Cabinessence

Since my last post, the weather continues to unrelent with snow. Mona's been kind enough to provide some shovelling relief.

Dave got up on the shed a few days later to relieve the snow load.

Temps rose above freezing the following week and the front walk is swimming in scummy snow melt (the property slopes toward the house). Here he is again trying to unplug ice from a drain with a plumber's snake. Damn you gravity.

Who said 'country living' was invigorating and romantic?

I did manage to pick a name for the house after being here for 7 years. A big thank you to Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys for that.

Food Freaks

I noticed Mona's wee little organic squashes in the kitchen one early afternoon and took a pic of them. Yeah, it was that dark. Until this week I hadn't seen the sun in almost a month.

On another note, I sent Dave to the store for garlic and he brough home a bulb with these honkin' 3" long cloves in it. Jesus.

I'd Rather Pull a Groin Muscle Instead

Despite shooting a 1" brad nail into my left hand last week I managed to start and finish a 15" x 24" two tier shelf with scrap wood. You heard me correct, and I was damn lucky it missed bone and didn't pierce through the other side of the finger it went into. It took two seconds to weigh the options; wait for Dave to come home with the car so I can drive myself to the clinic, or pull it out and put a duct tape tourniquet on it. I did the latter, so all typing activities were suspended till the pain subsided.

Meanwhile, my eBay stuff kept coming in the mail and I still have the right hand to open parcels, heh. A nice toy register in cherry red and pendant piece to the black one I got earler (see first photo).

This is a pretty intersting hybrid of a toy weigh scale and cash register all-in-one. I'm guessing that 60 years ago, this was either the motherlode of all grocery-related toys or the worst gift a kid could possibly get for xmas.

...aaaaand the box it came in.

Dave doesn't do eBay near as much as me so when he finally gets something for himself... eh, it's a bit startling in comparison. This is a military issue 'something-or-other' combat dagger from WW2 with a leather handle and anti-reflective matte coating on the blade. That's the difference between boys and girls, folks.

Make It Stop

This winter season is averaging a snowstorm every 2-3 days in Whistler and it's getting so that there is hardly any room to shovel the snow to. I'd love to stop shovelling, even if it was just for a week. By the way, that is the snowload on the eave of my house.

A trail to the shed is more than six feet high.

It's too risky to let that much snow accumulate on top of vehicles. Dave here is knocking it off of Nibbles.

Municipal crews are pushing snow away from the road to make space for neighbourhood traffic. Those piles in front of my house are 9 feet high.

Curio Central

When not making bears, I'm collecting them... and a few other things that catch my eye. Most of these are a few months old and I've chosen to post them now while I don't need to go back outside at the moment and shovel snow. This wooden Russian toy is of a piano playing bear accompanied by a singing fox.

Poetry beads from Powell's in Portland Oregon.

Whistler bear Jeanie with two 'cubs of the year' taken by a local photographer (unfortunately not Dave).

One of my earliest wood projects, a cedar towel rack.

1979 Dakin issue 'Smokey the Bear' bought on eBay...

...and Smokey's pants after a good cleaning. They were filthy.

A ceramic bird whistle found in the 'as-is' section at Ikea. I got tired of it falling over and made a base a'la Louise Nevelson. Looks much better.

Rubber bears by German Toy manufacturer Schleich.

Japanese Ainu bear in a common pose with a fish in its mouth.

Red Mill bear made of a composite of pecan shells and synthetic resin.

Lastly and unrelated to anything on this blog, Tony the Tiger at a early morning industry conference in Vancouver last year (snapped by Dave) . You've got to be quite a morning person to hop around in a hot, sweaty costume at 7am.

Wooden Guns, Not Real Ones

In other news, my hand-made xmas gift of a wooden replica tommy gun was a hit with Dave. He's already put in a request for a rocket propelled grenade launcher for next year.

2007 - Year of the Bear

...for 'Chief-Ten-Bears' that is. My roommate Mona sponsored a black bear in my name through The Land Conservancy as an xmas gift. His/her name for research purposes is #07-1022 and a general bear pic was included with the documents. I drew a nicer version and photoshopped it on top.