Keeping Busy

Taking it easy is more than sitting with our feet up. We have both been working on our hobbies since we moved to the Denver area. When we left Arizona in April I packed one figured maple bowl I had turned but still needed to sand. I also brought 10 wooden rings I had cut on the scroll saw. I made them into a basket. I did the scroll saw work at least 2 winters ago but I had been avoiding the tedious sanding needed to complete the project. Sanding is my least favorite part of working with wood!

With lots of down time, I finally finished sanding both projects. I then assembled the basket, gluing the rings together, and painted it. I finished the bowl with a mixture of polyurethane and oil. I am really pleased with how both items came out.

For the past 3 years John has been carving a large nativity set, a few figures each year. He has completed carving 15 figures, 4 of them this year. He has also cleaned up 2 diamond willow hiking sticks. When we return to Arizona he will paint the nativity figures and give each hiking stick a minimum of 6 coats of polyurethane.

We're having fun.

Tomorrow I report for jury duty, so I won't be needing any hobbies for at least a day or two.

WHAT Have We Been Doing?

We are about ready to leave Gold Canyon until next fall. So, what have we done over the winter? We certainly haven't been hiking much--only twice all winter, as a matter of fact. When we first arrived in October, we were busy getting our new workshop ready, getting a washer-dryer, utility sink, water softener, cabinets, work bench, lathe, scroll saw, etc. etc. etc.

Finally, we got down to work. John used the scroll saw to create three intarsia projects. He also painted the nativity scene characters he had carved over the summer.

He also created this scroll saw cross.

Then, he got distracted. He started attending a class on "Writing Your Family History" here in our resort. For years, he has been writing stories about his ancestors and about his own experiences. He decided to get serious. Here is a photo of the notebook of stories about his personal experiences. He hopes to have it ready to publish (on a limited basis) before 2016 is over. It won't be in bookstores, but hopefully it will be of interest to family and a few friends. He is really a good writer and he has done so many different and interesting things over the years.

Meanwhile, I spent a lot of time working on the lathe. Some projects turned out very well, others--not so much. But I had a lot of fun and I learned a whole lot, especially from my mistakes. Look at what I did.

Next winter, we hope to live a more balanced life--both hobbies and hiking. But, that balance has always been hard for us. All our married lives we have focused on either work or play, but never balanced the two in either a week or a month. Do you suppose we can change that in the 13th year of retirement? I wonder.

See Us Now

Finally, we have it all together--our two homes, that is.

This is why we bought this house. We have a full-hookup RV pad right next to the house. We now have a guest house. And we can easily move things back and forth between the two. Two weeks ago, the last of the concrete in our yard was poured. We had to wait a week to park our truck here. And today, two weeks out, we were told we could park our RV here. At 8:15 this morning, we had our truck hooked up to the RV, then drove around the block and parked it here. We are very happy.

We have been doing a few things other than equipping the house and looking at the concrete. We have visited with blogger friends Jim and Gayle and Art and Connie. We attended a pancake breakfast as guests of Bob and Marcia, who had come to see our new house several days earlier. We do weight training and walking. In addition to church services on Sunday, we attended the spaghetti dinner at Epiphany, as well. And we have both endured through colds.

Two Saturdays in a row, I have been to the wood shop here in Canyon Vistas, learning how to turn a piece of wood on the lathe. I really enjoy working with wood and one of the residents is in the wood shop to help people learn this skill on Saturday mornings. Here is what I have made so far, a small vase. It is made of mesquite wood.

Using the lathe is something like using a potter's wheel to shape clay. As the wood spins, I use a metal tool to start removing wood. As I do, the square piece of wood turns into a round object. How wonderful! I hope to make some bowls and some pens.
John has been carving and writing a book about his ancestors.

We certainly enjoy our life here in the Arizona winter.

Developing Our Skills

We have been spending a lot of time developing our skills at intarsia. And what is intarsia? According to Wikipedia,

Intarsia is a woodworking technique that uses varied shapes, sizes, and species of wood fitted together to create a mosaic-like picture with an illusion of depth. Intarsia is created through the selection of different types of wood, using their natural grain pattern and color (but can involve the use of stains and dyes) to create variations in the pattern. After selecting the specific woods to be used within the pattern, each piece is then individually cut, shaped, and finished. Sometimes areas of the pattern are raised to create more depth. Once the individual pieces are complete, they are fitted together like a jig-saw puzzle and glued to wood backing which is sometimes cut to the outline shape of the image.


We saw people doing intarsia last spring, but we were too late to take one of the beginner classes. We bought a book and tried it on our own. This year we signed up for the first class that was scheduled. The first task is to trace the pattern onto the wood.





Then we cut out the pieces with the scroll saw.



And sand the pieces to smooth the edges and shape each piece.



The pieces are laid out on top of the pattern and shaped if they don't fit just right.



We do most of the work in the wood shop here at VDO, but John did some shaping at the RV with the Dremel.



Here are the whales we each made. We sprayed them with varnish and laid them out to dry.



One skill it is important to develop is good cutting methods on the scroll saw. This nativity set puzzle provided good practice. We each made one.





