Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill

Last week, during spring break, we visited Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill.  It was my third (I think) time there, although I had not been there in more than ten years.  It's a beautiful locale, and I find the history of the place fascinating.  The people who work there are top-notch, and the displays are fun to look at.  While there we watched a sheep-shearing demo, saw lots of baby animals, enjoyed a presentation of Shaker worship and music, and toured the numerous old buildings (some more than 200 years old.) Lots of fun.

gardening

Yesterday I put in some work on the garden. I had done a little work already, planting some carrot and spinach seeds, but this weekend was the first time I was able to devote a real chunk of time (probably 5 hours) to it.  I moved around some perennials, weeded, turned over some soil, raked out some old stuff, and spent a significant amount of time staring at the garden trying to figure out what I needed to do.  There is a lot still to work on, however; it really feels like I hardly got started.

Ohio River at Flood Stage: 29.9 Feet, During and After photos.

Here are some photos from the week before last, alongside photos from a couple of days ago.  The water was right around 29.9 feet on the upper gauge at Louisville.  The river is actually back behind the houses you can see in the distance in these photos.  The school campus is right near where Little Goose Creek hits the Ohio, so I guess most of the water here is actually flowing from Little Goose Creek.

We spent some time this past Saturday cleaning the greenhouse, which was a mess.

In some part of the fields, areas where I often walk and kids play, the water was 5 feet or more deep.

The school's athletic field. The greenhouse had thigh-deep water, and parts of the field where the cross country team usually runs were shoulder-deep.

The bottom half of the lower parking lot/drive was flooded.  The field beyond, used for some overflow parking for school events, was 5-6 feet under water in spots.

When I think about this being all up and down the river, it really seems like an awful lot of water!

Some pictures from the summer of 1987

Ball State Pre College Visual Arts Program, 1987

Ball State Pre College Visual Arts Program, 1987

I am still in touch with a couple of people from this 2-week program, but I only have frequent contact with one of them (via Facebook.)  There are a quite a few more I'd like to run into again.

Cooking

I like it when I wing something for dinner and it comes out delicious. Tonight I wanted something to go alongside or atop some cheese tortellini. I had frozen fajita chicken strip (unseasoned) and 3/4 of a white onion and so thought maybe I could use those. I ended up simmering and sautéing them with minced garlic, chopped kale, and yellow squash. Added a little balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. It was good.  I am not keen on, nor good with, elaborate recipes, but at least I occasionally have a knack for figuring out what order in which to throw stuff in the skillet and for how long. I rarely cook with kale, and was nervous it would not work out, but the kale was the best part. It really soaked up the onion and garlic flavor.

Ohio River flooding in Louisville

Two days ago (Sunday) we drove down to check out the flooding.  This first photo is the view from the top of the steps of Virginia Chance School on Lime Kiln Lane.  A fellow was getting a small boat ready.  He cruised around the fields for a while.

This is a broad panaromic shot of the road and school field.  The school greenhouse is knee-deep (I estimate, anyway) in water.  Speaking of knee-deep, I could hear a lot of frogs. Upland chorus frogs, I think, but I don't know for sure.

Some people were driving or wading through the water to get to their homes on River Road.  Kim (who is at left in this picture) and I shut the school parking lot gates so people would not be inclined to park there--the top of the lot was still dry, but only a foot above the water, and although it was not forecast to rise much more we thought closing it off would be a wise move.

Flooding on Lime Kiln Lane.

Pity the poor tiny people who live in this tiny house!  Actually, it's used as a tool shed.

I spotted this fishing spider crossing the road from 30 feet away. He was big!

Miniatures

Last weekend I had some grand plans to work on a pen and ink cityscape of the Louisville skyline, and also to spend time gaming with some friends.  I also was going to work some more on a portrait someone asked me to do. The rest of my family was going to be gone, so I figured I’d have plenty of time.  Unfortunately, one of my daughters was sick over the weekend, so I stayed near her and tried to keep her happy and comfortable.  I did not want to work in another room—not because she was very ill, but because she was so annoyed and uncomfortable so much of the time, feeling tired and knowing that the weather was gorgeous and her sister was out having fun, and I didn’t want her to feel ignored.  So I stayed mostly in the room with her, and we watched a lot of her favorite shows.  But I did manage to get some pen and ink done while sitting on the couch (the city scape, which is proceeding well).

