Pinewood Racer

It's race time again! The cub scouts are having their annual Pinewood Derby race in March which means it's time to start making the car. They give each boy a block of wood that has two holes drilled for the axles and that's it. The rest is up to them. So Wesley drew the design on his block of wood and went out to the shop with Sean and cut it. I've since learned to stay in the house because I "hover" too much. A little too afraid he's going to lose a finger on the band saw. Sean's good and lets him do everything. He got it cut out and sanded this weekend, so he'll paint it and put the wheels on it next weekend. Good job Wesley!

Woody

-Over Christmas break we had the not so fun experience of waking up each morning to a woodpecker pecking on the bedroom side of our house. For some reason he liked this one spot and each morning about 7 am decided he needed to peck on it. So I'd throw on my red polka dotted bathrobe and storm through the front door then run around the side of the house waving my hands like a complete lunatic. This would, of course, scare the living bejesus out of the poor woodpecker. He'd fly off and life would resume. Then at 7 am the next morning it would happen again. This went on for several days before I got onto Amazon and ordered a big plastic owl (with rotating bobble head) to attach to the fence to scare away the blasted woodpecker. Before the owl arrived on my doorstep the woodpecker moved on never to be seen again. So now I have a rather large plastic owl sitting on my dining room table. I'll be ready next time, you hear that Mr. Woodpecker?

Odds and Ends

There are all sorts of little things that I'd like to blog about but they were too little to have their own post, so here is a compilation.

-The kids like to randomly ask Sean to print something out of the 3D printer. It's about once every couple of months and this time they found a hulked out Minecraft Creeper off of thingiverse.com....because doesn't every kid need a hulked out creeper?

-So you know we have chickens. They used to be free range chickens until the neighbors dog figured out that they tasted good. We lost one (first one to be eaten by a predator in seven years) so they are now cooped up. I feel bad for them but that dog is sniffing around way too often for them to be out. Anyways, Greta is my egg collector. She'll run out each night and bring in the eggs. I decided to peek in the nest boxes the other day to discover she's been slacking on her job. We don't eat many eggs, maybe a dozen every 2-3 weeks, so it wasn't like I was noticing. I've decided to take over the egg collecting job and start donating them to the church's food pantry so they don't go to waste. Don't worry we threw out all of these eggs since we didn't know how old they were.

-Wesley did Acolyte training yesterday at the church. He learned how to be one of the kids that lights the candles during the service. This tradition was started back before electricity when churches were very dark. The acolyte was the person that brought light into the dark church and lit all the candles. I think he's pretty excited.

-I made sushi for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I've always liked sushi and was afraid I'd have to give it up once giving up meat. I can't eat the prepared stuff because they like to hide avocado in it which gives me a tummy ache. So after a little research and purchasing a few items I set out to make some. It was delicious (if I do say so myself). I always thought the rice in sushi was just white rice, but it's actually seasoned with rice vinegar, sugar and salt. I could just eat the sushi rice plain (and do often). Greta was eyeing me while I made it the other day and I mentioned to her that she used to like sushi when she was little. She was surprised and asked to try it, turns out she still likes it and she's a picky little eater. Greta now asks for it once a week and we pig out on veggie sushi together.

-It's been such a mild winter. A few weeks ago we were forecasted to have some bad ice storms. The state braced for power outages that never came. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as predicted. There was some ice but it lasted only a few hours before melting off. Ever since we've been enjoying some unseasonably high temperatures. 70+ degrees in February, I'll take it!

-No random post is complete without a picture of our derpy little dog sleeping upside down wearing his food dish as a hat. What a clown!

Boys and Their Toys

Sean has spent the last couple of weeks working on the truck. It's had quite a shudder when the brakes are applied and it was time to give it new brakes and tires. It got the works! New drum brakes on the back, new pads and calipers on the front, shocks and even a new master cylinder. It took a bit to bleed all the air out and Sean resorted to making a pressure bleeder which on the second try finally got all that air out. The brakes are back to feeling new again thanks to a very awesome and handy husband.

I do love that truck. I bought it new in 1998 and it's been with me through everything. I get a little sentimental about things and I don't plan on selling it anytime soon. But, it's not a very heavy duty truck. In fact, it's about as un-heavy duty as a truck can be. It's come in handy for light hauling and trailer trips to the dump and such but as for heavy stuff like moving milling machines and big round bales we've had to rent a bigger truck.

Since big round hay bales seem to be a yearly purchase we've been rethinking our truck needs. We need something with a heavy towing capacity and so the search for a new (to us) truck started. My Dad mentioned an auction that was coming up with quite a few trucks and we checked it out, putting in a low bid on one of the trucks. That low bid bought the truck. So now we are the owners of a 1999 F250 truck. It's a V10 with low miles for the year. It's got a 10,000 pound towing capacity that we are pretty excited about. I'm giddy about having a truck that will haul round bales with ease. And since I can't part with my original F150 we now have his and hers trucks.

