Stone Seat

Cooper’s First Bath

Jared S — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:51:22 +0000

On July 29th Cooper had his first bath in a baby bath tub.

– Jared

Slip and Slide

Jared S — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:47:03 +0000

This was one of Tanner’s birthday presents from our next door neighbors Scott and Ricky. It was a big hit. The boys played on it for at least an hour and a half. By the time we turned the water off, the backyard was totally soaked and a small river was running down the hill.

– Jared

Treasure Hunt

Jared S — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:20:54 +0000

Our friends Brent, Leah and Audrey found a treasure map and decided to give it to Tanner as a birthday present. The boys and I had a great time following the map and digging up Cap’n Peg-Leg Pete’s buried treasure. They also had a good time eating the gold coins that were part of the treasure.

– Jared

Cooper Maxwell Simms

Jared S — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:15:27 +0000

Cooper Maxwell Simms was born Monday, July 20th at 5:56am. He weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz. and is 20 inches long. He has a full head of hair and it looks like he’s going to have dark eyes. He’s beautiful, healthy, has a healthy appetite and healthy lungs.

Jenn started having contractions at about 2:00am and we got to the hospital at around 5:00am. Jenn’s doctor arrived about five minutes before Cooper was born, much to the relief of three nervous looking nurses.

So far he sleeps soundly which will be important once he gets home with his older brothers. Grant and Tanner are both impressed. They both liked holding and talking to him. Tanner even asked if he could give Cooper a crumb from his muffin.

– Jared

Tanner’s Fourth Birthday

Jared S — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:31:26 +0000

No way Tanner was going to wait to try out his new baseball helmet and t-ball set.

– Jared

My First Commission

Jared S — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:04:52 +0000

Jenn commissioned a three legged stool to illustrate the following quote for her Relief Society lesson on Sunday, March 1st: “Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time.” – President Dieter F. Uchtdor, The Infinite Power of Hope

The stool and legs are hard maple and the wedges are black walnut. It is 5 1/2″ high, 6″ deep. The top is 1 1/2″ thick and the sides are 6 1/2″ long. It is finished with three coats of Tried and True Danish Oil and two coats of paste wax.

In the introduction to his book, Workbenches from Design & Theory to Construction & Use, Christopher Schwarz states “Every piece of lumber has three kinds of surfaces: edges, faces and ends. A good workbench should be able to hold your lumber so you can easily work on these three kinds of surfaces.” He also describes the Kitchen Door Test (p. 9) to see how easily a standard kitchen door (3/4″ x 15″ x 23″) can be worked on all three surfaces.

The Kitchen Door Test is a good one, but I would like to add the Triangular Three Legged Stool Test. It isn’t a shape commonly worked, but it was a challenge to figure out how to hold the stool to work the top after the legs had been attached.

- Jared

Ultrasound Photos

Jared S — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:51:28 +0000

Personally, I find ultrasounds don’t compare to just listening to baby’s heartbeat, but these are baby’s first photos. We will be surprised on the gender again, but in this case, baby wasn’t cooperative anyway.

The ultrasound was on Friday, February 20th and everything was normal.

After the ultrasound we made a trip north for the opening of Celebrating the Studio Fellowship at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Warren, Maine. Bill’s Piano Chair in scorched ash, cherry, and driftwood was one of my favorite pieces on display. The Puzzle Boxes by Mason McBrien were beautiful as well. Lie-Nielsen Toolworks was on the way, so we stopped there and finished the evening with dinner at Moody’s Diner.

We owe a big thanks to Lisa, Brent, Nicholas, and Luke for watching Grant and Tanner. As an interesting side note, the milk jugs attached to Brent’s maple trees are for making his own maple syrup. It took him forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup last year.

- Jared

Skating Lessons

Jared S — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:09:41 +0000

It’s been a busy month and a half since I posted last. Life isn’t showing any signs of quieting down, but this afternoon has been lovely and relaxing, so I’m grabbing the chance to post some photos that have been waiting.

These are pictures from Grant and Tanner’s skating lesson on Wednesday, February 18th. The boys had eight weeks of skating lessons and I got to go to the second to last. Grant was able to balance and skate quickly and by the end of the lesson on the 18th Tanner was able to skate for a little ways without an instructor helping him which made it an exciting day to watch.

- Jared

Baby’s Heartbeat

Jared S — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:35:52 +0000

On Friday we all went to Jenn’s checkup so we could listen to baby’s heartbeat. Tanner got to hold the speaker and baby was cooperative so we all got to listen. It’s a special experience to hear a baby’s heartbeat racing along. It isn’t really surprising, but even though Grant and Tanner know there is a baby growing inside their mum’s tummy, they didn’t seem to understand that we were hearing baby’s heartbeat. They did however get a kick out of hearing my heartbeat after they both turned down the doctor’s offer to use the microphone to listen to their hearts.

– Jared

Clearing the roof

Jared S — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:15:13 +0000

Out the window to clear the roof

Wednesday brought yet another snow storm. Work closed at three o’clock so I was home in time to help with the snowblowing and to shovel the walk. The snow was wet during the whole storm and it turned into rain at the end. With so much snow we’ve been having trouble with ice damns and water coming in again this year even after a brand new roof was put on. After the last storm I had to chop away about three inches of ice in front of our dormer window to allow the water to drain off the roof instead finding its way inside.

After the snow turned to rain, I went out on the roof to clear off most of the snow so it wouldn’t hold the water and cause more problems once it started to melt. The ice damns made a decent ledge that I used to brace myself against while shoveling.

Soaked, but almost done

One additional benefit of cleaning off the roof is that we’ve had much less ice build up on our steps which is also nice. I do have to say that it was easier getting out and moving along the roof than it was getting back inside.

– Jared