Wood Table and Lamp

Mike has been working hard with the chainsaw, the dremel, the air tool and some basic woodworking chisels.

Here he is just starting to make this take shape.
What will it be?

There's staining and varnishing involved...

Those are some nice pieces of wood.

There it is!!!!
A really cool wood spirit or tiki guy end table.
And a big thanks to out neighbors, Debbie and Liz for donating that huge round piece of glass. Made it all come toghether.

Elby approves.....

And in the process of hauling these heavy pieces of wood in and trying to get thing set up, yeah we broke one of our favorite lamps.
Hmmm, I have an idea.
More, later.....

Break!

You know I couldn't go an entire post without a nature like pic....
The Great Horned Owls have been screeching like crazy out in the field behind our house, just out of reach.
I managed this shot, full zoom gone digital.
I hope they come closer soon.

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Meanwhile, a trip to the liquor store and we found this just waiting to be thrown out.
Actually it's a really cool peice. It's the top of a beer bottle and it has a battery operated mechanism that twirls the cap on top.
Hm, I wonder what I can do with this.

Yes, it look like a bell to me so I broke out the bright red and attempted to paint it. You know, like a Christmas Bell.

Well, no the red isn't doing the coverage that I need, this'll take multiple coats.

Screw it! 

I went to the store and bought some bright silver spray paint. Went on like butter!
I need a clapper. I have a couple of gourds just laying around that are just about the right size.

I also need a bit of Christmassy decoration. I dug back into my rope twisting days and combined two colors of twine to make a nice green candy cane rope.

A couple of pine cones for effect...

Not too bad...
I can change this up before Christmas with maybe a bright red ribbon or whatever.

This'll do for now.

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While no one was looking I made a paper mache lizard. It's the big blue one on top. I wasn't extremely happy with it, it's kinda crude so I shoved it into the top of the fake palm.

So here's the next bright idea. The broken lamp becomes another tree spirit guy.

We have two choices:
The one with "hat" (above)

Or this one?

Looks cool either way.

The set up...

The best part is that all of these pieces come apart and we can rearrange them to make different things as needed.

And the complete picture.
What do you think? 

I think it's AWESOME!!!

Lots of work here. Mike has outdone himself...

Comment below, please!

Rainy Season Blues

I'm reminded of cabin fever days back in Arkansas. The rainy season is hot, humid and the yard is flooded. Makes one not want to get out and about. Makes one want to lie in bed and daydream....

I have a mix of shots from the past week. #Lazy

Mike took this one for me.

I hate it when I plant lots of things that I have no idea what is what.
No wait, I love it when I plant things haphazardly and get a surprise like this.

Blue Heron in the sky....

The shadow from the bright sun.

They call this dollar weed when it's dry but...

When it floods they become lily pads.

We are drying up and the dragons are breeding everywhere.

Squeaky ducks take flight at dusk.

A lone heron flying about in the day.

This anhinga, always around.

I'll call her Annie...
Electric Annie!

The hawks were making a terrible racket all day.

My guess is that this little one had just fledged.

Daddy Hawk flying cover.

More of Mike's shots of the Hawk.

Sitting atop the bat pole.

Good shots, Mike!

Now Momma Hawk taking flight.

This is the exact same shadow blue heron from before, taken at the exact same time just from the other side, in the sun.

Pretty bird...

 

Proud Annie...

Dreamboat Annie...

Storms are brewing.

Although we are drying up we have several bog storms headed our way.

The backyard is looking good but we'll be flooded full again by next week.

Heavy clouds looming...

Honestly, Mike did a good job with the camera. This one straight from the camera, unedited.

So close, the Woody Woodpeckers are hard to capture.

And the Zinnia Twins, I'm happy with them, lots of them, all grown from seed!

Alllllrighty then...

 Back to craft projects and stuff.
I went waaaaaaay back into my bag of crafty tricks and created this paper mache' dragonfly.

We found a nice place for him above the wood gator.

Hold your horses!!! 

Mike's back in the shop and working hard on another chainsaw creation!
I wonder what he's up to this time.

Coming soon!!

Florida Chainsaw Massacre

It all started on Mike's birthday. He wanted a gas powered chain saw and I went to work to find one... cheap!

He sawed down this big old whispering pine, blew up the cheap chainsaw but we got another under warranty. 

Yup, he's up to something...

I hear the chainsaw going in the shop and I wonder what he's up to.
OMG, it's a wooden alligator!

Pretty cool. 

Finished but not complete. It'll need some stain.

Meanwhile Mike gets stung by this!
It's a saddleback caterpillar and look at those spines.

The rainy season is here and the dragonflies are everywhere in any color you can imagine.

The front yard is flooded and Dusty is in deep.

Water,water, everywhere...

Even the cows are sloshing through, but they enjoy the company of the egrets.

And the fish are busy playing checkers.

And here he is back at work in the shop.
What's he got going now??

OMG! It's a barracuda!

Here's the finished gator, hiding underwater at night.

Hell, that thing was heavy! It took both of us on the ladder to get it up there. It fell at one point and broke off the corner of the wall. Now we have to do some sheet rock repair.

Up close, I think he need a dragonfly friend.
Hmmm....

Really, when he started on this he was going for a shark but it turned out more like a barracuda.
A happy mistake.

And lastly he roped together some of the leftover stobs to make this tree stand. 

Every project here was made from the trunk of the same tree. Only the very base is left over.
More to come, I think!

Shoot me a comment if you like!