Wishful Thinking

I am just looking to put down a few ideas about what I want in the future. I want a piece of land that can be a hobby farm. I do not know if I would be brave enough to jump into a full farm right away, nor do I think that Tami would let me. However even on a small plot of land I could do most of what I want. It would have to be on at least two acres unfortunately, since there is a lot of ordinances restricting "farm animals" out here. Anything less it is illegal, but at two acres we could all of the sudden have 64 chickens 2 cows and 5 goats or pigs. Why I could have half of that on an acre out in the middle of nowhere I don't know.

Now I do not think that I would start with that many animals all at once. I think I would want to start with a few egg laying chickens, maybe 2 milk goats, enough meat chickens each year for our family, and at least two bee hives. Now I do not think that I would go buy all of this at once. I think it would be a one species at a time deal so that I would have time to figure out the basics before I add something on top of that. Tami would want us to start with the chickens probably and I would be content with that even though I might prefer the bees.

I would also want to have a garden that was about a quarter of the lot. I would try to grow multiple varieties of everything that we love to eat and maybe a few things that could be experiments. I have learned to love zucchini just in the past year after all. I would also try to plant a small variety of fruit and nut trees. A few sugar maples would be great too. All of this together would keep me happily busy in the afternoons and on saturdays.

In order to prepare for this as best as I can I plan on filling our balcony with as many plants as possible this spring. We have great light and I hope that the garden will do as well as our last little container garden did this past summer. And hopefully better than our poor Arizona garden. If I can convince someone to let me "rent" a corner of their property I will start an apiary as soon as possible and maybe use honey to pay the "rent". 

Learning by Necessity

So I got my shop smith set up today at my in-laws (since Tami convinced me that my neighbors would not appreciate me using it so close to them).  After finding a good branch to turn into a candle stick holder I started it up and started going to town. After about 15 minutes or so I found that it was having a few problems.  Then the completely stopped spinning. Not only am I brand new to using a shopsmith I never have done anything with motors or even much anything electronic.

So over the next couples hours I had to learn how to take it apart, how everything fit together and how to fix it. Once I got the drive belt off the motor I was able to diagnose the problem that the motor itself was the problem. Looking inside I was able to see that it was all clogged up with sawdust. After cleaning it out with a can of compressed air I found that the motor was running just fine again, maybe even a little better than when I bought it.

Out of all the ways to learn, this is not my favorite. It is stressful not knowing what you have to do to solve a problem and not really knowing where I could learn the proper thing to fix the problem. I much prefer learning something and then doing it, not doing it and then learning.

Equal spacing trick

I just learned a quick trick used for spacing things out at an equal distance without having to do any complicated math. For example if you want to space out banister for a porch rail. Take a long piece of elastic from a fabric store and use a permanent marker to mark every 2 inches (or another even distance) on the elastic. Now you can stretch the elastic so that two of the marks reach the ends of your length or banister. If you want the banisters spaced farther out then stretch the elastic a little more and eliminate a banister post.

Moving!!!

We are moving this week. And from this move I have learned a lot that I wish I knew before we moved. Some of it we learned in time some of it was a little late. I want to compile everything that I learned so you can be informed before a move. If you have any other ideas or suggestions please comment so that anyone who reads this later can also learn from your experiences.

First of all we are moving from Arizona to Virginia. I imagine that some of this information will only apply to long trips. Also it really only applies if you have to pay for the move yourself and do not have a job paying for you to move.

How to move your stuff:
We chose to use ABF freight. They have a self pack option that is very similar to PODS. They drop off large containers that you fill up yourself and then they come and put it on a flatbed and move it for you. We looked at pods but found that ABF is somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 the cost of PODS. Also my in-laws just moved from Nevada to Maryland with PODS and were not quite happy with the service, not to mention the price.
We also looked at U-Haul as another option. Not only would we have to deal with the hassle of driving a large truck with a car on a trailer behind it, it would also cost more. Between the cost of about 300 gallons of gas and the cost of the U-Haul for 5 days plus 2300 miles of driving it works out to be about the same price as ABF. So I will let someone else drive my stuff out and will just happily drive my car out.

