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Friday, April 29, 2016

Not Whittling

The snow has melted with little chance of returning this year, and I've been taking time to work on the yard & garden.  Garlic is doing well, better already than at harvest time last year, which was my first year.  Onions are overachieving, I think I'll end up with more than I can eat.  It only goes up from there.  Strawberries will get moved to a (hopefully) permanent home and I'll buy some more- they were a test item last year with promising results.  Tweak 'em and watch.

I just ordered asparagus plants/roots from a northern grower on EBay, they should arrive late next week and if I work hard & smart I'll have a bed ready for them when they get here.

Been thinking of putting in a few potatoes, not sure I'll get to that.  My daughter has been helping, if she sticks it out I'll make it.

After that it's tomatoes, zucchini, beans, and roots- radish beet carrot.  I was a failure with the roots last year, for one I over-planted the one bed I had, and for two I failed to water sufficiently early in the year.  Live and learn.

Not bad for my urban lot, to be exact I have two raised beds totaling ~40 sqft and a third planned at just over 18 sqft more.  I expect I'll get a years worth of garlic, 300+ scallions, large sweet onions I'll have to learn to dry,  more beans than we can eat, tomatoes & zucchini enough to eat and freeze, and strawberries to snack on all summer long.  No idea how the roots will work out.

There's raspberries and blueberries down the way, too.

If you can't whittle, garden.  Have fun-

BfloBif

Friday, April 22, 2016

Learning to carve faces

Sorry, I can't teach this one, but I can direct you to a good teacher.

I struggle with faces, I have no clear idea where to begin and no clear understanding of the relationship of one part to another (OK, I get that your nose sticks out further, but that's not enough).
I found a Youtube poster who lays it out in an easy to understand logical order.  She knows how to carve, and she knows how to teach.  As shown, her little faces are excellent examples (In My Opinion) of Flat Plane work.  Take a look at Sharon Elliot's channel, Sharon My Art on Youtube.  Here are links to her Guide to Wood Carving Faces Parts 1 & 2:

Guide to Wood Carving Faces Parts 1

Guide to Wood Carving Faces Parts 2

I followed the steps as she did them the first time, now I'll just keep carving little faces and experimenting with changes and additional details to see what I can come up with.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Spring just might be sprung here in the frozen north...

It's a sunny day, just over 60 degrees and I'm sweaty and out of breath from digging in the garden.  After a long-ish winter and a knee injury at Thanksgiving, it didn't take much to get this tired.

Happy spring- shut your computer down and go do something!

Buffalo Bif
Gardener