Amerongen's Weblog

Other hobbies I have are Ham Radio, my call-sign is nOawr. If any of the family members are also in this hobby especially those from the Netherlands I would be more than happy to try to set up a schedule with them. I hold an Advanced Class license.

Another of my hobbies is guitar playing although my wife says I do not play well with others. I do not play in standard tuning as I could never learn how to position my fingers without putting my eye out. I use open D tuning which means I can play almost any chord with one finger straight across the neck of the guitar. I wrote a small article on how to accomplish this and will in the future try to include it on this page for those who want to play a guitar but have no musical talent at all.

Of course there are two more hobbies that I do not spend as much time on as I should. Wood Carving and reloading.

“Don’t All Hollanders Make Wooden Shoes”

I will be showing some of my wood carvings as time goes on and I hope to explain to you how each one of them came to be.

A few years ago my loving wife asked me if I would like to attend a carving class as I am a little artistic and she believes nothing is out of my realm of being able to accomplish. My response of course was “Just tell me what you want carved and I will do it, I don’t have time for a carving class!!” Those of you that know Karla probably realize that was the wrong answer. She signed me up for the class and I was the reluctant participant. As you know Hollanders are frugal with their dollars so I was destined to attend as the money was sent. Things were going fine untill I looked at the literature that was included in the class she signed me up for. I have managed to keep her from planting tulips around the house but this was the last straw. The class consisted of carving a wooden shoe. The straw that broke the camels’ back. There will be a spot for me in heaven because she is intent on putting me through hell here on earth. Well, as all things she gets me involved in I had a wonderful time. I whipped out my shoe the first evening and ended up being the teachers pet helping all the other students find that elusive shoe in that block of wood. I looked forward to the classes and attended all the classes my instructor had untill he had to give up teaching due to his health. It was a quick and easy introduction into my foray into carving and answered the proverbial question: Yes, all Hollanders can carve wooden shoes.

So now you know how my hobby of carving started.

“Heading Home”

This is the first relief carving I ever attempted. My father was in the nursing home and eventually had both legs removed. I carved this for him to hang on his wall with the heading home caption referring to his trip through life and heading to a more restful life.

This relief carving was based on a Christmas card that we received of Santa checking his list. Karla likes anything to do with Christmas so I have done quite a few carvings on the Christmas theme. This carving and the one above it are done on 2 inch thick basswood and the sizes run about 15″ by 12″.

Appeloosa

Some people are very cautious about finding a worm in an apple. I found a horse in one.

This carricature of a galloping horse was done mainly because I know absolutely nothing about horses so I just wanted to try my hand at carving one.

This was a fairly large carving of a deer on a arrowhead.

After a long career with the packing house industry and continuing on with meat inspection at the same location I figured 40 years was enough and I was headed home. This is the same carving that I did for my father but this time I did it in the round.

The cowboy playing guitar carving combines two of my hobbies in one. The love of playing country music, (the older the better). I enjoy finding songs that nobody has ever heard of before. And also the fun of wood carving is expressed in this one carving. I saw this carving in Branson, Missouri and was my first ever attempt at making a carving of someone that was fairly human instead of a carricature.

I hope I have improved over the years. I am currently working on one more major carving for Christmas although I don’t think it will be finished in time to include it for this year. One of these ornaments look a lot like me with my beard.

Christmas Santas carved from the large wooden eggs you find in Hobby shops. 

A short excursion into radio controlled aircraft. (One flight)

This is the carving I said that would be finished in the near future. I am very, very dissatisfied with this piece of work.

During the time this carving was in progress my wife and I saw the death of my mother at the age of 98 years of age and a wonderful son-in-law who left behind my daughter and their two children at the age of 45. This was a hard year as we observed the passing of many of our friends and relatives that had that special place in our heart. During this time my lovely wife of 47 years was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease at the age of 66. She is doing well but we are struggling through this terrible disease together one day at a time.