Christmas Ornaments and Snow"flakes"

This One's for Natalie...My Green Thinker

Cradle to grave...farm to fork are expressions used to describe a new wave of activity in the environmental sciences. The technical term is life cycle analysis. For any product or process, all of the inputs and outputs and their environmental impacts are considered in the analysis. This allows for someone to take a comprehensive look at how we impact planet earth. Have you ever thought about the ripple effect one item in one meal has on our environment. I took the opportunity to research what the impacts were for

a 3 oz. serving of beef sirloin steak. Three ounces is the USDA suggested serving size for an adult (so why do restaurants serve 8 or more ounces in a serving?). I have created an Environmental Facts label based on the Nutrition Facts label that is currently required to be on all food. The beef provides 7% of our daily requirement for energy but it takes 24 times as much energy to produce those 146 kcal in the beef...most of it from fossil fuel sources. It took 2,000 gallons of water to produce 3 ounces of meat and meat production does produce greenhouse gases that contribute to the warming of our planet. Production of meat can also acidify and add nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus (eutrophication) to lakes and streams polluting fresh water. These are just a few of the environmental impacts. All modern food production impacts our planet to different degrees. If consumers were given this information, would it change their eating habits? Let's do it and find out!

The Agnes Lamar Conference Room

Several years ago the Bradford Pear that was next to the driveway split in half during a major storm. I eventually cut down the tree and dug out the stump. Earlier this year, one of the ladies at work passed away with more than 45 years on the job. We decided to name a conference room in her honor. Several suggestions were made for plaques to hang in the room. I volunteered to make one. I immediately thought of the root ball that I had dug. I had thrown it in the woods behind the house. I managed to find it all the way at the bottom of the hill. I cut a cross-section through the root ball with the chainsaw, sanded it flat, covered it with several coats of epoxy, and then embedded an engraved sign in the last coat of epoxy. There were numerous voids in the cross-section where the roots had grown around rocks and soil in addition to a highly figured grain pattern. This unique plaque now hangs in the Agnes Lamar Conference Room.

Cubic Perspective

I thought I would post pictures of one of my most recent projects that also used my newly acquired drum sander. The turned polychromatic, segmented platter is 14.75 in. in dia. and 1.575 in. thick. It is constructed of walnut, cherry, and mahogany. The feature ring consists of equilateral parallelograms or rhombuses in different grain orientations to give the illusion of a cube. There are a total of 146 pieces. It is finished with tung oil and carnauba wax. I donated it to a charity auction at work.

Speaking of new additions...

I was at a craft show a few weeks ago and I came across a Japanese man who grew exotic unusual miniature trees. I was captivated by miniature roses at only a quarter of an inch long and miniature azaleas a beautiful fuchsia color. I tried and tried to decide which one I would like to bring home with me. I went back and forth between several different trees but finally I realized that the one I really wanted was the miniature orange tree. It is totally real and the oranges are edible although they taste more like a lemon. It is alive and doing fine thanks to the little plate under the tree that waters itself (kind of).

New Addition

We have a new addition to the family... one that Ray thought would never make it's way into our home, but...it's true...Weighing in at "hundreds" of pounds and 46 inches tall (I measured)... a brand new...DRUM SANDER!!!!! Proud papa and sander are doing fine!

Hot Cross Buns

Our grandson Caleb with his first instruction from the Knighton Piano Studio. He's a natural!

Oregon

Ok, so we are blogging about once a month now and I am hoping that we can get better at it in time. So... about our trip to Oregon!
We had a wonderful time visiting Benjamin, Karen, Caleb and Joshua in Coos Bay. Ray went golfing at Bandon Dunes Resort 3 times (yea), and Kathy got to spend lots of time with the little grand boys. Caleb is growing up so fast, he is smart, cute and he still lets me kiss on him. Joshua is a very active one year old trying to mimic what we say and getting very good at walking.
I taught Caleb to play Hot Cross Buns on the keyboard and of course he was a natural. He could sing the song as he played along and even Josh was singing along. We took them to a beautiful park with a Chinese garden in it and we enjoyed walking around the little pond and over the bridges.
Thank you Benjamin and Karen for having us and sharing your home and your time with us. We had such a great time and can't wait to go again!

Let them eat cake!

I had the chance to do a wedding cake for my BFF Pamela's niece a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed doing this cake and I learned alot of new things about cake decorating. I also enjoy watching a couple of different cake shows on TV and they really give me alot of technical info. I used gum paste on this cake in pink and yellow and it has made me want to take a class in it. Who knows, by the time Jocelyn and Kimberly get married I might be really good at this!!

Golf at Bethpage State Park

The 1st hole.

