Jicama Bowl

by The Woodworker

Maybe it would be a little different to make some other kind of exotic bowl, I thought. I had been noticing two jicamas sitting on the counter top waiting to be used. We got them at a Bountiful Basket delivery some time ago and just haven't found a use for them.  We had them before but never really cared for them.  Aha! Why not see if I can put them on my lathe and make them into a bowl?

It required a little adaption to my lathe chuck to make it happen. I put some nails into a piece of wood and inserted it into the chuck, then shoved the jicama onto the nails. It seemed to hold pretty well but I butted the tail stock against it just to add a little stability.  I turned on the lathe and carefully made sure it was on the slowest speed setting. It seems to work best at about 300 RPM.

Taking my trusty mini lathe tools I carefully started in. They were sharp and with the lathe turning slowly it worked perfectly. After completing the task I took the completed bown into the kitchen and showed Mrs. Woodworker.  She was impressed. I could tell by the neat way she smiled and rolled her eyes.

Unlike wood products the waste on this one is edible.

How is that for a fine homemaker project by a backwoods Alaska Homesteader who never even knew what fruit was?  I'm going to try other fruits and vegetables. Blueberries should be interesting, however I don't expect much from bananas.

See. Some of us guys can be creative homemaker types too.

1. Jicama

2. Chuck adapter for turning Jicama

3. Jicama attached and modified tail stock to hold it in place

4. Starting to turn.

5. Hollowing out the inside of the bowl.

6. Completed bowl right off the lathe. Eating the Jicama guts was not too bad.

7. Project completed. How would some of these work as fruit bowls for a fancy party?

Baby Animal Days 2014

Baby Animal Days has become one station marking our progress through the year.  It is always the first and biggest event of the season at the American West Heritage Center.  The weather is always unpredictable, the baby animals are always cute, and everyone seems happy to be outdoors after winter.

The historical venues are open, so in addition to the baby animals, folks have a chance to learn what life was like in this area in the past by visiting the 1820s Mountain Man and Shoshone site, the 1850s Pioneer site, the woodwright shop, the millinery shop and the 1917 farm.  It is not unusual to see visitors from the past in the crowd.

We had a few new babies to look at this year in addition to the normal chicks, ducklings, bunnies, piglets, goats, and lambs.  These are the cutest little miniature horses...not ponies!  The baby is only 2 weeks old.  Even her mother is quite small.  If you look on the right at the top of the fence you can see the hands of a visitor at the top of the fence to get an idea just how small these horses are.  I am told that the mother horse here has a career appearing at "My Little Pony" and princess parties.

This little fellow was also out greeting everyone.

The baby goats are always irresistable.

In recent years the baby bears have been a very popular attraction.  When the gates open in the morning, visitors often head to the bears first before looking at the more common baby animals.
Other less common animals include toads, salamanders, turtles of all sizes and birds.

One of the animals this year was either shy, or didn't like the sunlight, so he was hiding when I went by, but maybe you can catch a glimpse of the albino porcupine there inside his carrier box.

Once in a while we heard an old engine of some kind in the distance.  It seems like they were working on one of the antique tractors there. 

The most fun of all though is interacting with the thousands of visitors who come to visit over the three day event.  Now we have a week long break before school groups start coming to visit.

Blessing Day

Today we went to visit baby Genevieve again as it was her special blessing day.  Her mother spent some time making her an outfit to wear for the occasion. After making her a little white dress, her mom spent some time putting ribbon embroidery on it...a skill she was first exposed to years ago in activity days.  She also made Genevieve some little felt shoes which she also decorated with ribbon embroidery.  Lastly she made baby a little white bonnet, fashioned from a white handkerchief with an edge crocheted by baby's great-great grandmother.

Genevieve did a wonderful job and did not cry a bit.  Her Daddy gave her a beautiful blessing while coping with the necessary crutches due to his broken leg.  He was assisted by 2 uncles and a grandpa.  Genevieve has learned to smile and enjoys looking around.  She does NOT like to be cradled like a new baby anymore.

A Cutting Board Bowl

                                                by the Woodworker

After the relative success of turning the root ball bowl I decided to try another odd bowl turning project. Having several old cutting boards that were too badly worn out to salvage I considered the idea of turning them into a bowl.

1. Four old cutting boards

2. Cutting boards after a trip through the planer.

3. Glued and clamped together for 24 hours.

4. Cutting boards being shaped by the band saw.

5. Rough rounded on the bandsaw, mounted and ready to start turning.

6. Turning in progress. The wood did not turn evenly due to several different types of wood present. I just had to work around it.

7. Bowl in progress. A few minutes later it was done and ready for sanding and finish coat.

8. For a finish coat I used Howard's butcher block finish

9. Completed bowl.

Cutting boards can usually be found at local thrift store. They run about a dollar apiece. The total cost of materials was about four dollars for this bowl. I'm no longer going to pass up junk cutting boards but rather add them to my collection until I have enough to make more bowls.

Root Ball to Bowl

by the Woodworker

I found a root ball in a pile of wood. Figuring it might be turned into a nifty bowl in the future I salvaged it and put aside to dry.   Soon I forgot it existed.  The other day  I rediscovered it in my scrap pile underneath my lathe. I pulled it out and considered how to turn it into a unique bowl.

After careful consideration I decided to cut off the bottom with a band saw in order to make a place to put my bowl chuck.

