about 3 months now) my son was laughing & comparing something in his daily shedule to LOF. I mean actual math concepts, which he now understands to such a degree that he is able to apply the concepts AWAY from the math books. In real, everyday life. They were so thrilled about it, that they wanted to read ahead in LOF, just to find out more of the story & read the humour. But I said "No Fred unless you are doing the math as well." So they sat down, and zipped through 5 lessons in one day. My kids. Who are the biggest math deny-ers ever. And me. WANTING to do math. Honestly, that IS a miracle!

Again, this is an inspired series, it is the right-brained, non-logical person's answer to truly understanding math concepts.

Here is a link to Stanley Schmidt's website ~ http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html

Here is a link to some sample pages from Life of Fred ~
http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/31samplepages.html

I guarantee you guys will LOVE this one!!!!!

Fairy Tree Stump Dollhouse

2009-05-29T07:33:00.006-06:00

Well my friends & fellow bloggers, I have taken quite the blogging sabbatical, it is true. Once again, I have done the no-show. You know, it's funny ~ it's one of those blurt-blog things, I think. Yup, it's all becoming quite evident to me now, I am a *Blurt-Blogger*. I blog in blurty spirts. Hmmmm... I could ode that..... :-D (Hmm again, maybe I will change my blog name to that ~ it DOES fit rather aptly!!)

But instead, I will save you all the pain of yet another blurty-spirty blogging ode, & launch into my latest subject-of-interest.

Ahhhh yes, the Fairy Tree Stump Dollhouse!!!!

Here we have the delighted young dollhouse owner, trying on her new dollhouse, before any floors or interior walls were added.

Why, it FITS!!

She's very proud of Wood Genius' (aka Daddy) creation.

Wood Genius is adding some detail, taking off here & there to provvide a realistic ~log stump~ effect.

And now he has the interior fitted, and has begun to add more windows & doors.

Some of the detail on the main floor, tree growth rings & stone steps, all carved to make the piece look as much like a real tree stump as possible.

A few of the side windows & doors. Wood Genius used actual door hinges to hinge this, as it is QUITE heavy.

The main front doors ~ with a carved leaf on the front, and locking bars inside ( to keep out any wandering trolls, GI Joes, and miscellaneous Lego Pirate types..... younger brother does seem to have a rather impressive army of them.)

Here is the view walking into through the front doors. Just outside the window is a swing, hooked onto the large branch stump, of course. ;-D Oh, and it should be noted that that branch stump is actually an opening, for the fairies to take off & return from. They can fly straight out & come back through it.... apparently the front door is just for their little non-flying friends. :-D

This is the view from the side door, with the stump

Here we have another view from one of the windows.

And one more view.

This is the secret lock & key, so that no other humans except the owner can open the stump. Only fairies can have continual access through the fly-in's.

And here is the secret door for the key. (To which Wood Genius later added a carved leaf attached to a leather thong, so that it would be a lot harder to lose. Because even mature little Fairy Stump Owners sometimes have a hard time keeping track of special keys for special doors.)

Ahh, The fairies are especially active at night, & love to light up the stump with parties & fun!

Sometimes they even leave the doors open......I guess these are Idaho Fairies, not New York Fairies. ;-D

And now I have added a little color to the piece. Yes, it is still a little loud, because I haven't brushed it down with a dark wash.... all in time, my little ones, all in time.....

Once I get the wash added, I will accent a few of the rooms, and finish coat everything in a matte top coat, so that the wood doesn't stray from expansion or contraction.

Ahh, here is a better view of that Fly-In branch stump. The fairies really dig that, you know. It makes it so that they can be in (& out of) their abode without human interventions. Quite handy if you are a Little People. Unfortunately, the swing had to be removed because of painting, but the pesky humans will soon be finished with their ministrations, and the fairies can get back to partying like they prefer.

~Red

The Dollhouse Venture Part V

2008-12-30T16:59:00.010-07:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I have updated on the Dollhouse Venture. Since we have been doing quite a bit to it in the last little while, I figured there was enough of an improvement to show another installment.

Here is a bed that Wood Genius designed, & I strung together. It's 1:12 scale & would be a queen-sized bed. See the little cedar chest in the background? Yup, he made that too.

And of course you can't have a new bed without some new bedding, sooo... I had to make a mattress & pillow, plus a sheet set to fit.

And then of course, what is a new bed & everything without a quilt & bed pillows? And yes, of course I even hand-tied it ~ ;-D ~ I used quilting thread as the string, and actually, although this may look like bitty pieces of fabrics, heheh... even I am not THAT dedicated ~ that pattern & a few other may be downloaded at Dollhouse Miniature Printables . I just starched a thin piece of muslin, & put it through my printer with a pc of paper, set on high quality print, and VOILA! ~instant dolly quilt. Also, you can play with the sizes, by stretching your printer settings or saving the printie to my docs, then running it through a photo-shop program.

Wood Genius & I have also been hard at work on the exterior of the dollhouse. I added most of the window fittings ( all right, just easy ones, it's true, in fact, if you click on the pick, you can see that I have still left the difficult fitting to him to cut ~ it's just better that way.) ;-D I might draw some attention to the NEW doorway & walnut front entrance door. We are painting the fireplace, entrance pillars & some floor trim as I write this, but the walnut door is getting stained. Plus I still have to add hardware to it ( handle, name-plate, doorbell, etc).

Here you can see that while there have been quite a few improvements, I am still definitely ~in process~. I am in the middle of adding ceiling mouldings, wallpapers, chair-rails, and in some cases, even partitions & closets, & such. While most of the wallpapers came from Jennifer's Free Dollhouse Printables, ( which, by the way, is a MOST FANTASTIC site!!), a few came from those old-fashioned dollhouse papers books, and ~ believe it or not ~ some of those chair rail papers & such came from a Martha Stewart line of scrap-booking stuff. Man, if I had the fundage, I would have used SO MANY of the ADORABLE scrapbooking goodies from Martha Stewart. I don't care if she DID go to jail, that lady is CREATIVE!

Another thing I have been working on is the interior window & door trims. What door trims?, you might ask ~ I don't see any door trims! Well, ok, so that's true, I HAVEN'T done any door trims... hence the "working on it" qualifier. ;-D

At any rate, this little room doesn't NEED any door trims, so HAH! What house can be complete without a sun-shiney sewing room? Now if only MY sewing room were this ...ahem.. ORganized... ;-D

Here you can see the important work getting done ~ the little girl is getting measured for her new dress! And that lovely old doll doing the measuring? She is something I picked up off of eBay, an interesting china head with only her head left as original, everything else seems to be either pasted back together or even whole new parts made ~ entirely out of paste. As a result, once the other dollhouse dolls are done, I'm afraid she is going to be relegated to maid status. tsk tsk tsk... such biases! ;-D

Here we have the little baby girl's nursery room, complete with a pretty china doll that seemed to want to be in the room, & therefore the picture as well. Note the basket of flowers ~ they are real dried Hidcote lavender, from my Mum's garden. Obviously a necessity next to a changing table, as they don't have disposables in this house.

Here is the formal dining room, complete with baby chair. I suppose in all reality, the baby chair should really go in the kitchen, & the table should be larger, however, the kitchen isn't quite done, and neither is the table, so... these old, not-quite-to-scale pieces will simply have to suffice.

I might point out, however, that Wood Genius was genuinely annoyed that I might mix both scale & non-scale pieces... and therefore has been talking about designing some more scale furniture.

hehehehehe

Do you see my clever plan? Naturally, once sufficiently bothered, he will have no choice but to make a few more scale pieces.

heheheheh ~ MWAahahahahahahaaaaaa....

Here is the parent's room, with that bed & cedar chest that Wood Genius made, as well as the dresser from Grandma G, & the bedding & perfume bottles that I made. The pictures are made from scrapbooking plates, and old stamps as the artwork. The yarn balls are from some dollar store decoration.

Here you can see that I did get some of the ceiling moulding in ~ the bathroom & a few other rooms. The moulding is trim picked up from Micheal's, very cheaply, I might add ~ about $1.95 for 3 ft. lengths. Also, if you click on the pic to enlarge it, please o please o please ~ DO notice the little tiny handmade soaps! It can't be a 1900's house without handmade soaps, you know. ;-D And the bathing beauty there in the tub isn't to perfect scale, but who cares, she has a funky blue bathing cap, and that's what matters! ;-D

Now in this pic, we have the largely unfinished playroom. It still needs mouldings & door trims ~ true ~ but more importantly, I still haven't finished a wall in the background ( as represented by the stripey wallpapers) which I will be putting in to add interest & depth to the room.

There is still much to do in the dollhouse, but at least it is starting to look inhabitable, if only by dustbunnies & non-eating or nanny-needing dolls. Yup, you guessed it, still have the kitchen & the nanny room to go, plus the parlor, the entrance, both floors of the library, the music room, the schoolroom, & the attic. Oh, and did I mention the hallway? And I thought it would be so COOL to have so many rooms! HAH! A love-hate relationship if there ever was one. Much like our real house, actually. Nice, large, many rooms... but UGGHH> the cleaning that that much space requires. Still, let me dis not my abode, lest I be found ungrateful. ;-D

And what, you may ask, is THIS pic of? Well, it's a start. Because, you see, this little 6" dolly is a FAIRY. That's right, a fairy... I mean, she obviously doesn't have her wings on yet, and she is naked as the day I stitched her together, HOWEVER, she is a START. You see, the next dollhouse update that I do will include pics of her tree-stump fairy house! That is right, Wood Genius is right now, even as I write, shaping the fairy house. It is 4 stories high, with a slide, and a swing, and once the doors & windows get cut out, it will really start to come to life. I will include a few teaser pics at the bottom of the post, just to get the gears turning.

He truly IS a Wood Genius! This is a totally engineered tree stump, carved to look real. And like I said, this isn't the half of it ~ when it's done, it will be a 1:12 scale fairy tree stump dollhouse.

~Red

SOAP UPDATE ~ NEW SCENTS ~ Yup! It's addicting!

2008-12-03T13:24:00.009-07:00

Here are the soaps I am offering for sale.

All of these soaps are made with pure spring water & olive oil, except for Hawaiian Rains, which was made with collected rainwater.

