Potato Cannon

Heh... family entertaining itself:

Birchbark Canoe

Yes, I'm posting this at 4:30 am.

Some days I wonder about my sanity.


Yes, I laced the seats. (Cotton crochet thread... I'm not nuts enough to use rawhide.)

Can you tell which I did first?

Pretty obvious, isn't it?

Is it perfect? No.

Is it awesome? In my opinion, yes. If my cousin doesn't agree, I sure hope she sends it back.

And now, to bed. Good night!

PS: If you ever need to lace a (miniature) canoe seat, this site is useful.

Birchbark Canoe

I love this canoe, and will miss it when it goes.

It's not perfect, and there are things I plan to do differently next time (I *need* to make one for myself!), but I love it anyway.

The deadline is rapidly approaching (and it actually is approaching, in more ways than one), but thankfully so is its completion.

Birchbark Canoe

I have nicknamed her Titanic, since she spends so much time soaking in buckets.

I discovered last summer that birch bark splits less when wet: it rained a lot last summer, and the bark was wet when I started working with it. The next day, after it had dried overnight, it was much more fragile. So now, whenever I think I'll have time to work on her, I soak her overnight. Once I take her out of the water, I get about an hour where the bark is workable. (Winnipeg air is *dry* in the winter.)

I need to have her done for Saturday, so that my parents can take her to my cousin, who paid me to make her. Tonight I had to stop for three reasons:
1. It was getting late.
2. She was getting dry.
3. Most urgently, I pricked my thumb with the needle, and started leaving pink spots. Whoops! Luckily those came off after she went back in the bucket.

Most of the sewing is done. I also need to add a center crossbar, and seats. I probably won't have time to make paddles, unless I just glue paddle-shaped bits of bark to twigs. (I may do that.) I'm also planning on gluing bits of bark over the insect holes... *after* she no longer needs any soaking, since the glue is water-soluble. ;)

I will miss her when she's gone. I think she's turning out beautifully.

I'm Back

I'm back from my week in heaven. (You have my permission to be jealous.) Heaven was somewhat nippier this time of year than I was expecting, but it was still heaven. No one accepted my offer to accompany me up, and so I spent the week alone. (Most thought it too far. Foolish heathens.)

I had a hard time sleeping last night (falling asleep as well as staying asleep), and then had to drive for a gazillion miles today (heaven is a long way away... but totally worth the drive), so I'm exhausted. Plus it feels like I have grit in my eye that won't wash out, and moisturizing drops aren't helping.

Besides all the loons on the lake, which are a given, on the trip home I saw: one live deer (near the side of the road on the opposite side, so I slowed down while it decided what to do... thankfully it was spooked back into the bush by an oncoming car), two dead deer (both appeared to be headless, from what I could tell as I whizzed past... what happened to their heads?), a coyote (live), ducks (live), lots of crows (all but one alive), a hawk (alive and swooping low over the road), what might have once been a porcupine (but now very dead roadkill), and way more dead skunks that I wished to smell (mostly near the southern part of the trip, and not all I smelled were also seen... although, thankfully, a few were seen in time so as not to be smelled).

I need to get up early to have the rental car in before 9:30 am... I didn't manage to make the 6:00 pm closing time. (Whoops. I'm blaming the fact that the sun wasn't up when my alarm first went off, and I wasn't getting up in the cold *and* dark.)

I'm going to bed now. Assuming I'm not crazy-busy with everything not-heaven related, you might get a longer, more illustrated report later.

Yay Bike Ride! (And Other Ramblings)

Yay bike ride! My uncle and I managed to get out this morning between rain showers, and the air temperature is *awesome* for biking. :) I could have biked much more, but it was starting to rain, and I have a mountainous pile of dishes waiting for me. *grumble*

These "I can't catch up" piles of dishes seem to occur when I bake... it appears that I can do baking or dishes, but not both. My intention this fall is to come home early (as soon as the help centre hours are over, which is usually 4:00 during the regular terms), cook a proper meal, and not let the dishes pile up.

Of course, this relies on me getting all my class prep done in the mornings. (I'm teaching Computer Usage again this fall, and I don't have Windows on my mac.)

After the bike ride, I took my uncle's car for a short test drive. He wants to get something bigger, and ___________ (more reasons, which I won't go into here, but not actual problems with the car itself, beyond it not being what he wants). It's a VW beetle.

