TownKid Etsy Site

Memorable Links Clearing House

I'm cleaning up some fairly pointless posts that link to some memorable web sites.
This is my link clearing house:
D.E. Sellers - Great flat packed furniture
GamFratesi - Furniture. Ultra clean and minimalist.
Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Home (Google Affiliate Ad)  
Architectural Watercolors - by Andrew Zega & Bernd H. Dams (gorgeous, intricate, detailed architectural renderings.)
Snowglobes as fine art - by Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz
Nicebunny - paper toys, cool edgy illustration and design
Wikipedia list of furniture designers
Artnet.com - buy original art online
Takashi Murakami
Yoshitomo Nara
Moleskine notebooks
... to be continued.


I suppose this clearing house fits with my original mission for this site.  This was my first blog from Sept 11, 2007
What I like. Remind me.

Hello!
I keep finding these interesting web sites, or interesting designs, or interesting designers, or, just a small bit of culture or knowledge that is worth taking note of. I, of course bookmark them. The problem is I'm starting to get way too many bookmarks. AND, I want to compile a sort of road map of what I am interested in, from month to month, year to year. I'm curious what the common threads are... what is the common connection that links an interest to me? Frankly, it seems like I'm all over the place. I suppose good, is just good, but I want to try and figure out why, "it" is "good". Mapping my thoughts on "what is good," seems to be a good place to start.

Enjoy!

$20 Cardboard Box? Worth Every Penny.

Having drawn my three year old nephew's name for Christmas, we, of course, began the search for the gift that was thoughtful, educational and a little bit creative. My wife found a gift in a mail order catalog called Uncommon Goods that we thought was a huge (thinking refrigerator box size here) fire station box that he could set up, play with, crawl around in and paint. It got good reviews. We ordered it up. It shipped promptly, and we were promptly disappointed. No crawling around inside this box. Maybe we should have looked a little closer at the dimensions, but honestly looking back at the picture in the catalog, it appeared large...in the end, the size was less than impressive. We paid $20 for a cardboard box! Needless to say, we decided against giving it to my nephew for Christmas.

Fast forward to February. My son turned three himself and since this "box of disappointment" had sat in the corner of our closet since December, we just decided that my son would get it as a gift from his little sister... Well, I have to say, we honestly didn't give this $20 box a fair chance!  My son and I spent a memorable Saturday morning painting away on this box together.  The cool thing was, the crazier he got with the paint, the better it looked.  I filled in some of the details and I have to say we ended up with a finished product we could be proud of.  We let it dry and my son promptly filled it up with his toy firetrucks. I guess the old joke about giving kids toys and they'll just play with the box holds true... even if the box is the toy!  Brilliant!

Here are a couple boxes you can paint with your child:
Imagination Box 4 Paintable Barn from Sturdy Double-walled Corrugated Board (Google Affiliate Ad)Imagination Box Paintable Schoolhouse (Google Affiliate Ad)

My Big Obsession with Tiny Houses

Don’t tell my wife, but I’ve recently stumbled upon a new obsession.  One might argue, a big obsession, with tiny houses.  Why would my wife care?  Can you imagine telling your wife that you are selling everything and moving your family of five into what amounts to the square footage of a camper?  Yeah, like I said, don’t tell my wife.  She already thinks I'm a bit insane.  Her shoe collection alone wouldn’t fit in 100 square feet.  So, potentially disapproving wife and all, what is so interesting to me about these tiny houses? 

Much like the grungy Seattle Sound of the 90’s prompting the response of Britpop, I can only assume growing cultural interest in tiny houses is directly tied to the gross prevalence of the McMansion of the pre-housing crisis bubble.  What is a tiny house?  You said it, its a tiny house.  Usually, big enough for one person… (maybe two if bathing is a frequent occurrence.)  But the tiny houses that really interest me are the ones built on a trailer.  It’s the best of both worlds.  Tiny character filled houses.  Hand built, but portable, like a camper!  They don’t come with a mortgage, or even yardwork if you don’t want.  Physical and financial independence?  I can see why this “trend” is gaining a mainstream following.

