One more

Ok, I know your all getting tired of seeing what I make, but I can't help myself. I finished this woodburning this morning. The picture was in one of my woodburning books. I transfered it to the wood and then wood burnt the picture in the wood. That was a lot of burning. Louise started beading today. When she completes something I will post it. Till next time Duane and Louise

THE LIGHT HOUSE

Carving week is over.... This light house is carved out of cottonwood bark and is my last carving for the week. Next week I will be carving with the other husbands of the beaders while Louise takes classes. A couple of days I hope to get out in the desert to do a little rock hounding.
Next it's Louise's week to attend beading classes here in Congress. She hopes to learn a lot of different beading stitches to start making jewelery. As she completes her project I will post them. I am sure that she will have some neat things to show.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Day 3 & 4...Cottonwood bark

Here is the pics of the cottonwood bark carving I made over the last 2 days. I still have a little work to do cleaning the cuts up, painting the little gnome on the balcony and putting the finish on it. This was a lot of fun. I will difinitly do more with this type of wood. Tomorrow I think I will move over to the woodburning table to learn about shading with a burner.

Till next time

Duane

Carving classes

My first project

This is the first project for the week. I had never done what is called "chip carving". I spent the first day and half learning the technique required to create the patterns to embellish signs, box lids and plates. You have to be very precise in your cuts so you don't break out all the ridges that make it look good. It is not near as easy as it looks when you see a pro do it...lol I don't know if I have patience for this, we'll see. Today I started Cotton bark carving, pictures to follow.

A room full of wood carvers

Louise has been busy trying to finish a quilt that she will leave in CA. for Matt as a Christmas present. She has the rest of this week to get it done. Next week she take part in "Bead Week" here at the park. She will be learning many beading techniques.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

I have been busy

Just finished the little church and the cross. Both are 3" tall. I start taking carving classes on Sunday here at the rv park in Congress, AZ. I am going to try my hand at chip carving and cottonwood bark carving. I have not done anything with either type of carving before. I hope to have something worth showing when I'm done at the end of the week.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

My latest carving

We have moved on to Congress, Arizona. The carving classes start on Sunday. Last night we stayed in Benson, AZ. We found out that David and Diane Jones, who are members of the class of 06, were staying there. We had really nice time visiting with them and going out for pizza. We have met up with them 3 or 4 times in the last 5 years. We have met a lot of good people on the road.
Pictured below is a cane that I carved at the request of son Matt. It is going to be sent to a friend of his that was involved in a 4 wheeler accident. He lives in LA. so I thought an alligator for a handle would be fitting. He is a nurse, hence the medical symbol and on back is the emblem of the New Orleans Saints. I added his initials to it. I hope he likes it.
We will be here 2 weeks before moving on to CA.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

The Rockhound Roundup

We have had a busy week so far. On Wednesday we went to Rockhound state park to visit with Jeff and Sheryl Bright. They sent us a comment on the blog that they had been following us for a while on the blog and were in the area. On Tuesday they stopped by our rv to say hello and visit for while. After relating past rv experiences, they invited us to their rig to play a few games of Mexican Train and a lot chatting and laughing. We found that they were friends with our rv friends Paul and Marsha Weaver and they follow the blog of Froggi Donna and Stu, another rv couple that we are friends with.....small world out here on the road. We have met a lot of great people since we hit the road and hope to meet a lot more before we we have to give up this lifestyle. We send a big thank you to the Brights for a really great evening. We are looking forward to meeting up with them again down the road.

Jeff and Sheryl Bright

On Thursday it was off to the Roundhound Roundup. The Roundup is a yearly event held here in Deming by the Deming Gem and Mineral Club. They have over 120 vendors selling all things rock related. Lots and lots of rocks. They have field trips to local mines. The first trip was to the Baker geode mine. We acted as tail gunners for that trip. A tail gunner is last vehicle in the line of cars going to mine. Our job was to make sure that everybody got there and no one got lost. We all made it. The Baker mine is famous for their geodes. Geodes are round rocks that have agates or crystals in them. We have found that about half of the geodes we find have really nice usable centers, the rest are throwaways. When they are good, they are really good.

Tailing piles at the dig

big kids playing in the dirt

On Friday we were tail gunners again for the trip to the Big Diggins. This mine is owned by the Deming club. It is famous for it's agates. I found some really nice red agates today. We left the Diggins and headed to the fairgrounds to walk around and check out all the vendors that are there. As I said before, lots of rocks. I took Louise back to the rv, then returned to the show to help out with the silent auction. We set up 20 tables and put 20 items on every table. Every item had a sign up sheet for bidding. After about 10 minutes time to let the bidders do their thing, the bids closed and the winners picked up the item. They did 2 tables at a time. I only bid on one thing and won it.

Serious diggers

The Big Diggins

Tomorrow starts the process of getting ready to move out of here. The rv tends to throw up when we set for a while. The work shop has to have all the tools put back in their place for traveling. Tires checked, oil to be checked, all the other things that have to happen before we hit the the road after 3 months of sitting in one place. I will get the shop all ready to go and take care of several other things, then go back to the Round Up to help out for a while. Louise and I work Sunday, Louise works Monday, we leave on Tuesday. Monday while Louise works, I will finish getting things ready so we can leave early. Congress, where we are heading, is about 400 miles away. We will drive about 200 to 250 the first day, the rest on day 2. We are stopping in Surprise, AZ to have the roof on the rv looked at. The wood carving show starts on Saturday.
Till next time

Duane and Louise

City of Rocks State Park

View from the overlook

We spent Friday on a little field trip to the City of Rocks State Park. This an area of volcanic activity 1000s of year ago. When the volcano erupted it sent tons of super heated ash in to the air. When it made contact with the earth it fused together into masses of rock. The weather has eroded the ash rock into all the sculpted rocks you see here. As we walked around the pillars and boulders, we seemed to be walking along streets and alleyways of a small city. The rocks had small eroded places that resembled windows and doors to complete the illusion. The thing that struck me about this is that you can drive around the entire area in about 15 minutes. All the area around it is flat grass lands, real odd. We went on a little hike to take pictures of the rock formations and got separated. Louise got lost and went the wrong way. I was back at the truck hollering for her, but with the wind and all the rocks to deflect my yelling, she never heard me. She ended up at the visitors center. She had left her phone in the truck so she had to use the phone at the center to call me and tell me where she was. Luckily the area was small enough that she did not stay lost long.
We are nearing the end of this workcamp assignment, 3 days left to work. Louise works all day tomorrow, next Sunday and Monday. I will work 4 hours next Sunday. Pretty cool huh, Louise has to work more than I do....lol. The Rockhound Roundup starts Thursday. It is a gem and mineral show that is put on by the club that we belong to. I will go to the fairgrounds tomorrow to help set things up for the show. During the show we will help lead two field trips to the local area mines to hunt for geodes and agates. They pay for our gas and we can collect all the rocks we can carry away. The trouble is, we have to be pretty choosy because of the weight, we do live in a rv you know. I guess we are going to have to start throwing clothes out to make room for more rocks....LOL. I know we aren't going to cut down on the food, we need our strength you know.

We plan on heading to Arizona on Tuesday the 15th. We have an appointment to have the roof of the rv looked at in Surprise, AZ on the 16th. I am not sure what they will do. We posted earlier that we had it looked at in TX. They didn't want to do anything with than. I think it is getting looser. We will see what they say. It is not leaking, just don't look right to me. Wish us luck with that. Carving week at Congress, AZ starts on the 19th.

Till next time

Duane and Louise