Camaflouge

Here is a dual purpose soap for men who like to hunt ~ it smells like DIRT! It's true ~ it smells like dirt, with eucalyptus & citronella as fantastic natural bug repellant as well. It will hide your own scent, AND keep the bugs away. What more could a man ask for? (in a soap! ;-D)

Zesty Twist

A delightful herb citrus hyacinth blend of natural essentials oils, with green tea added as a mild astringent/ deodorizer. Contains olive & coconut oils, for skin nourishing cleansing, & has no colorants other than what the tea gives it.

Soft Flowers

Carnation, tuberose & jasmine topnotes, with baby powder undertones. This soap is colored with pure, unsweetened crabapple juice, & so may be used by those sensitive to dyes. Completely safe for babies. Made with olive & coconut oils.

My Favorite Bookstore

Café latte topnotes, with hazelnut & cinnamon undertones, as well as a hint of peppermint ~ I named this one "My favorite Bookstore", because it reminds me of that heavenly fresh ground coffee blend scent you get when you walk into the Barnes & Noble Bookstore, right after walking past the cinnamon nuts stand. Men & women alike will adore this soap, plus, it may be used as a shaving soap. The cinnamon helps lift the beard for a smooth shave, while olive oil ensures clean, moisturizing softness.

Crabby Apples

A lovely soft hibiscus scent, with crabapple undertones, not strong at all. Dyed with pure, unsweetened crabapple juice, & incorporating olive & coconut oils, this soap is perfect for anyone! It is full of natural glycerin, & will sooth & smooth the skin.

Lavender Essentials

This soap has the rich, heady aroma of fresh Hidcote lavender, & contains lavender essential oils as well. The slight color comes from pure unsweetened grape juice, & the flecks you see in the soap are freshly crushed lavender buds.Since this soap contains both olive & coconut oils, it is soft & smooth to the skin, & is full of natural glycerin. Also contains a lovely blend of immune-boosting thyme, eucalyptus & balsa mea essential oils. Try bathing babes with this soap & see if bedtime doesn't come a little sooner!

Tangerine Tea

Although a hard bar when dry, it is soft & silky to use, & cleans & softens beautifully. One of my roughest looking bars, but really quite delightful to use. Contains peanut oil (should not be used on someone with an allergy to peanuts) & sesame oil, so is rich in Vitamin E, & very moisturizing. Although I did use a tangerine essential oil in this soap, it barely scented it. Also contains orange spice tea, which gives it its interesting colors. Men like this soap, because of the lack of scent & the moisturizing qualities.

Honeydew

Made with the same formulation as the Lavender Essentials bar, but colored instead with green tea & powdered icing dye. If you have allergies to food dyes, do not use. If dye is not a problem, however, this bar smells HEAVENLY! Like a sweet summer day, as sweet as a freshly cut honeydew melon. It also has the cleansing properties of green tea, & the moisturizing properties of natural glycerin.

Hawaiian Rains

A delightfully soft fragrance, truly the scent of a tropical paradise after a refreshing rain. Everytime someone smells this soap, they say "mmm, it smells so CLEAN." Made with freshly collected rainwater, olive & coconut oils, & colored with all natural liquid chlorophyll, this soap will pamper your skin like a vacation to Hawaii!

Ok, I will update this as I add more soaps ~ And for anyone browsing through ~ Here are the prices:

The bars run $4.50 ea

or ~ 3 for $10

or ~ six 2 oz bars for $10

Also, 1 oz bars are $1 ea, for any assortment of scents you want.

Shipping is $3, no matter how much you buy.

I take paypal, money orders & personal checks.

(The checks usually take a little while to go through, though, not the fastest way, for sure.)

Paypal to: redhed83402@msn.com

Rub a dub dub 3 men in a tub .... wait...what?!?

2008-11-25T13:40:00.008-07:00

Well, here it is ~ November 25 ~ you would think I could at least check in more often than MONTHLY ~ but the terrible truth is ~ homeschooling really IS time consuming. Ok, ok, I am going to dispense with the usual excuse session and just launch BOLDLY into the blog topic this post. SOAP! Yes, it's true ~ SOAP! Bet you couldn't guess that from the title. ;-D (hmmm....That harmless little child's nursery rhyme suddenly doesn't seem so very innocent.....)

All right, the way it started out was this ~ I was on BYC ~ (http://www.backyardchickens.com/) ~ and a certain post caught my eye. I spied it across a crowded room. The air was thick, the tension high.... and there IT was... the SOAP MAKERS HELP post. It's true, it was love at first sight! ( Or should that read ~ love at first site ~ ) With shaking hands, I opened the post thread, the anticipation was mounting....could it be ~ was it really true? Some of my fellow Chicken Buddies ALSO loved SOAP??? Lo & behold, it WAS true! So true, in fact, that they even went the extra lengths of MAKING it!

OOhhh,, here were my shnoz sisters, my olfactorial friends. Brave souls who, (though admittedly with great care), nonetheless skirted the wicked properties of lye & laughed in the face of fats, adventurously adding milks, juices, scented oils & miriad breakfast & spice items..... all in the name of bathing beauty pleasures!

Naturally, what was I left to do, but invest some reading time, some more reading time, some experimental time, some resources, some more time, & VOILA!! heheheheheh ~

I have concocted SOAP! It's true! I even have some pics to prove it. ( To my sweet sisters, parents, cousins, etc. who also read this blog ~ shhhh ~ don't tell anyone, this is what I am giving out for Christmas. ;-D)

Actually, in thinking this out even more thoroughly, in the very very begining, it started out as a memory ~

I remember going to my great-grandma's house, and seeing her huge uneven blocks of yellow lye soap ~ she used to tell us ~ "don't use that soap, it's just for scrubbing" ~ then she'd point us to smaller brown-ish creamy colored bars that smelled like cookies. I imagine those were the milk-based ones, based on what I've read.

She always had these wonderful homemade soaps around. Some, like the yellow, was for scrubbing, ( literally, she scrubbed toilets with it, I saw her do it, with the bar itself, and it WORKED!), & some was for bathing. These were beautiful creamy white bars, that smelled like fresh lavender. She would render & save her fats all year round. This is the same great- grandma that used to grow meat chickens & take them to my grandma's ( her daughter) house, and they would have a chicken-choppin' fest!

They both grew huge gardens as well, & not conventional ones ~ their gardens went all over the yard, mixed in with the flowers, the trees, the shrubbery, just everywhere! I remember being in those gardens thinking they were wonderlands. I especially remember the fresh raspberries & straight cream we always got as a treat when we visited. Fond memories....I have always been enchanted by the beautiful bars of handmade soaps, especially the large-ish rough looking ones, they usually smell the best! ;-D

And now, I have made a few of my own.....

Ok, Now for the pics ~

This was my first attempt at soap ~

You can see how uneven my cut was, how rough the soap is. (They are very hard, I used a lot of tallow in this recipe ~ tallow I rendered myself, I might add, from beef suet. Boy is THAT a smelly task!! The Fam won't appreciate this part of your soap-making adventures, I guarantee

it!)

Also, you can see the streaks... I believe this was caused from stirring too much after adding the fragrances. I added them too soon before trace, because I got anxious. DON'T get anxious. The bits & pieces you see are actually 2 different teas, one a lemon green tea, the other an orange & spice tea. Also, I added those teas dry, and I should have added them soaked, that way, they wouldn't have bled like they did. Although my daughter likes the bleed, she says it makes for pretty color specks in the soap, which is true, I suppose. I also added tangerine essential oil (often referred to as eo's, fragrance oils are called fo's) to this recipe ~ unfortunately, I didn't know that tangerine ( or any citrus , for that matter) tends to flash a lot faster than other scents. And, since I added it too early, ( at least a good 3 minutes prior to trace) much of the scent was affected by the lye.

Here in the next pic, is my second batch of soap ~ This was a lavender batch. I used lavender eo, & about 1/4 cup of freshly dried lavender from my mother's garden. ( I believe she said it was called Hidcote). Since lavender sometimes has a tendency to look like mouse doodies, I decided to crush it between my fingers ~ oohh, I smelled heavenly for a while! :-D Anyway, I did better with this batch, & actually let it gel, which means that it looks like a giant tub of wet glycerin Nutrogena soap when it's at gel stage, as you can see in the pic.

And in this pic, you can see that it is beginning to firm up. Once it has hit gel stage, you have to uncover it, so that it does not OVERheat, other wise you will have problems. So, once it has gelled clear out into the corners, I take the lid off ( I just use another similarly sized pan as a lid, no blankets or anything) & let it begin to cool. You can see the color change in the corners as it begins to cool.

One thing that I was sort of bummed about with this recipe is that I used unsweetened grape juice to color it. I was hoping for even a TRACE of lavender ~ but no such luck! Part of the problem, I later found out, was that I added it too soon to the lye/water solution.

In this pic, you can see what the slab looks like once it's been in the mold for over 5 hours. Some recipes will require at least 24 hrs to firm up enough for cutting, however, don't wait TOO long, or you will have to saw your soap apart. ( refer to first pic!)

And here are the cut lavender bars. Very full of glycerin ~ they will be extremely lovely to the skin!

Now this batch I tried to tint green. Only not the color of green that it is! I used powdered icing dye, & a green tea concoction. ( I love to use tea, because while it may not be healthy IN the body, tea is quite beneficial ON the body) I also used a honeydew fo, so it smells like a sweet summer day.

Here is a close-up of the honeydew bars. These bars are all measuring out between 4.5 & 5.7 ounces each. A very HEALTHY amount of soap.

And here in this pic, we have the crabby apples recipe. I used unsweetened crabapple juice to color it, and a very lovely hibiscus fo. Just to demonstrate the ever-changing nature of soap, check out the pic below. I was slightly dissapointed at 1st cut, since the color did not seem to go all the way through, instead it seemed to create only a pretty rind all aorund the soap. Then, once I had resigned myself to this interesting outlook, and even began to think it looked pretty neat, I checked the soap again, a few days later ~

And this is what greeted me ~ ALL pink bars! So ~ now I know that juice actually CAN color your soap, but only marginally. Which is ok, because I don't care for artificial colors. Also, you can always bathe infants in soap made with juice for colors, & these soaps are mild enough for even the most sensitive of skins.

