Archive for August 2015
Your daily dose of cute: This fox family spotted at Togiak National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. 🐺🐺 This 4.7 million-acre refuge features a kaleidoscope of landscapes – from mountain crags, fast-flowing rivers and deep lakes to tundra, marshy lowlands and sea cliffs. At least 283 species of wildlife can be found on the refuge, including the red fox pictured here. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 7/31/15.
After I started making small surfboards, it was inevitable that I would make more.
Then I got an order for 24 more. 12 were to be the original large size, which I’m now calling cheese & cracker surfboards. The order was also for another 12 in a new medium size. The 12 large ones were to be identical, and the 12 medium ones would come in 2 designs, 6 each.
OK, go.
Here’s the photo story of making the 12 large ones.
It starts at a lumber yard: in this case, Peterman’s in Oxnard.
Too much lumber to fit into the rack, so it has to stand up until processing can begin.
Hardwood is sold in odd sizes … so seemingly no matter what you need, there’s always waste.
Hard Maple sorted into pieces I need, pieces that I’ll use later … and waste.
And sometimes the waste is cracked. The grade of lumber generally available for sale assumes – assumes! – 20% waste in everything I buy.
Oak.
The stacks of parts are ready for what I call “picking and processing” the boards.
The last board.
The boards get taped up after the pieces are selected … to make them easy to move around the shop prior to gluing.
12 boards … well, I made 13 … ready for glue-up.
I have the best tools. I’ve been using the whipped topping bowls for years!
You can never have enough clamps … or room to store the ones you do have.
13 blanks, glued up and ready for smoothing and shaping.
Ends trimmed, and the shape of the final surfboard is drawn onto the blank so I know which side is going to be up.
This is the table saw set up for cove cuts, the sweeping curves under each edge of the large surfboards. The board placed across the saw becomes the fence that the boards are pushed into as they go through the blade.
When the top of the board is only 1/4″ thick, the cove cuts are done.
These are the “not a surfboard” pieces, cut off at the bandsaw. Now, everything is ready to sand, oil and finish.
24 surfboards, ready for delivery.
Large Surfboard for Anacapa Homes. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Cherry & Red Oak.
Medium Surfboard for Anacapa Homes, # 1. Hard Maple, Padauk & Yellowheart.
Medium Surfboard for Anacapa Homes. # 2. Cherry, Hard Maple & Black Walnut.
Aggressive small birds often get territorial around larger birds, as we saw earlier this week in the blackbird v. hawk picture. Here, 2 seagulls are annoying a bald eagle.
Shot taken in Alaska by David Canales. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/17/15.
Two moose take over a volleyball court in Denali National Park – and who would tell them no? Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/7/15.
Lightning strikes – repeatedly – near the Colorado National Monument Photo by Bob Ingelhart. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/18/15.
Sunrise on Mount Moran at the Grand Teton National Park. Photo by Juliet Schwab. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/11/15.
California’s Slinkard Wilderness at sunrise. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/14/15.
Great Smoky Mountians National Park at sunrise. Photo by Manish Mamtani. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/18/15.
It’s hard to beat mornings at Yosemite National Park in California. Sunrise photo of Half Dome courtesy of Jonathan Basiago. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 8/4/15.
Here’s a rare sight: A blackbird hitches a ride on a hawk. Photo was said to be taken at the DeSoto/Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuges, which are on either side of the Nebraska & Iowa border. Photo by Mike White. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior on 8/4/15.
The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.
Three days vendoring with nominal payback … but wha’cha gonna do. In for a penny….
This was the 3rd event in this series. Velda did day 1 for doTerra, and I ended up doing days 2 & 3 as Mr M’s Woodshop. We went into this day with very low expectations, and exceeded them. Barely.
You have to be happy when you exceed expectations, right?
New Ideas
- It was too hot to change shirts after I set up (and what was the point?). So, I wore a plain blue t-shirt for the Blues. How hot was it? Late in the day, my phone told me it was 86* … and it felt cool.
