Utah’s Arches National Park. Photo by Manish Mamtani. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 3/23/17.
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Archive for April 2017
Natural Beauty Leave a comment
Birds Leave a comment
Mountain Bluebird. Tweeted by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, 3/18/17.
Hooded Mergansers winter at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. In the spring, these tiny diving ducks head for forested wetlands to nest in tree cavities. Tweeted by the Chincoteague NWR 3/19/17.
A male Red-shafted Northern flicker on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 4/17/18.
Many birds are monogamous, but Laysan Albatrosses mate for life. Young birds search for a mate with elaborate courtship dances. Once they hit breeding age, Albatrosses breed their entire lives, hatching and caring for one chick at least every other year. Pictured here is Wisdom — the oldest living, banded, wild bird — and her current mate at their nest at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Pete Leary, USFWS, from the US Department of the Interior blog.
Sharp-tailed Grouse. Photo by Rick Bohn / USFWS. Posted on Flickr by the US Department of the Interior, 4/12/17.
The 250th Cutting Board 7 comments
I’ve been working on this board for 2 years.
In my head, anyway.
As my faithful readers know, I’ve been wrestling with building inventory for a very long time, and I’ve been up & down & up & down from the line in the sawdust that I’ve drawn at the 200th cutting board.
Today, I’ve reached a new milestone, as this colorific cutting board is my 250th piece in inventory.
The pictorial below shows the board in all of the stages of production, which did actually take me a couple of months. In the beginning the original boards were picked & processed, and then glued together. That “blank” then got smoothed, sliced, and then re-glued into the final configuration for the cutting board. More smoothing and then final shaping on the table saw and router table followed. Even more sanding came next, and then the board was ready for oiling and waxing. Non-skid rubber feet were then installed with stainless steel screws, and the board was finished. Final step: photography!
Join us this weekend at the California Poppy Festival to see the board in person. Plus, you’ll get to see the beginning of our annual Spring Fling!
Boards are picked & processed, and ready for glue up.
Buying a Glue Bot helped a lot.
As did my rubber roller. MUCH better than brushing on glue.
The “blank,” glued up and in the clamps.
Squeeze out must be cleaned up, using the manufacturer’s recommended technique.
And it’s a mess.
I can do 12 full size boards at the same time in my 36 clamps.
Out of the clamps, and curing.
Time for smoothing on the drum sander.
The board gets sliced into 1-5/8″ pieces. You never know what’s inside the wood until you slice the blank.
I tape the slices into the right sequence and orientation, and then tape them together until I start the glue session.
In the clamps, ready for the final glue up.
More squeeze out to be cleaned up.
Final board, in the clamps.
Smoothed on the drum sander … still about an hour of sanding to go.
The Harbstreit Technique starts with a scribed line for the routed finger hold.
A shallow chisel line along the scribed line is next.
The centered line is 5″ long and 1/4″ above the bottom of the board.
Now to route the finger hold.
After the finger hold is routed, then I smooth all 12 edges of the board.
Sanded to 320 grit, with the juice groove now routed, the board is ready to oil.
FINALLY the colors of the board are revealed.
This is the most exciting moment in making a cutting board.
You get to see the real colors of the wood!
The board is now saturated with mineral oil.
Wax on …
Close up detail, routed finger hold.
Close up detail, juice groove & rounded corner.
Cutting Board 17 – 426. Black Walnut, Bubinga, Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Hard Maple, Honey Locust, Goncalo Alves & Padauk. End Grain, Juice Groove. 16″ x 21-1/2″ x 1-1/2″.
Arizona Vista Leave a comment
Arizona’s Saguaro. Photo by David Olsen. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/16/16.
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is the second largest wilderness area in Arizona. A campaign by the Arizona Boy Scouts helped establish the refuge in 1939 to protect desert bighorn sheep and other wildlife. The refuge’s name – Kofa – comes from an acronym for one of the area’s most notable mines, the King of Arizona gold mine. Photo of mountains, palo verde & brittlebush by Brian Powell. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 8/18/16.
Taking its name from one of the longest living trees in the Arizona desert, the 129,000-acre Ironwood Forest National Monument is a true Sonoran Desert showcase. Keeping company with the ironwood trees are mesquite, palo verde, creosote, and saguaro – blanketing the monument floor beneath rugged mountain ranges named Silver Bell, Waterman and Sawtooth. The national monument also contains habitat for the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl and desert bighorn sheep. Photo by Bob Wick. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 3/24/17.
California Blooming Leave a comment
Death Valley National Park is famous for its spectacular spring wildflower displays. While the intensity of the bloom varies greatly from year to year, flowers are never totally absent. This year, wildflowers are generally sparse along popular scenic routes, but intrepid photographers like Michael Hardridge are finding desert sand verbena blooming at Ibex Dunes, a remote area that requires a 4-wheel drive vehicle and good route finding skills. Sunset photo taken on March 4 by Michael Hardridge. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 3/18/17.
