February 2023

February was a month of fun and crafting. 

I made it to blacksmithings quite a few times. 

Kiernan and I contributed to Havens 24 hour board game event by showing up at hour 19 and making pancakes and smoothies for those that made it through the night. 

He even let me put his hair up as we were serving food. That boy hates having his hair up. 

I nearly completed my prettiest woodworking project to date. 

This is my nearly done fish decorated cutting board. As you can see there is some discoloration around the fish, like it has a fishy aura. A few more layers of butcher block oil fixed it. 

What you cannot see is that I am sanding out the wet spray paint that I set it down on. I sanded that thing for 3 extra hours. It is the world’s smoothest cutting board. 

I also made ink from oak falls and tested it out against some Japanese calligraphy ink. That was a fun experiment. 

On Ash Wednesday I gave up Amazon for Lent as usual. 

Tricky when trying to shop for a hiking exposition. 

We got Pax some new chew toys. She had a heck of a month. 

The joke here is that the hedgehog is a haven symbol and the kids thought it would be funny if the dog chewed on one. 

I hit day 400 on Duolingo. 

We had kings cake and jambalaya for Fat Tuesday. 

Megan and Erena managed to fit a camping night just under the wire before Erena went home to Japan. 

We also managed matching jackets. 

Erena is a really good piano player.

 I asked her to try out the offerings at guitar center to let me know what was good and what I should keep an eye on if I get good enough to need something better than my 1994 Cassio keyboard of doom. 

Here is the resin fill and the CnC cut for my cutting board. 

It’s classes like theses and foraging hikes like the one below that make me feel like my Haven membership is worth it. I go through all these periods where I feel like spending money to be in a club is a waste or feeling like I just really don’t want to be around people (mostly strangers) but the. I see these blog posts where some of my coolest experiences come from the membership. 

This is the hike where I got the oak halls for the ink experiment. 

I screwed up my first gluing for my cutting board but when I’m and picked up an extra board. Thank goodness they had spares. 

Valentines Day came and I continued to work on my pancake game. 

Every year I try to make hearts for the kids. 

By the time they are in college I’ll have it down. 

David got me roses and chocolates. 

Megan reminded me the night before the class party that we hadn’t gotten class cards. We rushed over to Walmart with several other late moms and kids to find no cards left. Between us we came up with the roses and hand made notes for her class. The kids stayed up late making cards and fixing them to roses. 

There are by far the classiest Valentine’s that 5th grade has ever seen. 

Meg and Serena did a spa. 

Kiernan made a video for history class in which he was an advertisement for the gold rush. He dressed as a prospector and climbed into a creek with some pyrite and an amazing accent.

Fantastic. 

I made a penannular brooch. This is the first really good looking smithing project I’ve managed. I’m so proud of it. 

Scearce’s had a big get together. 

It was fantastic to have them all together. We weren’t sure if Kathryn would be able to see her dad again after his fall and her emergency trip a few months back. 

He wasn’t tip top but he was fully with it and able to enjoy his family around him. 

The big event that I had been planning on for the girls was getting their nails done. I promised them last time that this visit they would be big enough to have a real nail salon visit. They remembered. It took many more years i between than we expected but finally it happened. 

I even go my toes done. My feet hardly hurt and I had high hopes from the shot. 

I took Megan with me to the national botanical gardens in D.C.  

She got bored pretty quickly but it was nice to have her there. 

Last year I suggested and then (minimally) organized a haven plant group trip to a nursery. This trip was basically that again but museum style. 

The girls made a number of sugary concoctions. 

Unicorn toast

Oreo cake pop/truffles 

They made cakes as well but I didn’t get a pic before they were eaten. 

Poor Pax started peeing blood so mom took her over to the vet where an X-ray revealed just a ton of bladder stones. 

The biggest are the size of that rock in moms hand. 

She got medication and a new diet and lots of pets. 

The cool girls made it ice skating. 

They did some great drawing. 

Kiernan and I played Jedi. 

He’s a sith in the model of Count Dooku. 

I strongly lean gray Jedi. 

This kid is so much fun. 

We got to do that awesome Japanese holiday (Setsubun) with the giant sushi and the throwing of dried soybeans (Mamekai) to scare away the demons. 

I finished a walking challenge (trying to rehab my feet) I walked from The Shire to Bree. I got a spiffy medal. It was too expensive but i used birthday money and it was fun.

The girls got on like a house on fire for the entire trip.

Usually they get snippy at and about each other at least once or twice a visit but this time it was smooth sailing.

We got to see and hang out with the wonderful girls at Mariam's cool new place.

Plus fondue!