Last Night was interesting

It was an interesting night. Finally found a softball team in the area that is a rec team and not overly competitive. They actually have practice though so that should be interesting. In the 9 or so years I've been playing I think we've had practice maybe like 2-3 times. :-)

Tammy will hate me for putting this; but we headed out to practice last night and evidentally the Hockey Rink we had seen down Kingston pike towards downtown was not the Hockey rink they were referencing. So.. Not only can we be amazed that there's hockey in the South East, but there's more than 1 rink. :-D Good thing for the Garmin though. After driving 10 miles into town to find the place, we decided it might not be right and learned it was 5 miles in the other direction from the house. It wasn't a bad little 25 mile detour, but probably not the same route We'll take weekly to the games and practice. Not a bad group of guys, most seemed pretty laid back and cool. Coach seems interesting, kinda high strung but seems like he can be okay. We'll see, cause it also seems like he could be a reall a$$ if he wants. It is cool though, they want to get together outside of softball to hang out, and we are sponsered by a local Mexican food place so they are planning on trying to meet up there occasionally.

The other part of the evening was not so great. We got home from softball around 9:30 or so. Got the kids squared away and in bed and I went out to check on Yeager. She had got in trouble earlier in the evening for ' leaving her mark' inside again. We're not sure if she's marking from the cats that used to live here, or just throwing a temper since we haven't been taking her as much, but we are working with her. As I went outside I noticed that the gate had been left open and she was nowhere in sight. I checked all over the yard, drove around all the streets and neighborhoods close and had no luck finding her. About Midnight I decided I was having no luck and reluctantly gave up. I decided to leave the gate and garage door open so that if she came back she could still get in. Fortunatley around 12:30-1:00 she decided she'd had enough adventuring and came back home. I was a little stressed over that one.

So All ended well.. just was an interesting one.

It's been a while

It's been a while since I posted, so thought I'd at least post something while I'm waiting for some reports to run for work.

Things are going good in our new digs. Still haven't been out much as we've been working most weekends on packing or entertaining. Gennie and Logan made it down for a week to help Tammy with how she wanted to decorate or place things in the room so we could work on unpacking more. That appears to have gone well and things are moving along slowly to getting unpacked and finding homes.
I'm still working on unpacking the shop so I can get back to some woodworking and wood turning. Hoping that will come sometime before the end of the Year :-) I'm waiting on the 2nd estimate to wire the garage for electricity. The previous owners actually only used it as a garage and I think there is 2 110 Outlets and 2 overhead lights. Nothing that will work when I turn on more than 1 tool in the shop. :-) I've been working the last couple nights on getting the air hose lines figured out and run. Figure they will help with the assembly of my new work benches and with everything towards the middle of the shop in boxes, makes it easier to install the lines now.
I'll take some pics of the house and Shop when I get time.. until then, hope it's not another 3 months before I update here again.

What a start to the day..

For the past couple months or so a friend of mine has been bugging me to display some of my wood turnings in the booth she has out at a local Collectibles market. I finally got up the courage and confidence to put together some this past weekend and send them out with her. Bunch of Pens, Bottle stoppers, Keychains, Screwdrivers, along with a couple bowls and vases.

Well, this morning She called and told me she had someone there wanting to buy quite a few of the items I had sent with her. The Screwdrivers, Wine stoppers and a few other things. Not a bad way to start the day. I guess I better get back out in the garage and work on some more stuff to send.

:-D

A couple of the pieces I mentioned

Below is a couple of the pieces I've turned lately. I've been kinda shocked at how well they turned out. The first piece is a Lacewood piece that I turned and carved. For the first time putting a twist and tail on a turning I thought it turned out well. The piece is about 4 inches long and maybe an inch or two wide.

This is a side shot showing the shape and tail.


Another view showing a better angle of the tail

And then a Front view showing the hollowing and flow of it.


The second pieces is another of the Bruce Perry shapes I like to mess with. I'm doing an online Secret Santa exchange and turned the below piece for my recipient. Hope he enjoys it. This chunk of maple had some great curly grain to it and really turned out nice.

My wife pointed out that this one does look better standing on edge..
A side view for a better look at the vessel and wave profile.

Mild Vent

So I've been out working in my shop tonight and I just need to vent a little. You ever have one of those times when so many things are working out just right for you, and some of the simplest things just wont? For the past week or so I've been doing some really cool turnings (Pics to follow later). I've done 3d Flowers, Lady Bugs, Wave vase bowls (see Bruce Perry piece below) and even managed to make a vase with a tail (for lack of a better word) tonight. And I'm really really proud of that last one, again pics to follow later.

But something simple, like a hollowed out sphere for a Christmas ornament party?!?!?! NOO freaking way... can't seem to do it. I enlarge the front hole, or the back one. Hollow it too deep so that I end up with a larger inside than out (yea think about that, it doesn't work). Just nothing is working right on that.. and I mean really, it's not that hard of a concept. Okay, done venting for the night. Going to go to bed now, think about it some more and give it another shot tomorrow night.

Thanksgiving fun

For thanksgiving, as we do most years, we went up to the Cabin to spend with my parents. Tammy was excited because we finally got to see some snow. (something we haven't hardly seen any of this year). It allowed the kids (Big and Small) to play on their 4 wheelers, eat good food and hang out with the Family. Tammy and Grandma got some reading in and Grandpa and I spent some time laying out wood spirit's to carve.


Grandma and the kids playing a game of Candyland.

Just enough snow for some sledding behind the 4 wheeler, I think Kayti enjoyed this more than Troy. She had some much fun she didn't want to come in, even when she was really cold. :-)

And catching up on some pictures from the Summer

Calisthenics for the 5 and 3 year old.
Now it's time to do some riding.... and hold on for dear life if you don't have the helmet.


Aren't they cute together?
Rock on, and No pictures please :-)
My two darlings playing in the water.
And the ornery one looks up at me
They all get in on the fun.