Boxes:
We got most of our boxes for free which was nice. Yesterday though we started to run a little short so I went out and bought a few. I searched online for the best price but found nothing better than what Tami knew about. Apparently Harbor Freight in Tempe (and maybe other locations) sells the used boxes that their merchandise comes in. All of the ones I saw were about the same size of roughly 24" x 18" 10". Now that won't work for everything but it is large enough to hold a lot of stuff but small enough to not be too heavy as long as books do not go in it. Now here is the best part. They sell them for 4 for a dollar. There is not a better deal out there when it comes to buying boxes.

Packing material:
Most of our packing material was newspapers that we got from my grandparents (since they are one of the few people I know that still gets papers. However we had a brilliant idea when phone books got delivered while we were packing. It is amazing that they still get delivered and for a lot of people they go straight to the recycling. But if you cut off the spine of the book you are left with a neat and rather thick pile of packing material.

I hope that this helps someone sometime and that I do not have to do this too many more times in my life. Please leave comments of your ideas and experiences to help others.

Masks

I started carving my last wood project for the semester today. I started by tracing the outline on the face of the wood and the profile not the side of the wood. Then using an angle grinder I started to take material out of the back of the mask.

In fear of taking too much out I stopped with about half an inch more to be removed from the hollow. Next I used the bandsaw to cut out the profile and then the out line.

After having the basic shape I returned to the hollow to continue removing the excess material. This time however I started to use Tami's carving set. Once I figured out which chisels I liked the most ( at least for hollowing) I went to town removing material. Unfortunately as a student who works on a computer my hands do not have the calluses that they have had in the past, but I am sure that will change pretty quickly.

Pictures to follow.

Earth Scrapper

Along the lines of several other earlier posts I introduce the Earth Scrapper. It is proposed as a 65 story sky scraper built below the surface of Mexico City. It is a gorgeous design that has some awesome potential.

Check out the video on yahoo, http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/building-down-instead-161537141.html

Shopsmith

So about a month ago I bought a Shopsmith. If you do not know what a Shopsmith is, it is an all-in-one shop system and mine includes a table saw, a drill press, a horizontal borer, a lathe, a disc sander, and a bandsaw. Today is the first day that I have had an excuse to use it. Normally I would use the school shop for most projects since it is available, but today I needed to help Tami with making a frame. So I got to try out the table saw and the band saw.

It was a little different to have to figure out how to change from one set up to another. It is not the most optimal set up, but it is definitely the best set up for me right now. Since I was able to get the entire set up for about the same cost as any one of the six different tools. This is a great option for small or inexpensive shop start ups.

Carving

We had another day of lecture in Wood again. We learned about several different carving methods. There is the classic carving tools, adzes, and power tools as options.

Kestrel Adzes are made in Rock Island, Washington. They are an edge tool that is attached to a haft that places the edge of the tool at a 90 degree angle to the position of the hand. They are great at removing lots of material very quickly.

Pfeil chisels are the Ferrari of chisels. They are a high quality chisel that are worth every penny of their price. Not only will they last a life time if properly cared for, but they also can appreciate over the life of the tool.  Addis chisels are antique chisels that have lasted so long that you can basically classify them as indestructible when properly used. They however can only be found used from places like ebay or antique shops. Another antique in the same realm is Stanley everlasting chisels, which as described in their name are everlasting.

Power chisels such as the Automach chisel work like a traditional chisel mixed with a 10,000 oscillation per minute jack hammer that fits comfortable in the palm of your hand. They can accept a wide variety of chisel tips that eat away at the wood as if it was no more that butter. Although expensive they are not all that much more expensive than a full set of Pfeil chisels. There are also rotary tools like Dremels that can be used with a variety of bits at various speeds to produce all sorts of effects.

Stepping up to a more aggressive wood remover you have angle grinders. These are more often found in metal working sections but with the correct discs they can be used to remove large amounts of wood very fast. There are sanding discs that use very coarse sand paper to abrade the wood. There are carbide burs that remove even more material quickly. Arbortech makes a disc that has three very strong teeth that will remove even more material than the bur. Last of all there is a disc called Lancelot  that is basically a chainsaw on a grinding disc that removes as much wood as you want as fast as you want (sometimes a little too fast).

Then there is always the arena of just using a chainsaw by it self. Although this would be best left for very rough cuts or very large sculptures.

I may add more to the list of different wood removing tools as I start to learn how to carve. But for now I wanted to collect my thoughts and not forget any of the amazing tools that my professor presented to us today.