And in this final ( for now :-D) pic, you can see what happens when you tend to be a bit OCD about your crafting. Yes, it's true, I have moved around food storage a bit, and am using one whole wall as my soap drying racks! And in the next day or two ~ I am scheduled to get 2 HUGE boxes FULL of more SOAP eo's & fo's!!! WOO HOO!!! Lovely scents ~ soft, skin nourishing soaps ~ maybe even a little side fundage....... (Actually, Wood Genius intimated something to that nature ~ I believe the words were "I think if you have this much soap, you should look into the sales end of it. Cuz what you have going right NOW is enough soap to last for YEARS! And if you want to make more, I think you need to sell some off.") :-D

Anybody want to buy some soap? :-D

Foray Into the Woodshop HOLY COW! a NEW POST! & fish stream table ;-D

2007-04-07T13:54:00.000-06:00

For those of you who may have linked to this because of the table, please skip my little diatribe, unless you have a minute or two, & just scroll down to the pics. :-P (wussies! :-D)

Well I finally have an afternoon off to breathe a sec & I decided ~What the Heck, I haven't blogged in ........ well, such a LOOOONNNGGG time that really I am a titch embarrassed about the whole dealio. I mean, here I am, a confirmed bloggerette, and I seem to have a severe lack of *blogginess* to show for it in the last many many moons.

So, I just know everyone is waiting with ~ BAITED BREATH ~ to get to the current topic du jour (are yah blue yet, go onnn..... breeeeeeaaaatthhe, it's gonna take me a while to work up to that ~ :-D).

The truth of the matter is, I seem to have been sucked into the vortex of ~ business ownership reality ~ and as it happens, that vortex has a very strong time resistance pull, making time both stretch & recess at the most in-opportune moments. In layman's terms, you never seem to have enough time to get organized enough to make life easier when in the midst of a deadline crunch AND YET there are moments when you feel as though you might have to, in one simultaneously painful yank, dehair your head to a shining pate of glistening baldness for lack of work, and ~OH MY GOSH~ HOW are we gonna pay the bills...... WHEWWWW, they paid the invoices, so we have fundage again, BUT DANNNGGG, it's busy around here.

See, from this one little example we can clearly determine that neither technical jargon NOR layman's terms can be relied upon in times of true mental expression.

Ok ~ I think I have now shaken off most of my non-blogginess-cobwebs, and FINALLY ( oh hallelujah!) am ready to GET ON WITH IT!

So, This post ACTUALLY is about another project Tony has recently finished. This is a fish stream table, which is very cool. I should say the table is cool, my camera & I are not. HOWEVER, I am MOST pleased to announce the arrival of a brand new NICE camera onto the scene, which will GREATLY improve all parameters! No more nasty GRAIN issues, or lack of pixels, or low-light problems! YEAH! Now our catalogue can look decent and a ~little~ more professional ( I am still doing the photography, so .. you know, there ARE limits, but HEY, the CAMERA is good!) Guess what camera it is? Guess ~ guess.... gggguueeesss... ok, give up? it's a nice little Canon powershot SD550 Digital ELPH! YEAH! Hallelujah!!! ok, ok, so it's no MLR, but I ain't that good yet, sooo, this works. Sadly, this lot of pics ISN'T taken with the new cam, BUT, when we cover the headboard project, they WILL BE. wooo-double -hoo, eh? :-D I know, I know, I am rejoicing HERE too!

Are ya sick of my blabbing yet? (It's ok to say yes at this point, I know I am!)

Here we have the basic set-up, Tony made this out of knotty alder. This piece was commissioned by an insurance salesman (Jason Dahl, great guy!) who has his entire office done in knotty alder.

Here are some fish that Tony carved to go into the *stream*.

The idea for this table originally came from Mr. Dahl himself, who had seen a table in Jackson Hole, WY, and asked Tony if he could do something similar. Well, Tony had not seen the table, and Mr. Dahl had no pics, but he described what he could, and Tony took it from there, to be something far more awesome than the one in Jackson. (This is because Tony is a perfectionist. Now if you asked Tony, he would say, "I don't want it perfect, I just want it RIGHT". hmpph ~ sounds a tad perfectionist to me, :-D.)

Here are some rocks Tony carved to go into the *stream* as well. He used butternut, walnut, redwood, alder, & pine for variations in rock color.

I have them up on pins to finish them, makes it easier to get around the entire piece. (Yes, I get to do the finishing. I am SOO not a finisher, even though I love it, we are leaning towards hiring out the finishing for the next few projects, just because I don't have the time to run the business, do marketing & web mastering AND be the finisher. Ain't working!)

Here is the dry set-up. We do this to make certain everything ~looks right~. (But it's not perfection, don't BE for calling it perfection! :-D)

Full on view of dry set up.

This is a close-up of the finished product. Glass is in, finishing is finished, & we deliver it in the morning. One of a kind, only one like it in existence. (And if you want one, it won't ever look EXACTLY like this one, because these are hand-carved, made one piece at a time, specially for that specific customer. We don't mass produce, we create masterpieces. :-D)

Here is the producto finito, just before we delivered it in the morning. Hope you all have enjoyed this little ~ Foray Into The Woodshop ~. Any questions, comments or complaints, go for it, use the commentary...... but if you're spammin', I'm gonna wipe ya! :-P

This just in:

I was able to take the new cam over to Mr Dahl's office today & get a few shots of the table. I think you will all agree there is a MASSIVE difference in quality with this new cam!

Here he has placed a nice elk sculpture on the bottom shelf.

Here is a much better close-up of the intereior *stream*.
If you double click the pics, they will enlarge even more, WITH the new enhanced awesomeness.

Other side of the stream, you can see a submerged log in there, rocks on the bottom of the stream, and 3 fishies.

And here we have a little dude fishing off the log, which I absolutely LOVE, he is so cute on there, like it was meant to be!

Foray Into The Woodshop * Carved Headboard *

2007-04-10T23:00:00.000-06:00

Carved Headboard

Today our little ~ foray ~ will be a funky new headboard design. well, sorta funky, ok,ok, so it really isn't so FUNKY at all, really it's more like a traditional meets southwest and has a carving offspring. Hmm. you know, I don't think that label is gonna work on the catalogue, what do you think? Maybe I will just stick with FUNKY NEW HEADBOARD DESIGN. Hehehehehe.

All RIGHT already, I'll get ON with it..... in a sec. :-D

As you know, if you've read through other projects, Tony is a stickler for maintaining his equipment, and that's what he is doing here. Also, note the knee panel saw turn-off. This is the safest design I've ever seen, (Tony made it himself, not hard to do, but wise) and we both recommend it. After-all, I am Madame Paranoid, & am constantly concerned about safety, and have often let him know that I LIKE his fingers & hands, don't want them removed suddenly by any forceful, accidental or stupid means, and as Tony always says " I like all my fingers too."

At any rate, that knee panel shut-off is key, he can easily use his knee or even foot to bump the saw off quickly & safely.

Here we have measurements for the arch & such going on. This piece will be constructed of alder & agathis, (Not sure of that wood name, but it's what the lumber yard called it, and it seemed to match grain pattern with alder somewhat closely) with black walnut pins.

Clamping the legs, this is a dry fit, to check for tolerances, etc.

Ahhhh, the unlovely, unloved, and largely thankless task of sanding. And yet, without it, no project is complete. In fact, sanding is almost half the labor time of any job, and cannot be cheated on. It helps make the difference between fishy & professional.

More sanding & clamping, you can see the walnut pins in the sides. Tony always prefers to use wooden pins & dowels, dovetails, & mortise & tenon joinery to screws & nails. Not only does it distinguish the piece, but it also provides a nice tight fit that won't rip out, get sheared or joggled loose.

Close-up of the walnut pins. These are funky shaped, (aHAH ~ see, there IS some FUNK in this headboard! :-P)

Here is the layout for the carving. It will be a very simple wheat sheaf, which will go nicely with the overall design of the client's bedroom.

Carving with a GRINDER? Yep, not only does it save time, but it also provides a burn accent which really picks up quite nicely when finished. Tony still always cleans up all carving with chisels, however, as there really is no substitute for it.

And VOILA! Here we have the finished headboard! Now this client did not want a footboard or rails, as they did not have a lot of extra leg room around the bed. This is the beauty of custom-made, if you only have 1 extra inch between your bed and your nightstands, & yet you want a headboard, you can still have one!!

This is a composite view, & the bottom pic is a close-up of the carving. It is a very simple carving, & yet, it will accent the client's decor perfectly.

I hope you have enjoyed this ~ Foray Into the Woodshop ~.

WOW Visitor # 5000 !!!

2007-04-23T11:40:00.000-06:00

Well, folks, Visitor # 5000 just came by today, and I was happy. Visitor #5000, from Taree, New South Wales, I just want to thank you for being that special #5000! You only stayed a scant 20 seconds, but hey, that's ok, everybody has choices to make, and if speediness or brevity was yours, well, my blog does not lend easily to it. You are forgiven. In Fact, you are HERALDED, because of course, you are #5000! Happy Day, #5000, may the blogging authorities that be overlook your whims and grace you with blogging ease!
A Moment of Silence.......
.......
...
.
Go in peace, O #5000
Go....
into the blogging world afar~
drift not into My Space Spheres
Be at peace with your Google Account~
Use search often
& remember,
~*YOU*~
were once heralded as the great
#5000

A special smile from me, to you.
May you ~#5000~ have a lovely day.
Always remember who you are.
You are #5000~
;-D

Curry pork & rice cure all life's little ill's

2007-08-19T22:46:00.000-06:00

I love curry, in bean soup, with any type of meat, and ESPECIALLY with rice. So, in an effort to love & be loved, I would like to share my curry recipe (well, tonight's recipe, anyway, it changes every time, since I am a ~pinch of this, pinch of that, till it smells right~ type of cook).

First off, I have to admit something, I use a pre-mixed curry blend powder from the bulk section at WinCo. It's not as good as the Spice Islands blend, & definitely not as good as fresh mix, however, it's cheap, and if I add some stuff to it, it works very well. Also, I only like to use fresh herbs, if I can at all help it.

The other thing I have to really re-iterate is, I cook to taste, always. So, sometimes it's spicier, could be saltier, could be garlic-ier, even green onoin-ier, just depending on my good ol' shnozz.

