If you remember, our pianos stood on the wharf in Auckland for three months after our container had been cleared - something about ivory importation concerns I believe - in any event, the wood that came from South Africa (and which we have to assume was thoroughly treated for bugs of every description) has been lurking around our backyard for a year after we de-crated the pianos. Being ecologically minded folks, we have been pondering as to what to do with the aforementioned wood and came up with this project. The 'pattern' was on the Internet (under amateur woodworking projects) and so we adjusted where necessary and spent a weekend in the garage making this easel.
This green machine shaved off all the mould and damp and grunge, leaving us with these planks to sand down and smooth. Not much you can do about the huge nail holes except to agree that they add enormous amounts of character to the finished item.
The basic frame - done!
The cordless little screwdriver came in really handy - note the obvious 'crate-nail holes' in the frame!
We have to admit that perhaps this is not the most aesthetically perfect easel you ever did see - and pine is not our most perfect wood to work with, since it 'clogs up all the machines' - but we had such fun with the project!
And here we have a fully functional, adjustable, home-made, from fully imported wood, aesthetically acceptable, bragging-rights-for-both-of-us, easel!
Arline, pictured here on the right, is our sparkling-brand-new-minister imported especially from South Africa. She and her husband Lukas have been here just on a month now and are in the beginning stages of settling in and getting accustomed to all things kiwi - with an African flavour for much of the time! June is measuring up fabric for table mats to paint - the first attempt at a new hobby for her!
MWH (for those of you who haven't been able to keep up - the consulting engineering firm Jo works for) entered this year's 'executive challenge' on the Whanganui river. 'Our' boys pictured here in their spiffy YELLOW and blue shirts (giving their boat the subtitle of 'The Banana Boat') - have spent a good few hours on the river over the past couple of months, rowing their hearts out.
The chappy on the far left of the picture is Simon Charles - yup, you guessed it, the other ex-South African in the office and although, to all intents and purposes he's English speaking, it is useful at times to be able to make an observation or have an 'alternative opinion' in Afrikaans! Everyone knows that whatever language you conduct your life in, sometimes the 'Moedertaal' says things a whole lot better!
The approach to the start of the race. Note that the rowers are not all boys - yay the ladies!
And so, after winning their heat fairly comfortably the MWH team went on to win this year's executive challenge by a huge margin - beating teams from other local businesses as well as an incredibly strong team of exceptionally large people who rowed for 'The department of Corrections'.
We were so chuffed with them and had yelled so loudly from the banks of the river that you would have thunk we dun sumthink to make'em win!
Dis al!
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