Scattered Thoughts . . .

I've had a few hours of productivity spread out over the past few days  (this stuff does take its toll on my spine so I only do things like this in short spurts)  and it reminded me of how much I truly enjoy accomplishing artistic and creative things like this project. It has been fun! I really should do this more often.  It is time for lunch... past time, actually... so that is all I will accomplish on this project until tonight perhaps. Next up is some lunch, a shower and a long nap! When I head back to this project tonight or over the weekend, it will be time to add some smaller details and some additional vegetation. It's looking good at this point though and I'm enjoying building it!  It makes me wonder why I don't do stuff like this more often... Oh yeah... we don't have the room just yet!  It really has been an outstanding day!

I often write about and harp upon the need for understanding when it comes to people struggling with chronic illness and/or life threatening illnesses. Tonight it is time for me to harp on this yet again because Sheila is hurt and I am subsequently angry and rapidly losing my patience with far too many people who don't seem to "understand". As a result of this lack of understanding, I am truly at my wits' end and we are exceptionally close to again shrinking our circle of family and friends if this very tiring behavior does not change. I, myself, have a long list of health issues and struggle with significant disabilities every day. The major difference today, however, is that I am referring to and coming to the defense of Sheila since she is very upset right now and has been very upset at the last two family events because of this rather callous behavior. It has gotten to the point where Sheila actually dreads attending any family events because so many people na

I just finished carving the entire model railroad for Lukey's Christmas present. I suspect I'll find a few little things to cut off or shape here and there but, for the most part, I am finished carving this little model railroad. Next is to add some thinned plaster to a few select areas... then paint...  then some roads... then some grass and bushes... then some touch up here and there... This little train set is coming along very nicely!

I truly wish that I could say I am "carving a new world" in the real world but I am really referring to Lukey's Christmas present... a model railroad. I have begun the next phase of creating this little railroad world... I am transforming a flat terrain into a three dimensional world by carving the flat, blocky foam into rolling terrain, rocks, hills and ditches.  This is an exciting time because I begin to see the world I have locked inside my head as I carve, scrape and shape this new world. It is also incredibly messy with chunks of foam flying (not quite like Edward Scissorhands but messy enough) and clinging to everything. Then, when you move and cause a disturbance of air, these foam chunks blow around the room. What a mess! (Bending over on the floor isn't helping my spinal injuries either!)   Anyway, I just wanted to add some more photos showing this process... I hope to have this entire little railroad world carved before bedtime. Now I need to go sh

Last year, our trek to cut Christmas trees involved ice covered dirt roads, deep snow and downed power lines. This year, our trek to cut Christmas trees involved grass covered hills and wet, muddy, rutty roads where the car bottomed out and was thrown violently from rut to rut all over the road. It was quite a contrast between the years. The sap is running in the trees... flowers are blooming in our gardens... so the trees are unaware that they are supposed to be dormant this time of year. If the trees are not dormant when cut, this is not good for the Christmas season. These trees will die very quickly after being cut so the big question this year is whether or not we will have a "tree" on Christmas morning or a dried out twig. (I'm betting on a dried out twig.) (Have I mentioned lately how much I despise spring-like weather for Christmas?) We all had a good time though and it was easy to stay warm!  As we do every year, immediately following our tree cutting, we he

Before I went any further on building Lukey's railroad Christmas present, I needed to add a couple of power feeds from the track to a jack panel to connect a transformer to this basic layout. I started drilling... then cutting with a kitchen knife... this was a relatively easy task... This may look like a culvert but it is really where my power panel will be located... I will be able to plug-in the appropriate transformer here using banana jacks.   Once I had the power feeds in place, I was able to glue down the track. This track that I'm using is an HO sectional track by Atlas called True Track. It comes with a plastic roadbed already in place. This saved me some work but the trade off is that is doesn't look as realistic. That being said, for this project, this track is just fine. After setting the track/roadbed down in the wet glue, I placed a newly bought 30 pack of beer on the track (believe it or not, I bought this 30 pack with this project in mind) ... this