Ready to Move

As the end of the year quickly approaches I am growing in anticipation of moving to Virginia. Now part of the excitement comes from being done with school, having a real job and all of that. However I am probably most excited about having a garden that is much easier to manage.

I think that our garden has done so poorly because the weather has just been too hot. Now that it is cooling off, some of the plants that I was about ready to rip out of the ground are starting to come back to life. We have also planted a few more things and are excited to see what takes.

This summer out garden was so nice. We could hardly keep up with how much the garden was producing. I absolutely cannot wait to finally have a place of my own and plant a large garden that as long as there are not freak snow storms will do great.

Cheaper Living in a Hole

In response to my Hobbit Hole post Ruth brought up the fact that building underground can be more expensive than building above ground. While this is true for the upfront costs I would like to show why it makes sense in the long run. First why is it expensive to build underground? In order to have a basement (or anything underground) you must first dig a hole. Then you have to make sure that it is moisture proof. All of this costs more than just building on top of the ground. Checking around a couple of places online most people said that it cost them about $10,000 to build their basements. For this argument lets say that since the entire house is going to cost $20,000 or even $30,000 more than a typical house.

Now lets look at why you want to spend that much more initially. First it would eliminate your heating and cooling bills. According to the Energy Star website that is about $1,000 dollars a year. So over the period of 20-30 years the house has already made back every penny to originally spent. And that is assuming that you live in an average place. In places where summers are really hot (Arizona) or the winters are really cold (Michigan) the energy bills could be even higher which means the house would pay for itself even faster.

Second if we were to build below ground then we could be building on smaller lots with the same size of house. Now land prices vary greatly by location so this is a variable that may or may not save a lot of money. Looking at a few places here in my area I found that even on the cheap end a lot of land is about $50,000. Now when we are building underground en masse we could easily build two houses on a quarter of an acre or even a eight of an acre. So now the cost of land has dropped in half. That savings alone basically covers the cost of building underground.

Third is the fact that if this was done en masse it would be easy to reduce the cost of building. For example if a builder decided to build his new subdivision all underground he could easily excavate the entire area, build the houses knowing that they would be buried (which would definitely take a different set of construction techniques). Then as the houses were finished each one could be covered back over with soil and the project would be done. I do not know how much this could save but it should definitely reduce the costs.

Those I guess are just a couple more thoughts about why we should be building underground. I am sure that my argument is not perfect or the numbers completely accurate. That was not the point of this post. The point was to just look a little past the initial costs so that we all can realize how worth it some of these initial investments can be.

Yurts!

This is something that I just ran across today. Modern day yurts are build in the design of yurts from Mongolia and Turkey. It is basically a round house with a peaked roof. The walls are a wooden lattice, the roof is support by wooden beams. The walls are now often a high quality plastic. They are simple and easy to construct, even the larger yurts can be put up in a weekend if there are a few helping hands working together.

One can be used as a starter home. As a family grows it is simple to add another yurt next to the original and basically double the living space. Or if you do not need to double the space you can get a smaller yurt for an addition. Yurts can be used as a guest house, a room for a hot tub, a office, or even a rather epic tree house.

I guess there are a few things that have me interested in yurts. The first is that they are simple. It is something that I could do for myself (with help of course). It would not have to be built by someone else. I could intimately know and understand every last detail. That way when something goes wrong, A) I am more aware of what needs to be done to fix it, and B) I can only curse myself. Second it is a unique and simple building that could easily go onto any empty plot of land without too much fuss.

The only thing that I think would take some time would be building the interior walls, kitchen and bathroom. However the Yurt could go up in a couple of days and then slowly build up the rest as I go. I am pretty sure that it would take a lot of thinking outside the box to make it work but that definitely sounds like an adventure.

Hobbit Holes

Why is it that hobbits are so much smarter than we are when it comes to building homes? They are the one race that has figured out that it is so much more efficient to build underground. Between the insulation that comes from having tons of earth all around you and actually having the ground keep your house at the same temperature as itself it just makes so much more sense to build underground.

Most places have a ground temperature somewhere between 50-80 degrees Fahrenheit. This is so much better than the air temperature range of 0-120 that we have. For the most part we could almost completely get rid of all our energy costs related to heating and cooling.

