Friday, August 2, 2013

We made it to Craig!

Well we finally made it to Craig. We had to stop in Rawlins last night because the wind was so bad, we thought it might actually blow us off the road. They don't call it "Windy Wyoming" for nothin'!
The wonderful people at the Balloon Fest got Bob a nine foot log. He cut it down a bit so he could make an incredible Owl sculpture. 



This is where he stopped for the day. He has 7 hours tomorrow to finish it. No problem!
Now off to the wonderful Craig Campground.

*****************************

The campground was wonderful! Very nice people, clean spots, a dog run, wonderful showers with tons of hot water and a pretty swimming pool I did not get to swim in. Darn it!
Anyway, on to our second day.....
Jon got there to start carving on his sculpture and Bob was close to half way.

We really spread out and our booth looked nice. Such a variety of art. Wood Spirits, Chainsaw carvings, AwkwardPenguins T-Shirts, Jewelry, so much more.....

Bob got down to the detail work. These owls are looking AWESOME!!!

The boys got bored and had to expend some energy. Silly boys and their big boy toys!


Ok, enough playing lets get back to work! They are getting close!


Bob got his done. WOW! This is a fantastic sculpture! And we had a nice little storm threatening us, but even with the lightening and thunder, it wasn't too bad. Mostly just noisy!


Uh-Oh! Photo Bomb!

And Jon's turned out fantastic too. Both so very talented. 
Wait...not again!

Overall it was a fantastic two days in the park. The organizers of this event were phenomenal. They took very good care of us. We had a great time and look forward to next year! :)
Oh, I forgot to mention that there were Dippin' Dots. MMMM! My favorite thing at festivals. And cotton candy flavor to boot!




Off to Moffat County Hot Air Balloon Festival

Our next show is the Moffat County Hot Air Balloon Festival. We have not done this one before but they asked us to return to Craig for this. It sounds like a lot of fun. 
We had to say goodbye to our besties before we left, so we ran by Jim and Shelly's and then to Rick and Sue's. Cindy came by to see us before we left too. I miss everybody already. We should be back up around lander in the next couple of weeks so we will get to see everybody again before the BIG trip!
Bob got a good sized inventory done for this show, so we are hoping for good sales. 
All really awesome stuff!
We headed out on Thursday, the first day of August. This is also our 23rd Anniversary. Road trip! All was not well though.
It took us three hours just to get to Rawlins, which is at most a two hour trip, the wind and road construction spots are AWFUL! The wind actually pulled our awning loose. Thanks goodness for baling wire. 

Painting of Our Wonderful Home!

We had talked about painting the camper all kinds of colors and designs. It was going to be painted just like a log cabin. If anyone could pull off such a huge task, it would be Bob. But then we thought maybe-white, maroon and kelly green with swirls and swishes. That was the plan, until we bought the trailer. Now we decided maybe we could do a matching set. Matching metallic car paint to glossy house paint is no easy task. But we got sooo very close.
Tuesday morning Bob decided that was the day to get started. So we set about taping off all the windows, mirrors, signs, reflectors, bumpers, lights, knobs...oh so much you don't even think about until you actually do it. 
We started out with this:
 And covered every little thing!
Next Bob started spraying the light gray!
Got this side!
Then more taping before the charcoal gray.

Ta Da!These pics make it look easy, but it was a lot of work. We started at 10 am. I had to stop about 2 pm because the sun was not very nice to my bare shoulders! (Duh! Sunscreen, Cayenne) But Bob worked thru the scorching sun and had no lunch. 
But the payoff is this beautiful camper, neat, sleek, clean. Maybe I'll talk him into some color, flowers, smileys, peace signs, who knows. But I am sure it will be beautiful when he is done.
Our matching set!
Bonus for us: Lee and Cindy took us out to eat at the Depot! Excellent food, company and MARGARITAS! 


Thanks guys!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Out with the Old and In with the New!

We have had this wonderful little trailer for 15 years.


 It has served its purpose-inventory hauler, tree hauler, dump trailer, friend mover, etc... With a few modifications it became the work trailer. Holding all of Bob's tools and inventory. Essentially it has been his mobile business for a few years now. 
With the ENTIRE business mobile now, we needed some thing a little bigger, (and better looking couldn't hurt either). The old one just couldn't handle the inventory we need to take with us. Sooo...... we got this new one. 

Bob loves it. He custom built all the shelves just to fit each tool and saw. They all have their own places, plus all of our show stuff fits-tables, table cloths, chairs, display cases. And their is room for lots of inventory. BONUS: when the inventory is out, Bob can set up a table in there and have a covered/out of the elements, work space.


 :)



Sunday, July 21, 2013

July has proven to be an exciting month for us.

Coming back to Fremont County, we needed a place to park the big ol' camper and a place for Bob to carve. Thanks to Lee and Cindy, we have just such a place. Thanks so much, we really appreciate it! It is really nice here.

