Blue Jay enjoying our deck chair

Almost as colourful as the Cardinal, the Blue Jay has been seen around our abode.

Interested in our feeder after Sandy updated the plain ol' peanuts to a 'trail mix' of a bunch o' stuff, the blue jay finds a free meal--

On the feeder

The blue jay seems to hang around in the early evenings. When we have our dinner on the deck, we bring the camera out and try to capture the jay on film.

on the fence

This time we made a video--

I'll get better at holding hte camera steady, but for now... well, you get the idea.

More information on the Blue Jay can be found here--Blue Jay

All our blue jay pics can be found here--Blue Jay

Breaking in the scroll saw--one piece at a time...

To get very familiar with the cutting habits of the scroll saw that we received as a wedding present, I could think of no better way than to cut up a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces.

See, jigsaw puzzle pieces would be perfect-you get to practice pushing the wood thru the blade at various angles and pressures, you get to see how robust the saw is by the sheer number of cuts one has to make in order to produce a jigsaw puzzle, and you get to see how long you can stand on your feet in front of the saw--'cause, well, the pieces will not, as I found out, cut themselves.

I also found during this little forray into my scroll saw using endeavours, that the scroll saw not only uses 'teeth' blades (think hand saw blade reduced in size and scale to fit the scroll saw), but the scroll saw will also take 'file' blades (take yer average rat tail file--reduce it in size and scale, and put it in your scroll saw).

This was an utterly fantastic discovery! This 'file' scroll saw blade allows you (yes you!), the wood cutting fanatic, the ability to cut in any direction you want to cut in!!

See, normal blades only allow you to cut from the front--you have to push your wood stock into the blade from that direction. Sure you can make gradula curves and such--the thinner the blade, the shoarper the curve. However, you can only cut the wood as it enters into the blade from the front.

Now watch out! Here comes 'File Blade'!! You can pull, push, force sideways--any direction you can possibly think of--the blade'll cut the wood no matter which way the wood is pushed into it! This makes puzzle piece cutting a little more easier.

So with all that said, here's two more puzzles as created on the scroll saw.

The first, I used a regular tooth blade and was able to get the puzzle pieces down to 3 inches by 3 inches--

Puzzle on the patio table

Sandy puting the puzzle together--

Putting the puzzle together on the patio table

The finished 5 x 5 (15 inches by 15 inches) puzzle--

Perfectly placed puzzle put together on the patio table

This was a pretty good puzzle. However, after purchasing the 'file' type of scroll saw blades, I went off and made this--

Love ya babe...

It was going to be part of our 1 year anniversary (coming up pretty soon--where'd the time go??), but it was kinda hard keeping this a secret since I made it basically right before Sandy's eyes.

A piece out of place

Now my 'research' into scroll sawing shows that most scroll sawers go to the wood shop and get some very nice wood for their projects. At this point in my scroll sawing career, I went intoo my scrap wood bin and pulled out what I could find.

In this case, I found a quarter inch piece of construction plywood (good one side) and some old sub floor (my old boss called it 'mahagony underlay) that also came in around a quarter of an inch thick.

I took these two pieces of wood, cut them to the same size, and just taped 'em together using masking tape. I then drew a grid--one and a half inches by one and a half inces per square--on the top piece of plywood.

After sketching out the heart and the letters, I proceeded to cut the puzzle pieces.

When all pieces were cut, I just switched the letters and heart from one wood type with the other.

And the results? Well, for a first time out I think it was pretty good.

The love of my life, encapsulated in a wooden puzzle

Got a little 'fancy' with some of the cuts. I tried getting Sandy's name in there. Coulda done better but for a first time out, it's still legible.

Endeavour

Also got the Endeavour in there (are you surprised?)

This puzzle came in at 154 pieces, which was quite the significant jump from the previous--at 15 pieces. What made this one very easy to cut was the use of the 'file' blade instead of the regular 'tooth' blade. The ability to push the wood thru the blade at any angle I wanted made all of those interlocking pieces much easier to cut.

Anyway, I think after these trials, the scroll saw techniques are pretty tested. The next projects will revolve around stuff for around the house.

I stained this puzzle and we're just waiting for a time for Sandy and I to put it together.

See all wooden jigsaw puzzle stuff here--Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles

is coming to stay with us.

Way back when I was in grade 6, I had the best teacher ever - Miss Banks.

Miss Banks was here on a 1-year exchange from England and I was lucky enough to be in her class.

I am sure everyone can relate to having a favourite teacher. The one who helped you most. The one who was the nicest. The one you wish you could have every year. Yup, that was Miss Banks!

Well, the end of the school year was nearing and usually it was a very happy event, but it was different that year.

Miss Banks was heading back to England but thankfully she was leaving us an address that we could keep in touch with her at.

Of course I was going to stay in touch. Everyone said they were going to stay in touch.

Over the years, some people kept in touch, but as they got older or their lives started to change, they stopped writing as often and eventually stopped writing all together - but not me. We have been in constant touch since 1983 - yup that's 24 years and counting.

Well, Rita, aka, Miss Banks, is coming to Canada for a visit with her kids, Laura and Oliver. Her husband Colin will be coming as well but at a later date.

Of course as soon as I knew she was coming, Dave and I offered for them to stay with us for a portion of their stay as we have the space and vacations days to boot.

So, we have planned out many different touristy things to do, including the Ice Cream Festival at Westfield Heritage Village (where we got married), African Lion Safari, Niagara Falls (everything), Wild Water Works, Battlefield, RBG, etc.

