Blacksmithing

Here are some pictures of Ben's projects from his blacksmith class and from volunteering at the American West Heritage Center.

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 "S" hook he made in the first class

Water plant shaped wall hook 

Dutch Oven lid lifter - he started this one in class then finished it at the AWHC

Belt buckle that is almost finished 

 Knife in progress

 A knife taking shape from a railroad spike

He's even made some of his own tools: (top to bottom)

Chisel

Punch

Beginnings of a hammer head 

Ram's Head BBQ fork 

 Close-ups of the ram head

Not much...

Not to much has gone on the last years since I posted anything.  I finished my Pharmacy Tech program, passed the national test, and got a job as a Tech at the Wal-Mart Pharmacy in North Logan.  I've been there 6 months now and still love it.  I sang with the Bel-Canto choir again for their Christmas concert.  I have been unable to make it to any practices this spring due to my work scheduled though.

Ben started the Machinist program at BATC.  He started in the day program, but put him self back on the wait list so he could get in to the night program so he could switch jobs.  He's still working with many of the same clients but in a work environment instead of residential.  While he's waiting to get into the night class he's taking a blacksmith class there at BATC and will possibly be volunteering as a blacksmith apprentice at the American West Heritage Center here in Cache Valley.  I'll probably be volunteering also, but not sure yet as we still need to finish our applications.

We didn't to anything exciting this winter, just tried to stay warm and enjoy the snow.  After January being mostly sub zero (it usually did get up to 10 during the day, but still some days we were lucky to hit 0)  this past week has been nice and warm.  Here are some pictures of some of the craftish things I did this winter...

Yesterday was my day off and it was nice and sunny outside.  I was restless so I went and got some cheep furring strips and made a Kentucky Stick Chair using the instructions on BuildEazy, a hand saw, and our cordless drill.  We're planning on making at least one more of these to take with us to the Cache Valley Rendezvous in May, so instead of using the wire I used a natural rope.  It's actually quite comfortable, just seems a bit unsteady at first.  Next year we might make some to try and sell at Rendezvous, we'll see.  The furring is soft wood, so we'd like to use hard wood to make them a bit more sturdy, but at the moment soft wood will have to do.

A couple years ago my Grandma gave me the sheet of instructions and 2 pairs of socks to make Sock Monkeys.  I kept finding them and putting it off because it looked to complicated (I don't always like to sew small things).  But, I'm trying to finish up some of the projects I either have everything for or have half started, so the other day I pulled out the socks.  They actually went together quickly.  I've had a couple people interested in buying them, but I had already decided what I was doing with these two when I made them, so now I'm on the look out for more socks to make into Monkeys.

I've been crocheting small ornament covers for awhile and finally challenged myself to attempt a larger doily. Once I started I found that it wasn't as big of a challenge as I thought it would be (at least the two patterns I've done so far).  My first one is the picture above, I can't remember the pattern name, but I was playing with using multiple colors.  I starched it using a basic cornstarch water mixture.  Below is one I made from a pattern called Woodland Lace.  I was doing some research on line and found a recipe for a sugar starch.  So I tried that on this one, but I didn't like the way it looked, so I washed it off and now it's siting on my ironing board waiting for me to re-starch it.

Bel Canto

We had our Stake Conference at the end of February and both of us were able to participate in the Stake Choir.  The week after I was invited to join the Bel Canto Women's Choir.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to the next practice as it was the last day of my class, so I made arrangements to ride with the stake choir director on the following week.  But, that practice was canceled due to weather.  Then after being sick with a bad cold for the next two practices I was able to make it.  It is a blast!  Our director is amazing, the other ladies are wonderful and we're singing some really fun songs.  My first night was hard because I still had a cough and couldn't sing much, and the song's we went over were some of the harder ones (especially if you hadn't sung them before).  Our June concert will be June 8th at 12pm at the Logan Tabernacle.  Here are some video's of the song's well be singing at our June concert.

The Rhythm of Life

Medley from Les Miserables

Memory - From Cats

June is Bustin' Out All Over

Music of the Night

Where Is Love?

We're singing several others, but these are some of my favorites!

