January Birthdays: 2nd, 3rd, and 200th

January has a number of special birthdays in addition to that of my sister, Carolyn, who doesn't want her age mentioned, even though she is 12 years older than I am and her birthday card had a hole burned in it from the large number of candles on her cake.

Ahem, I digress. Solomon started to celebrate his 2nd birthday a little early. Linda and I went to Salem for the occasion, and I must say we had a great time. We gave Sol a wooden tool box, a monster truck ("Pickup!") and a really neat little drum set. Sol, we love you!

Yesterday, Ander celebrated his 3rd birthday. I had mailed a monster truck to him and his mommy, Kathy, reports that Ander was really excited to get his vehicle. ("Cool truck!")

We took the old Columbia Gorge Highway on our return to Pendleton from Salem. The highway was carpeted with bits of twigs, leaves, little branches, big branches, and some pretty darn big trees! We learned after the fact that the Gorge had a storm the previous night with gusts of 75 mph!

You don't turn 200 years old but once, and Edgar Allen Poe did yesterday. As we could not go to Baltimore MD for the "official" graveside observance, my good friend Terry Templeman and I held our own observance in Pendleton's Olney Cemetery late last night. Terry brought some good cognac with which to toast Poe, and I a long stemmed rose to lay upon some handy grave, thus duplicating the Balitmore ceremony. It was a good time for reflection, and Terry started us off with a reading of Poe's The Conqueror Worm.

And so ends another post by mortal man,
A word, a gesture, like no other can...

Eh, the next Poe I'll not be. John

The January Blues

It's that time of year in Pendleton when either the sky is so gray and cloudy you get a case of the blues, or it is so bright and sunny and the sky is a vivid blue. Today is a case of the later, although my weather alert claims it is now 30-degrees and foggy. Hah! What do computers know anyway?

I have two items of interest to report about. First is the resumption of the Blue Mountain Community College Jazz Band, in which I play tenor and bass trombone. (JXTbone - get it?) Dr. Margaret Mayer is the leader of the group; she is a real hoot! The theme this term is pop rock style music which should attract younger players and hopefully help build the band program. Previous terms were mostly 1940's style big band; which I like to hear and to play, but it doesn't do much for today's younger musicians. Some of the tunes the band is working on are Superstition, Hey Jude, and Stray Cat Strut. I didn't recognize Stray Cat Strut until we were about 16 measures into the piece when I suddenly realized that bass bone had the melodic lead much of the time. Time to let it all hang out! I think this will be a fun term; the younger members of the group are a lot of fun to play with. A lot of musician-type humor in the room.

My second accomplishment since I last wrote is that I finished all six of the wooden monster trucks that I've been working on since last spring. I learned a lot about working with wood in the process and if I do say so myself, they didn't turn out too badly. As soon as they were done, I took them outside for some photos, then started distributing them. The first was given over to UPS to deliver to grandson Ander Stills, who turns 3 years old in just a few days. The second goes to Ander's cousin, my grandson Solomon Willis, on this coming weekend. The third went to the Gilliland kids who live three houses down the street from us, and who have often helped Linda and I with things around the house. They were delighted with their truck! That leaves three to give away; I'm working on who that should be.


This photo shows the start of the project. I had roughed out the bodies, chassis, and the wood blocks in front will become front and rear fenders. The wood mostly came from shipping pallets from a tile store here in town. Imported tile come on pallets made of commonly available cheap wood, be it from Mexico, the Phillipines, Italy, Spain or wherever. But to us, these are exotic hardwoods, so I remove all nails and metal, then run the boards through my surface planer until they are smooth and clean.

