July 2, 2020

I guess today was a day of wood and rest.

Didn't do a whole lot, but I walked around the garden some. Sam and I got out and started whittling. My mom bought him a book called The Dangerous Book for Boys. He was flipping through and found how to make a bow and arrow and of course wanted to make it. He's my kid, that's for sure. He needs to learn whittling and how to work a knife first though, so we started that today. Hoping to squeeze some life lessons into whittling. The boy's a bit impatient and immature. But that's enough autobiography 🤣

For today's project I made an atlatl, an ancient throwing tool. I had a good stick for it, so figured I'd make one. I ran toss a stick halfway across the yard with it, but inaccurately and the stick tumbles since it's not a spear that's made to fly well. Maybe something I'll work on developing.

Ive got the printer working right now on what's called an Aztec death whistle. It's a modern adaptation (3D printed version, obviously) of an instrument used by Aztec warriors as an intimidation tool. When you blow in it, it makes a sound like someone screaming bloody murder. Anyways, it's over there printing as I write this, and the cooling fan on the extruder blowing in the resonant chamber makes the whistle sound like it's breathing or whispering some kind of spooky sounds. It's a trip.

It's getting louder as the print wraps up. I'm gonna stay up late and watch it finish because I don't want to wake up being freaked out by the sound of someone screaming like death in my living room.

I smoked some sumac earlier today, trying to bring on some dreams and see if I find anything insightful. It'd be cool if they weren't interrupted by death hollers.

Love and spooks from Texas

Nate 💚