Signs of Winter

This January brought one of the warmest birthdays I can remember, but the warm weather did finally succumb to more normal temps, and, of course, some snow.  The snow finally gave me a chance to try out Johnny with the snow blade.  It wasn't the most ideal situation for a first trial.  There was about a 1/2" of slush under the snow, and the timing of the snowfall was such that C and I both drove on it before I had a chance to blade it off.  These combined to create a scenario where the blade skidded on top of the packed tracks, plowing the snow but leaving the slush to quickly freeze into ice.  Needless to say, the result wasn't quite what I had hoped for.  By the end though, I think I figured when to use the shovel and when to use the tractor.  Of course, the shovel can't pull the boys around on a sled. 

I've had a few projects going in the workshop the past couple weeks.  The first was getting some signs put up for decoration.  I've been meaning to put up some of my grandpa's signs for a while, and got a couple more for Christmas.  I think they add a nice touch to the garage.

I posted a picture a while back of a model prototype for the antique Cat club.  I got another set of samples a couple weeks ago to review.  We are now very nearly ready to start into production, with model delivery due in April.  To coincide with delivery, I put together an article for the club newsletter on the real machines based on the research I did for the model.  Those are always nice because most of the research is already done, and it's a good way to document everything I learned.

I also continued to work on using up some of the monster truck supplies I had left from last year.  I still have some parts left, but finally got to the point where I would need to buy some additional supplies to do any more. I think that's a good stopping point until I sell out of the stock I have. For the most part I used designs I made last year, but did add a couple new ones just to keep it interesting.  I'm looking forward to moving on to something new though.  Before I dig too far into any new projects however, I'm long overdue to clean my office and storage room, and need to clear out some other surplus toy inventory before selling season ends.

Of course the past few weeks haven't been all about work.  I got to spread my birthday out over several weeks.  We got to have a nice little celebration on the actual day.  The bigger party with the rest of the family got pushed back a couple weeks to give everybody a little more of a break from the holidays.  I got to start off the party weekend on Friday morning with "Donuts with Dad" and N's school.  It was fun to take N to school.  I could tell he was excited to have me there, and for the donut.  Not everybody could make it for the party on Saturday, but it still was a good time.  It's always alot of work to host a party, but it is nice to be home where the boys have all their stuff to entertain themselves more, which allows us to spend less time playing defense, and gives us more time to visit with everybody and enjoy it.