Root knife

A favorite gardening tool, especially gets a work out in the spring.

root knife clean

one of my two main dandelion pulling tools, but is damn effective for many gardening jobs.

the serrated blade is dangerously effective on underground roots and is hooked just enough to for one minimal effort single swipe cut.

this knife is also stainless steel and can really handle the elements with almost no maintenance. 

in fact, out side of some water to clean the blade the only tending to is the handle

(some tung oil here and there).

root knife dirty

13 stars

The 37th thoroughly enjoying the 15th entering the Union!

Germantown hatchet portrait

A hatchet pin up.

dramatically stated, this germantown was and is built to perform.

just looking at it make me want to head outdoors!

Snow in may

Yesterday's weather was only the 5th time in the past 104 years that it has actually snowed in May.

may 3, 1907 = 1.3"

may 1, 1911 = .2"

may 9, 1945 = 2"

may 3, 1967 = 1"

&

may 1, 2013 = 2"

Germantown carpenter's hatchet and the final hone

 germantown carpenter's hatchet just before being shipped off to colorado

concluding the restoration process:

every time i go to pass a restored hatchet or axe to another person i tell them that i will do 

"one more final hone" before shipping or handing off. 

 i could easily of done this "final hone" before, but keeping it until the end allocates me one last session with a tool that i have become quite familiar with. for some reason, my thoughts prosper in the security of this familiar and i do some of my best thinking. i am able to put old thoughts to rest and raise new thoughts to life. and actually there are even times when i am just able to completely relax in the 

motions of the final tuning.

I have just finished the final hone and last polish on a germantown carpenter's hatchet. tomorrow i will be shipping it off to a new home in Colorado.

Arkansas stone

When the oil stone meets the cement.

a little disappointing, but i need to take ownership of this mishap.

i was putting the final hone on an excellent germantown carpenter's hatchet destined for Colorado when   

i forgot how to chew gum and walk at the same time.

with in a second the silence of the expected collision was broken with a SNAP and the scuttling sound of stone along cement.

Another door

Damaged calm, the worst yet

nightmare anxiety right before opening the cracked door

before sleep, i am now expecting to have a nightmare with a door. 

(such thought before sleep is probably implanting the outcome)

a door that shocks my subconscious trip through a closed-eyed  paradise 

to 

"all hell breaks loose".

anxiety heightens as the hand reaches out to open the cracked door,

disrupting panic as the fight begins.