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Mini Book Review – “The Growing Season” by Sarah Frey

Posted on by LittleChip

The Growing SeasonThe Growing Season is Sarah Frey’s true story of how she overcame a challenging childhood to become America’s leading supplier of pumpkins. Similar to Tara Westover’s Educated, her childhood was chaotic with parents who were not in full control of themselves, let alone Sarah and her twenty siblings. Unlike Educated, The Growing Season spends more time exploring Sarah’s path forward, rather than rubbernecking at the lurid (and for Tara, sometimes gruesome) details of childhood.

As the youngest child in a large family, Sarah becomes the unlikely CEO of a large farm business, with four of her brothers forming a close-knit and formidable team. When they lack the $25,000 needed to buy a tractor to haul in the pumpkin crop, Sarah buys a $5,000 used school bus and cuts out the seats and windows, creating a huge harvesting vehicle. Creativity and an endless capacity for hard work are Sarah’s secret weapons.

The book has great advice for young people and anyone raising them. I especially like this passage towards the end of the book about Sarah’s son, William, and why he is having trouble getting along with a strong but pleasant classmate:

“So I finally sat William down and said, “What’s your issue with Savanna? Be honest.”

He leaned over the kitchen island and looked me right in the eyes. He said, “Well, Mom, she steals my thunder.”

I was glad that he saw that the problem was not with her but with his ability to accept the way she was. I also thought, I’ve probably stolen a lot of thunder in my life.

Stealing thunder is something girls need to do more often. And boys to learn to accept it, and to help them.

I recommend this story to young women (high-school age or older) with one caveat.  The early chapters describe Sarah’s repeated sexual assault by a farmhand.  When Sarah finally gathers the courage to report it to her parents, they do nothing about it.  Only when Sarah shows them the peephole that he cut to view her from an adjoining room, do they fire him.  Our young women (and men) need to know that such behavior — both the attacker and the lack of adult support and intervention — is reprehensible and unacceptable.

 

Masks

Posted on by LittleChip

Back in April, Etsy put out a call for all crafters to start making masks. While sewing is not my main crafty outlet, I have been known to stitch up the occasional baby blanket. I had a stack of batik fabric on hand and had inherited a small crate of thread, bias tape, and other supplies when my mother-in-law passed a few years ago. She would be so glad to see the materials be put to such good use.

I searched the web for a good pattern. I was looking for one that did not use ear loops. My day-job used to have me travel frequently to Asia, where it is considered polite to wear a mask if you have a slight cold. I’ve spent a day or two in meetings wearing a mask with ear loops, and they begin to rub behind the ears, and it really hurts. So I was glad to find Mimi G’s video and pattern. I substituted a strap instead of elastic because elastic is very hard to get these days, and the tie strap is adjustable to a wider range of head sizes. Plus, I think it’s more comfortable. Once it’s adjusted, the mask slips on and off, so it’s very simple to wear.  I even made a video to show how to wear the mask, in case it wasn’t clear to folks.

I’ve been stitching up these masks every night since mid-April.  I make about four masks a night.  That might not seem like much, but do it for a month, and you’ve distributed over a hundred masks.  The coronavirus crisis has impacted every aspect of my life: work – family – leisure time.  Giving out masks helps me feel that I have some small control over the outcome.  (Very small, but I think it still matters.)

Masks
Yellow Batik
Burnt Orange Batik
Green Batik
Green Batik with Ties
Inside of Masks
Many Masks

 

 

Salt Cellar

Posted on by LittleChip

 

Here is a salt cellar — a dish to hold salt. It’s useful when you’re cooking and the recipe calls for a 1/4 t. of salt. You don’t have to walk to the pantry and haul out the 1 lb. box with the awkward metal opening (who invented that anyways!?) and try to pour out 1/4 t. Or you can put it on the table if someone wants to add a pinch to their meal.

I normally consider 3D printing to not be food safe, because the ridges create crevices for bacteria and other gunk to hide. But bacteria would be desiccated by the salt, so this would seem to be a safe project.

I got inspired to put a crystal on the top. It’s both decorative and useful as a handle to pull off the top. The top fits snugly, due to three ridges printed on the inside of closure.

In British English, a salt cellar is what we Americans call a salt shaker — a container with holes on the top. They might call this a “salt pig,” which is a dish for salt, but a salt pig is usually made of clay to keep the salt dry in humid climates.

Sprinkle it on the meal, sprinkle it on the popcorn, … we love salt.  Salt has guided human history.  Sprinkle on!

Mezuzah

Posted on by LittleChip

My partner requested a mezuzah for our front door and asked that it have a modern design with, perhaps, the tree of life.  The mezuzah holds a calligraphed scroll, and one should be able to open the mezuzah and inspect the scroll for damage.

