Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Tie Dyed Gone Wild

About a year ago, Jake decided to make a few tied dyed t-shirts. He did this for no particular reason. He just woke up one day and decided to make a couple of shirts. Just a little summer fun so to speak. Jake and his helpers made their first batch of shirts using Rit dye of the variety you can find in many hobby stores. This is the type that comes in a small box. The shirts came out fine, but boiling a vat of dye was a lot of work, and the dyed shirts didn't stay dyed for very long. Jake did a little research and discovered Procion MX dye. This technique uses dye in a squirt tube. Not only is this technique easier to use, but the resulting shirts are a lot more vivid and the dye stays on the shirts after many washings.

Jake has now made several hundred shirts and has given most of them away. His momma always told him that there are only so many tie dyed shirts a man needs in his life and the rest are just for showing off. So Jake makes the shirts and gives them away. Before he gives this batch away though, he thought he would take a picture to remembers his creations and the fun he had making them. If you would like to learn to make these shirts, here are the directions that Jake uses.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Seven Fall (Colorado Springs)

Jake is normally able to talk his co-workers into a little hike when they are on business trips. This week, Jake's power of persuasion seemed to be lagging because he was unable to get a single taker on a hike. Not to be deterred, he decided to go it alone. Today's destination was Seven Falls in Colorado Springs. It was a really nice day for a hike. It was partly cloudy and the temperature was in the 70s.

Seven Falls is a series of seven cascading waterfalls in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The sum of the height of the seven falls is 181 feet (55.17 m) and there are a total of 224 steps on the staircase from the base of the falls to the peak. On December 5, 1872, Nathaniel Colby homesteaded the 160 acres (0.65 km2) that included the present day Seven Falls and South Cheyenne Canyon. Colby did not want the possible value of his purchase, for nine months later he sold the land to the Colorado Springs Land Company for $1000.
Other Colorado Springs Attractions

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Belle of Georgia Semi-Dwarf Peach Tree Growth

The Belle of Georgia Semi-Dwarf Peach Tree that we planted just over a year ago is doing great. The tree has grown several feet and has really filled out.
The tree has so much fruit growing on it that Jake had to thin out some of the peaches today in order to keep the young branches from snapping under the weight. This is despite the fact that the Japanese Beatles ate the tree up pretty good last year. We used the growing instructions located on this page and they seem to work pretty well. We can't wait to harvest our first few peaches this year. In the coming years we will be eating peaches, peach pie, peach cobbler, peach preserves, peach ice cream, peach cake, peach parfaits.

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