Board Building day 1

So my wood got here and I started right to work building a killer longboard. It was a slice of black walnut, a slice of cherry and 3 pieces of 1/8 x 24 x 30 baltic birch plywood, three layer's thick. usually a layer is 1/8 but these layers are 1/24th! As you can see I cut them into strips of 11 x 30 and glued them together with titebond III. I put weights on it to bend the board. When the glue dried the bend (camber) remains. Only the wood was super strong so even though I did two layers at a time and put 75 pounds on the middle it still hardly bent. That means I will in no way be able to snap this board once I have all four layers together (see tomorrows blog entry). I also began using a razor blade to cut the walnut. It will be used for inlays later. I'll talk about that another time.

A lovely Evening

- Sun shining through the Rain -

oh Snap those are all Ties!

So I got some old ties from my grandpa... a LOT of them. That's my bed covered from head to toe.

New Longboard

Coming soon - I'm hoping to do that pattern with inlays of mahogany and black walnut on a background of Baltic Birch from Russia...

The wood is in on route to Pittsburgh this moment. (also board shape will be different, I got this photoshop template off the internet and the added the pattern from illustrator)

The Pattern is called "Guarda Pampa." It comes from an Indian tribe in Argentina called "Mapuche" and the pattern is meant to resemble the Andes Mountains covered in snow as well as their reflection in the lakes below. It is blocklike because it was often woven into fabric.

I think I'll have a similar design on the top of the board too, carved into the grip tape.

Question is: Do I buy a router now that is expensive to do a good job and have for the rest of my life? probably... we'll see. I have to build the board itself first...

more later,

The Practice of the Presence of God

So I'm reading the above named book by Brother Lawrence (which is a terrific name by the way). It's only 62 pages so I started today and am half done which is great. It's all about how this guy lived permanently in God's presence.

"The time of business" said he, "does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament."

To walk that would be so awesome. I know right now God seems so far from the workplace (engineering?) that imagining his presence there is difficult but I want to learn from Larry's example. I'm curious what it was all actually like for him. He says as well:

"I have no will but that of God...I would not take up a straw against his order or of any other motive than purely that of love for him."

If that is something that can be reached, I want it. I reckon I'll post something about how he says he got to that position but that's all for now

Un Mezcla de Fotos

I went through my phone photos and thought I'd put some up.

We've got a brewing tempest:

A beautiful Pancake:

Jesse looking beautiful...:

wheel chair? or head with a long nose and a halo?:

a tangle of legs and shoes that's just a confused mess:

my lovely hat:

Life in Slow Motion

It's interesting, when I first started blogging it was because life was flying 1000 miles a minute and I needed to stop and remember what I enjoyed, and what I was thinking about, and even make sure I was still thinking at all. Now that I'm back home that hardly seems necessary since it seems I have almost nothing but the time to do that. So far working only 40 hours a week seems quite relaxing. I'm sure things will pick up soon enough. I'll be back home from the beach soon, and then I'd like to start building another, better, longboard. We'll see.

I'm also currently reading Unceasing Worship by Harold M. Best so I'm sure I'll have thoughts on that to come. It's significantly deeper than I expected.

Auf Wiedersehen--