November 2021

Kiernan had a rough old time in November. He was being harrassed at school so much that he had to switch one of his classes. He had to leave cooking which he loves and go to computer science which he is also into. This is not the end of the world but I am angry that cooking has been taken from him and mad that kids can be horrible and mad that my poor boy had to put up with it for so long. 

I had a day planed out where in I was going to meet Mariam and Kelsey for lunch and wood working talk and to hang out. When I left eh house I got a call from Megan's school to let me know that she had not made it to school that day.

I dropped her off myself and watched her go into the building so I was confused and alarmed by this call.

I called them back and couldn't get through. So I drove over to the school and pulled up along with a number of other concerned and alarmed (some very alarmed indeed) parents.

In fact every parent from Megan's class received the same phone call.

There was a drop down on the attendance box to make all present or all absent and her teacher made a tiny mis-click which resulted in a robo call to the whole class guardian pool. Because there are only a few phone lines into the school they all jammed up with concerned and alarmed parents so no one could get through. It was a whole thing.

As I left Megan's school to head to Mariam and Kelsey I got a call from Kiernan's school asking me to come get him. He was in the health room and looked exhausted.

The day before he had complained of blurry vision and disorientation after his 7th period class. It went away after he went home and ate something. But it came back pretty much as soon as he got to school. He was stressed and went into the bathroom and stayed there until the guidance counselor came to get him.

He told her that I recommended a  mental health day and she agreed that it was a good idea. So When I came to get him my plan was to take him out to lunch with the girls and then home for rest with no school the next day. I called mom and asked her to make him a doctors appointment just incase something was up.

She called me back as we were almost to lunch to let me know that they were expecting us in teh emergency room...

This did not sooth Kiernan, let me tell you.

We had pizza and then went to the ER.

The good news was that as a pediatric patient he spent very little time in the main ER and mostly wer waited for a few hours in out own room in pediatrics.

They checked him out and said they didn't see anything wrong with him and sent us home. 

I made borscht and we chilled out.

We did get his eyes checked. He needs glasses but not badly and he has convergence insufficiency for which he was given some eye exercises that should take care of it.

He now has shiny gold glasses that he wont wear.

I found an instagram account that I really like and that inspired me.

Haven offered another lyre workshop and after the success with the guitar tuners I decided to have another go at making one. This time I had some idea of things I'd like to try.

The first lyre workshop was the first time I had used most of the shop equipment or seen or help a lyre so this new instrument might hopefully benefit from some experience.

I decided I'd like to use the fish design from the picture above for my theme.

It rained during Megan's school trunk or treat so they made it up the first weekend in November. She was a zombie cat this time and I wore my 3D printed mask again.

I found this event uncomfortable. She kept trying to join groups of girls from her class and they kept shutting her out. She retreated further and further into I am spooky I am tough and they kept finding it/her weirder and avoided her more.

Boo to that entire dynamic.

We got the truck from Scearce's and used it to clear out so much junk from under the deck.

Its been a whole saga getting it up and running  in which I used my first Uber and in which Mr. Scearce has given up his drivers license.

I went with Kiernan to D&D and worked on my Viking bag.

The leaves were beautiful all of November.

We also used the truck to bring some wood over to Scearce's. Michelle and Chris brought over a load as well.

I got a fancy date with David in which we hung out and ate and talked about plans and trips and projects and it was great.

I found a good image of the fish. I sent this to Mary and asked her if she could conver it into a file that the CnC machine could read. I am ecstatic to say that she could and did

Megan got her first Covid shot.

She was very brave and brought her birthday turtle with her (also thanks to Grandma Mary and Papa).

This is blender full of paper and water.

Here is the paper pulp on a screen floating in a tub of water to even it out.

Here is the class I took at Haven on paper making, We dried it with an iron and a heat gun and a board.

Behold I have made paper out of paper.

I can now make paper out of lots of different fiber things.

That was neat.

The CnC machine cuts things at the depth you specify and in the pattern that you specify. The lyre makeing workshop was 3 weeks long and we used lots of tech. This is a machine I think I would like to mess with more. It's very handy.

Five of us were in it and each of us did something pretty unique.

I'm thinking of doing a mini side blog on this just to record all the steps and the pros and cons inteh process.

Kiernan had D&D and I started sewing the bag together. The site recommended sewing it backwards and then turning it inside out.

We went caving. Meg came with me. She was very nervous.

