Amerongen's Weblog

Other hobbies I have are Ham Radio, my call-sign is N0AWR. 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.

A shoe fit for a man.

We also do baby 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.

Wind Spirit

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.

Earlier attempts at Christmas carvings.

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.