Yarn and a niddy noddy. When I bought my drop spindle a few weeks ago I knew exactly what I was going to do. I wanted to make yarn and I wanted to incorporate the fur from our beautiful dog Jake. He was the most amazing Siberian husky and I loved him very much. Jake became sick very suddenly. My kid started collecting fur every time he brushed the dog and saved up quite a pile. I used as much as I could in this first adventure in spinning. What I didn’t know at the time was t

Metal on metal action On day 71 I wanted to do something that wasn't terribly physical. My tree chopping adventure on day 70 was exhausting. Today I needed to use more brain and less braun. What did I choose? Welding You might be surprised that a person who enjoys blacksmithing as a hobby has never used a welder. I've had tons of opportunities since we own a MIG welder but I have just never tried it. Now that my metal magician is home from his travels we are back in our happy

Day 70 One dead tree and a few sharp axes. Today's adventure was not without a tiny bit of excitement. I've never chopped down a tree before and I'll be honest when I say I'd still be out there if I didn't have a bit of muscle helping me swing those axes. On day 70 we attacked a very tall and very dead pine tree. I'm guessing it was about 30 feet tall. I had plenty of space with no danger of dropping it in the wrong direction but I was pretty sure it was going to hit in the w

Kama Sutra Ha! Did I get your attention? Day 69 did not include the Indian Hindu book of love but it did involve twisting, spinning and winding around and around. Today I turned a big pile of wool and fur into yarn. This time last year we said goodbye to our sweet dog Jake. He was the most beautiful beast of a Siberian Husky and an important part of our family. I still miss him very much. He was a rescue and came to us eighteen years ago. He had one blue eye and one brown and

Grout When you start a really big project there are milestones that you can't wait to hit and once you experience them a sense of relief comes from accomplishing your goals. In my bathroom, it all started with a drip in the kitchen ceiling. When this happened we had no idea how much fun was ahead for us. Today we hit a big milestone. We finally have all the tile in place and are ready for grout. Most stages up to this point have been enjoyable but none have made me as happy a

It's a Jeep thing! I've heard this from a few people and the itsajeepthing hashtag has popped up a couple of times on my instagram and twitter feeds. I've never driven a Jeep so today I attacked the experience with vigor. We visited a local dealership and walked through rows of Jeep vehicles. They had some amazing beefy choices and colors. I met up with our favorite salesman. Yes, I have a favorite. I chose the new Renegade for the test drive. I like the vehicle but this new

I survived black Friday shopping by spending time with my kids again. They are masters of so many things and I can't imagine where they got that from. Today I got to add some pretty cool features to my miniature killing machines. In my head I was just finishing up an experience but my son assured me that this was going to be pretty involved and that it's a separate skill all together. I was a tiny bit skeptical but I'm all in now. If you've been following my miniature buildin

Thanksgiving 2017 and it's the 65th day of this adventure. Our family of four is back in the same house and I've got a sense of gratitude, also I hear the sounds of grown men behaving like children and it's music to my ears. My youngest man-child is home from traveling with the Renaissance faire and he brought new toys with him. If you know my kids you are aware of their obsession with Star Wars and light saber dueling. My youngest kid brought home man-child Light sabers and

Mini painting I've waited quite a few years to paint miniature wargame figures. My kids have gamed for a while now and it's fair to say that I've avoided this on purpose. Why? I just don't enjoy miniature war gaming. What I do enjoy is spending time with my kids and if this adventure brings us together I'm doing it. This hobby isn't a cheap one so I'm borrowing many elements from their paint set to get this job done. I selected purple from the palette as the base color of my

Tile Today, for the first time in the history of me, I cut and set my own bullnose tile. I've been looking forward to this for so very long. I know at 49 I should have had this experience by now but I've been super busy and needed an actual project to tile. For the past few weeks we have been chasing a leak in our bathroom. Once we found that little sucker we had quite a mess to clean up. In doing all of this I had to rebuild my shower. The process of fixing the mistakes of o