Observations
- First comment of the day: “Wow!” when someone saw the chess boards. If only they would have bought one!
- I’m a live music snob. After several years running the concerts at Magic Mountain, I just can’t tolerate poor performances. In this case, the musicians were very good, and the sound guy delivered the Worst. Sound. Ever.
- The one sale of the day happened while I was out of the booth, talking to a Damsel in Distress (that’s what her shirt said anyway). Anyway, mid-sentence I noticed Velda had a customer and the deal was all but done when I got back to the booth. Maybe I should let Velda do more of the talking (insert snappy one-liner here).
- Driving home, just south of the park entrance, is an underpass to get to the freeway onramp. I wasn’t paying attention to the car ahead of me … but as I drove to the onramp, well-timed firecrackers went off in the lane next to me just as I went through the underpass. Nice acoustics amplified their sound. I said a bad word and didn’t wreck the Jeep.
- “At least we got a free concert!”
The Food
Saturday Dinner: Best event food ever! 
Velda’s begun to prepare cheese & cracker platters for us to eat at events. We are:
- Avoiding event food
- Not waiting in 30 minute food lines
- Demonstrating in the booth how nicely the cheese boards look when used well
- Eating better
- Sharing dinner with our good friend Jan at this event. Lovely!
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 38
- Booth cost: $35
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 2
- Total sales: $140
- # containers of product taken: 10
- # boards available: 83
- Saturday alarm: nope
- # transactions: 1
- # soap & lotion vendors: 1
- # woodworking vendors: 1
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 0:1
Boards sold: 1
The board sold was a custom order end grain, 12×16 with juice groove. No problem!
When I first made these large cheese servers last year, everyone that saw them called them surfboards.
So, I called them surfboards.
Who knew that a year later, I’d be making novelty boards that are actually shaped like surfboards. So, now, I have “small surfboards,” “medium surfboards,” and these “large surfboards.”
These are 19-1/2″ x 12″ x 1-1/2″.
Two new ideas here:
- Several of these boards are made from a single plank. The boards made from Hard Maple, Cherry and Red Oak are all made from a single plank.
- The last board is made from Bloodwood: my first project made from this wood. This piece was absolutely horrible to make, because the original board twisted 2″ after I got it home from the lumberyard. Fixing that took a change in plans & several glue-ups.
Large Surfboard # 15 – 17. Cherry, Hard Maple & Black Walnut.
Large Surfboard # 15 – 18. Hard Maple.
Surfboard # 15 – 19. Black Walnut & Red Oak.
Large Surfboard # 15 – 20. Cherry.
Large Surfboard # 15 – 21. Cherry, Black Walnut & Hard Maple.
Large Surfboard # 15 – 22. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Cherry & Red Oak.
Large Surfboard # 15 – 23. Hard Maple.
Large Surfboard # 15 – 24. Red Oak, Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Goncalo Alves & Cherry..
Large Surfboard # 15 – 25. Hard Maple.
Large Surfboard # 15 – 26. Bloodwood.
The latest extension of my surfboard line (!) is a medium surfboard. These are 19″ long and 8-1/2″ wide.
Cheese boards? Cutting boards? Sushi boards?
You bet.
Medium Surfboard 15 – 01. Black Walnut, Hard Maple and Yellowheart.
Medium Surfboard 15 – 02. Cherry and Padauk.
Medium Surfboard 15 – 03. Hard Maple, Padauk & Yellowheart.
Medium Surfboard 15 – 04. Black Walnut, Padauk, Yellowheart & Hard Maple.
Medium Surfboard 15 – 05. Hard Maple, Cherry & Black Walnut.
Medium Surfboard 15 – 06. Cherry, Hard Maple & Black Walnut.
Medium Surfboard 15 – 07. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Cherry.
Three days vendoring with nominal payback … but wha’cha gonna do. In for a penny….
Velda’s begun to prepare cheese & cracker platters for us to eat at events. We are:
When I first made these large cheese servers last year, everyone that saw them called them surfboards.