That said, here are the things I always use, in varying amounts.

fresh chopped Green Onions (stalks AND bulbs) ~about 4 to six stalks, or one bunch from the grocery store)

fresh minced garlic ~ about 2 Tbsp to 1/4 cup, depending on how garlicy you like it

Aloha Shoyu soy sauce ~ about 1/2 cup, depends on how salty you want it ( this is the ONLY kind of soy sauce I have ever liked, the flavor is fantastic, and compliments rather than overpowers)

sesame oil ~ probably a Tbsp or so

peanut oil ~ again, probably a Tbsp-ish

scant amount of dill weed ~ a pinch or a large pinch,, depending on how much hotness you want to cut

(dill weed cuts the hotness, so if you like a lot of spice flavor without the hot, dill weed is a perfect compliment, also, if you can't find this fresh, dried will do)

curry powder ~ about 3 to 5 Tbsp, depending on how spicy you like it, and how much you need to make

fresh minced ginger ~ about 2 tsp

OPTIONAL:

coconut milk to taste ( add in with 2nd soy sauce, makes a creamy light sauce, it's HEAVENLY!),

chopped cashews for garnish (salted taste the yummiest!)

some sort of meat, if you eat meat, if not, make a gravy & pour it over rice & veggies

We only eat meat once in a great while, so usually I cut it into small chunks and use it to mostly flavor the food, about 1/3 pound or less for 7 people.

about 3 tbsp flour , mixed with about 1 to 2 cups cold water, to make a rue, or saucy sort of paste, to thicken what's left on the pan, if you want to make a gravy out of it, plus water to thin it to desired amount & thickness of gravy)

First off, I take some sesame oil & some peanut oil ( enough to cover the bottom of the pan, plus a splash or so more, also, I guess you could substitute with olive oil, but it won't have quite the same flavor) put it on the bottom of the pan, add in the green onions, garlic, ginger dill, & curry powder, plus about 1/2 of the soy sauce. Then I turn on the gas to small flame, and let that all simmer together for a bit, making sure to mix the powder in with the oils & soy sauce.

Once the green onions have started to wilt ( or are not as firm looking), it's time to decide if you are going to add meat or not. If you do want to add meat, stick it on top of the mixtre in the pan, let it braize for a bit, then turn them over, add the rest of the soy sauce(if you are adding coconut milk, now is the time to add it, as well), sort of scraping up the mixture, ( you can add a touch of water here too, if not using the coconut milk, if you think it looks too dry or you are cooking extremely lean meat), put the lid on the pan, turn it to low, and let it cook till the meat is done. ( I have a huge fry pan I use, and I just turn a huge wok over the top of that to make a lid for it)

Now, when the meat is done, or, if you don't want to add meat, you can take the mixture that's in the pan, and make it into a gravy ( leave it simmering on low), by adding the rue ( flour & water mixture, be sure you have gotten all the lumps out!) into the pan. It will thicken up quite quickly, so add a touch more cold water (or coconut milk) to the mixture, plus the rest of the soy sauce to thin it to taste, making sure you scrape up all the goodness off the bottom of the pan. Tast the gravy, and see if it needs more saltiness, if so add a little more soy sauce, if it tastes too salty, add a bit more water, and if it's perfect, it must be ready to serve! Once you get to this point, you can add a few long fresh stems of green onion, makes it look pretty.

I like to make up a pot of jasmine or basmati rice to compliment the curry, but plain old regular rice works too. Also, corn, broccoli, spinach, greens, beets, etc, compliment curry very nicely.

If you have left-overs, the best place for them is with scrambled eggs in the morning! No kidding, left-over curry and eggs are simply DIVINE! Especially in chapati's or even corn or flour tortilla shells, if you don't have chapati's.

Dinner anyone?

polyacrylamides Science Fun (or gushy colored diaper crystals )

2007-08-30T15:00:00.000-06:00

Yup, that's right ~ our science experiment was all about gushy diaper crystals! Of course, we don't have anyone in diapers anymore, so we just went to the store and got a bunch of these little science experiment kits, and they were cooler, anyway, cuz they were COLORED in bright pink, orange, blue & yellow.

Izzy presented the science experiment, ( dig his funky whiteboard drawings! ;-D)

everyone had fun *growing* them,

& we learned that polyacrylamides can get REALLY BIG!!!

See that little petri dish the crystals are all crowded into in this pic? Well, Kat took 2 out and put them in their own little petri dish, and decided she wanted to ~feed the monster~, and see just how BIG they really COULD get!

And here they are, one day later, EEWWWAALLGHHH!!

They really ARE gushy!

And to think I was changing my kids' diapers every two or three hours! I CLEARLY could have gotten at LEAST 3 days longer in them ~ those puppies suck up some SERIOUS moisture!

Chip mining ~ Geology at it's yummiest ~

2007-08-31T09:19:00.000-06:00

Well today, I am blogging on the geology exercise we did. We actually did it the same day we did the gushy diaper crystals, but I wanted to drag it out so my blogs would be more fulfilling ~ ;-D ~ (I feel so fulfilled!)

All right, enough levity. This school stuff is SERIOUS BUSINESS! Well, ok, so it's not THAT serious, it's also fun ~ but GB ~ this is sorta just for you ~ We honestly did learn pertinent info to each child's grade specs ~ ;-D ~ but honestly, I am not a serious blogger, you know that. Well heck, ANYone who reads this blog knows that. I don't mind teaching it to the kids, but I just really don't want to recant it all on my blog ~ this is MY playground ~ ;-D

So, all that serious shhhhh-tufff aside ~ this is what we did for our intro to geology ~

Enter chocolate chip cookie mining!

The rules: Each whole chip is worth $500, each partial chip is worth $100, and for every piece of cookie left that is larger than a pencil lead, you get FINED $100.

The tools: Only a pair of double-tined toothpicks & a paper plate.

The time: Only 20 minutes, for every minute AFTER 20, you get fined $100.

It's a lot harder than you might think!

Ahhh, check out the messy table!! One thing I have to say, Learning is MESSY!!

AND, check out the winner ~ she made over $7,600 with her cookie. Of course, she was also the passer-outer of cookies, so, uuhhm , she may well have stacked the deck.

And what did they learn? About how mining resources can cause damage to the earth, the value of recycling, why minerals cost what they do, how difficult it is to reconstruct area that has been mined, how to pop chocolate chips & cram cookies; you know, the important things.

:-D

Pioneer History ~ hands on style!

2007-09-02T19:02:00.000-06:00

This summer, we decided to do a unit study on Pioneer History, to coincide with July 24, Pioneer Day. We did a lot of study up and reading of pioneer history, ate some pioneer food, found out about some interesting characters in the ~Old West~, and capped it all off with a trip to Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah on Pioneer Day. (Complete with costumes!! )

Pony rides were attached to the ring, but still fun.

This was a nicer version of pioneer house. ( Not a soddy or a cabin :-D)

A few of the girls having fun exploring the mini-town.

Up on the veranda of the saloon.

In one of the hallways of the big hotel.

On the stairs ~ waiting for dad & sis, so we could go eat.

What a cheeser!!

Hand cart RACE!.. Going.......

Going..........

GONE!

And how do you get a 14 yr old, a 15 yr old, & a grown man to wear costumes? I don't know... love?... dedication to their mother?.... begrudging acknowledgement of their mother's hard work in making the costumes?......they were reluctant at first, but as soon as they stepped into the park, folks began snapping their pictures, so naturally, they enjoyed every minute of it after that!

Hands-On Geology ~ or "1 More Reason Why My Kids LOVE Homeschooling"

2007-09-07T01:45:00.000-06:00

Our trip to Craters of the Moon

Atop one of the guided trails. It was so hot! In the air it was 97 F, on those black rocks, it was well over 115 F !!

The vast stretches of lava ~ I cannot imagine how anything lives out here, and yet it does!

Case in point, this lovely little fern does remarkably well.

Atop yet another peak. It was REALLY HOT!

The kids earned their ~Jr. Ranger~ badges & certificates, and were sworn in as official Jr. Rangers. I encourage all homeschooling parents to look into the Jr. Ranger programs available at all of the National Parks. They also have a Jr. Rangers Online :
http://www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.htm

as well as for individual parks:

http://www.cvnpa.org/junior-rangers-cuyahoga-valley-national-park-association.php

You can register and earn badges, patches, and certificates, there are activites, tests, and fun, environmentally aware programs & information for the children. Any age child can participate.

This is one of the curriculum books I am using for geology this yr. It is filled with fun activities for people of all ages, and will definitely cement complex concepts in simple ways. The activites can be expounded upon for older kids, and used simply as presented for the younger set. Think plate tectonics using graham crackers & icing, making a mini ice glacier, chip mining with chocolate chip cookies, an edible mini-earth model..... tons of fun!!

Here is another excellent book for earth science. My kids have all enjoyed taking part in these activities as well.

As some of you know, this is my 3 youngest kids' first year of full-on homeschooling, and to be quite honest, my 12 yr old was NOT thrilled with the prospect. However, as the summer & year have progressed, she has become more & more excited about it. She is finally beginning to realize the opportunities available to her that simply would have been out of the question in a public school environment.

Just today she came home utterly THRILLED about her photography class. Photography is something she has always wanted to explore, but has never had the time for. Now, however, she is able to study this at length. (In a couple of days, I will post a few of the pictures she shot of our neighbor's yard. )

In fact, my two oldest are sometimes quite wistful about homeschooling, as they head off to their Jefferson Education charter school classes. Naturally, they are welcome to homeschool as well, however, they are convinced that they must go for social interaction, and I allow them this, as I believe they are mature enough to make many important decisions.

I like to allow my children the opportunities to do for themselves what they are able to do, even if it sometimes means not getting it right the first few times; in this way, they can experience both failure & success in the home, and have the proper support for both. Naturally, both we & they try our best to make INFORMED choices. Along with choices come responsibilities, and my children also know that there are always consequences, whether good or bad. I believe this instills self-reliance & independence, as well as self-confidence, gained with successes; especially if the success follows previous failure. In this way, they also learn endurance & fortitude.

The MASSIVE Dollhouse Venture Part 1

2007-12-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

~ The Humble Beginnings ~

Ok, So what do you do when your darling little 7th grade homeschooler tells you that she wants to start a dollhouse as a project?? Wellll....... we jumped, both feet, no noseplugs or ANYthing!

Tony, the Wood Genius, said ~ "If you make up a sketch, I'll see what I can do."

So of course she proceeded to come up with the most elaborate sketch she could......