 While we are here we are planning to accomplish four goals: 
#1 Get all the Wyoming orders done! 
#2 Clean out the storage shed. 
#3 Relax a bit before the next carving demo/art show! 
#4 Make inventory for the next big show.
Little did we know it would involve horses, a donkey, a big red pit bull, a new trailer for Bob, motel room, gambling, plus lots more.
The first week of our stay in the horse pasture was interesting. We got to meet Jake, Mini and Gunner. Jake loves cookies and licorice and likes to open our door if we do not respond quick enough. He just makes himself at home.

Mini on the other hand is so sweet and fuzzy. She has the most beautiful eyes.
I really thought Gunner was going to be a problem, especially after Lee said he likes to eat small animals. Holy cow, how was I ever gonna let my puppies out?! Well, he only comes around once in a while and we only let Ray and Theo out while we stand there and watch for him. I haven't seen Gunner be mean at all, in fact he just wants a rub on the head, just like any other animal.

So, back to the goals. #1-Orders to be filled-lots. Bob had these done in the first two and a half weeks. He has been working in the terrible heat, 90-100 degrees almost every day. But he got them done.


 These were made from the trees that used to be in front of South Side School.
 This porch now has seven brand new bears on it!

Goal #2-Clean out the storage shed. While we are not quite there, we have made some progress. We took two loads down to Kyra in Jordan's little blue truck. (Thank you so much Joe, for letting us use this. It has been a lifesaver!!!) This is what the shed looked like when we started.

HOLY COW! What were we thinking??!!
We now have about half of that.
But we filled the poor little truck up until we thought it would burst. 

Goal #3-Relax a bit before the next carving demo/art show!
 Well this is a hard one. It's almost impossible to get him to slow down. 
Bob skipped right over this and started in on.... 
Goal #4-Make inventory for the next big show.
Our next show is the Moffat County Balloon Festival in Craig, Colorado. Bob and one other excellent carver, Jon Parker, will be doing carving demonstrations all day on August 2nd and 3rd.

FAMILY TIME!!!

After the two great Chainsaw contests, it was family time. 1st, we got to go to Cheyenne to see Jordan, Nyssa and our new granddaughter, Nomi. We got there on her one month birthday. She is so gorgeous and that hair, HOLY COW!

The next day, we got to go stay the night in Laramie. Running around with Kee is so fun. Plus Bob likes to drive her orange Bug. We got to help her move in to her new home. That was cool. With the huge amount of space in our camper, we cleaned her storage shed out in one trip. Instead of 20 trips in her bug. 
We also got rid of our two extra four legged companions. Good bye Jarvis and Monro, you finally get to be back home with your girl!

Now onward to Hudson, our new home for the next two weeks.


Sunday, June 30, 2013

Frederick, Colorado Chainsaw Carving Competition June 19-22, 2013

While at the Craig competition, the mayor of Frederick, CO asked Bob and some of the other wonderful carvers, to come to his town and join in on the first ever Frederick, Colorado Chainsaw Carving Competition. After some thought, we decided to go. After all, that is why we are full-timing it, to be able to do whatever we want at a moments notice. Ahh, freedom!
We arrived in Frederick on Tuesday the 18th. The wonderful Frederick city workers were just getting the giant logs put in place. This was a nice row of logs and plenty of room to carve!

Bob got a good sized log. He was going to carve two peace frogs, but after looking at the huge log, he decided to do something a little nicer.
Log number 3. Has to be lucky, right?

After turning half of the tree into sawdust, a beautiful sculpture is starting to emerge.

The first quick carve was fast and messy. It was in the town's brand new gazebo in the park. Rick and Jon, carving up a storm.

While waiting for these wonderful carvers to finish up, those of us that do not carve find other things to entertain us. Boredom makes you do strange things!
Planking!

Owling!

Tebowing! 

Monkying! Hehe 

Finally they announced the winners!
And 
guess
who
took
???!!!FIRST!!!???
!!!!!!THE BEAR GUY!!!!!!

And here is that carving! 
BASKET DANCER

I am so proud of you Babe! What a fantastic job!

But there were other winners. Deservedly so. All the carvers did a fantastic job!

 These are very unique, fun and caring people. I am proud to be part of this very unique group. 

Faye Braaten-2nd Place winner and the only woman carver here. She does fantastic work. One of the best carvers I've seen. 
www.chainsawmama.com.

Bongo Love-3rd Place and People's Choice-"We Found Love"-Bongo's carvings are always unique and wonderful.

Jon Parker-"Out of the Darkness"-Jon is an excellent carver and soo very goofy and sweet. I just love Jon. His piece was awesome.

Rick Burgess-"Prairie Prayer"-Nice work! Even though he had an awful time with his brand new Husqvarna saw. 

Dee's piece-"Standing Tall"-was kind of unique just for the fact that one minute it was an owl and the next it was an awesome eagle. This was also Dee's first carving contest.

Poof an EAGLE! Ok, not poof! He worked really hard on this to make it perfect.

Nick Smith did a very nice piece.-"Rocky Mt. High"-The two baby bears on the bottom are so adorable. And the way he carved it so the eagle was not attached but stayed put was really neat. I wish I would have taken a better picture of this one. What I have does not do it justice.