So, as the arrival dates gets closer (Friday August 3rd), I get more excited.

I can't wait to see her again and to meet her kids for the very first time.

I'm sure you will see photos of their visit at some point.

It's puzzling...

I've always liked making wooden puzzles. The very first thing I did with the jigsaw when my dad showed me how to use one at the age of 8 was to turn a 1" x 8" x 8 foot plank into a bunch of puzzle pieces.

So it really was no surprise when I found myself doing this on our scrollsaw--

The unity

Not so much with the togetherness...

For a first time out the pieces didn't turn out too bad.

I drew lines on the wood every 4 inches--and the piece of wood was 8 inches by 16 inches, thus the lines separated the wood into 8 squares of 4 inches each.

Not wanting to totally wing it, I actually drew the rough shape of the puzzle pieces, using the squares as a guide.

Now knowing that the scroll saw (and me) is pretty capable of cutting wooden puzzle pieces that are roughly 4 inches by 4 inches, I'm going to try making the pieces a little smaller next time. As well, I'm convincing Sandy to get her artistic pinnache going by putting some sort of picture on the puzzle pieces.

We shall see what transpires.

Somewhat violated!

So I come home from work and Sandy has prepared a few steaks for me to cook on the barby.

I go out to the deck and note that the BBQ cover was just kinda thrown on top of the BBQ. Just yesterday, Sandy and I had used the BBQ for the grilled chicken caesar we had, and I distinctly remember that I put the cover back over the BBQ before we locked up for the night.

Now I see that the BBQ cover was askew!

Compounded, last night at around 11:30 p.m., the neighbour's dog was yipping up a storm. I went outside to have a boo but saw nothing amiss. However, the dog continued to bark for a bit after that. Normally the mutt isn't yippy, but last night it barked for a while.

So the question comes down to--'Did someone try to sniv our BBQ???'

The intelligence of Sandy and Dave was shown to be in the chain we put around and through the BBQ, which locks the BBQ (and the tank even!) to the fence. You'd need a pretty bit of time with a hacksaw to get our outdoor cooking implement off our deck (or a key--that'll speed up the removal, but alas for the would-be thieves, the key's on the hook in the hallway)

Anyway, the dog yipping and the moved BBQ cover do not an air-tight case make.

But we still aren't too happy about this apparent transgression on our property.

Now we're looking into motion detecting lights for our back deck. Why did it have to come to that? What could have possibly posessed some not-so-nice person to put effort into taking a 3 year old BBQ that costed $150.00 at Canadian Tire?? I mean, you go to the CT now and you can *LEGALLY* purchase a far better one for around the same mount today!

These things infuriate us.

Hopefully, with time (and a few updated 'security measures'), the feeling of 'violation' will dissipate.

It's all just another day in paradise for us law-abiding citizens.

Bench 'em!!

Sandy and I have always felt a little cramped around our patio table when we had company over.

When it's just the two of us--fantastic! However, get more than that and we run into space issues on the deck.

With that in mind, today I went runing over to Home Despot and picked up some lumber.

Then the construction--

Nice Heinie...

Wanting to continue with the 'picture framing' motif that Sandy and I did on the deck, we 'decked out' the bench similarly

Showing off 45 degree cuts

Anywho, all said and done, we now have a nice 'L' shape bench for the patio table.

Benches

This allowed us to position the table better, and now we have more room on the deck

Washed deck

And we added a little storage to the patio--what, with the bench lid lifting and all--

Storage

It's for the birsd seed and maybe some garden implements.

So there you are--we're thinking that the deck reno is pretty much done. Well, maybe not, so we'll say 'done for now!'

See all wondrous deck building pics here--Deck Reno

Common (Northern) Flicker

Sandy came running in from the back yard the other day and dragged me outside to have a look.

See, down in the valley she noticed a bird she had never seen before. Turns out (to no one's surprise), neither had I.

So we snapped some pictures and looked through our very worn copy of 'Birds of North America' and discovered--

The Common (Northern) Flicker

The Birds of North America labeled this bird as a 'common flicker'. However, the WhatBird.Com website labeled this bird as--

Northern Flicker

with the added description of our particular Northern Flicker finding to be an 'Eastern form'.

(I won't go into the idea of an Eastern form of a Northern Flicker right now...)

The pics are a little blurry because the bird was pretty camera-shy and we had to get the full zoom of our camera going to capture this bird.

This Common (Northern) Flicker was quite happy just to sit on the railway tie in the valley behind our house--eating the little insects it could find there.

When I tried to approach a little closer to get a better picture, however, it flittered off into the woods.

Hopefully it'll come back and grace us with its presence again.

All bird pics here--Birds

Northern Cardinal

We'll start with the easy one--a cardinal

I'll never be an avid bird-watcher--what, with the colour-blindness and all...

That said, I've always appreciated the flying feathered creatures that we see around us.

So with much further ado, I've started what will hopefully expand into a nice source of pictures of the birds we've seen.

Starting with--

The Cardinal

During our walks, and even from sitting on our back deck, Sandy and I have found that the Cardinal seems to always be in the background somewhere.

With its vivid red colour, the Cardinal is very easy to spot when hanging out in nature.

What I didn't know was that what we've seen was the Northern Cardinal--

Northern Cardinal at WhatBird.Com

inferring that there are other types of cardinals out there.

Anyway, our apprenticeship into bird-watching could be very fun indeed. We'll never be on par with the bird watchings of the George Cokers of the world, or the picture-taking abilities of the Ray Barlows, but it'll be fun

See all Sandy and Dave bird watching pics here--Birds