Please start at the bottom of this post. My pictures are always backwards now and its obnoxious. This one should be read in chronological order so please start from the bottom.
Life is good.
The ring blanks I ordered came in David's size instead of mine. I will make my husband a ring. Wish me luck.
I took mom and the kids the the Baker Park pool.
I found a 4 leaf clover in the parking lot at work.
Here he is recreating it.
I love this!
Kiernan says shirtception.
Here is the remarkable shirt my sister and I got for our dad for Fathers Day.
It is a picture of him that has been Simpsonized. In it he is drinking his coffee from his favorite mug.
He loves the Simpsons.
I made a cool E-ll stormtrooper blaster on the 3D printer.
I made a weird but delicious cooked salsa.
Here are our rocks phase 2
We went to Licia's house for a get together and felt very post Covid. It is good to see Mr. Scearce up and out and much more back to normal.
I got us pool passes for the Baker park pool and we went and had some cool relief form the crazy heat wave going on just now. I also signed the kids up for some swim lessons for the summer but am not sure when they will start. The group lessons were full but private lessons for the two of them together was only like 20 bucks more so we are waiting for a teacher.
We finally went to Kung Fu in person. It was weird to be there with all the people. It wasn't as hard as I was afraid of. I would like to do that a lot more. My legs and butt were sore all week from doing lunges.
The kids had their first form lesson. Kung Fu forms are my very favorite things to do martial arts-wise. They are long and beautiful and, when you get to the point where you don't have to think about the steps so much, they are extatically fun. Or at least that is how I experience them. One of my goals for this year was to learn 2 forms and I am about half way thought 2 so I'm at least on track there.
Eating nasturtiums from the front walk is a spicy and beautiful experience.
Here are out garnets at phase 1.
One of the guys was making leaves and I asked him if he would show me how and he said yes. So when he gets back from summer break I hope to make one. He gave me this one for my keyring and I watched him make it.
I worked on bending metal. The rail road spike is a dirty rat and I need to just keep it in longer and hit it harder and use the right tongs to hold it. The bar steel is very forgiving and I am glad to have it to give me hope.
The lavender the thyme and nasturtiums and doing very well. There are bees and butterflies everywhere. It smells great, and the milkweed are pulling in some monarchs.
The front walk is starting to look how I hoped it would.
There is one volunteer sunflower.
David wore his fancy fathers day shirt. He is the best father I have ever seen or met or heard of. My kids are so lucky. I am so lucky.
We went to the playground. A thing from all.
We went to the cat cafe. A thing from Megan
We went fishing. A thing from Kiernan.
For fathers day I made a big breakfast. A thing from me.
We went for lots of evening walks as the days lengthened out. The dog started limping noticeably. We knew the 3rd big expense had arrived.
Mom took her to the vet who recommended the surgeon that worked on her other hip last year and the surgeon gave us some anti-inflammatories and we scheduled hip surgery number two. It was well over 3000 dollars
It is hard to see the Damascus pattern is those pictures so here is a nice one of the metal itself.
Then I rounded out the ring sides and coated it in epoxy.
I am not completely happy with it. I learned a lot and will do more. Steel ring blanks are 4 for 10 bucks on Amazon. I think my garnets kept popping out because they weren't flush enough with the groove. I will try to do a thicker layer of smaller pieces next time.
It is awfully cool though to have made a ring from the gems you held as pebbles.
I want to do this process again completely on my own. I will go back to the garnet place and get more.
I am already on phase 3 of 4 for tumbling the ones I got with Megan. I have ordered her a tiny (5.5) ring so she can do one as well.
Then soaked them in acid to bring out the shine and to return the steel to its Damascus pattern.
Then polished with ever finer grits of sanding.
Then mounted the ring onto a foam form to hold it tight. And used a belt sander to take the rocks down to the level or the ring so nothing stuck out.
Check out this tiny anvil.
I hit the garnets with a hammer then glued them to a groove in the ring blank.
I went to the thrift store with mom and got some curtains to add to my roman garb for SCA stuff. I even sewed again.
We did our last day of school Jimmie Cone run.
I made two strawberry rhubarb cobblers, one like normal and one sweetened with cherry juice. Oh gracious that was tart!
Megan had field day at home this year. Next year it should be at the school. We did up some obstacles and some water buckets and ran around the deck.
I got some Foxfire books. I asked mom to keep an eye out for some for me and she found some first editions!
If you don't know what these are please click the link.
I am really interested in these both because Appalachia is a small part of my background that I am proud of and because the hands on self reliant learning reflected in the books is valuable. I think about the philosophy of applied learning, for confidence building for the kids, and also as something truly missing from the current education model. It is detrimental to be talked at and told all the time and not to DO the things. I want us all to DO the things. To understand in a demonstrable way. Also of course many of these backwoods things aren't taught anymore.
Originally I found Foxfire 5 at Haven when I was looking at the blacksmithing section.
Megan got her first actual toe bean exposure. She was thrilled.
Kiernan loved it too. We talked about who was a cat person and who was a dog person. I am definitely a both type of person.
They also had cats that were more than happy to climb right up on you to check out your day.
Several long hairs to chill with. They had cupcakes and window seats and books. They had places for cats to retreat if they didn't want to interact.
They had a kitten to play with.
This place serves vegetarian food and uses shelter cats that are all for adoption. When we went they had placed 165 cats. They are doing good work and though its too expensive to do often (15 bucks a person) it was great. David is allergic to cats so we can't have one (honestly I get stuffy around them as well). We all love cats though.
The last week of school arrived. I hope Meg can get vaccinated before it starts up again. I took the kids out for a few treats to celebrate. Megan saw something about cat cafes on YouTube and then some kids in her class talked about it so I found one nearby and took them and boy was she excited.