California’s Mojave Trails National Monument erupts in color with spring blooms. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 3/16/17.
Amboy Crater is just one of the sights in the Mojave Trails National Monument, on historic Route 66. Photo by Bob Wick, BLM. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 3/15/17.
Only a few hours from Los Angeles, Carrizo Plain National Monument offers visitors a chance to be alone with nature. Prominent features of the monument include the white alkali flats of Soda Lake, vast open grasslands and a broad plain rimmed by mountains. When conditions are right, numerous wildflowers can carpet the valley floor, creating a beautiful, but temporary landscape of color. Photo by Curtis Kautzer. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 3/20/17.
Located about 8 miles north of I-10 at Desert Center, Desert Lily Preserve Natural Area in California was established in 1968 to protect 2,000 acres of prime wildflower habitat. Popping up in patches of purple desert verbena, yellow desert dandelion, and bright evening primrose and white desert lilies, these gorgeous wildflowers carpet the floor of the Chuckwalla Valley as far as the eye can see. The hike to the most dense bloom is a half mile from the Bureau of Land Management parking area, so be prepared for a short walk. Photo by Bob Wick. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 3/28/17.
The Crack Of Dawn 1 comment
Sunrise over Rocky Mountain National Park’s Dream Lake. Photo by Eric Schuette. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 3/18/17.
Perspective Leave a comment
The otherworldly landscape of Alabama Hills illuminated at sunset. Photo by Sangeeta Dey. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 3/15/17.
Reflection Canyon Leave a comment
The view of Reflection Canyon is worth the sweat & tears to see it. Utah’s Glen Canyon National Recreation Area includes a surreal landscape of the twisting and winding Colorado River through colorful sandstone cliffs. Photo by Brock Slinger. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 3/13/17.
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What Goes Up…. Leave a comment
Great Blue Heron landing in a field of bullrush from the 2016 Bear River Photo contest. Photo by Ron Welker / USFWS. Tweeted by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, 11/30/16.
Greater sandhill crane pairs return to Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in late March and early April. They immediately begin to re-establish a nesting territory and will begin nest building/repair activities. This pair was out for a mid morning foraging stroll, looking for meadow voles, crayfish, and invertebrates. The invertebrates are found by probing the damp soils and by flipping over the cow pies left from the prescribed grazing conducted during the winter. Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS. Posted on Flickr by the US Department of the Interior, 4/7/17.
Because of the flexibility of their diet, mountain bluebirds are able to migrate north earlier than most birds. Photo by Dave Fitzpatrick. Posted on Facebook by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, 4/7/17.
Invective Leave a comment
Bruce Springsteen receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November, 2016.
Words are important.
And I don’t care what side of the political aisle you’re on … words are important.
Point 1
During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Bruce Springsteen tweeted:
“Some people seemed upset that I called @realDonaldTrump a moron, so I wanted to clarify my remarks: He’s also an asshole.”
Springsteen is one of my generation’s most noted entertainers. Now that he’s a senior citizen, it doesn’t seem that age has improved his eloquence. He’s got a bully pulpit, and he chooses to use it not to elevate our discourse, but to descend to rhetoric that’s both profane and immature.
Does anyone really think it helps to call our President a moron, or an idiot, or the Cheeto-in-Chief? How does this help anyone come to a political solution to any of our problems?
And when a cultural opinion leader debases their legacy to play in the mud, it especially does not help us. Opinion leaders should uplift, not just play to the lowest common denominator for a cheap yuk.
Point 2
Bridge Ratings has done research on attitudes of users towards Facebook, and has found that dissatisfaction is growing among users. Dissatisfaction is growing, they find, in part due to the caustic comments of Facebook users.
People just don’t want to hear snarky political commentary … as this study shows. This study talks about the fatigue it found among Facebook users, and finds one cause to be:
Words like “vitriol” and “hate” were used frequently to describe an increasing number of posts on Facebook newsfeeds.
Read about this interesting study, here.
Point 3
Please, this is not a political post. It’s a post about language.
Words Can Hurt
Here are some quotes I pulled from Facebook over the last few months … I’m sure you’ve seen some that are similar:
“You don’t want to be associated with a sociopath, do you?”
“What planet do you reside. Certainly not one that is respectful of woman. Embarrassed for you!”
“Please don’t tell me that you are a real woman. You have no idea how to be one.”
“He’s unfit not only to be POTUS, but, as Amy (ed note: Amy Schumer) said, to be a human being as well.”
So, words are important … but they can also hurt. When you use flamboyant, guttural language, are you helping or hurting your cause?
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Observer: An Apology From Bruce Springsteen… (is this style, or is it fake news?)
