Grand Kids Visit

  This past week we had two additional people living with us.   For some reason when any of the younger grand kids come to stay a few days there seems to be this excitement in the air as their thought process is that Grandpa's wood shop can be more fun than a fast food play land.      I've always wondered if any of the kid's mothers have sleepless nights when their kids stay with us.    As a mother of my grandchildren, I am sure that there are images of power tools running unattended.   Images of pieces of wood flying through the shop.    Images of glue accidentally getting into the kid's eyes, ears, or wherever.    To be honest, sometimes it can be a little challenging, but we try to play it safe.
    As everyone knows, 2017 is the year where I want to end up with a smaller supply of wood scraps on hand than I had at the start of the year.    Well last week I discovered that a nine year old and a six year old can come up with several suggestions that use up lots of pieces of scrap wood.   I had to be a little protective of some of my more coveted cherry, maple, and walnut pieces that I have on hand.

   First let me introduce Judah to you.   Judah is six years old and just had heart surgery a couple months ago.    If you want, this brave little guy will gladly show you the scar he just acquired.   Still when it comes time to go to the playground at the park you would never know that he has recently been in the hospital.  (In fact if you watch the two of us, he is the one climbing the slides etc. and I'm the one who spends most of the time on the park bench.)  
     I have to say that this week, my scroll saw really got a work out.    I don't use that tool a lot, but this week we made cars,  a race car, a unicorn, several nursery rhyme characters, and some other figures.     You put a basket of color markers in front of this guy and he puts his artist talents to work.   He turns a cut out into a neat little picture.    The blade on the scroll saw never had a chance to cool down.

  Next, I will introduce you to Blair who is nine years old.    Blair is one of my wood shop buddies.   I limit the kids to a daily shop time of 9:00 am to noon.    If Blair had her wishes we would work from 7:30 am to 9:00 pm.
   Basically I ask her the question of "What should we create today?"  and she always has an idea of what we can build and how we should go about doing it.






    She draws lines on a piece of wood and I run the saw trying to cut on her lines.   She's the boss and I am the slave.      In one week's time we went through one bottle of glue, used up a roll of duct tape,  pretty much drained the color out of a box of magic markers, and wore out a couple black sharpie pens.  

  While all that usage may have cut into my shop budget, I did save money on cat food.  The wife's cat - who is not used to kids being around - spent most of the week hibernating under our bed.    Her usual smiley mug (What smile???) was replaced with her famous hissing sounds that she will make whether you are friend or foe.

    The big project for the week was the building of individual storage boxes for each one to take home.  Boxes that will hold all the things that they had crafted.    Again I cut the pieces, but the kids created their own designs and did their own decorating.   They even found some letter stencils that I have had laying around for years.   They used those for their names.   We hinged the lids to the top of each of their boxes.    Judah liked the idea of leaving his box as is.  Blair applied a little oil to the outside of her box wanting to have a little shine.

   It was a fun week.   Yesterday we took the grand kids back to meet their parents.    Today, I have to say the shop is quiet.   The cat is out from under the bed and catching up on eating the extra cat food that I thought I had saved last week.   As for me???? ------- I've gone to hiding under our bed and find myself making small hissing sounds.