This time we went to West Virginia

There were a ton of people for this oine and the cave was massivly muddy.

She got stuck once and got very muddy and decided at the end that she didn't like it. Then on the ride home began to tell me the story of the trip and slowly began to like it.

She now wants to do it again.

She was very brave and I am proud of her.

We were mud to the ears. I am still cleaning up after this.

I loved it except for the parts where she was afraid.

I took my lyre home to work on.

It needed lots of sanding and for the outer layer to be removed.

Here are the tiny oak leaves.

Problems include cracks in the wood, thankfully mostly where material needs to be removed but not entirely.

We have a router that I had never used before that took out the outer edges perfectly.

David is a marvel or know how and helpfullness and he puts up with my temper when I get frustrated and I am so grateful!

The edges and the middle came out so cleanly that the sanding was refocused tp this weird lip that the CnC machine made. That should all be one level. Its an inset area for the sund board.

This much crack was left. That is where the tuners are supposed to go so I am concerned.

I chissled and sanded and got the inset area flat and smooth 

then used wood fill on all the cracks.

This new one is read oak and the old one is white oak. They both will have spruce soundboards. The new one is lighter and smaller and because I used a computer file is much more the actual shape of the original Torssingen lyre.

David was working on his double neck at the same time so we made a mess of sanding dust all over the house. 

We got them where we wanted and moved on to the next steps.

For him that was the prime and base layer paint step.

For me that was soundboard mounting.

Kiernan made us dinner. He wore his chef hat. I felt better about him losing that class. He can still cook at home.

I undid all my stitching on my bag because I couldn't get it to fold back right side out without making it look warped. This was frustrating after all the time and broken needle I'd gone through plus it now wouldn't look like the pattern said. 

On the other hand i think it looks just fine this way.

All I need to do now is put on the front closure and its ready.

Its nice and soft and hold my phone plus glasses and keys which is exactly what I need it to do if I'm going to use it.

I took an inkblock printing class. I love these little evening classes because they are cheap and interesting. The are at 9pm though and its deadly. I usually go to be d right after the ids at around 9:30 so to be out and about on a weeknight well after that is painful.

We saw how to design a pattern using Inkscape then put it on the laser and then take the woodblock and over it with ink and then cover that with paper and start stamping out Christmas cards.

I am going to try this for my=self so if you get some weird looking Christmas cards from me this year blame Haven.

I went in after my soundboard had dried and took out the edges and center of  the excess.

This was nerve-wracking because I didn't want to screw it up and the Haven Guys said "Oh you know what  you are doing, call me if you need help" and then left. I used the band saw to take out the outer bits and the jigsaw for he inside and the belt sander for he outside and the drum sander on the drill press for the inside. Steve (a Haven guy) helped me brace the top for the jig saw and the rest was just me talking myself up to use each piece of equipment.

Then I put it on the CnC machine with the fish file and got lots of help.

It started really well but after the first 1/3 to 1/2 the bit was suddenly way above the sound board. We had it down on the bed good but apparently my board was not flat. It turned out that none of our boards were flat.

It was Friday night of Bardic and I ran out of time so I cleaned up the area and shelved it.

Then I did something I have never done before an preformed an original piece for Bardic.

It went really well and people liked it and I am proud.

Lucero was there and took video and photos so that I got to see it later. In the moment it was all sort of a blur of nervous energy.

I did a poem on the theme of harvest. The poem was a retelling of an Icelandic story about the goddess of harvest and her tricking of the king of Sweden. 

Look at this golden child. She said I love the leaves and ran over to hug them.

We saw some cool mushrooms down by the horses.

I went back to try to fix my poor fish.

After many shims it read as level. That board was deeply not flat and my sanding didn't help matters.

Unfortunately the changes that I had made to scale and rotation were not saved anywhere so we spent the better part of 3 hours trying to re-center re rotate and resize it using the eye as a guide. We got super close but it was just not working.

I tried the cut over and over again with the z height about an inch off the board to see if I could get it to trace what it had done before exactly. Sad trombone noises here.

I took it back home and drew the rest freehand.

Then i traced that with a knife then retraced it with an awl, which mostly matched the depth and breadth of the cut on the head.

I got an SCA award.

This we super unexpected. I am so flattered and surprised.

My SCA stuff has been very sporadic and enjoyable but I always felt very outside looking in.

What a great surprise!

