A is for Automata

Hello! This week has flashed by! It seems I sort of took a break from doing work, and let myself have a week of playing in the shop. Sort of a mini summer camp. Stephen didn't have any work for me this week, and it seemed to take all the urgency out of my own work! So what I did instead is teach myself about building automata. Fun!
I started with this book, and built the basic tester box and cam gears that he recommends. It is such a great book, and everything was pretty easy to follow so far.
I've only started diving into the different mechanisms and movements, but I thought I should start building an actual piece, so I get some practical use out of all this knowledge. So this is the first stages of my first automata.

When you turn the handle, the waves roll up and down and the boat rolls up and down and side to side. I have started on the box that will house this, and the whole thing still needs to be painted, but I'm already in love with it. I'll keep you updated as I go. Speaking of which...

I finished the book I gave a sneak preview of, earlier. I'm pretty happy with it, and have set myself off on a new tangent for book-making as well. It seems every new idea leads to a hundred others! Oh well, I suppose I wouldn't have it any other way :) Although at some point, I'm going to need to start selling some of these pieces!
Other than that, life is going well here. We've been eating out of the garden as much as possible, which is super fun. I love going into our yard and harvesting food. My fingers have an almost permanent blackberry stain on them because I just can't get enough. I'm going to have to read up on getting our blackberry bushes to expand down the fence line. I'm too impatient to wait for them to do it on their own. More blackberries, please!
We're starting to see some local corn in the markets, although ours isn't ready to eat yet. This is a shot of our beautiful popcorn and kidney bean patch. The kidney beans are meant to dry on the stalks, but Jai just couldn't resist opening one up today and trying it out. They were pretty and red and Jai thought they were tasty, but I didn't really like the flavour. I think I'll wait.

And last but not least, our sunflowers are finally blooming. They look beautiful and majestic out there, and I'm glad we planted them where we can see them from the house this year. I can't wait until there are enough blooms that I feel like I can cut some and bring them inside.

And so, in short, I feel I can sum up the week with a quote:
Procrastination isn't the problem, it's the solution. So procrastinate now, don't put it off.
~Ellen Degeneres.
Well, all right, if you say so...