Totem

The Man-Cub had to make a Totem for his Social Studies class. Of course he was so enthusiastic about it and it had to be as authentic as possible.

First he went out into the field to the east and cut a thick branch off of some brush - it smelled wonderful - it's a pine of some sort.

Then he shaved the bark off of one side with his Cub Scout knife - this actually took a lot longer than I would have thought - about an hour - but he was careful and didn't get cut.

Now he's ready to carve some symbols and the house smells Christmas-y.

He drew the symbols he wanted directly onto the wood and we went out into the garage and I helped him use the dremel tool to 'roughly' carve them out.

And I do mean 'rough' - there were lots of splinters and ragged edges that needed to be trimmed up so he used his Cub Scout knife and sliced those off nice and smooth.

Then he painted the symbols with craft paint.

The finished Totem - symbols from top - Cross - Fish - Music Note - Jack Russell Terrier - Smiley Face - that sums him up pretty well. He's really proud of his Totem - there was a written report and an oral presentation as well.