Birthday Pie

Last week, we had a gathering of friends over for an early celebration of Ben's 15th birthday. We've been celebrating birthdays with this group for more than a dozen years. It's always casual, relaxed, and fun. This year, Ben made his own birthday apple pies, with the help of his friend, Tanner. Delicious!

Fun on a Rainy Day

It's always fun to bake cookies, and today Ben and Manon thought it would be fun to bake a really big cookie. They were so proud of it, they wanted to pose with it.

Proud Cookie

Serious Cookie

Hilarious Cookie

Always...Patsy Cline

If you're in the mood to see a great show this weekend or next, you can see my sweet husband performing in Always...Patsy Cline, a musical at the Knutzen Family Theater in Federal Way. It's a really fun performance, and of course, the music is great!

Apples to Applesauce

Earlier this week, we took a bike ride to the library to pick up some books that were waiting for us. On the way home, we passed a local park and saw a huge apple tree with many tiny apples littering the ground underneath it. We were curious about the apples still up in the tree, and sure enough, when Ben climbed it, he found lots of larger ones just ready to drop. So we did some old-fashioned gleaning.

He picked a bunch and dropped them down to me. I caught them and gathered them into bags for the ride home. We offered a few of them to others as they walked by on the trail, but mostly people just smiled and walked on. It was great fun, and we're both glad we took the time to stop and rescue the apples so they wouldn't go to waste.

At home, we filled a drawer in the fridge with apples, and then, later this weekend, I spent a little time making applesauce. Yum!

Tools of the Trade

There was much excitement at our house a few days ago when the package of guitar hardware from Stew-Mac arrived. Ben had purchased a bridge, fret wire, a fret board, and a truss rod, and he was quite excited to get a look at it all so he could start measuring everything and move on to the next steps in the bass-building process.

Today's Harvest

Tomatoes


Scarlett Runner Beans


Blueberries & Raspberries

Luthier at Work

All week long, Ben has been hard at work building the neck of his bass guitar. Here's what he's done so far:

After measuring and cutting the many pieces of wood needed for a striped neck, he glued and clamped them together. Many of these sturdy, well-worn clamps are from Ben's great grandfather Roger's woodshop.

When the gluing was finished, we went to our friend Kevin's home workshop where Ben got to use a really nice planer and high-powered sander to create the right thickness and smoothness for the neck. Kevin has a wonderful workshop, and he's really generous in letting Ben make use of it. Thanks, Kevin!

The planer helped even out the width of the neck. You can see by all the shavings how many times he needed to run it through.

After the planing comes the sanding.

Lots of measuring to get it just right.

Then more sanding.

Here you can see the beautiful woods Ben chose.

From the center outward: 1/8" cherry, 1/4" maple, 1/4" walnut, and 3/4" maple

Nice work!

Building Another Electric Bass Guitar

Earlier this week, Ben spent several hours cleaning up the garage, getting it organized and ready for his new bass guitar project. Here are a few live-action photos of Ben hard at work in the garage yesterday.

Using the band saw

Smiling for Mom

1/4" pieces of maple, now almost ready for the guitar neck

Sawdust and footprints

So glad I bought that broom!

Notice the Xtracycle waiting in the wings for the next cargo ride!

A Trip to the Lumber Store

We enjoyed a nice mother-son bicycle ride to the lumber store on Friday. Ben is getting started on building another bass guitar, and he needed a 3/4" piece of maple for the neck. He found the piece he needed, and I found a good all-purpose broom for the garage.

It was Ben's first Xtracycle ride carrying cargo, so we took our time loading them up and riding them home. It was a fun, leisurely ride together.

Today's Harvest

Yellow Raspberries

Bicycles, Co-ops, & Libraries

Today has been a wonderful cycling day for our family. Ben and I started off early this morning; he rode to his weekly first-aid/CPR class while I rode to the new co-op to get some groceries. Have I mentioned how much I love PCC? It's so delightful to be able to ride my bike to get good quality, organic foods and other natural, sustainable products.

As you can see by the photo, I thought I might need a little extra cargo space today, so I strapped my pretty wicker basket to the Xtracycle snap deck. It worked wonderfully. I loved being able to bring it into the store to carry my purse, helmet and canvas bags.


Later in the day, Ben wanted to go to the library to pick up some books that were on hold for him. We frequent two different nearby libraries, and he hadn't ridden to this one before, so we rode there together so I could show him a good route. For this trip, I took my other bike so it'd be easier for me to keep up with him. The larger, thinner tires make it easier to go faster and keep up with his younger legs!

