Sweetwater

We spent the Fourth up in Michigan with Ken's Family at Sweetwater.

Ken's cousins had saved a baby squirrel... I wanted nothing more than to get my grubby little hands on it. I thought that perhaps the squirrel kingdom and I could resolve our long-standing mutual hatred and enter into a new era of peace and understanding. They would stop digging up my garden and eating every single strawberry without exception...and I would stop shooting the hell out of them...

And then the baby squirrel bit me. Someone pass the lima beans, I'm making Brunswick Stew.

Roasting the the turkeys on the grill was a big experiment that damn-near got completely out of control. The fire was so hot that the plastic basters melted from normal use. You can email me for the Baster Basted Turkey recipe. We did have some little venison sandwiches.

The campfires at night were really quite incredible. I don't even want to ruin it by explaining it. They couldn't have been more idyllic unless Norman Rockwell himself came by to light the dang thing.

Once it was really too dark for pictures, we started messing around with the moon and the shutter speed. It's surprisingly difficult to write upside-down and backwards. Ken demands 'props' for figuring out that it could be done.



Some creepies...the frog just might make the Biscuit Calendar this year...





Now that I know the official Michigan definition of 'two-track' - it's the road, apparently, and that makes the phrase "Be sure to keep it on the two-track" an important thing to fully understand - the golf cart experience was much more enjoyable this time. For me that is, not really so much for the woman that got creamed onto the windshield when 3-year-old AJ decided to resolve his urgent need to go for a ride.

I was unaware of this rope swing by the pond. Which is fortunate because I'm pretty sure I would have ended up with a broken bone. Plus, the aforementioned golf cart lady said that the wait time at the local hospital was beyond enormous. Disaster averted.

There was an IMMEDIATE separation of the sexes as soon as Ken finished building a massive potato cannon. "And what," you ask, "were they shooting at?" Why the Port-A-Potty (TM), of course.

Have you ever seen a homemade fireworks show? No? Well, here ya go...




...and some random pictures...

Congratulations Ed & Sarah

Beautiful day, beautiful ceremony, no batteries in camera.

The bees arrive...

Millipede

Wet Bird

Building a beehive

     


The last two weekends have been nearly entirely absorbed by building a honeybee hive.  We didn't have one of the major tools required (some weird drill, I dunno) so we built ours from a kit.  Similar to the style of this kit, but twice as tall.

Building the frames was quite tedious: trying to hammer tiny nails without damaging the beeswax, sheesh.  Mariann and Preston stopped by and pitched in while we were assembling the 40! frames.

The wax is pretty neat, same stuff that you can roll to make beeswax candles.  Apparently the bees will be forced (mwoo hah hah hah hah) by instinct to build up and finish the structure.  Here's a little-known tidbit: 40 slices of beeswax makes your house smell like hippie.  Not the original hippie or the patchouli hippie, closer to the more urban co-op hippie.  Like you could expect to walk a few feet and smell wheat germ or spirulina or canvas sneakers.

   

Rookery

We were driving along the Taconic Parkway and found a Rookery of Great Blue Herons...how cool!

Apricot Spa Basket

Amhearst Island

We went to Amherst Island in Canada looking for owls.  Tromping aroung the woods, we were mildly freaked out by the chickadees stalking us.  As a joke, Kathy put out a finger and they flew right over to her!  Like we were in a freaking Disney movie, or something! Turns out, we were on a bird refuge of some sort, where people always come to feed the birds from their hands.  Man, were we spooked for a bit, though.

Awesome Storm...

Modification...

Like all things that enter this house, the glass etcher has been modified and upgraded.  I was getting upset that a single can of propellant was only able to do about 7-8 small monograms.  So, the new set up includes the same (slightly altered) nozzle and abrasive, only attached to a SCUBA tank, pressure regulator dial and foot control. Mwooh hah ha ha ha.  Bring it on!

         

So, now I can do much larger areas, much faster and much more opaque.  Opaquely, ew.  Here is my attempt to make use of the two screwed up carafes from the other day.  It isn’t visible in the picture, but you can barely make out the B within the stripe of the finished carafe.  Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to keep that set.  Dang.

         

On a side note, I am amazed with how well the stencils are working.  I was expecting results similar to my experiences with paint stencils...all sloppy and smooshed under the edges of the stencil because I’m impatient and that sucks.  Initially, I thought that I’d have to mess with stencil adhesive.  But no, they’re coming out really crisp, even if part of the design lifts up because the glass is curved.  As long as you spray at a 90 degree angle, it works beautifully.

Girly Cupcakes