I also did something I used to do all the time, but which I’ve done very little of over the past 20 years:  painting miniatures.  I sat on the couch and painted a couple of figures.  The first is a Shadowrun troll street samurai (which I intend to use for my character in a current game, even though he looks nothing like my character, except for his size and homeliness).  The second is a halfling from a recent Reaper Minis Bones Kickstarter release that I went in on with some friends for an assortment of figures.

I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, considering that most of my paint is either between 10 and 20 years old, cheap craft store paint, or both.  In fact, I now wish I had spent just a little more time with my X-acto knife and metal files cleaning up the flash lines and cuds before I started painting.

Reaper Minis Bones Halfling

Shadowrun troll street samurai (front)

(back)

High Concept

I sent this to my pal Gary:

"I’m working on an idea for a TV series with which I want to approach Showtime.  This will be in the vein of that Resurrection show, and also HBO’s “Leftovers,” with hints of ABC’s “FlashForward” and “Lost.”  The overall plot framework:  A secret army research facility in Lexington, KY suffers a mysterious alert and goes on “lockdown.”  Suddenly, everyone in a 40 mile radius suffers from continuous, uninterrupted flatulence: everyone sounds a little different, but it’s non-stop, like droning whistles and clapping.  When more than 5 people are in the same room it’s hard to hear conversations.  An investigative reporter who was checking out the secret facility when this occurred will try to expose the cause, but government agents will try to shut him down.  The lead government agent was actually out of town during “The Occurrence,” and he comes back to Lexington to kill the reporter. However, he is also conflicted, because his wife and teenaged daughters are now passing gas continuously, and he wants to help them, and part of him also wants to help the reporter.  It turns out even house pets are affected, but animals that can’t pass gas, like hamsters, just detonate.  I’m planning on a J. J. Abrams-like ending in which the cause is revealed to be time-traveling ghosts with forbidden lusts, or you know, whatever.  I might need a little help with the script for the pilot. You in?"

Snowy back yard

My Brackets! Hooray for Mad Marchness.

Mice & Mystics on a snow day

During our snow day off, we made it through a chapter of Mice & Mystics. It had been so long since we had played, we forgot where we had left off. After we started playing, we realized that we had already played through this chapter.  At any rate, we made it through again, this time more successfully than ever before.  The girls had fun and want to play again soon.

Mouse heroes vs. elite rat archers

Sparkling tree

I took this yesterday, home for a snow day.

Snowy drive in to work

I took this photo on my drive into work this morning. We had a delayed opening.  It was snowing a little before I left.  Right when I departed my house, it started coming down hard.  The roads were all bad, visibility varied between 50 yards and a quarter mile, and traffic was slow.  Finally, at the turning lane at Westport and Hurstbourne, things came to a standstill for 15 minutes while a couple was pulled out of a snowbank.  While I waited, the snow stopped and the sky brightened.  The last bit of the drive wasn’t as bad, mostly slush, and I got the sense that at least the main roads would be clear if the snow held off a while.

Under the bird feeder

Sick

This is a picture from last Friday. She came home, threw up twice, then fell asleep on my lap. She was better after a few days; it seemed very flu-like. Somehow the rest of us have stayed feeling pretty good, which I never would have bet money on.

Siege engines

Black walnut ink house portrait

I finished this one yesterday. It's 11 x 15 inches.

Art of the Loom at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft

Ms. Liz, whom I had previously met while carving pumpkins down at Iroquois Park for the Great Pumpkin Spectacular, gave some weaving instructions and then acted as our guide through the gallery

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive on a field trip to the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.  The 2nd and 3rd graders were there to see a weaving exhibit: "The New Art of the Loom."

I expected to enjoy the show, but I more than enjoyed it: I was very impressed.  The first floor was regional weaving artists, and the second floor showed international works of the loom, and all of them were beautiful.  Some were intriguing and abstract, some were strikingly representational; some were brilliant and shimmering, some were hauntingly toned-down.  All of them were fun to look at.

Unfortunately, the show ends this Saturday, but we are going to try to get down there as a family before it closes for a final visit.

