First Rocking Horse Finished!

Well I finally bought some plans to build something instead of just winging it. I thought a rocking horse would be a simple project. It was much bigger than I expected, but was fun. Several cold days spent in my shop with the heater going. Sometimes working and sometimes just spending time listening to music and drinking Mountain Dew. My plan was to build one for each grandchild but that has been modified to each family. Mickie was a great help making the mane. Thanks Mickie. This horse is Daphney's or at least Daphney's family's. Abi's is about half finished. I think I should just keep them all at my house so they will always want to come visit me. Oh well I love to see them enjoying them.

And here is my first cowgirl! Abi will soon join Daphney for long rides.

My Newest Hobby! Smoking Meats

 OK. My newest hobby is great because it goes so well with my favorite hobby, EATING.  Santa was very good to me this year and brought me a Master Built smoker. I was introduced to smoking from my brother-in-law, Jack who is a smoke master. I didn't know if I would really like it but I found that I do. The picture at the left is my smoker loaded with 27 turkey legs. Why 27? Well that is a funny story. After trying to find turkey legs I asked my wife to check at one of the stores in another town to see how much they were or if they were even available. Then I check here in our town and I found that they could order me 30 lbs for $25. I asked them to order them. When I called Mickie to tell her I found some, the first thing she said was "OK I got you 30 lbs." Really? Oops! So 22 legs of the first try and 27 on the second go round. Second round was better. I found that if I cooked them longer they were more tender and a little crispier. Wow Yummy.

But what to do with 27 legs?!! Well Mickie did a large bunch of twice baked potatoes and we went out and braved the snow delivering turkey legs and potatoes  to some of our favorite people around town. We found that we didn't get far before we ran out of legs and still had friends to go. Sorry Maybe next time.

I have done pork roasts, pork loins with Kabasha wrapped in bacon, pork loins spiral cut and stuffed with black berry jelly and green onions then wrapped in bacon, turkey legs and I think my favorite spatchcock chicken. It is an amazing hobby. I have found a great resource is Jeff Phillips who run a website called http://www.smoking-meat.com/. Amazing little site and some great recipes.

My smoker is an electric digital control Master Built smoker with remote control and meat prob. I love it. It is great. I set the temperature, load the racks, and add the wood chips. It is really simple. Cleaning is never fun but it sure is fun to go out and open a clean smoker and it is ready to go. Fun Times!

As you can see the turkey legs are a big hit for one and all.

Snow day today. What can I smoke?

Jenny's Desk is done!!

My fourth desk is Jenny's desk. It is a twin to Jake's desk. They are both made from walnut and it was very fun to work with. I ran out of walnut on Jenny's desk and had to go to the cabinet company and purchase more walnut. Wow lumber has really gone up. This is my last desk, I think. Now I will do some smaller projects.

Several people have asked if I had a kit and I just told them "yes see that stack of raw lumber in the corner of my shop, that is my kit."

On Jenny's desk as on all the others I tried to leave knots in the wood and just work them in. I love the character it gives the wood. If you click on the pictures it will zoom in and you can see the knots that I had to work around but it was worth the extra effort. The writing board that pulls out on the left has some really beautiful knots. I wish I had pulled it out for you to see.

 

 I used Formby's Tung Oil for a finish. I like it because if the wood ever gets a scratch you can just apply a little more oil and it will hide it very nicely. I had a music cabinet that had a very bad scratch from a move and I had used tung oil when I made it. I applied a little oil and the scratch was almost invisible, amazing stuff. I went with the low gloss thinking the dust won't show as bad. I would like to see it with a high gloss just for fun. Oh well it looks very nice.

The only medal used in the desk are the handles, of course, and some corner brackets to hold the top on. I used a LOTS of dowels.

Jake's Desk is Finally Done

I have been working on Jake's and Jenny's desks for about 4 years now. I have finally completed Jake's. Jenny's is about half way. I still have the drawers to do on Jenny's. It is fun but takes a lot of time. I love wood working. It amazes me how a rough piece of wood can be worked with and sanded and if enough time and effort is put in it will turn into something beautiful. I like knotty wood. I think it gives character to the wood even though I have to work around them a little I try to leave them in. Look at the top of the desk there are some beautiful knots. I used all walnut for Jake and Jenny's desks. The walnut was purchased from a friend who didn't need it anymore. I got a great price! I built Katie and Heidi each a desk but theirs were out of oak. They are very pretty also. I should take a picture of them and post also, maybe another day.

Halloween Fun

What fun! We stayed home this year and waited for little goblins to come visit us. Jake and Jenny  carved pumpkins. I cooked deep fried chicken wings with my favorite spicy wing sauce. Yum! Mickie made a big batch of caramel popcorn and nachos. She also had a bag of candy for each of us. I got a large bag of M&Ms! 

 After carving pumpkins and while the little goblins came trick or treating we snacked on our treats and watched a really scary movie called "Scooby Doo". Yeah not scary but fun. About as scary as I can handle. Lots of fun.

They're ready!

I went to Colorado for a wonderful week and when I came home everything in the garden is ready. Mickie is on her second round of salsa.

Here is a picture of our new furniture! We are very excited to have this down stairs, now we can sit down there in the coolness and watch movies. We did that last night and really enjoyed it. We watched Madagascar II. It was funny. I love the little Lemar king, also you may have to start calling me TomTom - Name so nice you wanta say it twice. You have to see the movie to get that. Anyway this is our new couch, love seat (although there is a console in the middle, don't know how that is supposed to work), and area rug. I should have cleaned up a little bit from last night's movie night before I took the pictures. Mickie would have picked up everything before taking pictures. We'll see if she notices.