What Goes In a Pumpkin Pie?

My life partner made two beautiful, aromatic pumpkin pies last night.

What goes into a pumpkin pie?

Time that was given to someone else,
Priorities that were put on the back burner,
Sleep that was given up for a different reason each night,
Worry over family and finances,
Planning for contingencies both small and large,
Work spent on thousands of mundane, repetitive and seemingly thankless household tasks,
Tears over hopes and dreams that are not yet fulfilled,
Brainpower used to think of everything, remember everything, and coordinate everything for everyone in the family,
Effort spent staying slim, trim, sexy and beautiful when it would be so much easier to just be fat and out of shape like he is,

But mostly … Love.

That's what goes into a pumpkin pie.

On The Road Again

I didn’t spend $4.10 on gasoline today … I rode my bicycle.

I planted the first items in our garden yesterday afternoon. The last time I planted a garden was probably 30 years ago. Back then I bought a roto-tiller, broke up half the back yard, and planted long rows of vegetables. This time I’m trying square-foot gardening, and simply turning over the soil (several times) with a spade, and then planting a small number of plants in that limited space. Yesterday I set out a few onions, and planted some of the early seed vegetables like cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. It’s probably a little early, so I’m staggering the planting schedule by a quarter of the space per week. Next week it’ll be more of the early vegetables, then the week after it’ll be the first of the late vegetables.

Had tons of fun playing with Rose, our youngest granddaughter, last night. I get such a kick out of watching her explore, learn, and grow. She’s just learning to scoot across the floor, and it’s fun watching how excited she gets when she realizes she can actually motivate. This summer should be fun in the back yard.

What time is it?

Last week the watch that I usually wear to work stopped. It's a Swiss Army watch with a leather band, and it has that cool retro look about it. It was given to me by my oldest daughter, probably 10 or twelve years ago. I had the battery replaced Monday, but now it’s running slow. Guess I’ll have to take it back to the jeweler and ask for his opinion. Maybe he sabotaged it so I’d buy a new one from him?

This morning, when I picked another watch to wear, I found that it had also stopped. What’s up with that? So today I’m wearing my dress watch that my sweetheart gave to me for my birthday a couple of years ago. It’s a classy solar-powered Citizen Eco-Drive.

I have a thing for watches; it’s part of being a gadget freak, I guess. I like all the ones I have, especially since they all were gifts from my daughters and my wife.

Thinking About Vacation

With the advent of spring just around the corner, I find myself thinking about vacation. It’s a pleasant diversion to think about ways my lovely wife and I may be able to disappear for some R & R.

First, I want to ensure that my wife gets at least one vacation trip this year doing something that she wants to do, not just compromising for the sake of family convenience or going along with something I want. With raising kids (nearly finished), running a household, managing finances, and putting up with me, her vacation-low-level light is on bright.

If I had to guess, I’d say that her idea of a good vacation probably leans toward things like cruises, beaches, massages, nice hotels, good food and entertainment. She loves taking pictures, and she likes to do new and interesting things, as long as she doesn’t have to get too dirty or sweaty. I remember how she enjoyed the guided kayak river trip in Belize, and ocean jet skiing in Haiti.

Trouble is, since she’s so selfless, she’s reluctant to take any time for herself or spend any money on herself.

I’ll probably do the OK Freewheel (bike tour) again this year. But there’s so much to do here in Oklahoma, we have no excuse for staying home and doing nothing. I need to go through our stack of OK Travel brochures and start circling things. Time’s a-wastin’.

Its the first day of March, and the earth is beginning to stir from its winter slumber. Our rose bushes are beginning to press out tiny new leaves, and the yellow bush in the backyard with the name I cannot remember is beginning to flower. I guess they call it spring because that’s how it arrives; one minute it’s cold and nasty, and suddenly the new season springs upon us.

I’m behind already. I started back to the gym too late, so I know the new cycling season will leave me a little sore for a while. I haven’t trimmed the Crape Myrtles yet, and we still have unplanted bulbs, and un-transplanted rose bushes. Oh well, at least it should be nice working weather when I actually do those things.

I did manage to spade our garden spot. It’s been years since I’ve planted a vegetable garden, and so far it’s fun imagining the bounty of fresh vegetables from our own backyard. (Ask me how I feel next month when all the weeds need pulling.) As you can tell from the picture, this will not be a typical row garden. After reading “Square Foot Gardening”, by Mel Bartholomew, I was so impressed I thought I’d give his method a try. We'll see how it goes.

I want, I want, I want ...