The farm stand I like opened up and we got all the tasty fresh things. They also sell plants and this is where I got my extra basil.
Before they left the septic guys did even out the yard and they pushed the brush out to the ends of the property and then they asked us what kind of grass seed we wanted and they reseeded the lawn. They really went above and beyond. Plus David wont have to mow the back for a while. ha!
I took him up to one of the parking garage roofs to show him one of my favorite views of Frederick.
We went to blacksmithing day and this time Kiernan had good safe shoes.
We have squash and melon and lots of cucumbers and peas and beans in the climbing bed. We have Brussel sprouts and beets and eggplant and broccoli down below and then everything else is up on the deck.
We got a fair bit of rain and the tomatoes all started going like gangbusters.
These are all up hill from the septic stuff so they are in the ground. There were 4 or 5 volunteers from last years cherry tomatoes. There are 12-14 cherries and 9 or so of the big sandwich types. I have high hopes.
I got some basil for the deck because ours was growing too slowly and made this cool potato soup.
I got new glasses. My prescription changed over the Covid year and I knew that I needed new ones. I think its mostly age but also its some that I have to wear my glasses all day in the lab so I've just become more reliant on them. Fortunately my vision is a little near sighted and the change was a little far sited and so it evened itself out. The optometrist says that I have the problem that most optometrists pray to get as they age. So I am lucky.
Apparently they had some dude show up and decided that he would "help them" and wound up cutting down all the asparagus. Mrs. Scearce was so mad. Those things take years to come to a good place and she has worked so hard on that bed. She kicked him to the curb but the damage was done.
I went to Scearce's and fought the cicadas for some blueberries.
I started taking note of gold and garnet jewelry for ideas.
We moved everything into pots and felt good about the chances of fresh (clean) veggies this year.
We were a little concerned about putting food into the ground where septic problems had been occurring so mom got a bunch of these cloth bags and a ton of bag soil and we put everything in either the deck or above the ground. At the end of the season we will upend them and the soil should be much improved over all.
The seedlings started to outgrow their containers.
I got the kids a bunch of popsicles because it is now hot and then I wished I could have one but couldn't because I am holding strong on this no dessert and not sugar thing for the year. The good new is that the watermelons have been fantastic so far this summer so I made some very nice healthy ones for myself.
Here was a particularly rich cicada tree on our way to the garnets.
Do you see the dark spheres in this rock? Those are the garnets. They wash out over time so that the easier way to collect them seems to be to go to the nearby was and scoop them up there. This is what I will do next time.
She found several rocks that certainly were garnets. She loved using the rock pick but had such questionable aim that I saw quite a few get shattered by her blows. Then she handed it to me and told me her arms were tired and that I should mine for her. lol
She found lots of rocks that might be garnets. Only time in the rock tumbler will tell for sure but they look promising.
Not to be out done for Haven events that Sunday I took Megan on a Haven geology trip. We went to a place near Baltimore for garnet hunting. It was super hot and cicada filled and many many people were there.
He caught no catfish but really enjoyed being out in the quiet with the hope of catfish. After the fishing we all went out to Silver Diner for breakfast. It was only a few people and it was wonderful. I wandered around the woods and listened to some good fishing advice and ate delicious food. I saw Kiernan get more comfortable and confident around people that I like and even got to see him crack a joke that had the whole table laughing. I was super happy.
Very early on that Saturday morning Kiernan and I got up and joined the Haven fishing club. We are lucky to have a few beautiful rivers in and around Frederick. We went to the Monocacy and Kiernan wished hard for catfish.
Then the gravel truck showed up and we had an exciting mountain. Well it was super exciting for Megan and then for poor mom who tried to prevent Megan from creating a gravel-anche...
Two points to mom for the term.
Pretty much all of the backyard was dug up. They drained and filled and then crushed the old pits then covered those up and while that was all happening also dug trenches through the yard and the back lot and laid pipes. I am grateful that they destroyed as few of my plants as possible and then asked us if we would like them to use the extra dirt to level the yard out as they went.
This was so unexpected and kind that I became an instant fan of the company. They are R& E Chief Septic in case you ever need someone around here.
I joined a Patreon to learn to make various Viking inspired crafts. Here is my first one. It is very rustic. I am learning to use the dremel as a chisel. I am not great at this yet but its good practice and boy is it easier on the hands.
I took this opportunity to add some expense to our already weeping wallets by breaking my car door and window.
While at Scearce's I backed up with the door open and plowed it into the ground bending it backwards. It was hard to close but okish. Then the next time I went out (to spring Mr. Scearce from the rehab place) it stuck when I tried to open it. So instead of realizing that it was stuck because the window was too far down (down where the dent from the bend was) I forced it and the window shattered into a million safety glass bits all over poor Mr. Scearce. Welcome home!
He was ok, thank goodness, and I was embarrassed.
The rain was still on its way and I pulled David off the worry about the septic to tape up my window and accompany me to the body shop to have my door replaced.
They left a pile of pipes and a promise to return the next day.
The back lot is no longer heavily wooded. I love my woods and was brought somewhat low by that.
On the other hand the archery target is very clear now and a dead tree we were going to have to take down was taken down for us.
We were hoping they would put in the new pits in the yard (for financial reasons) but the inspector said no. This meant they had to break down some of the back fence and then try to find space in the back lot for the new excavation. The backlot is (was) heavily wooded.
Throughout the day at work I got pictorial updates of an increasingly alarming nature.
On the first day of June the county inspector and the septic company showed up. This was several days early (apparently they wanted to avoid the rain at the end of the week) we got very very little notice and really lucked out because David was home for the morning for a medical thing. Thanks goodness for that! They decided to start work immediately so he took the rest of the day off and our super expensive septic adventure began.
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