Instagram is showing me lots of things I want to try. Check out these knives!

I am told that the CnC machine can do this. Now I will definitly remember to level my surfaces.

Ha

In a rush of pre thanksgiving ambition I hired my children with money to help me clean out the fridge.

We emptied the whole thing and washed the shelves and put things back selectively with room to spare for projected leftovers.

It took forever and was gross and I really need to do that much more often. They got money and I got piece of mind.

Also man I own a ton of mustard!

We cooked and cooked and ate and ate.

Kiernan had a close Covid exposure at school so we disinvited ourselves from some gatherings and just had a family.

We even did our own unofficial turkey trot in the morning to justify our gluttony's.

It was mellow and tasty and we had leftovers for the whole rest of the week.

I took Friday off and we just hung out and started watching Hawkeye and finished up GBBO.

I started working on my Jedi costume conversion and we started decorating for Christmas.

Oh look I'm a Jedi.

I had a nice lunch with the girls and this time all, even the very busy and hardly ever in town Krishna were there. Krishna presented us with some spectacular wedding invitations.

We therefore spend a fair old bit contemplating what we would wear fort Krishna's wedding. On Kiernan's birthday!

She told us about a shop to try and we went there repeatedly to look at things and try on things and show off things.

Megan was smitten.

She says we must go there when she is 16 so she can buy all the beautiful sparkly dresses.

They didn't have a ton in her size but she didn't let that stop her.

She just chose smaller adult things as well.

Mom got in on the action as well.

We wound up getting some thing wonderful plus shoes and bangles. She wants to dye her hair to match. Krishna said that was fine by her. So maybe orange? Maybe pink?

maybe green?

We shall see.

So sweet and pretty and perfectly fitting.

David got to fix another leaking pipe and this time also some drywall.

Megan made a hat.

 I tried a process on my lyre called kolrosing. This is almost definitely what was used on the original Trossingen lyre..

As we weren't using a dense grain wood like maple there was some risk that the coal stain wouldn't be held solely by the carving. I read that if you pretreated the wood with oil it would help avoid spread upon application. So I tried sample pieces and they seemed to work. I have lots of walnut oil for wood working so that worked out.

David replaced Megan's phone battery.

I soaked my cheap Jedi robes in bleach water for 24 hours.

We mowed/mulched the leaves.

Look at all that free lawn nutrient going in there. The leaves were very deep this year and it was slippery but satisfying to make these striped of mulched patterns in the yard.

I did the back and David did the front. While he was doing the front Kiernan and Megan received Christmas bins from me in the attic. This is the first time we have been able to do this without David. Those bins are heavy and I don't think even I could catch them but Kiernan is now both tall and strong enough that I could lower them to him and he piled them ready for use.

He's a giant!

We took a break for Thanksgiving leftover quesadillas. 

Not a hit with everyone but very entertaining for me.

I wandered around the yard getting oak sticks (this is helpfully facilitated by our having nearly entirely oak tress here). The Trossingen Lyre probably used oak for the kolrosing so I wanted to be as accurate to that  5th or 6th centaury process as I could.

So I made some charcoal.

Then I oiled (reoiled) the parts I wanted to stain.

It was very sooty and I just used my fingers for the process.

Once I wiped it off there was still quite a bit of gray everywhere. I was so unhappy and thought I might have ruined the nice warm look of the wood.

But after some sanding and some more wiping it came out looking great. I then reapplied oil using a paintbrush over the pattern and left it to dry.

We went back to Mela shops (the place with the Indian and Pakistani outfits) and tried on even more stuff..

Megan chose outfits for us all.

Michelle looking super fancy here.

I got something, mom got something, Michelle got something then we went home to see what Kiernan and David got from Amazon.

We are all fancy!

I finally got the mud out of Megan's caving shoes.

Mine are so waterproof that I had the boots fully submerged and my hands were dry.

I got an ugly Christmas sweater for work.

And in the last moments of November I gave up on trying to find Advent calendars for the kids (supply chain issues?)  and just bought a wooden one and stuffed it with good candy.

All year I have been having a relatively easy time resisting candy but for some reason the Christmas candy is tormenting me. I want peppermint back and I want Lindt truffles. I had to move it to somewhere I wouldn't see it.

So now we are all ready for December and even a little ready for January.

I hope to finish my fish lyre soon and then I will tell you the story of the salmon of knowledge.