Zen Painting

So, summer is nearly a week from it's official end. It was really great this summer, getting to see my guys. Here we have Finley, Jess and Paul. They along with the others, not pictured here, were a great comfort through high school and even more so now. The vulgar brothers and one sister I never had. They have already gone back to their various colleges and universities now, and I'll start my third year in the local college as a biology major. I am pretty excited about this major: it's so refreshing, the study of life. What is more satisfying than that? Also, doing field studies? There are so many jobs and transfer options around the world to work on environmental studies and research projects on every continent and nearly every country. Travel options and pay for hard work, this sounds very satisfying to me. I am still working with Aileen to fix up her house a bit. I got a lot of the trim painted inside today. I really enjoy the small detail and time consuming tasks that demand close attention to precision and also an artistic task. Something very zen about the whole thing.
Last night while I was trying to fall asleep I got this idea for my salt cedar furniture. Here in New Mexico we have this plant, or rather large bush weed, called Salt Cedar that was introduced to the area as a way of erosion control. But turns out it takes in about 300 gallons of water a day and saturates the soil with its salty leaves and seeds so nothing else can grow there. It has pretty much taken over the Bosque del Apache, the local Bird Refuge and many of the irrigation cannals. So, I have had this idea for a while about making something out of this plentiful supply of reed-like wood. And last night I had an idea for a dresser and a desk to be made out of the reeds, two by fours, metal wire grids and mosaics. I'll draw up some plans and post them, if anyone has any input on how to improve them, let me know. I am really excited about this. If only I had some basic idea of wood working. But, I think if I keep talking about it with people, someone should be able to point me in the right direction.