I hooked up my new handlebar basket from Recycled Cycles onto this bike so I could help Ben carry his books home. It has a nice, easy lift-off feature so once I park the bike, I can bring the basket with me. It was just right for what I needed to carry.

As we pedaled our way home from the library, we had a fun surprise. As we approached the intersection to get back on the trail home, Ben pointed across the street at another cyclist. It was Don! He was riding in the opposite direction, on his way from home to his evening band rehearsal. We stopped to chat for a few minutes and then continued on toward our destinations.

Once again, a delightful day.

Tree with a View

Evidently, there's a tree at camp that everyone likes to climb. Ben thought you'd like to see it. Or at least the view from it. Of course, since he's been climbing trees for years, it's appropriate that he would try a self-portrait just to show off the grandeur. It's quite a view.

Games, Games, Games

We had a fun time together while Aadrial was here last week. It was a busy week, with a lot of regular activities thrown in, but we also enjoyed playing several games of Monopoly and Othello together. Don suggested Othello, as he has been recently trying to compete with an online version of the board game. He reminded us all how to play, and we each took turns playing two at a time. Don, of course, did quite well for himself, although I think Ben aced at least one game.

Then Ben suggested Monopoly. We've played that one for years and years, and he never gets tired of it. Aadrial was happy to play that one, too, so we set it up and got started. We played one game, and then another and another. It's fun to see the dynamics, negotiating and strategy involved. We enjoyed lots of laughter and many hours of fun. In the first picture, they're in the middle of an intense yet friendly ten minute session of negotiating a trade of some sort. That's why I had time to get the camera. The next one is another amusing moment of game analysis and strategy.

After the games, we had time to sit back, relax, and just hang out together. This is Aadrial in her favorite chair. It's good for long conversations, reading a good book, or taking a short nap.

Nice to be home...

After two-plus weeks at Not Back To School Camp, Ben is finally home! It's so nice to have him here.

Don and I drove to Eugene on Wednesday, with plans to pick Ben up on Thursday. We enjoyed a nice dinner at World Cafe, a brisk walk around town, and a pleasant stay at the annex of the local hostel.

The next day, we met at the park, where campers were unloading their gear from the bus, giving hugs, and saying their goodbyes. They were sad to part, but ready to go home.

It sounds like Ben thoroughly enjoyed his camp experience. I'm sure we'll hear lots of camp stories during the weeks and months to come. It makes me so glad that we read all those John Holt and Grace Llewellyn books when Ben was little.

This Week in the Garden

Liberty Apples


Nasturtiums


Swiss Chard


Pumpkin


Scarlett Runner Beans

A Trip to the Farmers Market

Even though they said it was going to rain, it looked beautiful out so we enjoyed a nice bike ride to the farmers market. We brought home lots of locally grown organic food:

It was fun to use my new lightweight, reusable produce bags. We have lots of canvas bags that we use all the time, but it's nice to have some bags for carrying smaller amounts of fruit.

All of this delicious fruit is from Tonnemaker Family Orchard.
The peaches are absolutely scrumptious!
I know because I've eaten two of them already!

Fresh from the Kitchen

Mmmm...
Zucchini Bread and Blackberry Pie

Yes, the kitchen smells wonderful!

Quote of the Day

"As you walk and eat and travel,
be where you are.
Otherwise you will miss most of your life."

~ Buddha

Building an Electric Bass

Electric bass guitars are cool. Especially those you build yourself! Don and Ben have spent a good part of the summer building an electric bass guitar together. They rock! They started a while back, planning and scheming and getting the process started, but most of the hands-on work was done this month, just in time for Ben to take it to camp.

Building a bass takes a lot of time. Hours and hours and hours. They worked on a design, made templates, and cut out all the pieces. They sanded and sanded, drilled holes, routed parts to fit together, sanded some more, and applied a beautiful finish. They pieced it together, soldered the electronics in place, and added all the pretty chrome parts. It's an amazing accomplishment. And so beautiful.

Body cut-out with holes drilled for the bridge and neck,
and neck-pocket routed

Fret board glued to the neck and tuner holes drilled

Test-fitting the neck and body

Test-fitting the bridge & tuners
to make sure the tuners line up with the bridge

Routing holes for pick-ups and electronic controls

Oooh...chrome!

Testing the fit for the bridge, pick-ups, and controls

All together now! Isn't it pretty?

After the teak oil finish
Ta daaa!