May 2021

 

In May the weather got warm and we went out back for archery and target throwing.

Kiernan got killed the fatted branch.

Mom had way too adventure's. She has some serious neck and back pain with dizziness. They want her to go see a neurologist to see if they can find out why.

I made a very rustic version of a candle holder. I will be doing this again. I am trying to learn how to us the dremel as a carving tool. It should be good once I get it. I do not currently have it.

I got a new light draw bow. Its another Tarter horseback bow. Meg looks great here drawing it. She needs work when actual arrows are involved but you can sure see her potential here.

We had our first family get together. We were celebrating the arrival of Opa who had come out to the East Coast with an eye to moving back out here. It was strange to be unmasked with so many people we hadn't seen for over a year.

Megan, our social butterfly, was particularly happy. She spent all weekend with her head in the clouds.

She made this picture for art class but then Opa decided that it was a portrait of him. We love him!

Our Neighbors brought us a ton (2 dozen) eggs. They were beautiful and we used them straight away.

  

I discovered that I am really bad at drafting and at eyeballing a straight line. Another thing I need to work on.

On the first night with Opa (per Kiernan's request) we did open face sandwich night. I went to a bakery in Frederick and picked up 3 loaves of European style bread and then aunt Lore and Opa brought 2 loaves of German bread. We were bread and topping rich and went to town.

We had some success with the 3D printer. Finally we got the skateboards off the floor.

With rainbow filament no less.

Megan had a Girl Scout event at a petting farm.

It was crazy hot (upper 90's) so we stuck to the shade and I got her several snow cones.

I did a French song and a Norwegian poem for bardic in May. 

The bardic was held at the house of a member. This house had beautiful gardens and a great overlook (it is near harpers ferry so mountains and river) and he (the owner) invited several of his students and musical friends to join us.

It was magical.

I have decided to wear my SCA garb (costumes) to these events as that's what is encouraged. But It was super hot. All of my garb is Northern European from the little ice age and just would have been miserable in that heat.

I started working on a bog dress that could count as Mediterranean. I never finished it.

I got everything cut and pinned and then chickened out. I was afraid it wouldn't fit and because of its simplicity there are no buttons or zips or anything. I hung it up in my closet and there it stayed.

On the morning of the Bardic I got up early and drug it out of the closet and stitched it all together.

It worked out and I was not too hot and it looked good.

I will try making more Roman stuff and the upper layer out of something other than my moms scarf.

Before Opa came we did a big upgrade to the library/guest room. We put together an Ikea bed that stretches out to a queen size and shrinks down to basically a day bed.

Kiernan did about half of the bed and I did the other half. He was very very helpful for this set up. If you come to visit us this will be your bed. 

Megan had a dentist and an orthodontist appointment on the same morning. She is going to get her bottom braces next visit.

We got a good look at some fossils that she found on a Haven trip. She found the back half of a trilobite as well. We are calling it the trilobutt.

I went to Scearce's to mow and encountered the first of the brood X cicadas. Plus got a nice bunch of irises.

I printed out a bunch of new dice jails to put up on my shop.

Here is the fossil hunt with Meg. We had a long drive to West Virginia and wound up really near a place I used to be as a kid. Megan loved it. She says that she wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up. She's been watching fossil shows on YouTube ever since and I got her gem/rock pick of her own with a promise to take her fossil hunting over the summer.

My purple flowers started showing off.

Kiernan got his first Covid shot.

I went caving again

I went to Scearce's again to mow and help out. Poor Mr. Scearce had a fall and broke his hip and will be out of commission.

It was ramp season and happily Wegmans and common market both had some.

I got my motorcycle license.

I took a class that was all weekend long and it rained and was freezing and the instructor told us that we wouldn't even charge us extra to teach us to quick stop in the wet.

Buurrrrr

I almost turned around each morning from fear of doing something foolish or dangerous and also because it was so so cold.

I took the class having no motorcycle and not much hope of getting one anytime soon. I took it because it is something I loved as a kid and I wanted to know if I could still do it and if i still loved it.

I think the answer is yes to both. I hope someday I can get a bike again and go see the world on it. I have been watching this series and admiring so much the woman in it and wondering if I could do such a thing.

I made this Mandalorian for the Haven wall of fame. I want to start contributing to the cool stuff there and have my prints admired.

The seedlings went along well. Lots of tomatoes and that is the best of signs.

I read a parenting article talking about being a specialist or a generalist with your kids. The article said that when they are little its good to be a generalist but as your kids age and develop strengths its better to be a specialist. 

I have decided to try to do more of that. I am going to take Kiernan to do more things that he asks to do rather than just going 'Oh, that sounds nice".

To that end I have taken him blacksmithing. We've been 3 times now and its a thing he has asked about a good deal. It occurred to me that I'm not taking much advantage of my Haven membership if I don't use the expertise of the group. So when they offered a welding and blacksmithing intro session in the beginning of the moth I took Kiernan to give it a try.

He really loved the blacksmithing.

He has plans and tomorrow we are going back again. I am hoping we will keep it up for a good while. I am really liking it too.

He had the wrong shoes for the welding. He got some sparks on his toes and we ran over to a store between sessions to grab some boots.

He is a little young to be doing lots of this stuff but the guys decided that as he is such a naturally cautious person and as long as I am with him and as long as we both understand that he could get really hurt it is ok for him to learn this stuff now.

During the welding he was asked if he would promise not to flail around if he got burned or hurt by sparks.

Then when he was actually welding (this was MIG welding ) he stopped pretty quickly. He was praised for knowing his limits and used as an example for the class of the way to explore new skills. I thought he might have been scared by the noise. It was only afterward that he let me know that sparks had landed between his toes and burned him. He surely kept from flailing!

We did a staff seminar in Kung Fu. I am super pleased to be learning a staff form.

It was too long for me at 2 hours. I got a splitting headache but also learned fancy twirly Kung Fu staff stuff. We haven't been able to go to Kung Fu as much this last month. David got a new job and someone resigned at my work so both of us have had some hour/duty changes that are leaving us wiped out by the end of the day. Our classes are at 6:15 and I am not even making it home by then many days.

I'm hoping we will get back to it soon. I love it and feel proud to be doing it and get lots of benefits when I am doing it.

As per my last two blog entries, we entered some songs in an SCA competition. Please go listen to them if you want to hear us sing. 

I went caving with Haven again.

I'm quite enjoying the caving. I even got a new helmet that holds my light where it is supposed to be.

Megan and I entered a local SCA event and each won a thing. We jumped up and down and felt very proud of ourselves.

We are being active and trying new things and thriving so far.