With the proper use of skylights and solar wells the houses could still receive as much light as we currently do with windows. Then when you left your house you would not see row after row of housing but instead it would be like walking into a park. You would still have roads and cars scattered about but in between would be trees and grass.

It would also be a lot easier to fully utilize your lot. Even a 50 x 50 foot lot would give huge houses and then you could have the entire surface to play games or grow flowers or gardens.

At least in my opinion it would turn subdivisions into gorgeous parks. It would turn cities into forests. It would bring us closer back to nature.

Learning Through Failure

As I have been working in the garden this fall I have really enjoyed it. However if you were to take a look at it right now you would think that I am an awful gardner. If it was being done for a grade I would deserve an F. Both the pumpkin and squash died and have been pulled out. The corn has never made it past being two feet tall. The serrano plant has at most two to three leaves on it at any one point in time. The tomatoes look like they are 90% dead. Only the green onions, basil and rosemary look decent.

Nonetheless I am learning like crazy. I have learned that the tomatoes probably got too much sun and burned. At first I thought I had drowned them with overwatering so I cut back to twice a week. I think that is what did in the squash and pumpkins. My garden needs a little more water than twice a week since it is elevated off the ground and drains out quickly. I am learning how delicate seedlings are since more than my fair share have died even before making it to be a full plant.

I would be wracked with stress if I was doing this poorly in school. Our schooling system is so unforgiving that kids can give themselves ulcers. The stress can be so much so often that students never learn to love learning. My garden is forgiving. When I make a mistake I get to learn from it and hopefully not repeat it. It does not go permanently on a record that I have killed probably half of the things that I have planted and that the other half is not really productive. What will be seen in a year or two is hopefully a garden where only a few plants have died and that most things are producing wonderful food.

Learning should be fun, not stressful. It should encourage you to learn more about a subject, not fear it to the point where in college we will never take a class about it in fear of not doing well. I hope that everyone who reads this can stop and think about learning and then try to learn something new about anything that suits you.

Common Sense Incarnate

The other day I saw an article in time about a book written by a sustainable farmer. That evening I found the first chapter available for download in iBooks. I started reading it and I cannot stop. The book is called Folks, This Ain't Normal. It is all about practices that have become common place that even 50 years ago would be considered completely absurd. From the way that we get food at the store to the way that we prepare food at home. From the way children are allowed to basically run free to the way that half the things that kids have done for hundreds of years are now considered unsafe.

He discusses many different topics but he does not just point fingers saying that everything is wrong. He also proposes solutions that could easily be adopted, that would also have a great impact. His overall goal is for people to adopt a more sustainable and responsible way of eating. Less corporate agriculture, more gardens at home. Less waste, more proper use of the waste that is unavoidable. The best thing that I think I like about his book is that his suggestions are not only for people that have a large amount of land that they can farm and raise their own livestock. He gives ideas for urbanites that are in a high rise. He gives ideas that could be applied in most families if we were willing to spend a little less time with the TV and a little more doing something more productive.

If you took the time to read all of this you have to check out the book. Go to http://www.amazon.com/Folks-This-Aint-Normal-Healthier/dp/0892968192 and read the first chapter that is posted for free. I am not even saying that you have to buy the book. You could pick it up at the library instead (which would also satisfy my need for people to relearn to love the library). Just check it out.

Top Bar Hive

As I continue to learn about beekeeping I am drawn to the Kenyan Top Bar Hive. It was designed as a cheap, simple and more natural alternative to the classic Langstroth Hive. Like most choices there are both pros and cons to each side. I see two main advantages to the TBH. The first is that they are really easy to construct and also cheap to make. The second advantage is that it allows the bees to draw out their own comb in the manner that bees prefer. The more natural method of comb creation allows for the bees to choose what size of comb they need.

However there are some disadvantages also to the TBH. The largest disadvantage is that in order to harvest the honey, you have to cut the comb off the top bars. This means that each time you harvest the honey the bees have to invest the energy to create new comb. So at the end of the year you end up with less honey, but you do get more wax. The second problem with TBH is that they are not as standardized as Langstroth Hives so it be more difficult to work with other beekeepers if you need to exchange equipment. However you either build all of your own hives or get all of your hives from the same source you will not have any problems within your own apiary.

It will be a while before I have to make a final decision (maybe). I will try talking Tami into letting me keep bees as soon as we get a house. I may even try sooner if I find someone who does not mind sharing a corner of their property.

