A Christmas-y Weekend

We had a busy weekend of Christmas type things.  

Cutting out snowflakes:

One of the highlights was Tuba Christmas at the Loeb Playhouse.  

It was announced there were 108 horns there.  Wow!

Then over to the Union to visit the giant gingerbread house:

And the gingerbread Santy Claus:

 And the monster Christmas tree:

Sunday afternoon we made gingerbread houses (out of graham crackers), and decorated with all of last year's old and uneaten candy.  That kept everybody busy for a good many hours.  

A good start to a great season.

Kindergarten Thanksgiving

This was our last Thanksgiving Party for Kindergarten.  I can't believe Kiddo #3 is growing so quickly.  Here's a few fun pictures from his Feast.

It's a little hard to read here, but his turkey says, "I am thankful for my sister".

And his teacher.

It was a good day for all of us.

We Have a Winner!!!

Kiddo #2 is the Grand Champion Winner of the Raingutter Regatta!!

He out-puffed all of his friends and won a huge trophy!!

Here he is in action, showing his good form!

He was super excited, and we're all very proud of him.

Lotsa Teeth Falling Out

Kiddo #3 is shedding teeth faster than our trees are dropping leaves. 

He's currently missing 3 all at the same time.  

Lathe Cleanup - Complete!

I spent the last month cleaning up this old lathe.  It was all surface goo, and easily dissolved in engine degreaser and some elbow grease.  

 While I was at it, I took apart most of the moving parts, de-gunked them, and reassembled for a better fit.  I did this for the saddle, the front apron, the compound slide, and the tail stock.  All parts now work real smooth as they should.

I chucked up a small part in the 3 jaw chuck, and ran my indicator over it.

 It shows I'm only 0.002 out from high to low.  I consider that 0.001 off the radius, so I think that's pretty good.

I cleaned up all these moving parts and was pleased to find another "Craftsman" emblem underneath all the crud.

Here's an end-view for a different perspective.

Now I just have to figure out my first project!

Also next up - move the lathe to its final location.

Big Changes in September

Change #1:  Look who turned 12 years old!!!

Change #2:  Look who lost a tooth at school!!! 

 Change #3:  Look at that beautiful paint under 60 years of grease!!!

Another Old Tool Followed Me Home

Today, an old and dusty lathe followed me home.  I bought this old dude from a friend, and I think we both had a fair deal.  This is an old Craftsman lathe (model 101.07403).  I'm guessing it's a mid-1950s model, but I'll be able to find that out the deeper I dig into the guts of the machine.  

  I learned that Atlas made the lathe, 

and Craftsman put their name on it.  

All the shields seem to be in place.

Inside those shields is an array of belts, pulleys, and a crazy amount of gears.

A wee little 1/3HP motor

It came with a 3 jaw chuck (installed here), and also a 4 jaw chuck.

And a whole bunch of other stuff.  

It all came from a climate controlled lab at the nearby university, so everything is in pretty fair condition.  I thought I might have to restore it, but I might simply start with cleaning everything up and see what it can do.  

The Boundary Waters - Our Route for 6 days

For documentation purposes, I thought I should plot our route:


Day 1:  We started at the landing of Sawbill, and traveled north.  We shopped for camp sites as we went along, and found nothing.  We finally ended at camp #917.  We paddled approximately 6 miles.

Day 2:  We left our campsite and swung around the south end of the peninsula, and back up north to our first portage.  This day was 3 portages.  (We skipped 1 by going through the creek of beaver dams).  Cherokee Creek was super nice, and we ended for the day at camp #900.  Rain mid-afternoon and early evening helped cool us down.

Day 3:  We changed camp sites today from #900 on the west to #899 on the east.  This is the super duper awesome rock outcropping camp site.  Later in the day, I took Kiddo #1 on a scenic canoe ride around with the intent to see Sniff Lake.  We went only about 2 miles.

Day 4:  Another layover day.  We did take a little canoe ride over to the portage from Cherokee Lake to Sitka Lake to see the difficulties of hiking over the Laurentian Divide.  It was a fun canoe/hike combo for the day.  This day was only about 2.6 miles of canoeing, and 1 mile of hiking.

Day 5:  We start going back the way we came.  We travel back to Cherokee Creek, and portage and paddle through 4 portages today.  We stop at the first camp site #915.  Today was about 4.2 miles of paddling, and 4.6 miles of portaging (double portaging that is).

Day 6:  The last day, we paddle from our northern campsite on Sawbill all the way south to the landing.  This is only about 4 miles.

The Boundary Waters - Part 5

We pulled out of the Sawbill Lake area around 2pm or so.  Actually, I'm not too sure, but it was mid-afternoon.  We traveled southwest along the Superior Lakeshore, and went to the Split Rock Lighthouse.  

It was real interesting to learn its history on the 15 minute walking tour.  We were able to go up and see the big big Fresnel lens.  

I was impressed.

We took a hike down a trail to get to a long set of steps that takes us down to the cold lake.  Here, the kiddos demonstrate their fake muscles with a low hanging tree.

A bunch of steps to get down to the Lake Superior!

Big boulders and a stiff breeze here.

We were all famished.  I think I was about ready to faint.  We found a great place called Betty's Pies near Two Harbors, MN.  I had the fish sandwich, and the bumbleberry pie - a mix of fruits.  Just what the doctor ordered.

The next day, we traveled to near Appleton Wisconsin (with a side excursion in Eau Claire to pick up a forgotten security blanket for Kiddo #3 at the hotel from a week ago).  We stayed with my ol' college buddy, and his great family.  They showed us a wonderful time, with awesome meals, and it was just perfect.  We left their home on Thursday morning, traveled through some crazy thunderstorms in Milwaukee, toured the Jelly Belly joint near Racine, and home finally around 9pm.  It was a great trip.