Wood. Food. More.
I had mentioned before that chollas turn purple in the winter around here. There’s one on the way to the mailbox that is more purple than any other I’ve seen, so I grabbed a picture of it this morning. Should’ve reached past it to get the other weed out of the picture, but I didn’t want to get footprints in the snow. Maybe tomorrow.
#photography #NewMexico #cholla
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While waking up this morning, we heard a knocking on the roof. There were a couple ravens doing something up there.
One of them flew over to the top of the post holding the birdhouse and proceeded to eat something. Not sure what it was.
Then a couple other ravens started flying around, and the one from the birdhouse flew to the ground to finish his meal in peace.
Once he was done, he flew to the juniper in our yard, where he was joined by another raven. And then a third one flew up and there was a bit of a scuffle before all three of them flew off to somewhere else. It was fun to watch them.
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I made a second bowl today, mostly concentrating on making the bottom of the bowl thinner, as well as the sides.
The bowl is about 5 inches in diameter, and about 1¼ inches tall. The bottom is between ¼ and ⅜ inch thick, and the sides are slightly less than ¼ inch thick at their thinnest.
It’s not perfect, but I feel like I’m getting better every day, which is a nice feeling.
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I got a lathe last month, and have been playing around, teaching myself to turn. This is the first bowl I finished, and while it’s far from perfect, I’m pretty darned happy with it.
There are a few rough spots where I have what I would call tear-out if I was working with a plane. I may go after them with a spokeshave or sandpaper, or I may just leave them be. I haven’t decided yet.
But the piece of ash I picked had some great grain, so I’ll be saving this bowl no matter how I decide to finish it. It was a great learning experience, and I hope the next one off the lathe will be even better.
I’ve been told I shouldn’t use a skew when turning a bowl. I did. Almost all of this was done with a ¾” bowl gouge and a ¾” skew. Mostly I was taking light enough cuts and using slow enough RPMs that I don’t think there was too much danger, but I’ve ordered a smaller bowl gouge (a ¼”) and a ½” round-nose scraper so I can finish off the surface more safely.
But I think I’m going to be back to spindle turning for a while anyhow. I need to make four legs for my forge table next, and I’d like to turn those round myself, so I’ll be practicing on short pieces for a while before tackling an almost three-foot long table leg. And I’ll probably need to take a break to sharpen my tools, too. Learning by trial and error is hard on the edges.
Update: I took a file and scalloped the rim to hide the worst of the tear-out. I think it looks a lot better now.
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With Thanksgiving in the rear-view mirror, it’s time when people have put up their Christmas decorations.
We’ve talked of getting farolitos for our driveway, but this doesn’t feel like an especially festive year. Maybe we’ll find some on clearance in January. ;–)
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Mix ingredients to a dough. Let rise once, punch down.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Rise again, punch down and shape into knots. Should get 18-24 knots from this batch. Put on a sheet pan covered with parchment or lightly oiled.
Wash with 1 egg and 1T honey, whisked together. Let bread rise for 15-30 additional minutes.
Bake for 15 min to internal temp of 190F. Move to cooling rack immediately after removing from oven.
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Pork chops, sweet potato tots, stuffing, corn, and homemade whole wheat challah bites. With a 2018 Frog’s Tooth Rose A on the side. Yum!
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Spotted the morning sun shining on our ristra this morning, and decided it was worth taking a picture of. Some editing to punch the colors, and intentionally shallow DOF to blur the background.
I’m pretty pleased with this one. Might have to print and frame it.
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When I woke up this morning, the wind was howling. After just a few minutes, it let up. When it got light enough out that I could see, there was snow coming down.
It wasn’t much snow. Maybe a shade over a quarter inch, but it meant I didn’t have to water our trees this morning, and everything looked beautiful for my morning walk.
The forecast is for the wind to pick back up later this morning, and no more moisture until the weekend. I’m sure glad I got out to enjoy it this morning.
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Today was another windy day out. The temperature was warmer than yesterday, but the wind is still blowing around 20mph, which is just too windy to do anything outside, so I baked a batch of bread.
They’re. 2:1:1 mix of Graham flour, bread flour, and corn flour, and we’re going to have lunch in a few minutes. I bet we have sandwiches!
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