Aw come on it's not time to get up yet. Just five more minutes.
Did you say breakfast?
Why are you bothering me?
Hope you had a great day.
More later
Bruce
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Its A Cat's Life
Couldn't pass up these pictures of Smokey. Do you think he might be just a tad bit spoiled. He is in his favorite spot between me and Pam and cuddled up to her. And yes he is under the covers. He is as he reminds us all the time, king of this domain.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Well The Lathe Still Works
Even though it was still cold today I couldn't wait any longer to see if my lathe still worked. Good news is it does. Better news is the new sharpener I got actually sharpens my lathe tools. In just a few minutes I had turned a plate. Now if you are familiar with the old saying if you only have a hammer everything looks like a nail. You would get that having turned the plate I needed to carve something on it. So here it is.
Fifteen minutes to turn, 45 minutes to clean up, 2 hours to carve and 30 minutes to paint. Result something unique. The Santa design is mine. You will be seeing more of him in days to come. The plate is turned out of Aspen. Aspen is a very white wood semi hard and carves well. Best of all it has a very pleasant smell when you are working it. Not as strong as pine.
More Later
Bruce
Fifteen minutes to turn, 45 minutes to clean up, 2 hours to carve and 30 minutes to paint. Result something unique. The Santa design is mine. You will be seeing more of him in days to come. The plate is turned out of Aspen. Aspen is a very white wood semi hard and carves well. Best of all it has a very pleasant smell when you are working it. Not as strong as pine.
More Later
Bruce
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Not Lost Just Found
There is an old story where when a sculptor was asked how he was able to carve people out of stone he replied "simple you just remove everything that doesn't look like the person". Well actually it is not so easy but indeed you are trying to find the item hiding in the wood. Today I started out to carve an angel but my plans were changed by a piece of wood that said it wanted to be something else.
What I saw in this piece of wood was a heart so lets get started.
Now for the first section.
One side carved lets do the next.
Halfway there.
Three quarters done
All done now let's add a little something extra.
Time for the paint
Now for the antiquing.
And now you know what was hiding in that little piece of wood. It only tood about four hours to coax it out.
Next time you look at a little scrap of wood try to see what may be hiding there.
Here are a few other things I found in wood lately
Hope you are having a great day.
More Later
Bruce
What I saw in this piece of wood was a heart so lets get started.
One side carved lets do the next.
Three quarters done
All done now let's add a little something extra.
Time for the paint
Now for the antiquing.
And now you know what was hiding in that little piece of wood. It only tood about four hours to coax it out.
Next time you look at a little scrap of wood try to see what may be hiding there.
Here are a few other things I found in wood lately
Hope you are having a great day.
More Later
Bruce
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Leader of The Band
In his song Dan Fogelberg pays tribute to his father "The Leader of the Band". Most of us have heard the song and probably know many of the lyrics but have given it little thought beyond that. January 10th marks the loss to my family of the "Leader of the Band". That was the day we lost my father.
He died of complications of a chest infection. He suffered in later years from COPD. A smoker for many years as well as many of the jobs he held over the years had damaged and weakened lungs. Though you would never know it as he never let it slow him down. However, my siblings and I know the real reason was that he had lost the will to live after the loss of my Mother in 2000.
My father was an interesting and complex man. He was curious to a fault and had so many hobbies during his life it is hard to recount them all. He was a talented teacher who even in retirement was constantly coming across former students (many well into their fifties) that still vividly remembered him. He had a simple philosophy of life live it fully but hurt no one.
My mother and he were married for 56 years. Family was extremely important to him. Perhaps since his parents were divorced shortly after he was born and he spent much of his childhood with aunts and uncles. My mothers large Italian family welcomed him and he fit right in. They were married during the second World War when my father was stationed in Harlingen Texas and my mother was working at the base for the Army. Oddly enough they met at a women's basketball game that my father was refereeing.
My father was quite the athlete Gymnastics, football, basketball, figure skating (on roller skates no less) even a stint as a professional skater with the Roller Derby. He was involved in the early days of water skiing and began and ended his teaching career teaching PE and coaching.
