Appalachian Wood Homestead

"Trust me. I talked to a guy who was big in Operation Purple Dragon. You need to be stocking up on power outage friendly hobbies." etsy.com/listing/4461783571/… (yes, that's actually the name of the OPSEC program. And, unfortunately, yes, it was part of my husband's job when he was disaster preparedness officer for Navy Region Hawaii)

Husband delivered a hand carved sign to a new local farm today 😎

I’m not into dooming, but I am into having a generator. We have out many hours on ours and were able to help out two neighbors with our freezers during Helene

This is why no one cares when doomers yap The “scathing” audit and “weapons stockpile” are a few dozen old pieces of body armor that were on the wrong line of a spreadsheet and hadn’t been destroyed yet

Human creativity Sometimes people worry that using a stencil for laying out wood carvings will limit their creativity. I've seen enough creative combinations to know that isn't true. When I first carved this little red truck, I knew I had to add a Christmas tree to the background. These two designs were asking to be combined. I've recently seen the Christmas tree ornament design combined with gnomes and snowmen. My kiddo keeps telling me to put a pumpkin or a snowman in a truck. The combinations really are pretty much limitless. What carving designs have you combined? Please drop a photo in the comments to inspire others! etsy.com/listing/4523695434/…

Thank goodness my timeline seems done with freaking out about SRNL 🤣 It was too funny to watch.

Wow, this is an actual setting

Keep it simple There was a bit of a to-do in some carving groups yesterday caused by someone using a clearly AI generated image to promote a carving chat/patterns. Even if the picture didn't have an incorrect number limbs and appendages, the pictured "carving" would have been impossible to carve on a reasonably sized piece of wood. You don't need AI to give you a detailed image. You need something fun, simple, and tested by actual humans. etsy.com/listing/4399068122/…

Same Tomorrow will be one of the hardest mornings all year for us as a family. My animals aren’t stupid. They won’t eat breakfast in the dark. But we need to leave at 8 am to be on time for something. So we’ll just have to be late.

Your Wood Gouge Doesn't Need a "Pro" - How to sharpen a wood gouge or v-tool at home in minutes Sharpening v-tools and gouges is very quick and easy to do at home. It takes less than 10 minutes to sharpen a gouge after normal use. Today we're looking at how to use a diamond stone, sandpaper, and a bit of leather to sharpen a gouge. This same method works for v-tools, too.

I don’t have 90 days of water, but I have at least 90 weeks of yarn and a gravity water filter.

Let’s all go make fun of this woodcarving group for hosting a guy who makes crappy AI “patterns” for wood carving. And promotes the event with a crappy AI image. facebook.com/share/1EfvuUTNA…

Many of the DIY loft, playhouse, and bunkbed ladder builds you find online use nails or screws. This rock solid ladder uses joinery, instead. I know what you're thinking - that sounds like a real pain. But it isn't, thanks to dovetail mortise and tenons made with a router. Spring 2025 we made a timber frame style ladder using our "big jig." A number of viewers complained that the treads weren't parallel to the ground. We took your suggestions to heart and designed pieces that allow you to make mortises at an angle using a router and router jig. If you already own a 2x jig, make sure to check out our Etsy shop for the new stairs and ladder pack. There are new mortise side index pieces available with 15, 30, and 45º angles so you can make stairs and ladders more quickly and easily.

The tape layout method with this twisted dovetail layout jig is, by far and away, the fastest and most accurate way to lay out these dovetails. The fit is so good that it went together on the first try 😎

"AI is coming for your job" Don't worry, I'm sure the clanker designed houses assembled by robots are gong to be just fine. 😂

We grilled a bunch of hot dogs for a party Saturday and had a few left over. Husband and daughter had them for supper Saturday and are polishing them off for lunch today. I checked with both of them to make sure they’re okay with hot dogs for the third time this month. They looked at me like they’d be happy to have them every day, what was I on about

Didn’t have much time for knitting this weekend so here we are

People with kids have a hard time being friends with the childless because, for the most part, childless adults are just children, themselves. The childless think that not wanting to leave your three year old behind for the weekend makes you a “weird bitch.” Parents realize this makes you a normal parent.

We started carving because it's a portable hobby we could bring to the park while my daughter played. We kept carving because it was so much fun. These little Santa gnome ornaments make fantastic Christmas gifts. How many gifts are you carving up this year? (Music I use: Bensound License code: IZ9QRKJHIOC1JQAR Artist: : Benjamin Tissot)