SOO ~ here is what we have been up to for the last month or so ~ and yes, this is EXACTLY why I haven't blogged in a while ~ ( oh yeah, I have excuses up the YINYANG ~ do you ever notice that I ALWAYS have an excuse for my blogging bluh's? ;-D It''s all true, I doooo ~ however, I think you may agree, this has to be one of the funnest excuses yet~)

Following are some of the progression pics of the dollhouse ~ it has gained a life of it's own ~ very strange, and now the other kids all want their own dollhouses, too... ( oh, except Izzy, he wants a Grover CABIN, which, he will inform you, is SO NOT a dollhouse, sorta like action figures as opposed to dolls.... ;-D)

The Sketches become reality

(and don't look at the background and comment on my dirty tv room~ I was sick with pneumonia at the time, and don't need any scathing remarks :-P)

The Wood Genius decided to make it out of Masonite, and join it with tabs & yellow wood glue because it's so huge, and he was trying to cut down on the overall weight. To do it again, however, we might just have dealt with the weight. Masonite takes a TON of paint, and makes it difficult to screw lights in the ceiling as well as nail anything. (Read into that, Jess's dollhouse won't be as big, OR out of Masonite ;-D)

The masonite DOES however make for very clean joinery, and after spackling the tabbed joints, and painting, they simply dissappear.

Some of the painting process ~ Kat chose all of the paint colors (despite my careful guidance ~ but, it's her dollhouse ~ though I suspect when she grows up, she will one day decide to just gut it and revamp ;-D..... I hope... :-D)

Laying the Flooring

This is what you do when you are sick with pneumonia and get cyanotic just walking around. To pass the time, I hand-layed every single board in that darn dollhouse ~ except for one room, which Kat did,.... oddly enough, she decided to concentrate on other aspects of decorating after that.... hmmmmm...

This pic is of cutting the board to fit. Tony made us a little miter box, which we used to excess, absolutely a necessity.

Another handy tool ~ the awl. I used this to make little holes in all the ends of the floorboards to simulate nailholes. Then I dipped the ends into stain to darken the holes. Naturally, I had already stained each of the boards., but dipping the ends in just seemed to make the edges and the holes stand out a little more. Also, what can I say, there I was, stuck for 4 weeks in the house, dying of pneumonia, so, what else did I have to do?

Another necessity ~ one of those little monoject syringes, filled with yellow wood glue. You can get a very thin bead of glue down with it, very cleanly. Too much glue will cause the floorboards to bow up, since they are thin pieces and the glue is water based. However, with a thin bead of glue, it works very nicely, plus you have a small window of positioning time, which can come in very handy.

This pic also shows me starting to lay a room at the back, however, I should say this : I first layed out the boards to figure out how many it would take, measured the amount left over of the final board, and then started with those in the back, so that the actual final boards in the front are full-sized and don't show the fitting. I did that for all but the first floor. In fact, for the first floor, I didn't even realize you aren't supposed to make a "pattern" with the wood, but rather lay it out randomly, with the joints at random lengths. However, I was NOT going to dig up that entire floor, and besides which, (after Tony the Wood Genius mentioned the whole random thingy in the first place ~ dang it, he's always right!!), as Tony said, it will give the house ~Character~ :-D.

Part 2

The MASSIVE Dollhouse Venture Part 2

2007-12-02T06:40:00.000-07:00

PART 2

All right, I was unable to load any more pics into part one, so this will show some of the finished floors.

This is one convenient way to keep down a deviant floorboard till the glue takes. And the glue takes within 5 or 6 minutes, so it's no big deal. Also, this pic shows the wider 1" strips of alder that the Wood Genius made. (AFTER I had done most of the house in popsicle sticks... argh!) Have to admit it, they look good.

This pic shows some of the flooring made with 1/2" or less popsicle sticks, which was my idea. I used these because Wood Genius was busy working, and I HAD to get started, and popsicle sticks are already cut & pretty much smooth. We did have to troll for bent out of whack sticks, however, so if you are going to make a floor out of popsicle sticks, I reccomend getting the box with 1000 in it, that way you can be picky and get straighter pieces.

Here you can see my pattern faux pas ~ made it almost the whole way through the kitchen before Wood Genius came and commented ~ what would I do without him?!

Here is the floor I made for the laundry room ( or bathroom, Kat changes her mind daily). It is made to resemble a terracotta tile floor. I used air-dry clay ( by Crayola, not sure if there are other brands) and foodcoloring to get the right color. Then I mushed it in till it was REALLY workable, and colored evenly. Next, I laid down some wax paper, and put the clay between layers of wax paper, and rolled it uniformly flat, trimming it to fit the paper room template. Then I used a plastic ruler with a fine edge to mark and score the clay.

I had to dip the ruler EVERY time I scored it, otherwise it would grip the clay and bring it up. Also, something I didn't realize, and then had to fix ~ air-dry clay shrinks a little, so you have to actually make your floor a little bigger than the room template, I would say by at least 1/4". Also, if you want to make little designs in your floor, find a rubber stamp with a basic small design, dip it in water, and stamp away. Just remember to dip every time.

This next thing is really pretty important ~ DON'T let the clay dry all the way ~ otherwise it gets VERY brittle and shrinks more! SO, you have to lay the floor when the clay is still slightly pushable, but not moldable. (Half-dried?) I used the yellow wood glue again, to glue it down, and then covered it with several coats of Kelthane II. Now, you might think that it would be a problem to put Kethane over the top of half-dry clay, but it wasn't, it worked beautifully.

The wax paper smooshing over the clay when it was rolled makes a good tile look. The Kelthane is a perfect floor protectant too. It makes it so that the clay is no longer brittle, and gives it a real clay tile look. I also used Kelthane II on all of the wood flooring, it gives great shine & protection.

And here we have the sideways pic! ( sorry about that ~ lazy blogging, I know!) This is the bathroom floor. Wood Genius simply took a 12" x 12" sheet of regular vinyl tile flooring, and cut it into 1" squares on the table saw. Then I simply arranged it on the floor, peeled off the backing, and VOILA! ~ bathroom floor in moments. (Well, compared to that wood flooring, anyway ~ ;-D) One thing about the vinyl, just start your tiles out in one corner and staircase them, so that you always have a V to fit the next one into, that way, your tiles stay very true.

I also put a wood strip in front of the tiling, so that it would protect it better, ( yes, I later painted it gray, looked better! :-D) as well as a coat of kelthane.

Here are the stairs on the 2nd floor, see the mousy I painted in? And the cobweb? And the mousy hole Kat painted in? And just in case you think I have taken over the project... well... you are only half-right ~ Kat did a WHOLE lot of this as well, and she painted a TON. She also put both of the stairs together, and laid the blue room carpet. See, I didn't do it ALL! ;-D

Do you notice in the pics how the little things keep managing to move in before the work is actually done? Kat told her Alaska Grandma what she was up to, and she immediately sent Kat a bunch of really cute doll furniture and accessories from when Wood Genius was a kid, and well, it's been hard to keep the stuff out of of there ever since :-D (Gee, almost like it was MEANT to be in there ~ these doll houses do tend to take on a life of their own, it's strange, really.)

Here is one of the rooms to be carpeted. I used a low nap upholstry fabric, and double-sided sticky tape ( the good stuff from the Wood Genius' shop, of course :-D) I haven't put the protective strip of wood on the carpeted rooms yet, but they will get one long strip, painted the color of the carpet. That way, it will look finished, plus protect the edges of the carpeting, and maybe even help stuff stay in the room? (Kat's paint job for the nursery ~ see? If I had REALLY taken over, I would have repainted that ~ ;-D)

Part 3

The MASSIVE Dollhouse Venture Part 3

2007-12-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

PART 3

All right, I'll bet by now you are wondering just what this dollhouse looks like all put together, since up till now I have merely shown bits and pieces of it.

Here we have from the front, with no molding, no window trimming, no nothing on the ouside yet except a bit of trim around the roof line. This is because it's so VERY much funner to do all that itty bitty stuff on the inside. However, I was reading this book on miniatures by a Marion Mave O'Brien (sp?) and she SPECIFICALLY cautioned about getting too caught up in the insides before you finish the outsides. Boy is she right.

This picture shows the full extension drawer guide that Tony the Wood Genius used to support the front half of the dollhouse when opened. This makes it possible to have 2 kids playing and arranging without knocking elbows.

This is my cheesy mitered trim, Wood Genius was annoyed that I did not fit it better, over that brass piano hinge. I carved it to fit, but, of course, you don't see the words "Wood Genius" in front of MY name. ;-P

Trim still needs to be spackled, painted, etc.

This is my free-handed cheesy answer to Wood Genius being too busy to make a chimney box. Some Day I will add a real box on there, even if it only sticks out 1/4", and paint the stones on again. As it is, I mixed fine sand with the paint to make it a ~stone~ texture. It does feel correct, even if th e chimney sorta swaaaayyyys.

And here it is, open. You can see Kat papered the kitchen in contact paper trim. A little large in design, but oh well. Kat did it herself, and she did a darn good job of it. We found some FANTASTIC websites for wallpaper ~ http://www.jennifersprintables.com/ ~

She has tons of other fun miniature printies there as well.

We will show more pics of the dollhouse after we get some of those prints put up. I think that papering does sucha fine job of scaling a room. Just paint really doesn't seem to translate scale very well.

We also don't have any base or ceiling trim moldings up yet, which will help too.

Here is a shot before we hinged the front to the back and finished the flooring ~ you can see how those little miniatures just seem to gravitate towards the house, regardless of progress on the whole.

Here we have 2 different bathroom versions. I kind of think the teeny tiny terracotta room is just right for a bathroom. (All right, all right, I have to admit it, I was the one that set this & the other bathroom pic up ~ they were just so CUTE, it was hard to resist. But I really HAVE to get that outer trim and inside moldings & papering done.....)

This is the Luxurious Large bathroom ~ too much room, I think ~ I might have to talk Kat into putting the laundry room in here, instead. Laundry rooms can have swirly tile, right? ;-D

Uh oh ~ here you can REALLY see that snasty pattern faux pas in the flooring ~ but I DON'T CARE ~ I am so NOT digging that floor up ... it adds character, ..... it adds character... it adds character.....

Next Dollhouse Venture post will show papered walls and (I hope!!) trim moldings.