The truck was a city truck and had decals that needed to be removed. I've never removed decals and after a quick YouTube video learned that a hair dryer, some fingernails and a little patience will remove it just fine.

In the same auction there were some CNC milling machines that caught the eye of Sean and my Dad. There were three they were interested in and one of the three went pretty high in price, so it was out. In the end Sean bought one and my Dad bought the other. Sean hauled them both home and has been tinkering with them in the shop. I'm pretty sure he's trying to collect as many milling machines as possible.

Trials

This past weekend my brother-in-law Blake called and said he wanted to bring the boys down to see a motorcycle trials event that was just a few miles from our house. I had absolutely no idea what a trial bike was. Actually even after going to this competition I'm still not quite sure what it was. It looked like a dirt bike without a seat. These guys went flying around a small course that was full of big rocks, tree limbs and steep slopes.

They had to maneuver over these obstacles without putting their feet down very often. It was interesting to see, definitely something I wouldn't have gone to my own. The kids enjoyed it, although they had more fun digging up rocks and treasures than watching the bikes.

This little lady had her own electric bike that she rode around. The boys were envious.

Trampoline Dog

Did I mention we are getting some fabulous weather? Well we are. It hit 70 degrees yesterday and I just sat outside and felt the warmth on my skin for an hour. It was lovely. The kids and I spent some time on the trampoline with Winston. He's been routinely taken out to the trampoline since he was a pup so he's getting pretty used to it. The dog likes all of us but really has taken a liking to Wesley. Winston is pretty much his dog and it shows.

And this is what happens when we try to take a group selfie with the pup. Good times!

Milling Machine Moving

This past weekend was beautiful! It was warm, not windy and the sun was shining. Perfect weather to get outside and accomplish stuff. I kicked the kids outside (might be the first time all winter) and we all got some much needed vitamin D. Sean escaped to the shop and few hours later I wander over to see what he was up to. This is what I see upon entering the shop.

If you remember, several months ago Sean found a milling machine on eBay and purchased it. It has been sitting in the shop on it's shipping crate ever since. He felt it was time to attempt to take it off of the pallet. Now keep in mind it's 2200 pounds. This is not something you can just easily pick up and place on the ground.....might be why it's been sitting on it's shipping crate so long.

Sean assumed me it would be easy and safe to just ease it off onto the floor jacks and then slowly let it down. All I could see what this one ton piece of machinery squashing my husband flat. So I decided to stick around and watch in case I needed to call an ambulance.

Using a pry bar he slowly pushed it off of the pallet and onto the floor jack. Then he placed piled up wood around each corner.

He put another floor jack on the other side and slowly lowered the milling machine to the ground, removing one piece of wood at a time.

I was impressed and really happy he didn't hurt himself (although his back may never be the same). He then used the same pry bar to slowly inch the monstrosity over into the corner where he's going to start working on it. 

FitBit Pup

Sean's job is offering a health challenge to its workers. It's a website that keeps track of your daily steps, food logs and mental health tests and then gives you points for participating (10K steps = 10 points, food log = 10 points, and so on). Then when you reach 400 points they give gift certificates to Amazon. This is open to spouses too (lucky me!). Now I'd like to say that I'm super active and those 10 thousand steps come easily on the FirBit tracker attached to my hip....but it's not easy. In fact it's super hard to get that many steps in the middle of winter. I will admit that I'm a sloth in the winter. I pretty much hibernate all winter long curled up in a blanket on the couch while sculpting. I've come to terms with this. I'm super active in the spring, summer and fall. I love to garden, and mow and play outside with the kids. But not in the winter. So the problem I'm finding is how to get those 10 thousand steps.

Enter the land shark known as Winston. He's a five month old pup that reigns down terror on all that inhabit his land. He runs and leaps, he plays and fights all while gathering me those treasured steps.

He's a super pup. I shall repay him with a new toy (purchased with my Amazon gift cards he's earning me).

Christmas 2016

Christmas was lovely this year. I've done a great job of not writing about much of anything this year and now I must do a recap. I left you off with Greta being sick, which led to her not being able to go see Santa at the library. She was bummed, we were bummed but we still had one kid wanting to go. So Wesley and I went and had a jolly good time seeing the senior elf himself and Mrs. Claus too.

Then we celebrated Sean's birthday by going out to eat with my parents and opening presents. Sean had a nice birthday.

We did our traditional sugar cookie decorating the day before Christmas. The kids sure enjoy this!

We celebrated Christmas with my parents at home this year. Santa came and left some goodies for each kid. Wesley was very much into science kits and got his very first pocket knife and Greta loves her Shopkins. I received an Echo Dot which I'm thoroughly enjoying! Alexa tells me the weather and lets me listen to NPR programs that I have missed (love that Moth Radio Hour), love it!

 

Merry Christmas everyone!