Crankin' out the boxes

I finally finished a box that has been on my mind for the better part of three years. I've attempted it before but none of the attempts suited me well enough to give it as a wedding gift. Now that the couple has been married for almost three years, I've finally finished the box. There are still things about it I don't like and I think they're things that most people wouldn't notice. I really enjoyed making it and the dovetails are almost as good as I'd like them.

I'm also working on a series of little boxes. One will, I hope, find a home next year in the charity auction for Foothills Academy and the others will be under Christmas trees. I'm in good shape with the ones I'm making for gifts. I have two left to do. The parts are all cut and the next step is to prepare the surfaces and glue them up.

We continue to make slow progress with the budgies. Today I took them to the vet's to get their wings and nails clipped. Of course, that meant I had to catch them first. They have been eating out of our hands for a while now and Manx doesn't hesitate now to come down from his perch and hop onto the hand when we have millet for him. I managed to catch both of them and neither tried to bite me. That is quite a milestone. They still don't like to be caught but they don't panic as much as they used to. While they were in their travelling box I took the opportunity to give their cage a good cleaning. We're hoping, now that they're clipped, that we can coax them out of the cage and begin to do some clicker training with them.