1. The original root ball.

2. installed on lathe using a face plate in order to hollow out the inside.

3. starting the turning process.

Extreme care had to be taken in order to avoid the misshaped and rotten root ball from coming apart due to poor balance.

4. The inside is starting to hollow out.

5. The inside starting to clean up and old rotten debris is falling out.

6.  Still more cleaning up and inside shaping. Very carefully of course.

7.  Now the outside is beginning to take shape. I had to make a special adapter for my tail stock in order to keep the bowl from coming apart. 

8. Still more work on the inside.

9. More outside work. Note how the holes appear as the decayed material falls out and irregularities in the wood start to even up. The red color is from bacteria that grows in the  tree. Bacteria can come in red, green and blue as well as other unusual colors. Sadly it fades over time.

10. Complete bowl. It looks like it will work well for holding apples and oranges. Peanuts; not so much.

It's always fun to make bowls out of exotic and bizarre types of wood. Often they don't quite make it to the finish line but when they do they are quite unique. Loads of fun to do.

This project took three hours.

Worth Waiting For - Part 2 - Lucy Rebecca

We have known for some time that February would be a busy month and so it has proved to be.  After leaving from our visit with Genevieve Rose and her family, we had just three days at home before leaving again.  We caught up on laundry and packed our car again.  Included in the car were eight cases of special milk from Gossners which the grandchildren love.  After spending a day in windy Wyoming, we arrived ready to greet another new grandchild and care for more grandchildren.  Once again we waited although technically she was probably not really late.  It is just that the doctor and baby's mother had their differences on what the correct day was.  (Mom's idea proved to be more accurate.)

We spent the week preparing freezer meals, catching up on laundry and other similar activities.  We read with grandchildren and helped with special school projects.

At last, our wake up call came at 4:30 AM as they decided to go to the hospital after a couple of hours of serious contractions.  Just before 7 AM, little Lucy Rebecca made her way into the world.

She was soon the recipient of a fancy hat and matching socks.  Her parents chose pink because they were sure that would be popular with the big sisters who were waiting with us at home.

After church, we all wanted to go meet little Lucy for the first time.  Her older siblings were very anxious to see and hold her!

They were all anxious to shop at the present store where they found a soft star that played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, a pink and white bunny and a lady bug washcloth/puppet.
Mother and baby were doing well and were bored at the hospital, so arrived back home around lunch time the next day.  Lucy was great entertainment and the center of attention for the rest of the day!

It is hard to believe that we are lucky enough to have 22 grandchildren.

Worth Waiting For - Genevieve Rose

An early morning phone call changed our plans for a recent Saturday and soon I was on the road to a town a couple of hours south of us.  A new grandchild was due on February 4th, but on January 24th, it seemed like things might happen early.  By the time I arrived, all progress had stopped.  After that, baby teased us by giving us false hopes every few days.  While we waited we finished a quilt which was supposed to be finished before baby's older sister was born. 

Then we looked for things to do to pass the time.  We did lots of walking at the local grocery store, at Target, Cal Ranch, Walmart, Quilted Bear, a nearby mall, and any other place we could think of.  Cabelas was a favorite with the 2 year old.  Feeding the fish was fun.  The self-flushing toilets were NOT as fun.

We made pie.

We invited a cousin over to play.

When baby's actual due date came, family members demanded to see new baby pictures, but the best we could do would have required x-ray vision to actually see baby.

Finally the doctor said he didn't want to wait any longer, so the date was set.  The night before, the hospital called to schedule the time and then we all went to bed to try to get a good sleep.  Two hours later everything changed and a quick trip to the hospital ensued.  Three hours from the first wake up, there was a beautiful new family member.

Genevieve Rose

Three hours after her birth, her big sister Amelia awoke to find that her parents had disappeared in the night.  She was feeling a bit sad about that until I told her I'd show her a picture.  When she saw the picture her dad sent from the hospital she was like a kid at Christmas...so excited to see that the long awaited sister had appeared.

After eating breakfast and getting dressed Amelia and I decided we wanted to go check this new sister out in person.  On the way, we stopped at the present store (in this case it was the local Dollar Tree) so she could choose a birthday gift for baby.  It is always interesting to me to turn a child loose in the store to see what they might choose.  After going up and down the aisles and surveying stuffed animals and various other possibilities, she narrowed her choices down to two.

Would it be the pink, fragrant bottle of baby lotion?

 

Or would it be this fabulous dish washing sponge on a stick that was left in the baby aisle by mistake?

We surely hope that baby Genevieve loves her sponge!

Then she chose something special for her mother.  Fortunately it was close to Valentines Day, so there were some pretty decent choices.  She ended up with a Valentines balloon that said 'I Love You'.

Then it was finally off to the hospital to meet baby Genevieve in person.  Amelia was enchanted.

Instead of the traditional little bows for little girls, someone crocheted little hair doodads for all the new little girls.

We loved that one of the nurses fashioned this fancy hat.

Amelia was anxious to scramble up to observe the changing of the diaper.  She appeared to be shocked and horrified when she saw the diaper had a full load.  She clapped her hands over in mouth in shock.  It was at that point that baby made her first noise since Amelia had been there and started to cry a bit.  Amelia looked around in panic until we all reassured her that this was a normal thing.

We took a quick picture of the happy family before  we headed back home.

A couple of days later, it was time for mother and baby to come home as well.  Baby Genevieve somehow looked older in real clothes.

I am sure fun times are yet to come!