Pros:
- I know my uncle wouldn't hide any problems with the car (like a stranger or used car salesman would).
- I'll want a car when I get a house, and when I get a house, I'll have no money for a new car.
- Excellent gas mileage. (The trip to Flin Flon would cost me half as much.)
- Cool factor. (Although not as cool as a Mini... but then Minis have memories for me.)
- Hatchback.
- Ass heat. (More commonly referred to as "heated seats".)
- AC.
- *Really* adjustable driver positioning.
- It would solve the question of how I'm getting to Flin Flon this year. (Although renting would certainly be cheaper, if this was my only concern.)
- I wouldn't need to borrow my mom's car to go grocery shopping any more.
- Trailer hitch.

Neutral:
- Stick shift. (I don't have strong feelings either way. Especially since I live in the land of flat.)
- Diesel. (I can't drive behind diesels, but I didn't notice anything in the car. Other than that, I have no opinion on the pros & cons of diesel over gas.)

Cons:
- I might be getting my brother's car when he moves to California next year (waiting to hear if his plans with regards to the car have changed), and it's likely cheaper, and has more space.
- My expenses would go up now rather than later. (Insurance, gas, maintenance.)
- No rear windshield wiper.
- Really low to the ground. (Could be a problem in the time between a snowfall and when streets & back lanes get plowed.)
- Two door.
- It would put a dent in my safety padding in my account... although I could recoup most of that if I treat my fall teaching position as a car payment. (The help centre covers the bills, but doesn't provide spending money, so it would be a lean term.)

If I do get it, I think I'll replace the current fake flowers with a nice fake gerbera daisy, or maybe a chrysanthemum. (I'll get a quality one from Michaels, not a cheapo one from Dollarama. Fake flowers vary a lot in quality, and I'd like a nice one if I'm going to have one.)

In other news, I bought a new bathing suit yesterday. (I can still squeeze into the old one, but it doesn't fit like it used to.) The one I ended up with looks quite good on me. R & I amused the store clerk with our giggling and jokes. (One I can remember is "this is an area I don't want to draw attention to, so let's put *sparkly* things right on it!") I told her it was okay if she laughed along with us. I mentioned that she must hear lots of giggling, being the clerk near the bathing suits, but she said that mostly she hears moans of despair. We all agreed that bathing suits were designed by men, not women.

I still don't know how or when I'm going to the lake, and there won't be anyone there to *see* me in my swimsuit, but at least I'll be clothed if someone drives by in a boat.

Found on Flickr

Scrabble Quilt - showing buttons

This quilt reminds me of my grandma who passed away this summer, and of the many fun games of scrabble at the lake. My grandma was an *awesome* scrabble player (using Delgatty rules, of course). I need to make a quilt like this for the cabin, to honour her memory. (And perhaps another one for home, to snuggle under on the couch.)

Cabin Story

A post over at The Estate Store reminded me of a funny story, so I thought I'd post it here (too):

I come from a family of short people, and am short myself. One summer we needed a “new” hide-a-bed for the cabin. We found one in the classifieds, hauled it out to the lake by boat (hide-a-beds are *heavy*… transporting them by boat is… um… entertaining), and took the casters off the bottom so that it would be comfortable to sit on. That night, when we went to use it as a bed, we found the mattress *highly* uncomfortable! A few weeks later we found another hide-a-bed in the classifieds. This time we were “smart”, and checked out how the mattress was before hauling it all the way to the lake by boat. It was great, so we paid, transported it, and took the casters off so we could sit comfortably. That night, we discovered that the mattress was once again as uncomfortable as the first! What was wrong? It had been fine when we tested it!?!?!!! Then it dawned on us that the casters changed the height not only for sitting, but for the head of the bed when it was pulled out!!!

Come to think of it, maybe we replaced the regular legs with castors so that it would (a) be shorter, and (b) be easier to move around… because now we have lengths of two-by-fours between the couches and casters. (We’re classy folks, especially at the lake.)

If you ever want an uncomfortable night’s rest (or need to deal with an unwanted house-guest), try sleeping on a hide-a-bed whose head end has been lowered by several inches. And no, you can’t just swap head and foot ends, because the foot end doesn’t have much in the way of support. We tried that too.