In an ironic parallel with the Dan Fogelberg song my father tried another career that of a farmer. To say he did not have a green thumb would be an understatement. After a year of trying my grandfather who had helped him get started encouraged him to find another line of work. After a brief stint in New York as a hardware clerk hew went back to school and finished his Bachelors Degree that had been interrupted by the war and then went to UNT in Denton to complete his Master's Degree. He spent a large part of his teaching career in Corpus Christi. Which was conveniently close to my mother's parents. After their deaths he got itchy feet and me moved to California spending three years there before moving back to Texas and ending up in Uvalde. He would complete his career there and return to Corpus Christi on retirement. Uvalde was where I began my teaching career and my parents retirement and move coincided with my families move to Kaufman Texas where I would move into administration. My brother and sister lived in Corpus. That said I think you begin to understand the importance to my father of being close to family.
The ironic twist to my lead in to this wave of nostalgia is also ironic. My father wanted badly to be able to sing and play an instrument. Sadly this was one of the few things he never mastered. As my mother would lament not only could my father not carry a tune in a bucket the bucket had holes in it. Though he is responsible for my playing the guitar. I was apparently the only of my siblings that had expressed any interest. When I was in the third grade he bought me my first and bought one for him as well. While I was not very good he persisted and I was given another when I was fifteen and given lessons as well. I have played off and of for over forty years and have a closet full that if nothing else give me joy to own.
I have have always been in awe of my father. His ability to talk to anyone and to show them that he really cared about what they said. I can do the former but the later is a little harder. To pick up most anything he wished and master it. I still cannot figure out how he could look across a pasture and walk right to the area where the Indians would have camped and proceed to gather arrowheads that I never seemed to see first. I appreciate the abilities that I did receive from him and miss him more than he would have ever realized. I am sure he is in heavenly choir practice singing off key but with enthusiasm the same way he lived his life with enthusiasm.
This picture was taken sometime postwar probably at a summer camp. Some where I have a picture of him doing this trick on skis. My father worked for a number of years at summer camps as a counselor. The photo below is of him as a life guard. Also believed to be at camp.
My parents on their wedding day. this was taken at my grandparents farm in Santa Rosa Texas.
While dad could not sing he could dance and he and my mother enjoyed dancing. This picture is believed to be from college in West Virginia.
He died of complications of a chest infection. He suffered in later years from COPD. A smoker for many years as well as many of the jobs he held over the years had damaged and weakened lungs. Though you would never know it as he never let it slow him down. However, my siblings and I know the real reason was that he had lost the will to live after the loss of my Mother in 2000.
My father was an interesting and complex man. He was curious to a fault and had so many hobbies during his life it is hard to recount them all. He was a talented teacher who even in retirement was constantly coming across former students (many well into their fifties) that still vividly remembered him. He had a simple philosophy of life live it fully but hurt no one.
My mother and he were married for 56 years. Family was extremely important to him. Perhaps since his parents were divorced shortly after he was born and he spent much of his childhood with aunts and uncles. My mothers large Italian family welcomed him and he fit right in. They were married during the second World War when my father was stationed in Harlingen Texas and my mother was working at the base for the Army. Oddly enough they met at a women's basketball game that my father was refereeing.
My father was quite the athlete Gymnastics, football, basketball, figure skating (on roller skates no less) even a stint as a professional skater with the Roller Derby. He was involved in the early days of water skiing and began and ended his teaching career teaching PE and coaching.
In an ironic parallel with the Dan Fogelberg song my father tried another career that of a farmer. To say he did not have a green thumb would be an understatement. After a year of trying my grandfather who had helped him get started encouraged him to find another line of work. After a brief stint in New York as a hardware clerk hew went back to school and finished his Bachelors Degree that had been interrupted by the war and then went to UNT in Denton to complete his Master's Degree. He spent a large part of his teaching career in Corpus Christi. Which was conveniently close to my mother's parents. After their deaths he got itchy feet and me moved to California spending three years there before moving back to Texas and ending up in Uvalde. He would complete his career there and return to Corpus Christi on retirement. Uvalde was where I began my teaching career and my parents retirement and move coincided with my families move to Kaufman Texas where I would move into administration. My brother and sister lived in Corpus. That said I think you begin to understand the importance to my father of being close to family.
