Stories of family, creativity, and diverse distractions.

Month: May 2021 Page 1 of 2

Peonies In a Jar: The Somber Celebration of Decoration Day

Today is Memorial Day, though the old folks called it Decoration Day. Memorial Day is a big deal now. It’s a three day weekend for many people, and it memorializes fallen soldiers. To hear Madison Avenue tell it, everyone goes to a parade that features a military flyover. After the parade everyone has a cookout with their family. I can’t say how many people really celebrate Memorial Day that way. But I can say for sure that when I was a kid Decoration Day wasn’t like that at all.

It runs in the family……

I was looking through some pictures the other day and I noticed how many of them showed people fishing. It was a popular way to pass the time for Carl and Georgie and other members of their family.

Let’s make a pot support for an alcohol stove

In this post and this post I detailed making an alcohol burning backpacking stove from a couple empty drink cans. In the last post we added a snuffer. Today, it’s a pot support. Let’s get to work!

Another challenge quilt: altering block shapes

For the quilt show that was taking place during the 25th anniversary of my local quilt group, we were given some white fabric with a silvery sheen and told that the block had to be divisible into 25 squares.  There was also a maximum size limit for the quilt. 

Carl’s favorite photography subject – his sweetheart

Carl took a lot of photographs. And he clearly had one favorite subject for his pictures. It’s easy to see why….

Let’s Make a Snuffer for Our Alcohol Stove!

In this post and this post I detailed making an alcohol burning backpacking stove from a couple empty drink cans. But in order to cook with it we’ll need a few accessories. Today we’re going to make the snuffer, which we can use to put the stove out when we’re done cooking. Let’s get to work!

That boy is as flaky as Michelle’s pie crust

It took me a lot of practice to get a really good pie crust. It is easy to mix too much and get a tough crust. I found that it is really important to use a large bowl for best results. At first, I mixed in a smaller bowl and my crusts were tougher and not very flaky. When I moved to a larger, wide bottomed bowl I got much better results.

Orville Ray Hoel: Railwayman, Father, Prankster

Orville Ray Hoel was born May 12, 1906. He was the son of William Henry and Martha Ann Fisher Hoel. Orville was the seventh of nine children. He was Carl’s older brother.

Left to right: Clarence Lorree, Orville Ray, William Henry, Carl Ray and William Ezra Hoel

Let’s Make an Alcohol Stove – Part 2

In last week’s post, we started to make an alcohol stove, and got as far as finishing the bowl and burner ring. Today we’re going to make the inner wall, put everything together and seal it up.

What good is a crop you can’t eat or sell?

I love the outdoors. I enjoy fishing, hiking, camping, gardening, hanging out enjoying a book in the shade with a cold drink….but I don’t like to mow the grass.  We have over ¾ of an acre, and I spend two to three hours a week or more mowing and trimming, about 8 months a year.

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