Texas Skies

I love to take pictures of the dramatic skies we have here in Texas.

Last Sunday we in Anna, the sun was out, the clouds were thin and the moon was visable in the sky.

Suddenly, as often happens in Texas,

the wind came up and the clouds started to form.

The clouds continued to build.

The sun refused to let go of the day as it continued to strike out around the clouds.

It looked like the sun beams might win!

Then...just as suddenly, the wind shifted and the clouds continued to build.

The many shapes were magnificent and all types of clouds appeared.

They continues to darken as we were captivated but the changing skies.

Ever hopeful...the sun eluminated the top of the clouds showing us how strong it really was.

But even as strong as the sun was, the clouds would not be detered and continued to build.

We saw all forms of couds throughout the evening as they kept channging.



Then as evening wore on the colors started to explode!


Rich Burnt Oranges...

Blues and Pinks...

Dark Oranges and even Blacks.

They swirled and danced in the sky right before our eyes.


How magnificant is your creation Lord! How dramatic are your canvases.

How timeless are your scenes.

Yet ever hopeful and promising of the kindness of your Love.

Don't let life pass you by.

Take time every day to notice one thing that God created for you to enjoy.

It's His gift to all of us!

Refinished tools

This tool is labeled as a APEX Clutch head screwdriver

It needed some work

It polished up very nicely.

Here is the finished tool.

I really like these folding rulers.


This one cleaned up so that the numbers and markings were clearly visible.

One of my passions in life is restoring old tools to give them new life and bring the beauty out of them. Although today's tools maybe more accurate and more durable they just do not have the hand made beauty of older tools. It's very rewarding when I can take a well used, sometimes abused tool and bring the beauty back out.

Here are some wooden levels I've found recently, I want to share the process of the transformation.

Typical condition when I find them.

I only buy them if the level bubbles are intact.

First sanding.
Then I wax them, notice the brass on this one.


Here are several Torpedo levels that I found.

Sanded

Then finished

This was a heavy one with lots of brass.





This one is a Stanley brand.

Notice how nice it looks all done.


This one was really rough.

But cleaned up nicely.


Nothing special about this one...

Until the wax went on and look at how great it now is.


This one was stained blue.

I didn't sand all of the blue off.

Here it is finished with some of the blue still showing through.

This was the ugly duckling


Not ugly anymore.


Here is the finished lot.






Time to look for more candidates.