PART 4

The MASSIVE Dollhouse Venture Part 4

2007-12-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I have this little confession to make ~ I have started on the little tiny dollhouse things ~ but I HAVEN'T finished trimming out the exterior of the dollhouse yet ~ I think I may take this opportunity to blame it on Kat.... It's HER dollhouse, right? She REALLY needs to get on it, and trim out that exterior. Sheesh! The lackadaisical attitude some people's kids have developed of late!!

;-D

OK, that over, wanna see some really awesome little tiny things? :-D

Well, Kat & I think they are really awesome, anyway!

If you want to really see them up close, click on them, and you can get a MUCH bigger pic.

This is a little collection of decanters, flasks, perfume bottles, and candle sticks that I made out of different beads I had. I also used some odd shaped nuts, a wall screw thingy, and some buttons for the bases of the chinese jars, and I used porcupine quills for the candles. The natural brown on the ends of the quills were perfect for a burnt wick look, and on the pair that didn't have the brown, I just markered it on. Also, I just used regular dollar store super glue. I recommend the gel kind for the bead work, rather than the thinner liquid kind, as the liquid kind tends to drip, run, and get your fingers stuck to everything!
I put a quarter in some of the pics, so you can sort of gauge the size.

Here are some little boxes and food containers. We were able to get the printies off of http://www.jennifersprintables.com/ . I used plastic from a WalMart bag to make the cereal liner, and wood shavings compliments of Wood Genius for the grape nuts & corn flakes. I also weighted the boxes with either a piece of wood glued to the bottom of the inside of the boxes or put cornstarch into them. For the gelatin & starch boxes, I just glued the printie around a piece of wood cut to fit.

Perhaps you can see the tiny size by noticing the wooden spool of thread or the needle packet in the background.

Here are a collection of miniature dolls I have made for the dollhouse. The largest doll is all porcelain, 6" tall, and she was actually a dollar store find. I just stripped off her cheesy fake Hawaiian outfit & made her some new clothes out of vintage fabrics & laces.

The other three dolls I made are out of porcelain body parts that I got off of eBay, with hand stitched leather bodies. They have wire armatures, and are stuffed with sawdust. Again, thanks to Wood Genius.

This tiny baby doll is so little, she is only 1 1/2" tall. Yes, that's one and a half. :-D

I hand stitched their outfits out of vintage laces & silk ribbons. Perhaps you can see the smocking on the little blue baby dress. I had to use a single strand of sewing thread to make it the right size.

Ahhh... see the little girl? She is holding her baby sister ~ the little girl is only 3" tall.

Here you can see her leather body, and the porcelain parts. You can also see the hand stitching, which looks large in this close-up pic, but is really hardly visible to the naked eye. (well, to MY naked eye, anyway... your naked eye may be better eyesighted than mine....naked eyes, you know...) I was extremely lucky to find these tiny porcelain parts on eBay, I have never seen anything so tiny to make dolls from since. I have seen larger pieces, but nothing scaled to this perfect 1/12 size, unless you go with pre-made pipe-cleaner dolls from China or Germany. None with my leather bodies, however. :-D

Hopefully, they last a good long time, which is why I made them out of leather. Remember, Kat says she is going to hand this down to a granddaughter, so I have to make things that will hold up. :-D ( It's my duty...heheheh) Plus it's fun!

And last, but definitely not least, here is Wood Genius, to whom we must once again, say thanks!! He keeps providing us with lots & lots of fun things from the shop to use, as well as ideas and technical support. (Kat & I are sorta clueless, we admit this freely, and without shame. After all, as I have mentioned before ~ you don't see the words "Wood Genius" tacked on in front of either of OUR names! ;-D)

For Part 5 of this Venture, I will show some of the furniture that Wood Genius has made into kits for us. ( that is a 2-fold reasoning ~ 1) Kat & I feel like we are actually *good* at making cute miniatures, and 2) Wood Genius doesn't spend all his time making miniatures. :-D)

Isn't he beautiful? ( and he would say ~ "Yup, that's what I strive for, beautiful......" ) :-d

PART 5

P.E. ~ Homeschool style

2008-02-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

(Buried by the bloggernots)

Ahhhh ~ time to blog again, I see. Once again I have managed to neglect my blogger-duties for a month and a half run ~

The truth is, homeschooling takes a heck of a lot of time!

Yup, that's my excuse this time ~ That's my ssstory & Aaahhhhh'm sssstickin' to it!

(Can't get that song out of your head, now, can yah? heheh, you see how I have effectively diverted all derogatory, impure thoughts of a slacking blogger to a catchy little tune that deflects naughtiness & slyly imposes cathartic rationalization :-D... ain't I clever?)

(digging oneself out of the pit)

So we've had a lot of snow lately...... and my kids were complaining that it just plain wasn't fair that all the other PUBLIC SCHOOL kids were getting snow days, and O~Woe is them~ homeschool kids just don't seem to NEED snow days.......

In my infinite mother-wisdom, I thought up a brilliant plan ~ pretend you're at Valley Forge,

& you have to make up embankments, forts, and other hasty, snowy living quarters ~ & thus,

the grandDaddy of all Snow Forts was born.

See the cars in the background? This is some SERIOUS snow. Well, for US, anyway. Now, I know the Canadians & Alaskans have us licked, but for Idaho, we're doin' perty dern gewd.

:-D

So this is how my kids spend their recesses & P.E.'s ~ homeschool style. Amazingly enough, not a single child was punished for kicking snow, throwing snowballs, sliding down the snow piles, making a fort, or even picking up ice.

~Behind the scenes story: Last year, when my kids were still in public school, my son was walking along at recess one day, tripped on a bit of ice, and ~get this~ actually got punished for kicking up a bit of snow on his way down. Yes, it's true, they punished him for kicking up snow as he fell on the ice. Playground duty nazi's. To make the punishment all the more *memorable*, those dear lovely people then made my son stand against a shaded cold brick wall and do nothing in 13 degree weather, because he was such a sinner in kicking up that bit of snow as he fell. Couldn't even move to keep his body warm. Came home with a cold. Yes, that was just about the last straw. ~

We have grown to not only love, but truly EMBRACE, homeschooling. The level of agency, joy, freedom, & positive education has risen to such heights! We could never go back, not physically, not mentally.

Yes, it's time-consuming; yes, it's far more intensive; yes, some days it's even a struggle ~ but oh ~ the rewards are so much the greater. One day, I believe I will post the essays my kids wrote about homeschool, but for now, a little ode ( yes, yes, I know, I am waxing ode-ious, tut, tut).

A Little Ode

Who can say the joy, who can say the gain

who can see the difference, in a child's world again?

To be a little one, to live those years once more

to look into the past, and see the future's store.

Ah, the joy of learning, of seeing each new thing,

Ah the simple delight, of a butterfly on the wing.

The wonder in her eyes, as she sees her garden grow,

the awe upon his face, as he gains new things to know.

Did I really *teach* them anything new today?

Or did I simply open a new page along the way~

a path they can trod down, if only they should wish it

a tome of life exploring, such knowledge to transmit!

For in the end I know tis true, I do not educate them,

instead they educate themselves, & cut their own fair gem.

Indeed I often see, in moments dear & merry

each child a bright young jewel, their own self lapidary.

For who can cut upon the face, such brilliant shine & luster

Than the own sweet child himself, as much as he can muster.

Yes, The fire to learn flares deep within,

'tis not a thing I do,

but rather what light I might reflect,

upon the mind therein.

~C. G.

I know it doesn't rhyme so hot, but it's 2:30 in the am,

(That'sssss my sssstory, & Aaahh'mm ssstickin' to it!)

:-D

Spring has Sprung! ~ Sorta

2008-03-12T18:45:00.011-06:00

Well, I have to admit it ~ the springy new-seeds-&-planting-devices-so-you-can-feel-less-hemmed-in-by-the-seemingly-ever-present-visage-of-a-snowbound-yard-stuff bug has bitten us all HARD this year! Those demographically correct advertising consultants certainly do know their stuff ~

A quick stroll through Wally-world, Home Repo, & Slowes will truly get the green blood pumping ~ straight into that thumb! And if you have an especially robust case of it, the green stuff well may spread straight up your wrist and into your wallet as well. I know I was affected.

How badly? Wweeeeeeeellllllll...........

Pretty badly.

Actually.

So badly that I had to gear an entire week around garden plotting, graphing, layout, seed purchasing ( did you know that our $1 store had seeds at 8/$1? WAHHOOO! *YES* I succumbed...) , and other sundry starting cells, & cold-framing accoutrements. Heck, I even included a ~science experiment~ in the lot, making it count for that as well.

This is a bean that we soaked for a few days so that it would easily split in two. Thus the tiny baby plant inside can be seen, even with the naked eye.

And of course, it can be seen even better with a little magnification.

After we learned about the parts of a plant, and their specific duties, we delved into garden plotting, planting zones, soil requirements, lighting requirements, fertilization & insect control, and of course, the big *What do we want to plant ..... that is reasonable... in our zone 4.7 area* question. ( waaahhaaa, I wish we were zone 5.5 at least....so many lovely plants cut off....)

First we planted the herb pots. (Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, chives, lavender, & basil.)

And labeled everything.

Then we got down to REAL business, with all of the vegetables & flowers.

Here are some of our finished rooting cells. (That plethora of chafing pans surely did come in handy!! Five jiffy pack peat cells fit perfectly there-in.)

Update: The next morning we woke up and ALREADY some of the lettuce, spinach, peas, and tomatoes were sprouting out!! YEAH!

One of the tricks?

A plate, some napkins, and a spritzer filled with very warm water. We also watered down the rooting cells with the warm water after filling them with soil. Once the seeds sat on the wet paper towels for a few minutes, we just sprinkled them onto the top of the cells. Then we plastic-wrapped the whole affair & let them sit overnight. Next morning, we spritzed them with warm water again, sprinkled a light layer of soil over the top, and spritzed again. And what do you know, those little seeds have already started sprouting! The kids are thrilled, as we didn't think we would get such immediate results ~ in fact, I was going off of the pkg info, which said germination in 5-10 days. so... WOO ~hoo!!