The ironic twist to my lead in to this wave of nostalgia is also ironic. My father wanted badly to be able to sing and play an instrument. Sadly this was one of the few things he never mastered. As my mother would lament not only could my father not carry a tune in a bucket the bucket had holes in it. Though he is responsible for my playing the guitar. I was apparently the only of my siblings that had expressed any interest. When I was in the third grade he bought me my first and bought one for him as well. While I was not very good he persisted and I was given another when I was fifteen and given lessons as well. I have played off and of for over forty years and have a closet full that if nothing else give me joy to own.
I have have always been in awe of my father. His ability to talk to anyone and to show them that he really cared about what they said. I can do the former but the later is a little harder. To pick up most anything he wished and master it. I still cannot figure out how he could look across a pasture and walk right to the area where the Indians would have camped and proceed to gather arrowheads that I never seemed to see first. I appreciate the abilities that I did receive from him and miss him more than he would have ever realized. I am sure he is in heavenly choir practice singing off key but with enthusiasm the same way he lived his life with enthusiasm.
This picture was taken sometime postwar probably at a summer camp. Some where I have a picture of him doing this trick on skis. My father worked for a number of years at summer camps as a counselor. The photo below is of him as a life guard. Also believed to be at camp.
My parents on their wedding day. this was taken at my grandparents farm in Santa Rosa Texas.
While dad could not sing he could dance and he and my mother enjoyed dancing. This picture is believed to be from college in West Virginia.
Peter H. Curran Sr.
July 28th 1921 - January 10th 2004
The Leader of the Band
Baby It's Cold Outside
Well winter arrived and we had our first snowfall of the year. Dallas usually averages about 3 inches of snow per year and thankfully many years we have none. However, this year will not be one of those. Sunday afternoon turned out to be a snowy one. This followed several hours of cold rain so Monday morning turned out to be pretty messy. Thankfully the snow and rain ended before this morning which turned out to be even colder. We are forecast to be in the 20's and 30's until Friday. Then thankfully we will return to the more normal 60's.
Luckily Pam does not have to get on any freeways to get to work as they did not cancel school and me I am hold up in the house working on projects that don't require me to go out. Pam has been worried about the birds so I may have to go and replenish her stock of bird seed soon. She has ventured out several times to make sure there is food in their feeders.
Hopefully you are staying warm.
More Later
Bruce
Hopefully you are staying warm.
More Later
Bruce
Sunday, January 9, 2011
And Then It Was WInter
We have had a particularly mild fall and beginning to winter here in the Dallas area. However, today it looks as though we are in for our first snowfall of the season. With the trees only just losing their leaves and many of them already beginning to bud out again I hope this projected week long freeze does not damage the landscaping too much. Last year we lost a large oak that we had babied for 8 years. See my post about a very expensive walking stick.
With the weather turning cold I am breaking out the winter recipes and a large pot of chili is cooking as I write this. The cats are reveling in a lit fireplace. We have only turned it on for them once so far this year. They like laying in front of it.
I worked last week to finish the garage which has been an ongoing project for a while but it is now complete. Completely painted completely organized and ready for me to create something outstanding. Now what that will be I don't know. I have a number of projects that I want to get to. One being to turn on my lathe for the first time in seven years. I hope it works. It is actually a new lathe that I bought when we moved to Murphy and only used once. The work I do on the lathe is some of Pam's favorites. Mostly candle holders and small plates and bowls but, unique and great gifts for our friends and families. I also want to carve more walking sticks and have a number of other carvings laid out.
Here is the latest carving. A small angel that I designed. Hopefully I will turn this into an article in the next few weeks and see if I can get it published.
