Hi friends,
It’s 5ish on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I’m blogging now because Diane and I are heading to the Fair to see Prairie Home Companion . I wanted to blog now while the following story was fresh in my mind

I’ve had a pretty low key day which is just what I needed.. Diane went walking with Kathy so I took the dogs on a run up Honey Hollow. When I got back I was thinking of all the things I to do .. and feeling kind of weighted down by that.. So I asked myself what I wanted to do. I felt like doing something Sam related.. so I wandered into my lab. There on my work surface was the tree of iron SamStones that I’d cast at the iron pour back in July. When you cast something there are lots of extra bits of iron that represent the channels where the hot metal poured in and flowed through.. (Think about the plastic models you may have built as a kid..) these chases need to be cut apart and ground down to make a finished piece.. ..

I figured that would be good project to fit my mood.. so.. I started to cut the thing apart. Easier said than done.. I tried a hack saw.. that would have taken a day !.. I tried a cut off wheel.. even that was slow going..

so I broke out my Uzi.. ie. my diomnd bladed cut off tool.. That did it.. it went through the hard metal like butter. In a few minutes I’d cut all the cast iron SamStones apart.

The next step was to grind off the remains of the chaces and sprue..
and remove the ‘flashing’ that sometimes sticks out where the two
halves of the mold come together. I was about to move my stuff up to the grinder when the follwoing small miracle occured. I gatherd up all the rough iron ‘stones’ into my right gloved hands.. they were still hot from the cutting.. then I decided that I needed a picture of this step.. (everthing in my life is blog fodder).. I dropped the pile of stones where I was as I stood up..I didn’t even look at them . went to my work table.. picked up my camera and put in the battery that was charging. I turned on the camer and walked the 3 feed back to where I’d been cutting the stones apart. As iframed the shot.. I notices it looked funny.. This is what I saw through the viewfinder

I swear… it happened exactly like that.. I was stunned for a second.. then said the only thing I could think of.. “Hi Sam”… Then I ran and got Dianea and Gabe.. We took a few more pictures…

Then I picked the stones up and did the final cutting and grinding. As I worked I was thinking of Sam.. and how little we really know about how the unverse is put together..

That boy has a powerful spirit..

THat’s all for now.. We love you Sam.
-me