Day 334: Dog days

The dog days of summer are upon us here in the Phoenix area.  That means a couple of things, 1) my shop time is limited because of the extreme heat, 110+ is not uncommon,  and 2)  my shop time is limited due to my other hobby: storm chasing.  Phoenix gets hit with monsoon storms every year, they typically run from mid July through the end of August.  Storms typically build over the the Mogollon rim and then sweep to the Southwest into the Phoenix metro area (also called the valley of the sun).  We live on the eastern edge of the valley, not far from the Superstition Mountains and get some of the best lightning in the state.

My shop time today consisted of cutting and roughing 4 small piece of redwood.  3 of them will be small hollow forms that I plan to texture; the fourth will be a spline joined lidded box that will also be textured.  The hollow forms all have the grain running in different directions.  The one on the left has the grain running vertically, the middle is running at a slight angle, and the one on the right has the grain running across the piece.  

Tonight we had the first big storm of the monsoon season.  There was a smaller storm on Friday evening but it died out before it got to me.  I'm sorting through 139 images I took tonight.  If I'm lucky I'll have 2 or 3 keepers.  A really good night would 5 or 6 keepers.