I want to:
- start playing guitar/banjo/mandolin again
- go back to school and finish my degree
- buy a PDA
- read philosophy and classics
- build a shop/storage building
- put in a garden and a compost pile
- go kayaking (even though it's not warm enough yet)
- build or buy a bookcase and put all my books in one accessible place
- take a multi-day bicycle ride
- build a larger desk
- think of a way to make extra income to support my hobbies

If Money Were No Object ...

If you suddenly came into a fortune, what would you do? It’s a fun idea, and I guess we’ve all day dreamed about what we’d buy, where we’d go, and what we’d do if we had more money than we could possibly spend.

Like you, I’d first quit my job, pay off my bills, invest for retirement, send the kids and grandkids to college, provide for the parents, buy the dream home, and take the long cruise.

But what would you do after all that? Ok, here’s my list:

• set up an experimental community to research and demonstrate
  - large and small scale organic farming utilizing animal and human power
  - alternative natural, renewable, non-polluting domestic and commercial power sources (such as solar, wind, and others)
  - rediscovery of traditional living skills and crafts
• open a shop to promote, sell, and maintain alternative transportation and recreational vehicles:
  - bicycles, tricycles, and other human-powered vehicles
  - kayaks, canoes, rowboats, sailboats, sailboards, kite boards
  - hiking and ultra light camping gear
• promote local, small businesses, musicians and artists through grants and no-interest loans
• open a free “life university” with programs for everyone, from infants through seniors citizens

Then, in my spare time I’d travel extensively and study music, languages and philosophy. That should keep me pretty busy.

What would your list look like?

Principles

Spiritual
Acknowledge and revere God – worship, study, and meditate

Intellectual
Live a contemplative life – read, write and think

Social
Care for and celebrate with family and friends – create a tradition of celebrations with food

Physical
Live without discomfort – exercise, rest, good food

Material
Less is more – live a simple life without concern for financial matters


Live well, love well, receive graciously, give freely.

For wireless I don't need ...

Here at home I use two laptops, one running XP and one running Linux. (If I had the money, I’d also be running a Mac, but that’s another story.) I have an old Dell wireless card that I’ve been trying to get to work with the Linux machine, but so far I’ve been unsuccessful. Apparently I’m not the only one; these particular cards have a bad reputation on the forums. But it’s just a matter of time – I’ll either prevail or give up and buy a new one.

Friday evening I downloaded and installed Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu 7.10), so I’ve been spending some time setting everything up again. I had been using Thunderbird as my email client, but this time I decided to go with Evolution, which came bundled with Gutsy. I generally use web-based mail, but I guess I should have a local email client too. I’ll just wait and see if I end up using it at all. Just for kicks I also activated Pidgin, the bundled internet messenger. To my surprise it came up and worked easily, and I like it’s simple uncluttered interface.

This morning I set up an ssh client for connecting to the AIX system at work. It’s nice to be able to log-in from home to do a scheduled item, rather than to have to drive or ride my bicycle all the way back out to the office.

While I’m in the mood, I may just poke around the desktop (Gnome) a little today. There are a lot of applications I haven’t even looked at yet. Trying to keep up with the GUI stuff and learn the command line stuff is a big job, not to mention keeping up with all the Windows stuff.

Oh, and the wireless? It still doesn’t work (YET!). But that’s ok for now because I’m almost always wired, and if really need to go wireless I can always use the XP box.

More Handles

These happen to be for a bow saw I'm making.
Yeah, I know one's bigger than the other ... they're supposed to be that way.

Wednesday's Tools

Last Saturday I went by a garage sale that didn't look too promising. There were a lot of cool things there, don't get me wrong. It was definitely a "guy's" garage sale ... lots of mechanical junk, rust, grease, wood and metal, and not a doily in sight. It was just two guys clearing out their shed. But most of it was metal-working stuff; these guys were mechanics, not woodworkers.

But after I told one of the dudes what I was looking for, he dug around and found three pretty nice little items pictured above: (1) an apparently unused Norton HM--8 black Hard Arkansas Oil Stone, (2) a good Stanley 36 1/2 L boxwood 12-inch rule, and (3) an old inexpensive Craftsman low-angle block plane. The plane was rusty, but cleaned up and sharpened up real nice.

Also, in the picture above you can see a handle I made with a spokeshave from a chunk of oak for an old gouge I had lying around. Not too shabby if I say so myself.

And last, a little 4-inch divider that I got in the mail today. It's marked S&W Co. , whatever that means (Smith & Wesson?).

