My brother broke down and bought a coffee roaster, an entry level model, and he thinks I should do the same and sell coffee to recoup my costs. He does have experience roasting his own beans, his previous roaster was a homemade model with an old coffee can and a drill. I knew he'd been designing his own, on the computer, but is slowed by the cost of the precision parts he would need to do the job well. We chatted about the roaster, his new hand turned espresso bean grinder, his plans for a traveling French press and electric kettle. I tease him about setting up a coffee shop in his cubicle, competing with the in house cafe located several floors down. Next he's talking about precision machine parts and their cost and plans for making his own. He's been researching online, discovering other people's methods of setting up their own shop. You only have to melt down the aluminum, 800 degrees that's all, ordinary charcoal will work. However, aluminum is so soft, perhaps something harder, then you need oil heat and the neighbors may object to belching black smoke in the yard. Melting points of various metals being the lingua franca of the engineer, this is fun for my brother. When I'm done on the phone I'm laughingly recounting my brother's escapades.
I had a friend, the dear one who taught me to knit, and going to her house was always an adventure. She was always stitching beautiful knitting projects, sweaters, bitty booties, beaded bracelets and hats galore. She was dying her own wool with natural dyes, felting wool, she was spinning and had piles of fleece everywhere, with children running in between. Her husband was painting furniture or building a trellis of fallen sticks for the postage stamp yard. I loved being there, not only because of her godly challenge to me, but because they were always up to something and it was interesting. Fascinating.
I think we ought to be up to something. When the TV is on it's usually the only thing happening. Julia Child (I'm sorry to refer to her again, I was listening to a CD by Victoria Botkin and this quote was included, this has nothing to do with my cookbook), upon the advent of TV wondered why Americans would waste a perfectly good evening staring at a box. Americans, who traditionally were known for industry, seem perfectly content to waste every evening staring at the box. I think we ought to rejoice in a unique home, with decor and projects dictated not by fads or sales at the craft store or TV designers, but by the things we love and things we've made. Our homes ought to be interesting. We ought to relish life with in its walls.
Honestly, I doubt you'd find my house interesting when you walked through the door. I don't ever watch TV, and only a few movies, but time is short and when I'm free, I'm usually behind the covers of a book. I don't have much to show for all the words I process. I make the effort, do a few things, and love to see my children up to projects of their own. I hope we're all fascinated here, fascinated with discovery and creation. Fascinated by beauty inspired by the Creator of all beauty, who made us, every one, unique.
What are you up to?
No comments:
Post a Comment