Next, we each made individual projects. This is John's iris flower.



And this is my angel.



Next, John made roses. One is made of dark wood, the other from light wood. The two pieces were taped together and cut out at the same time. It worked very well, I think. This is the dark rose before it is glued together.



Here you can see steps in the projects in progress.










The projects we made last spring were each made out of one piece of wood. That is much easier to do and make it fit together. John painted his.





Next week, we will take an intermediate level class. Hopefully we will further hone our skills--and then remember them till fall when we return to Arizona.

A Museum and Crafts

Tuesday morning, we gave John and Kylie several options for our day's activities and asked them to rank their favorites.  The first choice was the Dinosaur Museum in Woodland Park--no brainer because John has been sleeping with toy dinosaurs for years.  We were a little surprised that it was Kylie's first choice, as well.  Maybe the fact that their dad is a middle school science teacher helps explain the interest.

The museum has several boxes where people can use small brushes to "uncover" dinosaur bones.  Kylie and John had to give that a try.

There were lots of skeletons hanging from the ceiling.  The museum sends out teams each year to collect fossil specimens.  They then make castings of what they find and create lightweight skeleton copies that they display and sell around the country.  They also have actual fossils with plaster replacing the original soil where they were found.  Both types of display make for interesting viewing.

From the museum, we moved to the gift shop.  That was just as popular as the museum exhibits!

Their second choice was to do some crafts with Nana and Papa.  John has learned how to use a pocket knife in Cub Scouts and he wanted to carve with Papa.  Kylie and I had already talked about my teaching her how to bead.

Kylie said she would like to make a beaded necklace.  I showed her several different ones I have made and she chose the type she wanted.  So I showed her all the different beads I have on hand.  She spent a long time choosing the ones she wanted to use and laying them out in the order they would go on the wire.  Then she strung the necklace.  When I used crimp beads to hold the beads  in place, her comment was, "That is the same thing we do to put feathers in our hair!"  How fun.

Here she is, modeling her necklace over her sweatshirt.

John II wanted to learn to carve.  Papa had a pattern for carving a Santa Face on a pencil.  He used a dowel stick, instead.  He carved the face first, then John copied the face right below Papa's.  Carving on a small round object like that takes lots of concentration for an 8-year-old.  The eye-hand coordination is really hard work.

John also wanted to show off his creation.

By then, the afternoon showers were coming in, so we put everything away and went inside. John and Kylie had lots of fun playing Old Maid, Go Fish and Slap Jack.

It was such a treat to have them with us for a couple of days.  We were impressed with how well they get along and with what interesting people they are to spend time with.  It was so fun.

Recent Activities

I don't know what happened to our warm Arizona weather, but it is cold outside in Mesa. At noon, the temperature was 44 and right now, my phone says it is 39. Brrrr. Not wanting any outside activity this morning, we packed up all our intarsia wood and went to the woodshop. According to Wikipedia, "Intarsia is a form of wood inlaying that is similar to marquetry." We spread out on one of the work benches.



We intend to take a class in March, but we bought a book with instructions and patterns and are practicing now. We may have to unlearn some bad habits, but we will have developed some skills, as well. Today, we used various sanders to smooth out the parts we cut last week. I also did some work with John's Dremel. It is a really neat tool.





We have many boxes of old photographs in storage in Colorado. We want to select the important ones and copy them to our computer, then get rid of the rest. I brought one box with us in October and have finally gotten around to working with them. At first, I used our scanner. When I scan at 800dpi, it takes 2 minutes per picture. I had read about using my camera to copy old photos in a post by Geeks on Tour. I found the article and started using that method. It is much faster.





Last week, we had beautiful weather, so we decided to finally try out bocce ball.





In past years, I have posted pictures of two figures that one of the residents here put out to depict snowbird life in Arizona. Since we haven't been here in February, we hadn't seen this pose.



Whatever the weather, we seem to find plenty to do.

Seeing Freinds

Yesterday, Ron and Barbara came to visit. Barbara is a train buff and wanted to see the VDO Garden Railroad and they wanted to check out the Country Store. The miniature buildings in the train setup are really well done.



This old house, with the housewife checking on the rabbit cages, is so realistic.



The horse-drawn Budweiser wagon passes behind the local automobile garage.



I think this train is my favorite, at least so far. The Oregon Lumber Co. RR wood-burning steam engine pulls passenger cars from the Denver and Rio Grande Western.



We checked out all the vendors at the Country Store and Ron and Barbara both bought something. We picked up a small gift for our grandson. Then we ate lunch. Every weekday, lunch is served here in the resort. Four days it comes from the Cactus Grill. On Country Store day it is served in the Fiesta Room. For residents who don't want to cook (I'm not one of them), it is possible to eat food prepared there every noon and one or more evenings a week. That is in addition to the substantial appetizers served at the Tiki Bar most evenings.

After lunch, we came back to our site and talked out doors for over an hour. It was a fun day.



Today, I picked up two completed pottery projects. Early in the month, I posted about making my first puzzle pot. Both of my puzzle pots had been fired, so I could bring them home. They aren't perfect, but not bad for my first attempts. John took my picture showing them off.