New Old Tools

Did I mention that I like old tools? Yeah, I thought I did. I have new tools too, and I like them, but there's something special about old hand tools.

Thought you might like to see my newest additions ... a couple of nice old gimlets, and a fine Miller's Falls No. 2 drill.

Come by the house and I'll let you use them.

Chisel Handles

Oklahoma's weather makes the national news pretty often, it seems. If it's not the heat, then it's either floods, tornadoes, or something else. This time it's a major ice storm. But this past Saturday was a beautiful day, just perfect for leaving the garage/shop door open and working all day making large pieces of wood into smaller ones.
I had several old chisels awaiting new handles, so I set up the old 10-ER as a lathe and went to work. I wanted to experiment with the handle shapes and overall size, so I just started with a picture of some handles I liked, and started turning. The two larger ones are made from hard maple; the smaller one from pecan.

I like the shape of the handles, but I the sizes aren't quite right. I think I'll be better suited to handles sized between the larger and smaller ones. Also, I think I'll stain the next ones dark.

Riding Like a Kid

With the cool, windy weather and my general laziness, I haven't ridden any of my bikes in a while. But today the weather was perfect - 70 degrees, sunny, and no wind. So I took a bike ride.

Now this was no normal bike ride.

I pulled the old Nashbar steel bike out from behind my workbench and aired up the inch-wide tires. I put on tennis shoes instead of cleated riding shoes, because this bike has flat pedals. Instead of skin-tight riding shorts and a jersey I put on an old pair of mountain bike shorts and a bright orange tee shirt. My old sunglasses were nearby (not my fancy prescription athletic glasses), and I pulled a raggedy pair of gloves out of the cabinet in the garage. On my head I placed a retired $20 helmet that I still had lying around.

I headed down the street and across parking lots to the park and reservoir on our end of town. I rode around the reservoir a few times, down some side streets, and past the new Starbuck's. I have no idea how far or how fast I went, because I had no bike computer to distract me. There were only the canadian geese and turtles and birds and the bike and the road and me.

It was cycling for the fun of it.

And I loved it.

Morning Sunshine

Productive Fun

It was a beautiful Saturday. I started the day in the cool, foggy morning by riding my bicycle around the neighborhood to checkout the local garage sales. By nine o'clock the temperature was perfect for working in the garage/workshop with the garage door open, and it stayed perfect all day.

We hung the plate rack in the kitchen. My lovely wife had done nearly all the painting, and it looks nice.

I had been looking around for an outfeed roller stand to use with my Shopsmith table saw and my bandsaw. The tables on both of those machines are fairly high, and all the roller stands I've seen locally are too low for my use. So, I decided to do the only reasonable thing ... make one. Besides, what's the purpose of a workshop if not to make things. And what better things to make than things to help you make things with.

I drew up quick plans during a break at work last week, started cutting the boards last night, and finished the stand today. Recognize the roller? It's a $ 4.95 rolling pin from the local big box store.

Don't do crack

I always release the tension on my bandsaw at the end of a day of use. The other night I was cleaning up after a good weekend session, and when I went to release the bandsaw tension, I noticed it felt 'funny'. Closer inspection revealed severe cracking in the tensioning block. I'm glad it didn't let go while I was using it! There might have been flying parts, sparking blades and a frightened operator!

I called Grizzly Monday morning and ordered a replacement part, which should be here by the end of the week. Hope the new one lasts longer than the old one (about 6 or 7 years, I think)

Plate Rack in Progress

The simple plate rack is coming along nicely. I essentially finished the woodworking yesterday. It's really just a box with sides, top and shelf held together with nails, and with pegs for the plate rack. I realised that the two rows of pegs called for in the instructions would only support full-sized plates and not saucers, so I added a third row in the middle.

Today will be for painting.

New Project - Simple Plate Rack

My sweet wife found this plate rack in one of her books, liked it, and showed it to me. I ran across the perfect materials yesterday in a corner of the garage/shop, so I decided to go ahead a throw one together. If we like it, I can always make a more finished piece.

Here's a shot of my Shopsmith set up as a drill press to drill a double row of holes for the dowels that hold the plates. I like the picture because it shows a few other interesting items in the background.

Here are the main parts of the shelf: top, bottom and center shelf on the right; sides and dowels on the left. Not shown is the face trim. I should be able to finish the carcass tomorrow evening and it'll be ready for paint Saturday.

Quartz Mountains

This weekend we climbed the New Horizon Trail at the Quartz Mountain State Park in southwest Oklahoma.