A place with a View

Our new place is the end unit of a block of three town homes.  We share one wall with our neighbor, and on the other side is an irrigation ditch.  Here's part of the view from our kitchen:

We can see the back of another block of town homes, but that's mostly blocked by a large fir tree.  A sidewalk runs along side the ditch, and out front the bank has erroded a way a bit and there's a large gap between the sidewalk and dirt.  When we first got here we noticed a Garter Snake, and at one point near the beginning of last month there were about five or six that we counted.  It's been several weeks since we last saw them so we don't know what happened to them, but hopefully they'll be back next year.

Here's some more of the ducks...there were no ducklings when we first got here in June, but after a month or so we started to see them...

When we left Sacramento, unfortunately there wasn't room to bring my Jade Snake (thanks Mom for correcting me) plant that had come from my grandparent's place in Yuma.   However, before we left I took a cutting from it and wrapped in paper towles and it road in a paper cup the whole way.

I've made sure that it stays damp and when I checked I checked it the other day it had roots!  Now all I need to do is get a planter and some good soil and hopefully it will start to grow again.

Year in Review

After seeing a dermatologist at UC Davis and being on antibiotics for five months as well as topical steroid ointment, I have been off the antibiotics for five months and only have sporadic outbreaks of itchy  red spots and very few blisters, I only have to use the ointment a few times a month now.  It's been a pleasant surprise, seeing how quickly I responded to the treatment.  Now that that's under control I can start dealing with nearly a year of inactivity and finding a job.

Other than dealing with my Linear IgA and an unexpected double ear infection in August nothing overly exciting happened in 2010.

2011 started out quiet and nice and then picked up the excitement level.  This spring semester we took a Marine Biology class together (which ended up beigng more than we expected).  We were able to take a few field trips.  We both ended up being sick and missing the first one, but were able to make it up.  The Second one was suppose to be to Monterey and Point Lobos.  But, we had technical difficulties with the bus and had to forgo Point Lobos and Hopkins Marine Station.  Bright and early the next morning we head out to the Monteray Bay Aquarium.

This is only a few of the pictures you can click here for more: Monteray Bay Aquarium.  Between this and the next field trip, we did a make up at Point Reyes.  We didn't go to the lighthouse like our class had, we went to the other side of the headlands to Chimney Rock.  It was goregous.  The female and young elephant seals were there at their haul out and were noisey.  We hiked to the top of the headland in the wind and on our way back we went down to the historic life boat station and were within ten feet of some of the seals.

More Pictures Here: Point Reyes.  There were also lots of pretty wild flowers in bloom.

Our third and last trip was to Bodega Bay which was fun, but too cold and windy for pictures.

To Etna and Back Again

About a week ago I was able to spend nearly a week back home with my family.  Most of my time was spent going through boxes and trying to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.

Just as you enter Etna there is a metal statue of a mule packer and just behind that there is a granite stone like the historical markers through out the valley, only this one has sat blank for many years.  I was a bit surprised when I this trip I noticed that a plaque had finally been placed on the face of the rock.

On my way back south I stopped at the Evergreen Cemetery in Yreka to find a couple Sheffields that are related to my ancestors and may be the family of the Willie Sheffield burried in the Etna Cemetery.

It's a very dry cemetery, reminded me more of the cemetery in Yuma than the other cemeteries in the area that I've visited.  William P Sheffield (1872-1941) is the darker stone on the left with his daughter Anetia K Sheffield (1899-1915) the lighter stone on the right with Lauren R Henderson (1890-1915) between them.  As of now, we don't know what Lauren's relationship is to the Sheffields other than he and Anetia died the same year and are buried with her father in what appears to be a family plot with an open plot.  I have been able to find Lauren on the 1900 and 1910 census, for both he was living with his parents in or near Yreka while on both censuses Anetia was living with her family in Greenview.  It is possible that between the 1910 census and the deaths of Anetia and Lauren the Sheffield's moved to Yreka because by the 1920 census William P and his wife Ada are living in the Yreka Township.

It was dry enough and hot enough that this little guy was out, though he ran under a fallen headstone when I got too close.   There was also a doe and little fawn looking for food in the shade.

Every night I was gone, I made sure that my plants had gotten watered and was pleasently suprised to see how much they had grown in such a short time.