This and That

Larry, my buddy from church has been asking me to come hammer on some iron with him for a few months. You see he loves blacksmithing and has been doing it for many years. I told him a while back that I think it would be fun to learn and so I got the opportunity to try my hand at it. He hauls around a flat bed trailer with all his equipment and brings it to city events to do demonstrations. I showed up a few weeks ago and he taught me how to crank the air blower that keeps the fire super hot and how to hammer iron into shapes. I was amazed at all the tools he made to shape the iron into cabinet handles and such. He's quite the artist. It was fun (and very cold unless you were next to the fire). I look forward to trying my hand at another project, I think we are going to try a boot scraper next.

I really enjoy growing food and my friend at church figured that out pretty quickly after I met her. She's in charge of the Tower Gardens that the church has and was looking for another person to help out with them. They can be time consuming when it comes to cleaning, harvesting and replanting them. We harvest the lettuce, kale and herbs and provide them to the congregation (the congregation purchased them so it's a way to give back). My friend who does the church towers was pregnant and has since had her baby the end of December so now I'm in charge of the church Tower Gardens (and my own at home) and I spend a decent amount of time each Sunday making sure there is water in the tanks and harvesting them. They sure are beautiful!

I've been taking the two Boston Terriers to school in the afternoon to pick up the kids. They get SO excited! They are hyperactive and psychotic as it is so this just pushes them over the limit. Wesley is in scholars bowl this year and so we wait for 20 minutes after school to pick him up which means several dozen kids walk past the car. The dogs get so excited to see each and every kid and each kid gets very excited to see the dogs. It's become a fun tradition.

Here's our silly selfie with Beanie. I think she's smiling in it.

Since I'm sharing dog pictures here are Winston and Bean all cozy on the couch with their new blanket. These dogs have no hair or body fat to keep them warm and shake often during the winter (in our 72 degree house). They have a bed next to the sliding glass south facing window and will soak up the sun until they are panting (and still don't move). They are crazy little dogs and we love them.