Meanwhile... in Canada.

One of my winter projects has been the creation of a (epic) snow cave.  I remember when I was young I would build snow caves with my Dad and brother.  And it has been years since we have made one.  Once again my Dad had the initial idea.  He figured it would be fun to start a snow cave, as something that my nephew (nephew-in-law, nephew-in-common-law, brother's girlfriend's kid???) could build and play in.

So it began with a snow-blower and an open patch of ground.  I cleared the snow from a roughly 50 ft by 50 ft area into a big ol' mound, and let it freeze.  Then a day or two later, once it was nice and solid we began to hollow it out.  It quickly became apparent that the nephew was very excited about this snow cave.  Specifically he was happy to have it, but less happy to have to actually dig it.  I think his imagination ran wild on him and he was having more fun thinking of the possibilities than making them come true.  Which I can't fault him for; I remember being a kid with big ideas.  I think that I still am; but, now I have more tools and skills to make them a reality.

I was enjoying the work of building the cave, as much as the dreams about the possibilities.  As such, I rapidly took over development of this snow cave.  All in all, most of the work was done over three days, scattered across weekends when I had time.  I had help from my brother and the nephew a few times, and input from others along the way.  We used lots of blocks carved from the inside to build a small wall (in case of spontaneous snowball fights).  Once the inside was hollowed out, I decided to fancy it up a little, with some niches for candles, and some minor sculpting for character.

All told it is about 4 ft high inside, with room for probably 10 people (snugly).  It keeps out the wind and is surprisingly warm.  I would love to have a little gathering to show it off, before it gets too warm, and begins to melt.  This is one Canadian stereotype that I think we should all take advantage of more often!

Here are a few shots of the interior.  I wasn't able to get outside pictures in the dark.

The Beginning

Hey, I am Dave and I decided to start this blog as a means to easily share updates of my creative projects with friends and family.  I generally have several projects on the go at one time, and their themes can vary significantly.  As such it can be tough to keep people up to date with my crazy hobbies.  So, to start things off I will show you one of my more traditional projects: a pepper mill.

During the Holidays I was trying to come up with a good little project to work on using a wood lathe.  My Dad has been doing a fair amount of wood turning in the past few years, and I enjoy tinkering on the machine with him.  I think I had the idea of a pepper mill, and he found a place to get the mechanical bits (Lee Valley).  This weekend we dug out a rough piece of wood (I think it is maple) and I fumbled out a design.  Most people would recognize pepper mills in restaurants, with all their curves and ridges.  I decided to go with a simpler design, with smoother lines.  And viola:

At first the wood looked fairly plain, but as we cut deeper some very nice grain started to come out.  The simple design was fairly quick and easy to carve out.  I then sanded it in several stages to get is nice and smooth.

Today I started oiling it with a Scandinavian oil.  Originally I wanted to stain it darker, but after seeing the grain, I didn't want to lose it.  So the oil was a good choice.  It adds a bit of gold flavor and helps some of the grain to jump out.  So it has gone from this:

To this:

The next steps are to buff it up to a real nice shine before moving to the mechanical stage.  I have a kit for the mechanical bits, so I just need to drill all the holes.  I need to hollow the piece out to make a reservoir for pepper grains, and holes for the drive shaft. Then I just need to put it all together. I will let you know how it turns out.

Maybe next time I will introduce you to some of my nerdier projects...