From a practical standpoint, my family of five could never live in a 100 square foot dwelling… We live on a five acre farm and our house is considerably bigger than that… and there are days where we feel like we are on top of each other.  Five people? 100 square feet?  Is that even sane?  Sanity is relative.  Cleaning, maintenance and yard work can all make our expansive abode feel like a prison work detail.  But just imagine, in its simplest form, having a house that you are able to hook up to and move to a different part of your own five acres?  Closer to the road in the winter to avoid plowing so much driveway.  Closer to the creek in the summer to take advantage of the cool water and views.  Closer to the shed when I wanted to have family over for a birthday party.  Now that is taking advantage of owning five acres! 

Maybe it is the feeling that you could pick up your house, like a turtle, and move where a whim might take you.  Maybe it is the sense of independence it appears inhabitants of tiny houses enjoy every day.  I know I love the details and character one can pack into the framework of 100 square feet.  So, is there a tiny house in my future somewhere?  Sadly reality is knocking.  Three words: Family-Of-Five.  In the meantime, I’ll have to live vicariously through the internet.  Dreaming of the day when my kids have driver’s licenses and can join me in pulling their very own tiny houses to our next port of call.

The unofficial voice of the tiny house movement:  www.tumbleweedhouses.com
A like minded blog on tiny houses:  tinyhouseblog.com
Documentary on tiny houses, "We the Tiny House People":  YouTube Video
I just like the look of these architect designed "pod houses":  Greenpod Intelligent Environments
Nice aesthetic, using reclaimed materials in a tiny house format:  Reclaimed Space

2011 Garden Season: Seed Choices

Seed Potato: 2 varieties (Yukon and ?)
Yellow onion - seed bulbs
Garlic seed bulbs
Strawberry: Quinault
--
Spinach: Blomsdale Longstanding
Lettuce: Buttercrunch
Swiss Chard: Bright Lights
Kale: Dwarf Blue Scotch Curled
Brussels Sprouts: Long Island Improved
Kohlrabi: Early White Vienna
Cucumber: Straight Eight
Beans: Cowpea - California Blackeye
- Pencil Pod Black Wax
- Gourmet Green
Peas: Little Marvel
-Sugar Snap Pole
Carrots: Nantes
-Little Finger
Radishes: Sparkler White Tip
Beets: Detroit Dark Red
Tomato (Seed): Chocolate Cherry
Squash: Zucchini Dark
-Mammoth Table Queen/Royal Acorn
-Early Prolific Straightneck
-Yellow Scallop Bush
-Waltham Butternut
Pumpkin: Jack O'Lantern
-Small Sweet Sugar/Pie
Watermelon: Sugar Baby
Corn: Kandy Korn
-Peaches and Cream
-Ornamental Indian

Nothing in the ground yet. Weather is cold (mid 40's) and WINDY!

My Quest for Easy Green

About two years ago, I was really into a show called, "It's Not Easy Being Green". It was about the experiences of the Strawbridge family, located in Cornwall, in England. (I know, I sound very American.) Anyway, it was on the Green channel, when the Green channel actually played shows about green living. I moved, canceled the Green channel and stopped following the show. Recently, I was surfing the internet and decided to look the Strawbridge family up to see what they've been doing. While it appears James and Dick have gone on to make additional seasons of the show for the BBC, the two ladies of the household have decided to pursue other endeavors. I found the show to be charming, and frankly, their quest to live a greener life on a farm was an influencing factor in my decision to move to a farm. It just looked so fun and interesting.

I don't regret the decision to move to a farm, but, I will admit I haven't had time to pursue some of the cool projects they have tackled in their time on their farm, which they call Newhouse Farm. I suppose I'm writing this to add a reminder to my written documentation that I do need to renew my efforts to look at things like solar power, wind energy, greenhouse gardening, etc. So there you have it. Abrupt huh?

Cucumbers On a Trellis and Other Updates From the Garden

I seem to be in the habit of choosing direct titles for my posts as of late. As the name implies, "cucumbers on a trellis" is something I want to talk about in this post. While I had a overgrown bed of weeds in the garden this year, one of my grand successes was deciding to grow my cucumbers on a trellis. Here is a quick video on the basics. What I really appreciated about the trellis, was the cucumbers were easier to find, and they didn't get discolored by laying in the dirt. I had plenty of cucumbers (and thus refrigerator pickles) this year. I highly recommend cucumbers on a trellis.