Free Books!

When we were all kids one, of the coolest things was going to the library. But often at some undetermined age we forget how cool the library is to us. Think about it. It is a place that buys very expensive things and then lets you take them for a month free of charge (that is if we remember to bring it back on time).

If you have been around me in the past 2 months you have probably heard me say that I cannot wait to be done with school. I want to clarify that statement. I cannot wait to be done with people telling me what to learn. Most of the time it is irrelevant to me and my life. There are some classes that I have chosen to take where almost everything is important. There are classes that I have chosen where some of the material is important. Then there are the classes that we have to take that do not even come close to being relevant.

The library on the other hand lets you choose what you want to learn. I think that sometimes we forget that the internet has not yet gotten to the point of replacing libraries. Yes much of the same material can be found online, and for somethings that are really new or change frequently can only be found online. However much of human knowledge has been written down and organized neatly in our libraries. Yes the internet is more convenient but the library can be much more powerful. More can be learned from the correct book in a couple hours than a couple days of online searches.

Trust me go to the library and find something that you want to read and or learn about. It is so much fun and so much better than learning from school.

Learning to turn

Again I am learning something new and cool in my wood shop class. For my current project I needed a decorative handle for an ax. So I began to learn how to use a lathe.

Instead of spending a lot of time turning a piece of wood by hand and carving a little bit at a time you spin the wood at a very high speed and let the wood move into the tool to remove the wood. This is really nice because you are guaranteed to get perfectly round carvings on the piece of wood.

Unfortunately lathes are expensive. So unless you have a great need for turning lots of legs, or bowls it probably will not be worth it to buy a lathe. However if you know someone who has a lathe it can be a lot of fun to be able to turn something now and again.

The piece below is the handle of a battle ax that I am making for my joinery project in my wood shop class. You will be seeing more of this project as I continue to work on it throughout October.

Since starting this post in a couple days ago, I have bought a Shopsmith. It is an all in one workstation for the wood worker who is short on space (or also short on cash). I bought it used on craigslist for an amazingly low price considering all that is included. One of the things included is a lathe. So I will happily be able to continue learning to use a lathe after this semester ends. 

Tasty Yogurt

Last time I made cheese I just bought a quart of yogurt and used that to make the cheese. This time I decided to make yogurt so that I could further bring down the cost of making cheese. It is a rather simple process needing only some plain yogurt, and a gallon of milk.

Carefully heat the milk up to 90 degrees C. I used a double boiler, but you could use a thick bottomed pan or stir frequently to prevent you milk from burning. You then cool it down to just below 55 degrees C (the temperature that kills yogurt bacteria) by placing the pot in a large amount of cold water. Take a cup of the milk and thoroughly mix in a cup of yogurt. Pour this back into the large pot of milk and stir thoroughly again. Now take your gallon of yogurt activated milk and place it in sterilized containers. Place those into a cooler with 50 degree C water to keep it warm while the yogurt forms. After about 3-4 hours you should now have a gallon of yogurt at the cost of a gallon of milk (under $2 for me since milk was on sale). Make sure that you save a little yogurt to make more yogurt next time.

Now that you have more yogurt than you probably have ever had before you can either make some amazing simple cheese, or you could take some and mix in fresh fruit or berries to have some tasty flavored yogurt.

Adult Legos

Like many kids I grew up playing with Legos. Anyone who has ever played with Legos knows the feeling of being close to finishing this awesome project that you have spent hours on and then you realize that you are short that one piece. So its been years since I have seriously played with legos but now I have found something similar but also way cooler. It is called Hirst Arts. This guy sells Silicon molds that you pour plaster into to make your own pieces. So if you are short that one piece you just go make it.

This is what it looks like when you are casting. You have a small mold that creates somewhere between 10-20 unique pieces each time you cast it. After casting at least 10 times or so you can start building. I use this for making terrain for some games that I play. However it is also great for school projects. Almost everyone at one point or another has to make a diorama of a pyramid or a castle and this is such a cooler medium than sugar cubes or flimsy cardboard.

I must say that it is also great for any creative kid. I think it would be great for a kid to start of with Duplos when they are 2-3, graduate to legos around 4-5 and then around 8 or so be able to expand to something like this. The best part is that unlike legos, when you are done you and you like you creation you do not have to take it apart to build your next project. Instead you just spend more time making new blocks and then you are ready to build your next project.

