Lets try a video blog

These were taken with my cellphone so don't expect too much.

Saturday by the fire:


Adventures in staining:

Full Moons - They have names, all of them.

I noticed when walking the dog this morning that it was a full moon.

The December full moon is called the Oak Moon,

or the Cold Moon, Snow Moon, Moon Before Yule, Peach Moon, Twelfth Moon, Christmas Moon, Margashirsha Poornima or finally the Bitter Moon.

It really depends on background or how you look at the moon.

Initially, I though that only a few moons had names, e.g. Blue, Harvest and Hunters. But in doing a little search on the web I found that my view was pretty narrow. It appears that there were some cultures in old Europe that named moons, namely the Celts and English, but the named moons really took off once the Native Americans came into the picture. This may have been from use of numeric systems for calendars in Europe or the closeness on Native Americans to the environment that they lived, but I really don't know and I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

It also appears that moons had names in other areas also, many more, then you will see, I have captured.

Here is a partial list of moon names and the cultures that used them. I plagiarized this list from multiple sources, so in today's world I think it can be classified as actual research at this point.

The Dakotah Sioux names are some of the most interesting when thinking about what had to happen (scale/scope) in order for the moon to be named after the described events.

Lets start with the old Europe moon names:

Month	English	English Medieval	Celtic
January	Old Moon	Wolf Moon	Quite Moon
February	Wolf Moon	Storm Moon	Moon of Ice
March	Lenten Moon	Chaste Moon	Moon of Winds
April	Egg Moon	Seed Moon	Growing Moon
May	Milk Moon	Hare Moon	Bright Moon
June	Flower Moon	Dyan Moon	Moon of Horses
July	Hay Moon	Mead Moon	Moon of Claiming
August	Grain Moon	Corn Moon	Dispute Moon
September	Fruit Moon	Barley Moon	Singing Moon
October	Harvest Moon	Blood Moon	Harvest Moon
November	Hunter's Moon	Snow Moon	Dark Moon
December	Oak Moon	Oak Moon	Cold Moon

But they really get interesting and descriptive when the Native American moon names are added but what follows is only a partial list:

Month	Native American**	Cherokee	Ottewell (Cherokee)
January	Wolf Moon	Cold Moon	Moon After Yule
February	Snow Moon	Bony Moon
March	Worm Moon	Windy Moon	Lenten
April	Pink Moon	Flower Moon	Egg
May	Flower Moon	Planting Moon
June	Strawberry Moon	Green Corn Moon	Flower
July	Buck Moon	Ripe Corn Moon	Hay
August	Sturgeon Moon	Fruit Moon	Grain
September	Harvest Moon	Nut Moon
October	Hunter's Moon	Harvest Moon	Hunter's
November	Beaver Moon	Trading Moon	Hunter's
December	Cold Moon	Snow Moon	Moon Before Yule

And more:

Month	Choctaw	Dakotah Sioux	Algonquin / Colonial
January	Cooking Moon	Moon of the Terrible	Old
February	Little Famine Moon	Moon of the Raccoon, Moon When Trees Pop	Hunger
March	Big Famine Moon	Moon When Eyes Are Sore from Bright Snow	Crust
April	Wildcat Moon	Moon When Geese Return in Scattered Formation	Pink
May	Panther Moon	Moon When Leaves Are Green, Moon To Plant	Flower
June	Windy Moon	Moon When June Berries Are Ripe	Rose
July	Crane Moon	Moon of the Middle Summer	Buck
August	Women's Moon	Moon When All Things Ripen	Sturgeon
September	Mulberry Moon	Moon When The Calves Grow Hair	Harvest
October	Blackberry Moon	Moon When Quilling and Beading is Done	Hunter's
November	Sassafras Moon	Moon When Horns Are Broken Off	Beaver
December	Peach Moon	Twelfth Moon	Cold

And here is what started to happen when the old Europe and Native American names started to merge:

Month	Colonial American
January	Winter Moon
February	Trapper's Moon
March	Fish Moon
April	Planter's Moon
May	Milk Moon
June	Rose Moon
July	Summer Moon
August	Dog Day's Moon
September	Harvest Moon
October	Hunter's Moon
November	Beaver Moon
December	Christmas Moon

And not to leave out the rest of the world:

Month	Hindu Names	Chinese	New Guinea
January	Paush Poornima	Holiday Moon	Rainbow Fish Moon
February	Magh Poornima	Budding Moon	Parriotfish Moon
March	Holi	Sleepy Moon	Palolo Worm Moon
April	Hanuman Jayanti	Peony Moon	Flying Fish Moon
May	Buddha Poornima	Dragon Moon	Black Trevally Moon
June	Wat Poornima	Lotus Moon	Open Sea Moon
July	Guru Poornima	Hungry Ghost Moon	Tiger Shark Moon
August	Narali Poornima, Raksha bandhan	Harvest Moon	Rain & Wind Moon
September	Bhadrapad Poornima	Chrysanthemum Moon
October	Kojagiri or Sharad Poornima	Kindly Moon
November	Kartik Poornima	White Moon
December	Margashirsha Poornima	Bitter Moon

