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Like many Michiganders, we headed south for our spring break.

Unlike many Michiganders, we stopped heading south after only one state and we spent our week in Ohio.

Our friends spent their days on the beach. Our kids had fun seeing who could grab the biggest icicle off the rock ledges.

Our destination was Hocking Hills. We found a VRBO in Logan and set out from there each morning for some trails. For those of you not familiar with this part of Ohio, you are best off picturing West Virginia for the terrain.

Day 1:
We couldn’t check in until 4:00, so we didn’t need to leave that early. It was 10:00 or so when we left.

Normally, when we drive somewhere, we stop at around the 2.5 hour mark for a break. Use the bathroom, stretch the legs, etc. So we usually have lunch around the 2 hour mark. On this day, Some Wife handed out the lunches we had packed, everyone ate as we drove, then we scouted for the upcoming rest stops. I took a survey and no one needed to stop, so the plan was to drive until someone needed to stop.

We ended up going the whole 4+ hours without stopping. I think that’s the first time we’ve ever done that. Turning point for family vacations right there.

We got there early enough so we did everything else before checking into the house: visit the visitors’ center, tour the pencil sharpener museum (right next to the center, and only about 10’x15′ – one of the tinier musea around), hike Rock House, hike Rock Bridge, pick up groceries for the week (hooray for curbside pickup), and grab a carryout pizza (hooray for no cooking the first evening).

Rock House
We chose Rock House for the first afternoon because it was close. Rock House is like a cave with many large openings.

I’ll start with a picture of a tree that looks like a snail, which is on the trail to the actual Rock House

Next is a couple of the kids clambering around the path to Rock House. Notice the icicles. In many areas the path led you under icicles, and we witnessed several of them falling.

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People sometimes say, of a certain task, “It is not difficult; it just takes a lot of steps”. Or perhaps “It’s not hard, just tedious”.

I also am guilty of having uttered, if not that exact phrase, that sentiment.

But what makes something difficult? Is not requiring a lot of intermediate actions something that increases the difficulty of a task?

Certainly not everything that is difficult requires many steps.

Something may be physically demanding – it is hard to accomplish because of the physical conditioning and exertion required.
Something may be mentally demanding – it is difficult to accomplish because of unfamiliarity with a concept.

I think that most things that are difficult are difficult because they require a lot of steps.

This assumes that the intermediate steps are not all the same. If the intermediate steps are repetitive, then yes you could say it is tedious.

But even then, to many people a tedious task is difficult, maybe because their minds can’t occupy themselves without external stimulus. Or maybe they have carpal tunnel. Either way, tedium is a type of difficulty.

So if someone tells you “it’s not hard, it’s just _______”, you can reasonably assume that whatever the blank was, that is a form of difficulty.

Since our local schools have a couple of spring breaks, I had the opportunity to do some early spring (or late winter) reading.

I’m going in order of when I read them.

First up: Dune by Frank Herbert

Maybe this was a case of too much hype setting my expectations too high, but I didn’t care for this book. Parts of it moved slowly, the morality was not something I’d want my kids exposed to, and other parts were fine. Some books I want to keep reading, but this one I had to kind of force myself to finish it. It wasn’t awful, but I’m not signing up to read any more of the Dune series.

Next up: The Beirut Protocol by Joel C. Rosenberg

This book is a continuation of the Marcus Ryker story, which started with The Kremlin Conspiracy. I liked it, and I liked the other books in the series. If you are a fan of Joel C. Rosenberg’s fiction books, then you should like this one.

Next up: Masterminds 2 by Gordon Korman

This book is a continuation of the first Masterminds book, which was just waiting for the other two books to make a full story. If you liked the first Masterminds story you should like this one too – it’s a continuation of the story. If you haven’t read the first story then do that before reading this one.

Normally I like to read books before the kids do, so I know what’s going on. Delta checked these out of the library and read them, then he gave them to me and said I should read them. So that was backwards, but I had read the first one, and it’s Gordon Korman, so I wasn’t worried.

Finally: Masterminds 3 by Gordon Korman

Ditto, whatever I said about book 2 applies to book 3. It was a fun book, a fun series – no regrets from reading this like I had with Dune.

That’s it for this review. More book reviews coming up later this year.

Now it is time for another PSALM.

Gamma made this one, like last time. This one was titled “Bike Jumping” by him.

Now only 141 more to go.

No, I didn’t misspell the name of the guy from South Africa. I’m just providing a mandala of the name “Nelson”.