Below are a couple projects that are in several different stages of completion that I have been working on. The first is the messy process of blocks being made.

If you are interested check out http://www.hirstarts.com/

Just Grow Something

I love to garden. I am still learning, and trying to figure what works best, but it is something that I find fascinating. It used to be that everyone had a garden. It was just part of life. Now we are at a point where very few people have gardens. I want to change that. I do not expect everyone to convert half of the back yards into gardens. Even if your garden is a single pot with your favorite herb I would be content.

To make this possible I am going to suggest a simple plan to get you started. Next time you are out shopping near a Home Depot or Lowes buy a small cheap pot and a small bag of soil. Next decide on a plant that would work for you. For the purpose of this disscussion I am going to suggest green onions. Now I am not talking about starting from scratch. I am talking about you taking the green onions out of your vegetable drawer in your fridge cutting off the green part, leaving about 1-2 inches from the root and stick those in a pot with soil. Add water and you are done.

They are a rather forgiving plant and they will grow well enough that most people could completely stop buying green onion completely. Watering them is easy. Every 2-3 days add water when it is a little dry. They are pretty hard to overwater, and if they get a little dry they bounce back quickly.

If you are a little more adventurous go with a larger pot and add in a tomato plant, basil, or another favorite plant. Below is the small garden that we did over the summer. In a short two months it went from the small garden on top to the larger garden on bottom. It cost about $25 and we got more green onion and basil then we could use.

Water Water Everywhere

During a particularly nasty typhoon, on my mission, we lost power. Now that really is not all that big of a problem. We ate the food in the fridge (which we never kept all that much) and just had to suffer the humidity without the comfort of electric fans. However like most places in the world our water came from a water tower. No power = no water in the tower. Since the typhoon was so bad that it knocked out the power for a week we had the interesting experience of not having running water for 5 days. Fortunately we were able to buy 6 gallons before the shelves of the local store were cleared. We expected the water to be out for a day at most. So by day 3 our measly 1.5 gallons per person were running rather low. This made for some very thirsty and very dehydrated elders.

Now many of you may think that because we do not live in a developing country that we will not have problems like this. We feel safe here. However it would not take that much for us to loose access to water. An extended blackout like the NE faced a few years back could do it. A break in a water main locally could do it. An earthquake (which can happen anywhere) could take out power and water for a huge area for a couple of days or more. There are plenty of things that could happen that could impair your ability to have access to water.

The solution is simple. Store a supply of water. The goal should be 1 gallon per day per person for 2 weeks or 14 gallons per person. You can do that through getting several flats of water bottles and putting them under a bed. You could store water in clean soda bottles. You could buy the large 2.5 gallon disposable jugs that have the spouts. If you use a water crock, make sure you always have a few extra jugs filled at all times. Or if you have a large family and room in a garage or somewhere else you could buy a couple of 50 gallon barrels. Although it would probably be wise to have some of your water supply in a more portable format like flats of water bottles.

You do not have to do this all at once. Start with a simple goal of having 1 gallon per person stored and add an additional 1 gallon per person per week. In three months you will have a full supply and not have to suffer like I did when we ran out of water.

Cheaper than a can

If you are ever in the position where you are going through a lot of cans of spray paint or you want something besides the traditional colors you might want to consider getting an airbrush. I wanted an airbrush for painting models and miniatures. I have probably spent more in spray paint than it takes to get a good airbrush set up.

Like many things there is a whole range of airbrush styles all depending on what you need.

If you want to just replace a can of spray paint then you can get a cheap airbrush for about 15-20 dollars and just connect it to a can of aerosol.

If you want something that you are going to use more often or need better control over the paint then you need to get a more expensive double actioned airbrush. These have a trigger that turns the air on and off and slides back and forth to increase and decrease the flow of the paint. These often range between 100-200 dollars new and can be found for under 100 online. Tami got me mine at michael's using a coupon/her employee discount for about 40. If you do not get it online. Make sure you use a coupon.

If you are going to be using it often you will need an option besides of cans of aerosol. There are two good options, a compressor or a large CO2 tank.

Compressors are nice because as long as you have electricity you will always have air. You have to have one that has a tank so that you can have a smooth steady flow. At the low end you are looking at about 100 dollars for the compressor. Along with the compressor you need at least a pressure valve to limit your air to about 25 psi and a moisture trap. The moisture trap is used to dry the air out so you do not have droplets of water going through your airbrush and ruining your paint. These additions will run about 30-40.

