Peanut Butter and Jelly

I learned recently that I had failed to do one important job as a father.  I had not yet imparted the proper way (and there is a proper way) to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Some people, if not most, may view peanut butter and jelly as the hated lunch item you smooshed when you found it in your lunch bag at school.  However, if the construction of the sandwich is executed correctly it can rival some of the finest meals. 

So, we will begin our discussion where any sandwich starts, with the bread.  The bread should be preferably home-made (or at least freshly baked) and cut to no thinner than 1/2" thick slices.  If you must use store bought bread, never, ever use Wonder Bread.  It's only good for smooshing.  Or fish bait.  The bread doesn't need to be white bread, but from experience any strongly seasoned bread doesn't mesh well with the peanut butter or jelly. It's best to stick with a white or wheat bread.

Now that we have our 2 slices of bread, we need to put something on them.  I won't get into a discussion on the merits of creamy vs crunchy peanut butter, that's possibly another blog post so I will just let the reader choose his or her favorite.  The jelly should either be strawberry or grape, or possibly blackberry.  If you use something like orange marmalade then it isn't really a jelly sandwich. 

Spread the jelly on the bread thickly enough so that if you hold the bread vertically jelly starts to slide off.  You aren't doing it correctly if all the jelly stays on the bread.  The peanut butter should be at least 1/8" thick, but that's really just a start.  I aim for about as thick as the nuts in the crunchy peanut butter. 

To assemble the sandwich, place the bread with the peanut butter on top of the jelly side.  This way the jelly doesn't slide off the bread - peanut butter sticks to bread. Once the two halves are together, the jelly will have a harder time falling off. 

To eat the sandwich, you have to eat it jelly side up, or all that peanut butter will stick to the roof of your mouth.  If you eat it jelly side down and it isn't sticking, you did something wrong and there isn't enough peanut butter on the sandwich.

Now that you know the correct way to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Happy Eating!  I am certain that if you follow these directions carefully, your next sandwich will be much more enjoyable than your last one.,

Playing with Blocks

Concrete blocks that is.  The masons started the block work yesterday.  Watch a mason work some time.  I know how I looked when I've laid concrete block and bricks.  Watching a good mason work, it's almost like watching an artist.

 The mortar is mixed perfectly - too thick and it doesn't settle correctly, too thin and it falls off tools (and blocks).  He gets just the right amount on the trowel, and butters the brick or throws it down on the block just so.  Then of course when the block is set, its a tap or two to get it level, as opposed to me who does something like hammer it into place, check, take it off, more mortar, set the block, check, take it off, less mortar, set the block, etc.

Standing at the south-east end of the house.  The garage is on the left

Standing at the front of the house.

A Firm Foundation

The footers were all were dug and poured this week.  I was up at the site today and the all the concrete block and brick has been delivered.  The builder expects to have the foundation done by the end of the week.  My youngest took one look at the sand pile for the masons and headed straight for it.  We had to tell her rather firmly that it wasn't for playing in.  :)

The first picture is standing at the front of the house.  The porch is right in front of the camera.  The other two are from the south end of the house. The house will face south-east.  The garage is on the southwest corner behind the house.

The New House -It Has Begun!

Several months of planning, working the phones with Orange County culminated today when the builder started clearing the lot.  He will hopefully have the footings dug tomorrow and can probably start pouring them  next week.  The house has been ordered, he expects to be setting it on the foundations in a few weeks.  Here's a panoramic view of the lot. The garage will sit behind the house off to the left and I'm going to have him clear a bit more left-center for the pool we will have next year or the year after.

I will try to get some more pictures of the property.  The lot sits at the top of a hill.  It starts to fall just about the back of the cleared area.

The Unkindest Cut Of All

The other night I was in the shop working on what was going to be a Walnut coffee mug.  I got everything almost ready to sand, then decided it needed "just one more cut".   Well...

If you look closely at the top of the small piece you can see the catch that ruined a night's work.  If you ever decide to turn wood,  just remember that the next-to-last cut is usually the one that you want to be your last.  :)   

Creating A Pen

I thought it would be fun to document the process of creating a pen.  The first step is to select a blank.    Our choices for this project, left to right are Black Palm, Mahogany and an acrylic blank that I poured.  The blanks start at roughly .75" square and 5" long.  All of the kits follow a similar process.  The differences are mostly in the finishing and that is based on what material you are using for the pen body.  For this pen, I picked the acrylic blank.  It will get fitted to a Mesa Gold/Black Titanium twist pen.  

After the blank is cut to length, the next step is drilling for the tube.  Here  is the blank ready to drill.    The different pen kits use different size drill bits.

After the blank is drilled, the tube for the kit is glued in.  Once the glue is dry, then the ends of the blank must be squared to the tube to make sure the parts fit correctly.  Here is a nice square end.  

After both ends of the blank are squared, the blank is ready to turn.   The blank gets mounted on a mandrel on the lathe with bushings that are the same size as the parts for the finished pen.  Here is the rough blank ready to turn. 

After the initial turning.  The blank is now round, but it is very rough.  Finial shaping and polishing still need to be done. This is one of my favorite steps because it reveals what the finished pen is going to look like.  When we started, the blank was mostly gold and burgundy, but you can now see some white mixed in also.

The final shaping and polishing is done.  At this point, the pen is ready to assemble.This looks much better than the rough-turned blank.  

The last step is to assemble the pen.  The parts are pressed into the tube and the ink

cartridge is installed.  Once that is done, we have a pen that looks like this:

Well it's been a while since my last post.  Woodcrest Woodworking is busy busy getting ready for its first art show.  We will be at AutumnFest in Mebane on October 13th.  Come check us out, and maybe buy a pen or two.  :)