Bamboo Ranch

Thursday, February 4, I took a trip to Tucson to visit the Bamboo Ranch. It is near Grant and Greasewood on the west side of town. The term "ranch" is stretching things a bit. There were no Bamboo round-ups, no Bamboo branding and no Bamboo stampedes. But the owner did take me all over the 1-acre "ranch" and he told me about each variety in the clumping type I was interested in.
There are two main varieties of bamboo - clumping and running. Running is a lot like Bermuda grass in that it sends roots out and they start new growths of bamboo. Clumping does not do that but adds new stalks to the clump that it is a part of. To grow new ones you have to remove a part of the root cluster and plant it in a new location.
He showed me several varieties that grew tall and in large diameter, some large enough to build bridges with. He showed me some that were more for shade, some that would make nice barriers, some that were decorative and some that were colorful (and expensive).
It was a fun trip and I learned a lot. I now think I know enough to choose the varieties that I will need to fill in my new spot without infesting the neighborhood with unwanted bamboo.

Gourd Class

The first weekend in February (Friday, 2/5) I went to Casa Grand to the Running of the Gourds Festival which is sponsored by Wuertz Farms, where the gourds are grown. It is always so much fun to attend. The festival is held at the Pinal county fairgrounds. They have one huge building where pieces done by members of the Arizona Gourd Society can be viewed. There is a second huge building that has vendors selling every tool you can think of, every type of addition you could want for your gourds and finished gourds themselves. Outside there are huge bins of gourds which have been grown by Wuertz and dried and are available for purchase. There are classes that you can sign up for if you register early enough. And, like any fair, there are the food vendors and the entertainment, which sounded like an island group from my outdoor classroom seat.
This year I did not spend enough time at the fair because, after signing up for two classes, which took the entire day, there was no time to shop or see the displays or anything else but class. And though the fair went from Friday to Sunday, I was booked with other activities on the remaining days. That was a bit disappointing but I will remember that for next year. And, since I had bought gourds a couple of months earlier and grown some of my own gourds in my garden, I was all set in the fresh gourd department.
As I mentioned, I took two classes. The first one was one wood burning. She showed us some techniques and basically had us try out the tips on our burners. It was OK but not really worth the four hours or the price of this class. Also, the piece that I took home with was nothing more than a practice gourd - nothing worth putting somewhere to show. I did discover, however, that if I want to get serious about burning gourds I am going to need to trade in my $20 burner from Michael's for one of the $250+ models which have much more heat, variable power, multiple pens and exchangeable tips.
The second class was a great class and worth the price and time. It was a class on a painting technique where you do part of the painting with melted crayons.
This technique requires a specific heating well to melt the crayons which will get them to a temperature that will not overheat the medium and cause it to separate into color and wax but also be hot enough to be able to get the melted crayons to spread before to is too cold to be smooth. The picture above is the result of my class and, although not a perfect piece, is a nearly finished piece that I can put a finishing coat on and put on display.
The day was an enjoyable one.

Experiment Gone Mutant

We finally finished the showshoes. They were not quite done here in this photo but we got them all put together, webbed and shoe holds put on them. As is typical, some are better than others and some look like plastic soldier mutants - you guys knwo what I mean. When you melt those little plastic sodiers and the goop you get when you are done.

When you are doing snowshoes for the first time and you add Boy Scouts of different ages into the mix, we ended up with some shoes that were pretty good (the end ones by the older Scouts) and some that look a lot like toasted - no, burned marshmallows. But they will work for the activity that we have in mind.

Has anyone got any suggestions about how to dispose of these things? We could donate a pair to the Bishop for his wall. :) If we gave a pair to each Scout that would about deplete our supply. But it was a very fun activity.