And here are the non-regional names:

Month	Wiccan	Neo Pagan	Seasonal*	Un-Named #1	Other
January	Wolf	Ice Moon	winter 1st - Moon after Yule	Old
February	Storm	Snow Moon	winter 2nd -Wolf Moon	Snow	Candles Moon; Magpie
March	Chaste	Death Moon	winter last - Lenten Moon	Sap	Sap; Crow; Sugar; Crow
April	Seed	Awakening Moon	spring 1st - Egg, Easter, or Paschal Moon	Grass	Grass(Sprouting); Moon of the Red Grass Appearing; Fish; Waking
May	Hare	Grass Moon	spring 2nd - Milk Moon	Milk	Corn Planting; Corn
June	Dyad	Planting Moon	spring last - Flower Moon	Rose	Honey, Hot
July	Mead	Rose Moon	summer 1st - Hay Moon	Thunder	Thunder
August	Wyrt	Lightening Moon	summer 2nd - Grain Moon	Green Corn	Red; Corn; Green Corn; Dog
September	Barley	Harvest Moon	summer last - Fruit Moon	Fruit	Corn
October	Blood	Blood Moon	autumn 1st - Harvest Moon	Harvest	Travel; Dying Grass
November	Snow	Tree Moon	autumn 2nd - Hunter's Moon	Frost	Frosty
December	Oak	Long Night Moon	autumn last - Moon before Yule	Long Night	Moon Before Yule; Frost

And what about a "Blue Moon"? Here is some interesting trivia from Space and Telescope:

When is the Moon 'blue,' in a calendar sense?

According to the Maine almanac, a Blue Moon occurs when a season has four full Moons, rather than the usual three. This type of Blue Moon is found only in February, May, August, and November, one month before the next equinox or solstice.

According to modern folklore, a Blue Moon is the second full Moon in a calendar month. This type of Blue Moon can occur in any month but February, which is always shorter than the time between successive full Moons.

So pick whether you want to follow folklore or the almanac.

Thanksgiving Week Projects

During the last week I had the opportunity between the beginning of the Holiday activities to finish the headboard in bedroom furniture project and start the finishing on the laundry room built-in cabinet.

The headboard project in the end turned out to be one of the most satisfying wood working projects undertaken so far, because it started as a Ponderosa Pine tree here at Pinon Rock that had been killed by Mountain Pine Beetles and had to be taken down. Once down, Marlys and I sawed it on our sawmill, and the then there was the work of turning the slabs into furniture grade wood. The blue fungus spaling adds real character to the wood. To some it looks like very old reclaimed (silvered) wood was actually used.

As with many of my projects this one did not start with anything more then the measurements of the mattress width and height. Although, I thought of drawing up a set of plans using Google Sketch-Up, I was confronted by the need to see what the wood would give me, before settling on the design. As you can see from the picture in keeping with the rustic look and feel it is pretty simple with only the addition of rails and stiles and an arched top.

The joinery was straight foreword also in that the top and bottom stiles were joined to the posts using mortises and tendons and the panels used tongue and grooves. All in all it is pretty sturdy and it passed the “Marlys inspection”. The remaining pieces in the bedroom project, e.g. side tables and dressers won’t get started until the laundry room project is done and we mill a few more beetle kill trees.

The other project has become problematic.

the cabinet carcass and door was accomplished in a few hours over a Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Pocket screws were used for building the face frame and tongue and groves for the door rail, stiles and panels. But, as in the case of the cowboy sideboard the finishing because it includes staining has been a pain.

Maple, like the Poplar used in the sideboard is a softwood and is prone to blotching, especially when being stained. I thought that I had learned how to do this, but alas, I guess not.

The Maple in this case needs to be stained a dark Chestnut to match the kitchen cabinets. I thought I had prepped the surface well by flooding it with pre-conditioner (varnish-based in this case), but once the stain was applied, it was pretty clear I had done a poor job of sanding and the pre-conditioner (as in the sideboard) didn’t work so well.

So, the sanding began. After consulting my Fleener on finishing guide I next sealed it with shellac. I was letting it dry when we left yesterday, hopefully next weekend it will get stained.

BTW: when we left yesterday Pinon Rock was in the sun, but windy and cold, little did we know that the trip back to Parker would be a five and half hour slog through the snow starting at Woodland Park (on Hwy 24 above Colorado Springs).