What else was good? I started picking raspberries this year. Very tasty. If you look back in my posts, I planted these roots in 2009. For as much stressing as I did about whether I planted too early or not, I can say, "Why did I worry?" Raspberries are obviously resilient. Even though most of the vines died off, one plant managed to make it through the season. It came up this past spring ready to perform. It tripled in size and, I have to say, as advertised, these rapberries were as good as any you would buy in the store. One vine, does make a crop because they multiply so quickly. I should have plenty of raspberries this next year if the wildlife of the countryside don't get wind of them.

I planted sweet corn, summer squash, zucchini, acorn and spaghetti squash, and the previously mentioned cucumbers, in a new garden bed I tilled up this season. For the most part, it remained weed free for the bulk of the year. Because the soil was relatively virgin, everything performed very well. I got a nice crop of corn, though I'll choose a different variety next year... not very sweet. I planted 7 rows. I hear having a good number of plants is key in performance of sweet corn. It needs to pollinate. The squashes all did well, though I probably won't plant these as close to one another next year. The cucumbers were great, as previously mentioned.

So, once again, for as much as I dealt with weeds, I did have some success. This past year helped me realize that plants, if I want to be dramatic I say, life, wants to survive. Even though I could have helped my gardens thrive more this year, I had the lesson driven into my head, and underscored by the fact that even the most neglected garden will give you something... just because it can.

The Weeds Had Time and I Didn't

The title of this post pretty much sums up the year for my 2010 garden. After a year of gardening adventures and hard work in 2009, my wife insisted, "We will have a much smaller garden this year!" To which, I promptly disagreed and said that I would do all the work. Yeah...

So, I charged ahead, even going as far as to till up an extra patch of land on my five acres where I could plant sweet corn and zucchini and squash. I immediately got behind in planting. While I did eventually get all the plants and seeds in the ground, it was so late, it was questionable if some would have a chance to mature. We got pretty adventurous trying to plant lima beans, brussels sprouts, eggplant, etc. These all preformed as expected. (They didn't) But the real story this year was WEEDS! About the time plants really started to come up the rains came. Great right? Little seedlings need water right? Not if the rains last for about two weeks straight and keep you from weeding around your tender little seedlings. Killer competition.

I swallowed my pride and my wife called in the big guns, the in-laws, who came over at one point and tried to help me get a handle on the mess that was my garden. They brought a big tiller and some serious will-power, but, just when I thought I'd get ahead of this fine crop of weeds, the rains started again. To cut to the chase, I lost. The weeds won. While I got a decent share of some vegetables, and learned the lesson that your garden doesn't have to be perfect to produce, I also learned that if you really, really want to thrive, not just survive off your garden, you have to STAY AT IT, rains or no rains!

I'll be spending my winter figuring out ways to work smarter, not harder.

October: Looking Back on the Garden Year

It is mid October and we got snow the other night! Certainly earlier than we would expect around here. As a result, I just dug the carrots yesterday and picked the last of the pumpkins. The last produce from our garden this year! I write that with some excitement because, frankly, the one thing I didn't expect was HOW MUCH WORK a garden can be. It was well worth it... definitely a two person job though!

We were up to our ears in fresh produce this year. So, what went well? All the radishes we planted produced more than we knew what to do with. Carrots. We got our share. Lettuce! We had WAY TOO MUCH! It grew very well... which was our downfall. I'm the only one who eats lettuce in our house. Our cherry tomatoes (Sweet 100's) produced TONS of beautiful red fruits. The yellow beans and green beans we planted did great. Of course they would, this IS Iowa after all. Zucchini and Summer Squash, we found ourselves looking online for recipes to use it all up. Peas, the Sugar Snap Peas did just fine. Every cabbage plant we had produced a good sized head. We got some cauliflower and a bit of broccoli. And, along with a bunch of pumpkins and decorative gourds planted on another part of the property, we even got a few watermelons. I can't forget the sunflowers we planted beside the barn.