Shout out to my sister ~ Hester, you would SOO love homeschooling ~ in fact, I think my other sistah's would too, it's so much more fun than public, AND you can do SO much more! I can't wait till the sidewalks are free of ice & snow, as we are going to hold school at the parks, & etc. We can ride our bikes over to the greenbelt, the museum, and several other parks ~ it is just SOO much cooler than public! :-D

Comedy & Tragedy

2008-03-28T00:21:00.006-06:00

Et tu, Brute? ( yah, yah, yah, but it fits the picture)

I find this little lesson on Ancient Greek history rather amusing ~ a tragic comedy indeed!

Ένας αρουραίος στο σπίτι μυρίζει ~ αλλά μια μυρωδιά στοσπίτι μπορεί να είναι δύσκολη στον αρουραίο έξω.

nos venit , nos video , nos victum ~

~yes, it's a moldy oldy, but a goodie woodie ~

The kids are learning Latin from the Rosetta Stone homeschool series ~ excellent, & I HIGHLY reccomend it! They speak better Latin than I do at the moment.

Among other things, we also had great fun sculpting & labeling the heart

and the digestive system.

I would show you Izzy's version of this, however, it was a little too crude. Yes, he included the stinky, lumpy brown end results. All I can do is point to Wood Genius & say, "That must be Your son!" (to which Mr. Wood Genius simply smiles, flicks a conspiratorial smirk in Izzy's general direction and proudly acknowledges all stink relations.....)

We did weavings, ( part of our trip through Europe & Asia with Marco Polo)

as well as model ships.

This candy lab had to be one of the most disgusting labs ever ~ in part because we actually tasted the results of our lab-work. ( It was dealing with the different chemical reactions of sugar heated to various temps, & the like.) Included were rootbeer, gummi candies, marshmallows, & bubblegum. BLeaahhgg!

Here we have Valentine's Day woven heart baskets. They were quite fun & a little challenging. I am thinking some origami would be great as well. Definitely going to be included when we cover Japan.

And of course, the dead, drowned fly experiment. We swatted this fly without squishing him, ( a stunning blow :-0 ) drowned him ( held him under water till he quit struggling... ooohhh .. how sadistic!..), let him sit there drowned for a few hours, and then put him on a bed of salt, and covered him with salt ~ & Voila!~ within moments ~ re-incarnated to fresh NEW FLY status! It was beautiful. We all wept. And then smashed him for good. Gotta love homeschool ~ smashing him for good afterward wouldn't have been very politically correct in Public school. Yep, that's why WE homeschool... so we can still smash the flies and be gleeful in our doing so. (:7-- <<<---

That's a chicken face ~ pre-cursor to the next blog entry, & our latest homeschool adventure.

Treehouse ~ Or is it tree house?

2008-03-30T19:55:00.010-06:00

Ok, so we have this treehouse that we have been working on for a while now. Wood Genius has recently been re-invigorated into finishing this project ~ possibly because all of us have made a pact to finish it this spring, AND we are actually doing it. Naturally, whenever I work on a project, he feels a massive desire to get involved as well. This is actually part of my master planning. You see, the truth is, I am not all that hot or technical with wood, mathematics, and dangerous wood-cutting tools. However.... hehehe ... BWAAAAhahahahahah.... I DO possess enough sense ~ CUNNING sense ~ to realize that Wood Genius IS. AND, I also know this secret ~ it drives him INSANE to see me royally screwing up a project. ..... :-D.... And hence we obtain take-off.

Yes, I know, it's all so Huck Finn of me, but you know, there is a great deal of pleasure in the machinations.

Well, I could go on, but why? You get the idea. Like she said in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "Yes, the man is the head of the house, but the woman, she is the neck, and the neck, it turns the head, aaannnyyy way she want to."

That's the idea, anyway. It also helps a LOT that this particular project is one that Wood Genius is IMMENSELY interested in. He has had SOOO much fun doing it. So, without further ado, I will show some pics of our as-yet-unfinished treehouse.

Ughh ~ the yard looks awful ~ it's that gushy 10-tons-of-snow-just-melted-into-your-yard plus all-the-crap-you-didn't-clean-up-last-fall look.

There is even some snow still left ~ however, we are trying hard not to focus on that, and we hope you will too. :-D Perhaps if we all concentrate on no more snow together, it will really come true, and spring can once again come to Narnia.

This is Wood Genius with the entire neighborhood up in the treehouse, scheming on the final touches. The table & benches that turn into a huge sleeping area, the little kitchenette, complete with a pump & thus ~running water~, book shelves, hooks for flashlights, windows that open, battlements ( or flowerboxes, depending on the gender) to be used in rubberband-gun wars, pulley's for the baskets, & about a hundred other fun ideas. One little gal came up with a grand idea of making a split front door, with a peephole on the bottom half.

Another child decided that French doors leading out to the miniscule deck would be enchanting.

And Wood Genius came up with this great handle to make sure that no-one could ever get locked out there.

And here are the windows & screens that just need plexi-glass & hinges added.

See? Not even a layer of dust! We are actually going to install these tomorrow, & paint & install the doors after that. I have been swaying back & forth between painting the outside of the treehouse in a barn red, with white accents, ( it would match the shed) or staining it with a natural cedar ( sort of an orange-ish tint). The cedar color would probably blend into the tree & yard better, but I think the red would be far cuter. Naturally, Wood Genius & young son are not for the *cute* version. They would rather have the *spy-guy hiding in the woods secretively* version.

So, I am taking a poll: Which is better? Barn red (very dark, with white accents)

or Natural orangey-ish cedar stain

Chicken Adventures ~ Baby Chicks!

2008-04-04T21:35:00.012-06:00

So this is our latest homeschool adventure ~ we now have 12 little peeping balls of fuzz!!! And they are SOO cute!! And we are SOOO popular with all the neighborhood kids! And I'll be SOOOO impressed if half of them make it into adult-hood ~ cuz they are SOOOOOO loved!

Ok, so ~ enough of that ~ :-D ~ Let's look at the little ladies. {:^-- (<<<--isn't that a cute chicken-head?)

First, we read up on chickens, & egg-layers for our area, & what it takes to brood them, & raise pullets for laying, and all of that. Then we went to a wonderful little family-run farm (small world, turned out Wood Genius knew the gentleman who owned it through Scouting) where they let us go & look at their hens, along with all the other animals they had. ( There were goats, lambs, peacocks, & I think even a cow or two.)

They had mostly Rhode Island Reds & Sex-links, but they also said that some are ~indiscriminate mix & match~.

Our next step was to prepare a brooder, & order the chicks. On the day of their arrival, we heated up the brooder so it would be all nice & warm for the chicks, & then waited with baited breath. And finally, AT LAST ~ They came!

This is a Rhode Island Red, a Barred Rock, & an Auracauna.

Here you can also see the Buff Orpington's, and the White Leghorns. Also, notice that mason jar feeder. These little ladies are only on their second day of life, first day at our house, and they have already consumed almost an entire mason jar of medicated chick starter. AND, they have gone through an entire mason jar of water as well. Which makes for quite the lovely toodles ( or shall we say *chicken gravy*).

These are Liz's Buff Orpington's.

This is is Izzy's Auracauna.

Bek chose Barred Plymouth Rocks.

Aren't they SOOO SWEETTT??

And perky, too. So far, we haven't had any problems with mean chickens, but they have already established a pecking order.

Kat chose White Leghorns.

And Jess & I chose Rhode Island Red's.

This little lady is the only one I am worried about ~ She is sort of listless, sleeps more than the other chicks, & she is also tinier than the other ones. She toddles around with her wings sort of dragging. Here she is, ~ going.....

Gooooiiinnnggg..........

Gone! The next step, is where she lays her beak down on the ground and just sort of hunches there, snoring away.

Anyway, more on the Chicken Adventures soon! Hopefully, they make it through the night, other wise, we'll have 5 highly distraught youth, as well as about 7 sad little neighbors. (All of whom wish, on a regular basis, that they too could be homeschooled.)

(:^-- {;>)= (:^--

Tree House update!

2008-04-18T14:30:00.007-06:00

Well folks (isn't that just so comfy-like-I-know-yah-all? :-D) I took a poll. and Barn Red won! SOOOO ~ here are some updated pics of the treehouse, sans all the white trim yet, but at least the barn red bit is done.

Wood Genius installed the windows, screens & doorways, as well as the deck railing.

Almost all of the wood in this treehouse is ~re-claimed~. Most of it has been endcuts or left-overs from jobs that Wood Genius had. Even the plexi-glass windows and screens are re-cycled. We didn't want to use actual plate glass, since this treehouse will be used by kids ~ LOTS of kids! :-D Also, the supports & framework are all of sound lumber. Again, just being on the safe side.

This is the little dutch door, with the secret hand-stuff-through-the-door cut-out on the lower half. Either the top or the bottom may be opened.

Here you can see a better view of the deck. This will also be in white accents. I suppose you can kind of see the french doors leading out to the deck as well.

This is the bald little kitchen(ette!) window, where Wood Genius intends to hang a flower box/battlement, depending on your gender. But it's gonna be a battlement with flowers in it! :-D We'll likely want to put the same under the dinette windows as well. Naturally once the leaves grow in, it will look much more treehouse-y.

And we all loved Corrie's idea of growing ivy up through the whole thing. I will have to see if it will choke out the tree too much. This old tree is a Dutch Elm, and it fell sick to that horrid nemesis, the dutch elm disease. However, through various loving efforts of extra nutrition, watering, clipping, removal of affected limbs, and basic pray-that-the-tree-house-tree-will-survive nursing tactics, it seems to bounce back to better health every year.

Now that the treehouse is almost finished, it's time ( it's REALLY time) to start looking at housing for the chicks. We have to clean out their brooder twice a day to make sure they don't stink up the house. But they are getting quite large. I swear they have already doubled in size, and they are only 2 weeks old today! Those little biddies grow like weeds! We have had a nice day or two, where temps were in the 60's to 70's, so the chicks got to go outside & play for a bit in the little ~play-yard~ Wood Genius made. I hope & pray that we continue to have decent weather, since I really don't want to keep these little ladies in the house any longer than necessary. If they were getting raised by a real hen ( instead of the brooder light/all of us), I am sure she would have had them tromping about the yard regardless of the weather. At any rate, I'll do the next post on them, and the coop.

Guess What? Chicken BUTT! Coop is DONE! It's a Chicken Tractor!