The most difficult part of the project, especially on the prototype, was making the wheels and cutting the tread. After consulting with numerous books, magazines, and my brother-in-law Bruce Galloway, I came up with two simple jigs that let me cut the treads, right side and left side, using my table saw. The results were, as we say in band, close enough for jazz. I made some of the wheels out of two 3/4" boards glued together with each side being cut seperately before being joined. Others, like in the photo, were thick enough to start with so I ran the same disk through the saw with the resultant diamond tread pattern seen in this photo. Of course there are also the problems of accuracy, joint matching, centering, and other details I won't bore you with. But do let me point out that no two trucks are identical, and I don't mean just their wood!

So here is the fleet exploring the backyard in the sunshine, thanks to the blue sky I mentioned earlier. Did I mention that these things are heavy? They probably weigh about 3 pounds each. I added extra pins and dowel joints to make them stronger and more resistant to little boys.

What will I build next? I'm thinking of trying my hand at some 25-move puzzle boxes. That should be a lot of fun and teach me a lot about finishing hardwoods.

Happy New Year!

I've been experimenting with blog composition as some of the format limitations bug me. For example, when I upload pictures they never seem to go where I want them to appear. Usually they show up at the top of the blog and refuse to slide down, or cut and paste, to where I want them. Very frustrating. I'm going to try to learn how to use a template in Word or something that is a bit more word processor friendly. Anyway, I'm starting this blog over for about the fourth time.

On the Saturday before Chirstmas, Linda and I helped the Pendleton Lions Club in the annual bell ringing for the Salvation Army in front of the local Wal-Mart. It was C O L D!!! Byt the end of our two hour shift I was shaking so badly that the bell was all but ringing itself! Here you see Lions Jon Spilker, Al Stewart, and Linda. Jon and Al are smiling because they now get to go home and warm up. Linda is smiling besause she is happy to help out. Me, I'm just grinning away behind the camera.


Linda and I had a very nice Christmas, albeit by ourselves as it was too nasty with all the snow and ice, not to mention closed roads, to go anywhere or for Karen, Peter and Sol to come here. Christmas Eve is helped my good friend Jon Spilker prepare and serve the annual Christmas dinner at Blue Mountain Community College. This was the first time I've participated and I hope to go back again next year. It was a traditional holiday dinner: turkey, stuffing, mashers and gravy, green beans, and apple pie. Volunteers served "less fortunate" members of the community at tables set with white linen; or delivered meals to the homes of those who requested them. The snow and ice reduced attendance this year to between 400 and 500 people, but in better weather close to 1000 are served a Christmas dinner.

In early January Pendleton was hit by a storm that packed a couple of really strong gusts of wind. A 3" branch blew out of the maple tree in the front yard, fortunately hitting the eve of the house instead of the window next to where Linda was sitting. But it sure startled her; she let out quite a yelp when it happened! This gust even blew the metal arbor in the front yard down and onto the driveway; fortunately the new Fusion was farther up the driveway at the time and escaped damage from the branches or the arbor. However...



The backyard was a different story! I heard and felt a really deep, heavy thud at the same time Linda was getting all excited about the piddly little branch that had come down beside her. I'm looking at the back yard where the top half of our pine tree had just blown out and landed in the yard. It took us a minute or so to realize that each of us was talking about different events, albeit simultaneous events.

The pine tree was over 50 feet tall, and was something we have long wanted to cut down because of the mess the needles create. But we decided it was too tall to fall as it would hit the power lines that came across the back yard. Somehow, when the top blew out, it missed those power lines. God answers prayers, but not always in expected ways. He didn't limb, section and stack the wood, for example.

This first picture is the bottom half of the tree-->

This is the wayward bottom half of the tree, blowen across the yard after it fell.







Another good friend, Dwight, has a chainsaw and has offered the services of his son to help cup up the downed top, and maybe even fell the still standing base of the tree.




I am building wood "monster trucks" for the grandsons and some other people to enjoy. But since I only have the deck outside for a shop, it has been too cold to do anything toward finishing the six trucks I am working on. Well, grandson #1, Ander, has a birthday in just a few more days. I'm trying very hard to get these trucks done so I can mail him one.