This was done on a piece of scrap pine as a proof of concept. I then reduced the drawing even further and I am carving it from a piece of mahogany. Given my choice Mahogany is one of my favorite woods and my favorite to carve or turn. In furniture I prefer pine or aspen. While I often carve pine it does not hold fine detail well but I hate to waste wood and small scraps are fair game for my experimentation.
This is the small angel in process. The knife gives you some idea of the size. This represents about an hour worth of work by time of completion I will probably have about 4 hours in the carving. It takes about the same amount of time to carve the larger versions.
I also have a Santa that I designed in progress. I find it is best to have two or three carvings started as some of the fine detail can become tedious and the ability to work on something else is sometimes helpful to the process.
He is also a pine scrap. When done he will be a Christmas ornament. I plan to make a larger version as a lid for a cookie jar and a smaller version as a pin or refrigerator magnet. He too will eventually be an article I hope.
With a cold rain falling outside I leave you with the boys sunning themselves in their favorite window.
May there always be a sunny spot in your live.
More Later
Bruce
With the weather turning cold I am breaking out the winter recipes and a large pot of chili is cooking as I write this. The cats are reveling in a lit fireplace. We have only turned it on for them once so far this year. They like laying in front of it.
I worked last week to finish the garage which has been an ongoing project for a while but it is now complete. Completely painted completely organized and ready for me to create something outstanding. Now what that will be I don't know. I have a number of projects that I want to get to. One being to turn on my lathe for the first time in seven years. I hope it works. It is actually a new lathe that I bought when we moved to Murphy and only used once. The work I do on the lathe is some of Pam's favorites. Mostly candle holders and small plates and bowls but, unique and great gifts for our friends and families. I also want to carve more walking sticks and have a number of other carvings laid out.
Here is the latest carving. A small angel that I designed. Hopefully I will turn this into an article in the next few weeks and see if I can get it published.
This was done on a piece of scrap pine as a proof of concept. I then reduced the drawing even further and I am carving it from a piece of mahogany. Given my choice Mahogany is one of my favorite woods and my favorite to carve or turn. In furniture I prefer pine or aspen. While I often carve pine it does not hold fine detail well but I hate to waste wood and small scraps are fair game for my experimentation.
This is the small angel in process. The knife gives you some idea of the size. This represents about an hour worth of work by time of completion I will probably have about 4 hours in the carving. It takes about the same amount of time to carve the larger versions.
I also have a Santa that I designed in progress. I find it is best to have two or three carvings started as some of the fine detail can become tedious and the ability to work on something else is sometimes helpful to the process.
He is also a pine scrap. When done he will be a Christmas ornament. I plan to make a larger version as a lid for a cookie jar and a smaller version as a pin or refrigerator magnet. He too will eventually be an article I hope.
With a cold rain falling outside I leave you with the boys sunning themselves in their favorite window.
May there always be a sunny spot in your live.
More Later
Bruce
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Just Working on his Tan
Cats are interesting creatures and we share our home with two with definite personality. We are not exactly sure why he likes to do this. We think he likes the warmth on his ears but it certainly is entertaining to watch.
Yes that is Blaze with his head in the lamp.
He has noticed I am watching him.
Can't a guy get a tan in peace?
Notice he is wearing his Christmas Bandanna. Who says cats don't like to dress up.
Now just for good measure here are a few of Smokey supervising Christmas.
He is also wearing his bandanna. Coordinated to his fur of course.
And finally Sophie the Lapsa-Poo who is Charles and Heathers dog.
She has the doggy version of the Christmas Bandanna.
Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Christmas and New Years. I will be posting more recipes this week.
More Later
Bruce
Yes that is Blaze with his head in the lamp.
He has noticed I am watching him.
Can't a guy get a tan in peace?
Notice he is wearing his Christmas Bandanna. Who says cats don't like to dress up.
Now just for good measure here are a few of Smokey supervising Christmas.
He is also wearing his bandanna. Coordinated to his fur of course.
And finally Sophie the Lapsa-Poo who is Charles and Heathers dog.
Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Christmas and New Years. I will be posting more recipes this week.
More Later
Bruce
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