But, so that those of you who were hoping to see a picture of Nelson Mandela are not disappointed, here is a Nelson Mandela Mandala

And I expect that some others of you are hoping to see a picture of the other famous Nelson.

That’s right – it’s a Willie Nelson Mandala. Not to be confused with a Willie Nelson Mandela mandala, that’s below. And Willie Nelson Mandela has to have been the answer to Wheel of Fortune for the category Before and After. If not, I will be disappointed.

That’s all the combinations of Nelsons I could think of for now. Real Nelsons, not cartoons.

I don’t know where else things are forged, but people like to add unnecessary words so the standard phrase is “forged in fire”. Maybe one could forge something in lava?

Anyway, Gamma didn’t quite know what he wanted for his birthday, so we bought him an experience. The experience of blacksmithing. And it comes with something tangible, not just pictures and memories.

He got to choose from a small variety of objects to make. He chose the rail spike dagger. That is a double-sided knife made from a railroad spike.

We showed up shortly before our appointed time. After signing the waivers and getting our safety equipment (goggles for those who don’t wear glasses), we went into the forge room. Not sure if it had an official name, so I just call it the forge room. Only people who have signed waivers are allowed in there, but it has walls of plexiglas so anyone can watch.

There were a couple of anvils and furnaces.

The worker guy was giving instructions and helping with stuff. For kids, he probably did 2/3 of the work; for the one adult there (not me, I was just spectating) the worker guy probably did 1/3 the work. Because the adult male could hit the metal hard enough to get it into the necessary shape, but the kids didn’t have quite enough oomph. They made progress, but they needed more help. They’d do their stuff, then the worker guy would “touch it up” with some extra strikes of the hammer.

The first step is to make the handle a little more decorative. Apparently the best way to do that is just to twist it – clamp the bottom in a vise and spin the top a few times. They had a specially-modified wrench for that.

The next step is to smack the blade portion into thinner shape.

There were a few iterations of this step – pound it a bunch of times while it’s glowing hot, when it starts to cool down put it back in the fire, repeat.

The worker guy’s job was to hold the item securely, and move it around to ensure even coverage of the hitting. Gamma’s job (and the other people who also purchased similar experiences) was to keep hitting, and aiming for the same spot on the anvil. The key was not to aim for a spot on the dagger, because the guy was moving it so you’d hit difference spots all over the dagger. He said some people had trouble aiming at not the dagger.

Then, Gamma’s final step, once the dagger was the approximate right shape and thickness, was to put the dagger into water to cool it off and temper it.

This step was not as dramatic as I had hoped. There was some steam and a slight hiss, but I wanted lots of steam and noise.

That was it for Gamma’s efforts. They handed him the dagger for a few minutes while they organized some things, then they took it back and said come back in an hour.

Not sure how it works with real blacksmithing, but for tourist blacksmithing they have you get the item close to what it should be, then they take it in the back room and grind it to be what it actually should be. That’s what takes an hour after you finish – grinding, sharpening, and polishing the knife.

What we did was go out to eat (late lunch), then we came back to the forge and picked up the finished product. As a bonus you get a leather sheath to hold and protect your dagger, and also protect your fingers.

Here is how it ended up:

It turned out nicely I thought. The edges weren’t that sharp, but the point could certainly do some damage.

I read some books this winter. Here they are, along with what I thought of them.

First up: The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase by Wendy Mass

This is, of course, the next book after The Candymakers. If you liked The Candymakers, you’ll like this book too. More of the same characters, as they continue with their lives. The ending was decent enough, but left plenty of room for another book to follow. If you didn’t read The Candymakers, then do not read this book – it won’t make much sense. Good book.

Next up: The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

I read the Secret Keepers book first, so my expectations were high. Plus my wife really liked Mysterious Benedict Socety, so my expectations were high. It was a good book, appropriate for all ages. A nice mixture of suspense and intrigue. But I still like Secret Keepers better.

Next up: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

I liked this one better than the original book. A little more adventure and action. Two thumbs up.

Finally: Lost and Found by Orson Scott Card

This could have been a good book. But Card always seems to put just enough inappropriateness in his books that I can’t just recommend them outright. In this case, the activities of the bad guys are bad enough that I don’t want to describe it in this website. As usual, OSC is a good writer and the premise is interesting and the story is gripping. But overall the content is not for kids. Or teens. Or some adults either.

That’s it for the winter reading. Spring reading will be coming soon.