painting the santa

Painting the Santa

     Had to replace a section of greenhouse plastic before the wind hit the other night, and it was perfect timing as when I was finishing the wind started to pick up and it was all I could do to get everything tied back in before the wind started howling.

     It was last year about this time during hurricane Sandy, the greenhouse suffered some damage due to the winds a howling that night as it actually pushed one wall of the greenhouse in and blew out some panels . I was in the hospital at the time and had to lie in a bed and hope for the best. The reason i was in the hospital was I had been moving electric fence and stepped into the bucket as I was stringing electric fence across the pond edge over the hill. I slipped and scraped my shin against the bucket and received an ugly rip in my skin. It became infected and within a week I was in the hospital as it swelled and refused to heal. I was in the hospital three days and couldn’t wait to get out of there and get back to the greenhouse and get things fixed.

       This last wind had done nothing to the greenhouse but while I was up there found a rip and repaired it. This probably saved me a lot of trouble. Guess I am getting better at this greenhouse thing. Last year at this time I just had trees, and this year I am loaded with plants and starts for next year. Hopefully I won’t have any major problems, and that is the worse for a while.

     So this is the Santa I have been working on and is completely carved with a regular chainsaw. Now women you can get your men off their butts and get them out there and have them do the same thing with tools they already own. Then you too can have a Santa much like this one or at least a fancy piece of firewood, then again at the very least a huge toothpick for say maybe a giant.

      Not all things are perfect and my colors are not coming out quite like I want them but will reserve judgment for the finish coats of spar urethane as it tends to make the carving darker. So the yellow fringe may turn out to be an off white look with kind of an antique look. I had t do some knot repair with my favorite friend Gorilla Glue and when I did I threw in some wood shavings when the glue was setting and this makes a somewhat flawless looking repair you will have to look hard to find. Even new carvings have their flaws and knowing how to fix them is always helpful.

     So today I should finish the carving by sealing it in with spar urethane after I finish some painting on the carving, then it will be ready to go. Where I don’t know but at least it will be finished. I need to start another carving and will begin that maybe today. Not quite sure what I will do but will share with you as I go along.

     Also i will include a pic of my shadow cows as well their keeper babe as she makes sure no cows get beyond the fence. You will notice how the cows seem to be shaking at the mere thought of escaping into the clutches of Babe. Actually the only reason they stay in is because they know the feed buckets where they get their daily portion of feed is still on their side of the fence. Oh well babe still thinks she is doing her job well.