2008-04-30T13:00:00.019-06:00

UPDATE ~ If you scroll all the way to end, I added the finished product ~ so the tractor is done ~ now for the real coop........... ( better not mention this to Wood Genius just yet... best to let it lie for a day or three..... hehehehe... BWAAAHAHAHAHA... ;-D )

WOO HOO!! SO ~ we got the chicken coop done!! Well, ok, ALLLLLmost done ~ the kids & I still have to paint it. And I am thinking that good ol' Barn Red with white accents is just gonna be IT ~ what do you all think? Afterall, that WOULD tie in with the shed & the treehouse.

So ~ I know what you all are waiting for ~ PICTURES!
And we DO have pictures!

This is meant to be the portable chicken tractor, or also known as the chicken arc. It is based loosely ( ever so loosely) on the boughton forsham models that can be found online. Since we have 16 chickens right now, and will have 10 after the fair, we needed to make our tractor a little larger.

We decided to go with the A-frame style, as it made up for less mass in the long run to transport. And with Wood Genius making it, we knew it could get complicated fast. Here is a pic of the basic frame with supports in the corners, so that nothing wracks when it is being transported.

oops ~ lazy blogging, sorry ~ sideways pic. Just a close-up of the joinery ~ easy sqeazy so far.

Here is a pic of the feeders, on extending drawer guide arms. Wood Genius used a 3/8 drill to drill through 3 times in a line so that the arms could extend out, thus saving your back. That way, the feeder & waterer can just be hooked on and slid back, or slid forward to remove & re-fill.

These are heavy-duty drawer guides, and will easily hold the weight of the galvanized metal 2 gallon double walled waterer & the five gallon feeder.

(Had to move it back into the shop to work on it, as it was getting quite dark out.) Here you can see the flooring going in. It should be mentioned that the wood being used is 2x2's, & I believe 3/8 material.

Here you can see the chicken ramp on hinges, plus the framework for the ramp.

This shows the nest boxes & the flooring installed. There are 3 nest boxes, and we made them a little larger inside, but still a nice snug hole to crawl through & feel safe with.

Now you can see the roosts installed, as well as the back and top of the tractor. You can also see the vents at the apex. We used a very strong wire for this. Also visible is the 1 1/2" gap between the inner melamine wall and the outer 3/8" sheeting wall. This, & the back side, is where Wood Genius installed 1 1/2" styrofoam core insulation. The door is also insulated.

Vents are a bit more visible here. Also visible is the pulley system to raise & lower the chicken ramp. There is the rope & the nail to hold it when the ramp is closed.

Follow the rope over, and down it goes through a hole drilled in the flooring.

This is the pulley in the roof. These pulleys make sure that the rope doesn't get run ragged by snagging on the wood. The pulley is just hanging by a screw screwed through.

oops, another sideways pic. The rope is shown here heading through the vent above the nest boxes, to another pulley.

Voila! A close-up of the outside pulley above the nest boxes.

Ok, this is just showing the foamcore.

And what have we here? A BUTT shot! Can't say "Guess what? Chicken BUTT!" without a butt shot at least SOMEwhere. heheheh. Wouldn't he be so annoyed if he saw this? :-D

However, I actually have a better reason for the pic. It is showing the door fitting on.

I forgot to add that this is actually one of those ~green~ coops, because almost every single bit of wood on here was harvested from left-overs, the dump ( see that pile of 2x4's?), old fence parts, and various other places.

And here is the door on. The handles are close enough together for one person to lift if they are bigger, & far enough apart for two smaller kids to lift off together. (It's good for them, makes them work as a team.....) :-D

Hmmmmm... trying to remember why I uploaded this pic... Maybe just to show the ramp in closed position. Also, see the rungs are spaced so that even with a fair amount of snow or chicken goo, the ramp can still be closed completely. Also showing the roosts, which are positioned higher than the nest boxes to discourage pooey eggs. ( The chickens will choose to roost in the nest boxes if they are higher... I don't know why, it's a chicken thing..)

Here's the whole contraption, alMOST all the way finished. From the side/back.

From the side/front. Note the wooden latches to make sure the nest boxes are all the way shut. The little doors will make egg gathering easy.

Latches secure the door as well, just for predators' sake. (Little kids in the neighborhood can't reach that high... that's pretty much the main concern.) Also, the vents open and latch shut... We get winters down to -20F, so the chickens will need to be warm. While not shown, the heat lamp will be able to be dropped down through a hole drilled in the roof, and we will just use an extension cord ( heavy duty, shop type) to either light the heat lamp or, when they are older, to extend their perception of daylight so that egg-laying continues through the winter.

Last night & today, Wood Genius installed the hardware fabric around the base. ( which, by the way, isn't really fabric at all ~ what a cruel joke to play on a fabriholic...it's really just metal wire with a whole bunch of little bitty square holes in it. ) And now he is off buying the wheel set-up, which will consist of large lawn mower wheels, connected & used in the same manner as the boughton forsham chicken arc/tractor. These will be installed on the nest box side, as it is the heaviest. He will also install a large bar on the end opposite the nest boxes, so that we can reposition the tractor once a week. (During the winter, this will obviously not be easily moved, so we will add additional run space, connected to the bottom of the tractor, via the removable screen end.)

And the last thing to do will be to paint it up, and add chickens! {:>)=

Well, I am going to keep adding pics here as he finishes it up ~ I keep running out there to take pics for each phase.

Ok, so here you can kind of see the removable screen door there on the end, with a latch to close it up tightly. You might also notice the dolly and the suspiciously wet ground.

Yup, it's true! Here in Idaho, it could be shining one minute and literally SNOWING the next!! Where is the justice in that?!? See that? Green grass with a snowy blanket ~ AAARRGGHHHHH !!!!

UPDATE!!! ~ YEAH! It stopped snowing and actually got sunny enough that Bek painted the tractor ~ Next post ~ the Garden project!!

Canning, Canning, ALL the day...

2008-10-24T00:46:00.006-06:00

give oh giiivee away!! ( Sung in tune to the primary song of Give Said the Little Stream)

Doesn't it always seem like the more you can, the more you end up giving away? Like you have to share the bounty, you know?

Yup, that's what I've been doing the last little bit here ~ ok, the last MONTH or TWO ~ besides homeschooling, Cub Scouts, acting classes, ballroom dance classes, chickens, friends in need, husband's web-site needing re-designed & added to.......oh yeah, and somewhere in there... household management, dinner, & from time to time... sleep.

So, yah wanna see what I've been up to? The fruits of my labor & all that jazz?

This lovely red gem is crabapple syrup. It can be used as either waffle & ice-cream topping, or as sweet & sour sauce for Asian dishes, such as fried rice, egg rolls, won ton, & etc. It has just enough bite to make you smile, but not enough to make you grimace. ;-D

Here is a representative sample :-D of some of the other things I have been canning ~ the small jar with the white ring ( yes, I remove my rings, I just didn't yet with the pic) is plum jelly from my plum tree out back ( 6 gallons worth). I also did plum syrup & plum jam. (About 10 gallons worth.) The pink-ish quart jar is crabapple/apple butter. (We call it pink applebutter ~ sorta like pink lemonade... it has a tang, and it's a good one :-D, & we did 3 1/2 gallons worth.) The next quart jar is regular apple butter ( 4 1/2 gallons). The pint jar is grape juice, from grapes out of my mother's garden, & it is absolutely HEAVENLY!! (Thank you Mom!, we got over 10 gallons out of those grapes!) And the bag is full of plum fruit leather, of which we did 7 huge cookie sheets worth! (Can you tell we were swimming in plums this year??!!)

This is pumpkin soup, which I made from fresh baked pumpkin ~ I also baked up & froze another 5 gallons worth of pumpkin mash. This was great, because every year for Harvest Fest, they hire Wood Genius to do a ~power tool carving demonstration~ on pumpkins. This year we did 6 pumpkins, but the weather was so bad, we only got to give one away before they shut down the whole event. It was blizzarding, and later that day we ended up with 5 or 6 inches of snow!

And do you see the tomatoes sitting on the counter there? Well, I ended up canning the mostly red ones into stewed garlic tomatoes, & the green ones I made into this absolutely LOVELY green tomato salsa verde! Well over 15 gallons on the tomato homefront! WHEEWWW!

Here are the stewed garlic tomatoes, in my pantry storage room.

And here are the other jams & jellies that I have canned. Those few with labels are jams that I canned over at the church cannery. There is peach jam, blackberry jam, raspberry jam, & strawberry jam.

And although you can only see the edges, those huge cannisters are holding about 800 lbs of wheat. (Thank you Mom & Dad, they worked perfectly, rather than dumping the wheat into them, we put them in bag & all, that way we can get out 50 lbs. at a time without risking the entire cannister of wheat.) We still have a few hundred lbs more of wheat to get, & I have actually thought about getting enough cornmeal to fill one of those cannisters, as well as one of sugar, one of oats, & one of beans. I already have about 50 lbs + of each of those, but I should get some more.

And I have been thinking about getting at least one or two more bags of chicken feed, sort of waiting for it to go on at least SOME sort of sale at the feed store.

Our last act of winter preps? We also logged about 5 cords of wood, 2 on the front porch, already blocked & split, and 3 cord out back, in 8 ft lengths. (It's harder to grow legs & walk away in stacked 8 ft lengths ;-D).

Today the tree-house tree ( it's an old Dutch Elm!) shed almost every single leaf in one large leap of faith that winter would soon be upon us, so we raked all the leaves onto the gardens, as a mulch till spring.

So far the ladies (read...My hens...lol) haven't slowed down one bit in their laying, in fact, they seemed to have finally geared things up, we are now averaging about 7 eggs a day. I'm so proud of them!! Believe it or not, we really go through the eggs, too. I think there are only 4 in the fridge right now. No, not 4 dozen, just 4. But we know there will be 7 more tomorrow.

I love my ladies!!

(ARRGGHH ~ it looks like these last 3 pics won't show all the way unless you click on them ~ sorry ~ don't know how to fix it.)

Here they are, with a little bit of that 1st snow still left on the ground.

And this is our newly updated locking system, as it wasn't toddler-proof before. And now it is. :-D

And here you can see that one of the stacks of firewood in the background of the pic, as well as the final resting place of the chicken arc for the winter. It is close enough to be easy to tend to in the winter, it should gets lots of sun, and once Wood Genius & I raze the rest of the garden, & put the extension run on the backside of the arc, it should serve nicely for the ladies. Plus they will be busily scratching & chickening for the greater benefit of my garden come spring. :-D