Family

A couple weeks ago I went on a crazy quest for a simple way to make a treadle lathe. The basics of a treadle lathe are pretty simple, but they are rather involved to build. Then I heard about the lathe that Richard Starr built out of an old bicycle. That's the kind of redneck engineering that I can get behind.

Thought I would share that with everybody, because it's my favorite of Allison's senior pictures. Allison is my cousin's daughter, and is beautiful in these pictures. And this will probably embarrass her, but she looks like her mother.

Powermatic Model 90I bought a new toy at a steal of a price. $190 for a Powermatic Model 90. With, at least in theory, a working 220 volt, single phase motor.

Elena and I had another good haul in the berry patch. Only about a quart today, not like last week when we pulled three quarts in one day. But I'm aware of the fact that a quart in a day, especially from a patch this small, is pretty astounding.

First half of the day I spent brewing beer with friends. This evening, after dinner, my daughter helped me pick blackberries from our path.

I convinced Elena to do a little modeling for me, and we had some fun with the pictures. You can download her wanted poster below.

For those of you who haven't heard, Debbie K. Schmidt died on Sunday.

Patio Construction continues today, the third day of work. Saturday and Sunday I worked from Can See to Can't See, along with my wife. Michael and his friend Ryan worked through most of the day on Saturday as well, hauling gravel.

Adelfa Passing BricksThe circles and fans consumed a lot more time than we realized. They look really cool, but they added a day to the construction.

Weather permitting, we're scheduled to start building our patio this weekend. Materials are delivered on Friday. Saturday morning from can see to can't see we'll be outside hauling and compacting gravel.

Those of you who are regular visitors may have noticed that not all is right with the world of our site. The most noticeable issue is the crazy giant pictures appearing everywhere. There's also a good chance that you are getting funny red error messages sometimes when you press a button. If you get that, please copy the text and email it to me (click the Contact link at the left). I've tried to get the most common of those messages, but there are still a few that I haven't caught up with.