From the 18th teebox.



I've been talking about playing the Bethpage Black course in Bethpage, NY for years. The Black course was the site of the 2002 U.S. Open and the 2009 U.S. Open will be played there. On August 25 and 26, Mike O'Neill and I went up to Long Island and played the Green course on Monday and the Black course on Tuesday. I probably should have followed the advice on the sign on the first hole. It was extremely challenging but a lot of fun. Great golf...great food... and great company!

More Party Pictures!

Here are pictures of me reading my poem, the rocket ship pinata, and playing pin the tail on Strawberry Shortcakes Dog!

The Big 50!!

Ok, so I turned 50 on Friday and I threw myself a big party with 45 in attendance. We played games, had a pinata, and I read a poem I had written for the occasion after which I did 5 count them 5 cartwheels! Our first game was a whoopee cushion relay race where you had to run down while blowing up the whoopee cushion with a straw then you had to sit on it where in it would make a silly noise. The next game was a memory game where the guests paired up and the loser won the prize (they found that out after the game was over). We also played pin the tail on Strawberry Shortcake's dog with a pair of glasses smeared with Vaseline. The space ship pinata contained bags of prunes, antacids, muscle ache cream, joint therapy pills, "50 sucks" suckers, tapioca pudding cups, and glow bracelets. I am including the poem I wrote and I will post additional pictures as soon as my photographer gets them to me. I think everyone had a good time and I had a blast seeing everyone play those games!!

50
Ok, so it's true, I'm getting old
I'm "over the hill" so I am told.
I need to wear glasses especially to read
And my memory has already gone to seed.
Gravity isn't nice to me anymore
Things keep drooping closer to the floor.
I have little hairs popping up on my face
And brown liver spots all over the place.
I have varicose veins, my circulation is poor
My knees are achy, my joints are sore.
I am losing my hearing, I can't eat late at night
Sleep now avoids me, mood swings I fight.
No more jumping on trampolines for me
No sneezing, laughing, coughing or I'll ____
But...
I do enjoy the little things like...
Talking to grand kids on the computer some days
Loving music in all different ways.
Friday date night with my special man
An occasional matinee movie when I can.
The best part about all of this is you see..
Ray is 3 years 9 months older than me!!!

Birthday wishes for Nana

Nana turns fifty today! The grandkids wanted to send some greetings on this special event.

MY FIRST BLOG!

Ok, this is my first post so be kind! I wanted to send along a couple of pictures of the living room with the new curtains and rug. I will do the kitchen and family room when I feel they are ready to be photographed. I am not much at decorating but I love the dab of blue that carries over into the other rooms.
My piano is now 104 years old, how the time flies! I absolutely love it and it sounds wonderful now that I have the new strings and they are all tuned.
It will be interesting to see how this turns out...maybe I didn't even get the pictures uploaded...we'll see!!

Knee High by the Fourth of July

Some of us remember the old saying of "knee high by the fourth of July". My corn is doing well and came in at an even 8 feet on July 1. It is just beginning to tassel so it will probably easily reach 10 ft in another two weeks. The summer squash in the foreground has been serving up one of our family favorites that we look forward to every year.

A New Grandson

Welcome to our family Jacob Christopher Snedaker. Jacob was born on Friday, June 6, 2008 and weighed 8lb-6oz and was 21 inches long. Defininetly a keeper! Pictures of Jacob and his family can be found at http://nataliesnedaker.blogspot.com/. What a cutie.

Finding Boxelder Burl in Utah

Papa Ray was recently in Utah for business to attend a meeting of the USDA Agricultural Air Quality Taskforce. While there he visited Grandma Knighton in Logan several times. She recently underwent back surgery and is recovering slowly. He also played golf several times with his brother Gary. Papa also got to be a part of Ella's birthday celebration.

Papa Ray loves to do woodworking and found a source of Boxelder Burl in Logan. The Burl is becoming increasingly rare. It was fun getting this 18 lb piece home in his luggage. He has another 65 lb piece stored at Hilary's house.Let him know what kind of project you think this burl could become.

The annual garden is also coming along. Everything is planted and we have been eating asparagus, spinach and lettuce for awhile. Today we had our first picking of strawberries--about a half gallon. We immediately made some into "strawberries Romanoff" and we had "Yuccy salad" with fresh strawberries for dinner.

Nana and Papa are blogging now!

Papa Ray and Nana have decided to join in on the blogging fun. We have enjoyed keeping up with our children and grandchildren through their blogs. We have 5 children and 4 (almost 5) grandchildren and recently celebrated 31 years of marriage. On his 22nd birthday, Halloween, Papa Ray proposed to Nana. The ring was in the "punkin".