Another option that can be cheaper and that is often used by professional airbrushers is large tanks of CO2. A 10 gallon tank is about 50-70 dollars and each time you fill it, it will be another 5-10. You can get it filled at welding supply shops and places that supply restaurants. You will still need a pressure valve but not a moisture trap. Over time you will probably put more money into you set up this way if you are using it really often. You also have to be careful to not run out. However it is much quieter and you do not need an electricity source. This is what I would get if I were to do it over.

Below is my airbrush, a badger 155, and my compressor with the pressure valve on the left and the moisture trap on the right

Wood coloring

Along with wood sealing we learned about some of the different options to color wood. Oddly enough the one thing that we did not cover in class is traditional wood stains.

The first option was bleaching. I am not talking about your laundry's chlorox, but industrial grade wood bleach. It comes in two parts that are mixed in equal amounts to create a very strong bleach. It is just evenly brushed onto the wood and allowed to dry. Over the next 20-30 minutes it will noticeably lighten in color. If you start with a light colored wood to begin with like bass or maple it is very possible to get the wood to be sheet white with repeated applications.

The second option was using leather dyes. Leather dyes that are in denatured alcohol are very good at permeating the wood and can give a rather wide range of colors. As my brother can attest to, it is almost impossible to find stains in colors like red. However leather dyes come in a whole rainbow of colors. Black is a common option if you want to turn your piece very dark and make it look like ebony. The wood retains the appearance of wood but takes on a very drastically different color. One word of caution, it is impossible to control where the dye spreads in the wood so only use it if the entire piece needs that color. However you could choose to dye the piece before assembly if you need different colors.

One of the cooler coloring (and also sometimes texturing) technique that he showed us was that of using a blow torch. Through the careful use of fire you can cause one of several things to happen. The first is the changing of color of the softer wood in between the grain. The grain is harder and burns at a different rate than the rest of the wood. This can greatly accentuate the pattern of the grain with a light and dark pattern. This is done with a light and rapid application of fire to the wood. Another option is the more intense and longer application of fire to the wood. This chars the soft wood in between the grain to the point that it can be brushed away with a wire brush or steel wool. This leaves all of the wood darkened but also leaves the grain raised compared to the softer wood. This gives a very intense texture on the wood. You can also use steel wool to remove some of the char on the raised grain to increase the color contrast as the wool removes the grain and lightens the color of the wood again. Note it is smart to keep a large bucket of water nearby in case things get out of hand.

The last coloring technique that was discussed is using paint. You can get the largest variety of color with paint. You can use almost any type of paint, from acrylics from the local craft store to hand made paint using really high quality components. If acrylics are used it is often as simple as thinning it down with a little water and painting it on. Make sure you add only a little water to the paint at a time. If you add paint to the water it will stay as globs in water and not mix well. Professor Tom Eckert has also been pioneering a technique that is based on mixing powder pigment into a water based lacquer. Water based lacquers were popular before the environmental standards were relaxed and most people returned to solvent based lacquers. I know that this does not sound all that awesome, but you will be blown away when you check out the link below. If you took all the time to read this post you have to take at least another 2 minutes to check out the link that exhibits the use of pigmented lacquer to simulate silk with a wood carving.

For some unbelievably amazing pieces of art with wood as the medium check out http://www.public.asu.edu/~eckert33/gallery.htm

Wood finishes

Today in wood shop we learned all about wood finishes. My professor has been working in wood for about 50 years and has art pieces in museums and collections all over the place including the Smithsonian.

There are three sealants that he suggested.

The first is Danish Oil. It is applied quickly with a cloth, allowed to permeate the wood over a time 10-30 minutes and then the excess is wiped off. Once the oil has dried over a period of a day or so, it is sanded with either a very fine sand paper or 0000 steel wood. This process is repeated several times to impregnate the wood with the oil. As the oil dries it hardens and does a great job of protecting the wood. It is also good at darkening the color of the wood.

The second is a lacquer or varnish. It can be painted on using 2-3 coats with sanding in between. It can also  be sprayed on using a store bought can or used through a paint gun. It is great at preserving a piece for a long time. It is not the best though for pieces that will be abused as it can crack and wear off the wood (something I wish I knew before I made my longboard).  It also slightly darkens the wood although not as much as oil does.

