Bunnies, shavings and dead blackberrys

My woodworking project for today was making a toothpick from a 2X4. At least, that's what it seemed like. The picture above shows some of the shavings that were on the floor at the end of the day. I put a bunch more in a bag to give to people who have fire pits. We have a fire bowl but don't often use ours. When Liz and Leah were here I sent them away with one bag of shavings and now I've accumulated another one. The chunk of apple tree in the first shot is waiting for me to have at it with the bow saw so that Richard can turn it. I got it part way cut one day and then haven't been back to it.

The purpose of all the shavings today was to try to flatten a 2x4 so that I could rebuild my sharpening station. I bought new stones this summer and I need to re engineer the shelf where I keep them because they are bigger than the old ones, or the float glass that they sit on is bigger. Of course, I had to start out with a hunk of wood that looked more like a twisted ski than a 2x4. Oh well, it's all practice. One of these days I'll actually learn how to flatten a board quickly and efficiently with a hand plane. I'm getting to the point where I don't even think of getting out the circular saw. It may take me a bit longer to cut boards to length or width by hand but it's a lot less fuss. The plan is to finish the sharpening station so I can sharpen up all my planes using the new technology and then get back to the boxes.

I didn't make any shavings yesterday because on Tuesday my Blackberry had a major seizure. It kept flicking from the notification light to the screen with the hour glass on it. Richard tried everything they suggested on the web and it just kept going back and forth. The documentation said to take it to a dealer so I did. They sent me to a Rogers store downstairs in the mall. The people there told me that I had to call the help line first. (Sigh) Back home and sit on hold. I made a total of three calls, sat on hold for 30 minutes and did what I was told over and over again until finally they determined that it was, indeed, malfunctioning. I know they have to try everything but I was getting mighty tired of taking the battery out and putting it back in and trying to install software again. So, I'm getting a refurbished one. I hope this one isn't prone to seizures.

Yesterday I caught up with the bunny in the yard. I used a longer lens this time and got some close ups. I was hoping for a few more but a neighbour came out to walk her dog and the bunny took off. At least I got a couple of shots.

My treat for the day was to listen to the rest of an audio book as I ate my breakfast and drank my tea. It was the newest Kathy Reichs and I wanted to know how it ended. It was great not to have to turn off the iPod, go into school and resume the story a number of hours later.