First birthday

ballpoint

Peanut brittle for squirrels

At some friends’ white elephant gift exchange the day after Christmas I ended up with a giant block of Texas-shaped peanuts and corn syrup.  I was warned against trying to eat it, and got the wrong idea that is was old (it turns out it was given fairly recently as a gift to the person I got it from, and the person who originally gave it hinted that he was a little hurt by where this block of candy eventually ended up, but anyway…)

So, not having an inclination to eat it myself, I thought maybe the squirrels would enjoy it on cold January days.  To that end, I strung it up with jute on the maple tree out front.

It was there for a week before there were any signs of someone nibbling it.  The eastern edge was gnawed on.  The next day, when I got home from work, it was on the ground, with significant bites in the panhandle region.

I tied it back up, and the next evening I found it again on the ground.

The next morning, it was gone, so I guess it became a winter snack for a possum.

Driving through downtown Louisville, evening

X-wing miniatures painting

Just before Christmas I won a random prize drawing in a contest on the Board Game Geek forums.  The guy who ran the contest, Phil Lewis, sent me a large Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures ship, the new YT-2400.  A very generous giveaway that I was thrilled to win!

Phil's screen name there is Red Herring, so in his honor I added a fish to the ship and rechristened it The Red Herring.  I also added the bright red stripe.

Arm bruise

Going with the theory that Everything is Bloggable, here is a photo of a very pretty bruise on my upper arm.  I got it when I tripped playing soccer in our backyard, and fell into a cinder block. It looks like tie dye!

It did not look as bad at first, but has looked worse (but felt better) each day. I think it is now starting to fade a bit.

Memoir '44: Moyland Wood Overlord

Canadians vs. Germans in the German countryside

I was happy to have a little time to spare for playing some games during the Holidays, including a large game of Memoir '44 Overlord (Moyland Wood scenario).  It looks so nice and BIG.

Christmas wrap-up, part 4: Saturday with the family

Christmas wrap-up part 3

We all have been enjoying the new soccer goals:

At a white elephant gift exchange, my friend Cindy got a Mt. Rushmore bottle provided by Chris. Chris then demonstrated how tasty was the berry wine he had put inside it:

 ...But shortly after that, Mt. Rushmore was stolen away by our friend Jim.

White elephant gift exchange

Christmas wrap-up part 2

Len shows off his smart red shoes:

 ...and the girls show off their cool new bikes:

Christmas wrap-up

At 2:30 a.m. on Christmas I told my wife to strike a pose that demonstrated how she felt, wrapping gifts until the wee hours:

Here are the girls shortly after they awakened, reading a response to the note left for Santa:

After company arrived, everyone eating and swapping presents:

6 x 9 inch house portrait, finished yesterday

House portrait in pen and ink

Here's another I finished yesterday.  It's the last one that had a pressing due date of Christmas; now I have one to work one that is an immediate priority because it was paid for long ago, plus a couple of commissions due after the holidays.

Another pen and ink house portrait

I finished this a couple of days ago. It's 11 x 15 inches.  I did not have a chance to get a good scan of it, so this is just a mobile phone photo, so the quality isn't the best--but the details are sharp, which is good, so don't think I'm complaining about my smart phone's camera.

I found this drawing to be challenging in that the values of the grass, bricks, and roof were all very similar, so distinguishing them was difficult.

Baking

 This dates from 11/26.

My daughters were inspired to do some baking—on their own. Early on Thanksgiving week I helped the younger girl make cream puffs for a school party, and the next day she really wanted to bake some cookies all on her own.  The only things adults did were to get the heavy mixer down for her, and help her get the hot tray out of the oven (and also remind her to clean up after herself).  The cookies did not come out in the shape they were supposed to, but they tasted great.

Immediately after that her older sister wanted to bake some brownies.  She did that all on her own, too, except for occasional requests for advice.  The brownies came out oddly low in quantity, as if there was not enough to cover the pan, even though after review neither my daughter nor I could figure out where there may have been an error.  It seems to me that the recipe was simply wrong.  At any rate, I helped her keep an eye on the brownies in the over, and they actually came out great.  Thin and cookie-like (prompting her to label them “crownies”), but delicious.

I am proud of my bakers!

Cake quality

Likelihood that a homemade cake will be good, even if a mistake is made in the recipe, or it’s burnt: 98%.  Likelihood that a cake that comes in shrinkwrap will be any good: 6%