My starting point for the design was a plug that would be at the bottom end.  I could have 3D printed the plug, but I decided to go with a commercially available 8mm stopper (link below).  The main body is one piece designed to keep out the rain.  The decorative sleeve with the tree motif slides over the main body.  The body and sleeve can be printed in whatever color combinations you like.  I printed two versions — one with light and dark wood-PLA and one that is black-and-gold PLA.  I also rendered a blue-and-white version using CAD software (Fusion 360).

We haven’t decided whether the wood-PLA or the black-and-gold will look better on our front door.  I’ll post the final picture after it’s in place.

The mezuzah file is posted at Thingiverse.

Here is where I would have posted a link to the plugs, but they are not currently listed on Amazon.  They are “Yoohey 100pcs Plastic Locking Hole Plugs Black 8mm.”  They will probably reappear on Amazon or Alibaba.  If you’re really stuck, drop me a line.  I have 99 plugs left over and would be glad to put one in an envelope to you.

Angled view of black and gold mezuzah with plug. Plug has side snipped to fit against body tightly.

Bicycle Christmas Ornament

Posted on by LittleChip

My partner is a cycling enthusiast, so a bicycle ornament was just the thing to add to the Christmas tree.  Here it is decorating our outside foliage (’cause we don’t have our tree up inside, yet!).  Print it slowly.  I used Cura’s ironing setting to fill in any small gaps on the top layer (25% flow during ironing).  Jingle, jingle!

File is posted over at Thingiverse.

Wingspan

Posted on by LittleChip
Wingspan Egg and Food Organizer
Wingspan Egg and Food Organizer
Wingspan – The Game
Birdhouse Player Pieces
Birdhouse Player Pieces

We love the game!  170 unique bird cards, plus more in the European expansion.  Eggs.  Worms.  Berries.  Oh, my.

But what board game can’t use a little upgrade?  Here’s my solution, including egg and food organizer plus birdhouse player markers.

The organizer is my design.  The birdhouses are from Thingiverse.

Happy birding!

Tile Holder for Castles of Mad King Ludwig

Posted on by LittleChip
Overall layout of the game with the new tile holders in place
Game box showing how the tile holders fit into the box for storage and transport
Game box showing how the tile holders fit into the box for storage and transport
Placing the tile holder for the large tiles on the cardboard layout lets the cobblestone pattern come through
Shows minimalist tile holder. Strong enough to be functional with as little plastic as practical.
Minimalist tile holder is strong enough to hold the tiles, but with unnecessary plastic hollowed out.
Placing the tile holder for the small tiles on the cardboard layout lets the cobblestone pattern come through
Shows overall layout. Good finger access to the tiles.
Shows overall layout. Good finger access to the tiles.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig:  Love the game.  Hate the baggies.

Good King Ludwig must have gone mad from all the baggies the game manufacturer expects you to use to sort and hold the tile pieces.  Here is my solution.  These two trays support the tile stacks from falling over when playing the game.  Then they fit into the box for easy storage and transport.

A key design principle was good finger access — no digging for the pieces.  The lettering at the bottom of the stacks lifts the bottom pieces slightly up, so it doesn’t get stuck to the tray.

I prefer a minimalist approach to plastic. Less is more. Cutouts in the base reduce plastic usage and, when placed on the original cardboard layout, let the cobblestone pattern show through.

Game on!

STL files can be found over on Thingiverse.

Learning 3D Modeling in Blender

Posted on by LittleChip

I’ve been meaning to learn Blender for awhile, but the interface is so complicated, I just get overwhelmed.  Along came a Udemy course offering to teach how to 3D model in Blender.  I’ve taken a Udemy course before, and it was great.  The instruction is really very good, and the classes always seem to be on sale, so it’s very inexpensive — less than a book would cost.  I’m only a couple of hours in, but already we’ve learned how to create objects with simple primitives, color them, light the scene, and render the image.  Not bad.  I’m looking forward to the next 61 hours of instruction (!).

Camera and Watch in Blender

 

IKEA Racka Endcap

Posted on by LittleChip

We love IKEA.  Creative, durable products at a great price.  We never have trouble with parts missing from our purchases, so we were really surprised to find an endcap missing from a räcka curtain rod.  I could have contacted IKEA.  They have great customer service and probably could have sent me a replacement, but where’s the sport in that?  Much more interesting to design and print my own repair.

The endcap is a simple plug, with a threaded hole for the finial to attach.  The plug has a small bump along the cylinder that helps hold it in place

Of course, I forgot that every rod has two diameter rods — an inner rod nests within the outer rod, so that the total length is adjustable.  I was missing the cap for the larger rod, but the first time through I took measurements of the inside, smaller rod.  So here are the replacement parts for both.  STL files are posted at Thingiverse.  (WordPress doesn’t allow me to upload STL files.)  Next step: design and print some more interesting finials.  Moose antlers, anyone?

IKEA Racka
Missing endcap
Racka rod with simple finial
Replacement endcaps