Art meets Shop

Here is where two things in the curriculum combine. B finally framed (shop part) his mosaic (art part). He made the frame out of molding and had to use his skill with a miter box to get the corners just right. His finished work is hanging in the den so we can enjoy it daily. Great work!

Early Chirstmas Influence

We got a little music in our curriculum today. Courtesy of gramps. He bought us tickets to the Michigan/Ohio CMI Concert Choir "Christmas in Color." We went to the Brighton Center for Performing Arts. It's a nice venue! The concert was LONG - 2 1/2 hrs long. The first half was very recognizable Christmas music with a little twist. Which it was nice to not hear the same old, same old. The choir was HUGE! At the beginning it was a little rough, but then things smoothed out. The second half was a lot about the true meaning of Christmas - so we got our religious ed lesson in too. Kind of a lot of preaching and praying for us, but opened the door for some discussion on the way home. You know, trying to provided a well rounded education for B comes in many forms.
If the concert was not enough to put us in the 'mood' for the upcoming holidays - the Michigan weather certainly would. Yes, we got measurable, packable snow today. YUCK, says the person who has to shovel. It was beautiful on the trees, but that's about the only good thing I can say about it. It made driving from the concert a hassle - since Michigan drivers seem to forget, every year, how to drive in this stuff. It was a slow go coming home!

Once home, B played outside with the dog. He was sledding on the driveway and throwing snowballs with the neighbors. Saturn is less than thrilled (he kind of feels about the snow like I do).

Measure Twice, Cut Once

After three Sunday mornings in the shop - the completed shelf project is DONE. This is counter balanced - so will only stand against the wall. But once against the wall it is amazing how strudy it is. Very cool project!

Counter sinking skills are much improved!

Project Complete

On Thursday, when B made this bud vase I said it needed to be finished. Well.....it's finished. Looks perfect, if you ask me :-)

Failure to Thrive

In every project that B tackles, there comes learning that he did not expect. His current litter of mice have all met the definition of "failure to thrive." The mother has abandoned the litter. As of this morning, 9 of the 12 pups have died. We do not know for sure the reason. At this point we are assuming because the pups nostrils never developed, therefore making it impossible for them to nurse and breath at the same time. Without nursing they could not grow, and without nursing we think the mother abandoned them. Another possibility is, most litters are only 6-8 pups, and this litter was unusually large at 12. It is possible that the mother can just not produce enough milk to sustain the babies, and once they started to die she abandoned the entire litter. Lastly we have considered the temperatures - which dropped into the 30s yesterday. But B rigged up a light on the cage to warm the air and pups have continued to die. B is trying to dropper feed the last 3 pups, in hopes that he can get them to feed and grow. Yes, he has moved them into the house for what he termed as "needing constant supervision."
Economically, since B is raising these mice for profit. This has been a good lesson in, don't always count your chickens before they hatch. Thankfully he doesn't have a customer waiting for this litter. He understands now that sometimes there will be profit lost to things that are out of his control. And that at some point he needs to start freezing the 'pinkies' (newborns). Had he done that with this litter, he would have 12 pinkies to sell vs. struggling to get 3 pups to the weaned stage. Yes, in very project there is learning!

Riding River Again

After what seems like forever, B is back to riding River again!!! (and as you will see below, pretty happy about it too). River has been moved to a new stable. According to B, it is a 5 star hotel for horses! Depending on the weather, they either work outside or in the indoor arena. For those of you just joining us - River is a half percheron/half quarter horse. He stands over 16 hands tall. And is a big scaredy cat - which means he is very cautious and easily distracted. When B first started to ride, he rode both western and english. Now he prefers bareback and with no bit/briddle. It scares me to see him up there with no tack, but B is comfortable in every aspect of handling this horse.

Practicing 'bending' or a controlled stop.

Thursday's Creations

Tonight the new technique was learning to make vessels from glass tubing. This is what B came home with for my dining room table (wait till you see the completed ensemble tomorrow). Oh, and for the person who suggested art school - he just rolled his eyes and said, "I'd rather be a marine biologist." I think this is just going to be a hobby, when he's not floating in the ocean ;-)
The Glass Pavillion (part of the Toledo Museum of Art) at night. The brightly lit rectangular window to the right is the torch studio where B works. The other windows (kind of centered) are where one of the furnace and glass blowing studio areas. And the far windows to the left are the lobby and gift shop.

6 days - Fur

At 6 days old, you can see that the fur is starting to come in. The ears are more pronounced. Nails are starting to grown. And they move around on their own, although it is much like you see a baby swing its arms and legs - without much control.

Lampworking Projects

On Thursday night B goes to the Toledo Glass Pavillion to play with a torch. Sounds funny doesn't it? But he is continuing to hone his skills in lampworking. So far this semester he has learned many new techniques, including working with a different kind of glass - Borosilicate glass, which is a hard glass (B's preferred media at this point). Right now he is learning to make icicles, which come home in many sizes and will hang beautifully on our Christmas tree. He has also learned to work with not only rods (which is how he started learning), but also has been working with tubes. Plus he's made some wonderful presents for family and friends. And all of this is before taking a special techniques workshop that will just focus on ornaments, which happens the first week of December.

first step, making the candy cane - second step (still to be learned) sand blasting

and naturally, for B, no creation session is complete if it doesn't involve a fish

or a variety of fish

Pups Day 3 and Day 4

Husbandry continues.....part of today was spent on the animals and part of the day was spent on formulating the ads for sales. Also, it's the first time B will have his own email to conduct 'business transactions.' This kind of project does require a lot of reading, the homeschool teacher/mom celebrates!!! Hint, hint - if you have a child who is reading resistent - get him/her interested in a project and see if their motivation changes.
4 day old pup (photos above and below)

3 day old pup (photos below)pups are not born with whiskers, they grow quickly because their eyes are undeveloped, you can just see the ears starting to form
by day 3 the pups weigh more than a penny