The third option is wax. Wax is another great option. Wax has the advantage of not changing the color of the wood much at all. So if there is a piece that has perfect color already it is easy to keep it that way with wax. It is also a good option if you are making something that is going to hold food. A mixture of beeswax and mineral oil will make a paste that can be rubbed into the wood to seal it but remain safe for food. Many of the wood Egyptian art pieces that are found today in great condition were sealed with wax. Some waxes will last better than others.

My First Cheese

     Cheese happens to be one of my favorite foods. It goes well with almost everything. However some cheeses are really expensive by the pound. So I started looking into the art of cheese making. My dad suggested that I look into a soft cheese made from yogurt. I found directions on how to make Labneh, which is a strained yogurt. 
     Labneh is a super simple recipe that is a great place to start making cheese. The basics are take a quart of plain yogurt, place it in a clean white cotton handkerchief  (or similarly sized piece of cloth), and hang it up and let the whey drip out. It takes about 16-24 hours for the whey to drip out. I let the whey drip out into a pitcher and left it in the fridge overnight. I had to pour the whey out a couple times as the whey filled up to the point where the cheese was hanging into the whey. 
     Today I pulled it out and scooped it into a container for storage. At first taste I was not all that happy. Tami and I talked it over and we decided to try a couple of additions to smooth out the flavor and make my taste buds a little happier. We tried three different things. First was using a garlic press to press two small cloves of garlic into about a half cup of the cheese. Second I pressed a small jalapeño from David and Emmy's garden and mixed in the juice. After tasting both of those and being fantastically happy with the results I tried adding the crushed jalapeño and a clove of garlic both into about a cup of cheese. I am waiting for the flavors to mix before I try that. I will let you know when it is done.


If you are interested in learning more about cheese making check out  http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Cheese/ or http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/cheese.html

Vanishing of the Bees

     In my study of Beekeeping I repeatedly came across the the issue of Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. If you have not heard about this yet, it is a worldwide phenomena that has been devastating many of the worlds hives. It is recognized by the complete disappearance of all the bees in a hive with almost no trace of what happened. At first many thought it was a couple of bad beekeepers trying to blame their problems on something besides themselves. However people realized that there was a larger problem as more and more beekeepers started to lose their hives.
     Thousands and thousands of hives are just disappearing which could lead to major problems to the worlds food supply if a solution is not found. Many things have been looked at and nothing has been a certain cause for CCD but one problem that many scientists and beekeepers feel could be the cause is systemic pesticides. In the past many pesticides were sprayed onto the plants, but now systemic pesticides have the plant draw the pesticide into itself through the ground or even the shell of the original seed. The plant then delivers the pesticide through its leaves, flowers or pollen. These pesticides are not meant to kill outright, but to confuse, weaken and damage insects over time.
     These pesticides often confuse bees but they have not been shown to directly cause CCD. However the tests done so far do not look at how systemic pesticides can affect a colony over time. They test to see how it affects an adult bee over the period of a few days. They do not look at how it affects an entire colony, or how it affects the young raised on pollen tainted by the pesticides. These pesticides were okayed by the EPA based on the minimal tests conducted by the pesticides companies.
     When beekeepers in France made the connection that systemic pesticides were possibly the cause of CCD they protested and fought the use of the pesticides. Within a year of some of the pesticides being banned the beekeepers noticed that many of their hives have regained the strength that they once had. Fewer colonies were having problems and over all their bees were healthier. Now American beekeepers are trying to do the same thing that their French counterparts succeeded in doing several years ago. However the EPA still thinks that the systemic pesticides are okay to use and that the risks that they pose are acceptable risks.
     This is one of the reasons I am becoming interested in beekeeping. It is getting to the point where if we do not start doing something ourselves about the vanishing of the bees we may face a world where our fruits and vegetables will have to be hand pollenated. If you have ever complained about the cost of healthy food it would be nothing compared to the possible hand pollenated food of the future. Backyard beekeeping is a great way to help prevent the future from being beeless. Keeping healthy colonies spread out across the world will help prevent problems in the future. And you know what, you get something sweet from it too.

For more information check out "Vanishing of the bees" on Netflix's Instaque or http://www.vanishingbees.com/