2 days

Wow 2 more days till we move in to our new home, haven't had much time to carve. My niece asked me the last night to carve a piece of maple for her in memory of her mother. I was really touched by her request I only hope I can do a carving that truly honors her mothers memory.  She died at young age of breast cancer and we all really miss her.

Hands

A friend on Facebook was wanting friends to write about our hands. At first there was nothing to write except that they hold and point at things. My hands have had a pretty rough life now that I think of it. When I was about 2 years old I lost the tip of my pinky on my left hand when the wind slammed the door on my pinky I imagine it was pretty painful but sure don't remember it happening, the finger still has a scar and is a little different from the rest of the hand, kind of describes me an people, we still function normally but do things and look different. The other time my hands were accomplice's was when we are on a farm with my dad, brother, and we were irrigating a pasture it was cloudy and calm. I was walking around holding a shovel on my shoulder air trying to look busy. I don't know if you can guess what happened but yup, I was struck by lightning, knocked me on my butt and there I was laying on the ground. My dad said it hit the power line and forked off the line (like fingers:)) Luckily I only had a small burn on my shoulder. Lesson learned here was not to hold shovels in the air during a lightning storm.  What's scary on that farm there have been several animals killed by lightning. There's a couple of more stories I could tell but nothing as eventful as the lightning one.

Now on to less traumatic my hands have been used for drawing when I was younger. Then when I was in the navy I used them to work on jet engines and related equipment on the A6 Intruder bomber/tanker. I was the guy on the aircraft carrier in the white shirt who was by these planes during launch giving a thumbs up (See I got paid extra to give the thumb's up) during launch the Flight deck trouble shooter. So being in the Navy for 4 years these hands have been all over the Atlantic they even crossed the Arctic Circle so I have what the navy calls  a Blue nose certificate. That was the most boring cruise ever no ice bergs or nothing, just crossed the circle. I also crossed the equator where you get a Shellback certificate. Currently my hands are used mainly to provide reliability for the electrical grid. I'm the guy who gets yelled at when people lose their power (Hello not my fault!) Not a hard job but can be challenging during bad weather.

 What my hands really enjoy doing is carving or whittling. There's always a stick that needs a face generally it ends up going to a little person. I like doing original carvings on found wood from the wood pile to cotton wood bark. Most of my stuff is giving to relatives because they say they like it, I have sold some carvings on the internet and have done commissions. I do it mainly because it gives me something to do and relaxes me.

But lately what my hands enjoy doing the most is holding my beautiful 4 month old granddaughter. My life has been truly blessed and I am thankful everyday for these gifts that have been given to me.

Cottonwood Bark Ornament part 2

This house is almost done have to do a little fine sanding and cleaning it up. Also going to go to Hobby Lobby and buy some fake snow to put on it. Not sure about painting it maybe a little on the trim to make it look more Christmasy (is that a word?) You'll be finding out I do have a few different words :) (no not colorful ones)

Cottonwood Bark Ornament

This is a cottonwood bark ornament I started on most of my stuff is original, I say most because when I started carving I learned from authors like Tom Wolfe, Ron Ransmom, Laura Irish, and many others I used their projects to learn and learned from them all. I'll be updating the progress of this little home as it gets done.

More Carvings, Santa is Cottonwood Bark the Spoon is Basswood

New Blogging

Howdy I'm new to this blogging thingy so I'll try not to bore you. I'm a Wood Carver been doing it for a few years. Currently the firewood pile has been my latest victim I found a piece of Aspen and carved a Wood Spirit, I'll post him one of these days but to get started I'll post some of my older ones. Thanks for stopping by I hope I get better at this. Have a great day