What didn't work so well in the garden this year? We planted way too many radishes to know what to do with. Next year, we'll do a small first and later second planting. Much less lettuce! And again, like the radishes, we'll do several plantings so we can enjoy it longer. Tomatoes were interesting. First, the ones I started from seed died off. Doing a little research, I failed to "harden them off" before I put them in the ground. We ended up buying plants from a greenhouse. While we got lots of cherry tomatoes from these plants, we didn't get many "regular" sized tomatoes from our other plants... I forget the variety. But, everyone I talk to said that their tomato crop this year was poor. Apparently it was too cold or something. Cucumber. We got a decent first crop, then, they got some sort of disease that made them all look like gourds. I've got to do more research on that. We planted eggplant which never came up. We planted strawberries and not a single plant amounted to anything. I will try again next year and try to stay on top of the weeds better. I think that there was too much competition. Our peppers were marginal. We planted banana, red, green, yellow and purple peppers. The banana peppers did ok, but the others were not so great. I think these needed to get in the ground sooner, because this early frost we had took out some pretty good looking SMALL peppers. We planted basil and cilantro in the garden this year. Next year, we are going to pot it. The weeds took it over. The garlic was a complete failure. Not sure we'll do that again. Some things are just easier purchased from a store. Our beets were devoured by deer (we think). We didn't get a single beet. Next year we'll fence them before the deer get to them. Onions were small. I'll try a different variety next year. The "regular" peas we planted got the blight (can peas get blight?) and we only got a small crop of those to freeze.

All in all, it was a good first effort. We learned a lot this year, and will gladly plant our garden again next year. I promised a garden layout some time ago. I'm still going to do this and post it. For my own records as much as for anyone elses' possible interest. Winter is coming... maybe since I don't have a garden to weed and tend, I can actually get some posting done this winter. Happy Fall!

First Week of May, Planting Seeds

My wife spent her spare time planting the garden seeds while I worked on a playset for the kiddies. Following is a list of the seeds she put in the ground this past weekend.
May 2:
Marigolds
Radish -"Cherry Belle" Ferry-Morse (FM) Organic -"Icicle, Short Top" Radish (FM)
Carrots - Scarlet Nantjes and Danvers
Lettuce - Mesclun (Sweet Salad Mix) Burpee Signature -"Bibb" (FM - Organic) -Gourmet Blend (Burpee Signature) -"Black Seeded Simpson (FM - Organic)
Spinach - Bloomsdale, Long Standing (FM - Organic)

May 3:
Beets - "Detroit Supreme" (Burpee Signature)
White Onion Sets - 3 in apart and some 1/2" apart for greens
Yellow Onion Sets - all 3 in apart
Peas - "Pea Progress" & Pea Mammoth Melting (both Burpee Organic)

We also took the tomato plants I started out into the garage to acclimate them for the colder weather outside and purchased a bunch of peppers, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plants from the green house. Still have more garden to put in.

Homesteading 101

In the interest of full record keeping. I also spent time this weekend planting trees around the farm and pasture. I put a couple Weeping Willows in down by the river. I hope the deer or other critters don't get them. Those will be very cool if they are allowed to grow up unmolested. Little H.B. and I put in six hybrid poplars on some high ground in the pasture. Three blue spruce were planted to stabilize a steep bank in the pasture as well. I also put one Bald Cypress in on the yard. It is questionably hardy in this zone, but, if it makes it, it should be very dramatic. All the trees are tiny little twigs at this point, but, if they take hold, I'm looking forward to seeing them grow big and strong. Who says there are no trees in Iowa?

Gathering My Garden Seeds

It is Monday the 20th of April. It was another great weekend weather wise, so, I tried to spend as much time outside as possible. I got a chance to till the garden, and start another long-time-coming project, a play set/swing set for the kids. I'm pretty excited about both the garden and the play set. My Wife has signed on for helping with the garden, she's excited about the prospect of organic vegetables. I'm on my own when it comes to the play set. I'll post some pictures and plans of the play set when I'm finished with it.

We also took some time this weekend, to purchase some of the seeds we will be planting. We bought mostly organic, with the exception of a few plants that are either ornamental, or, I'm just not totally convinced we'd find them easily in an organic format. My next post will be a complete list of the plant variety, brand and whether they are organic or not. Maybe not all that interesting to you, but, I'm sure it will be very handy for me going forward. My started tomatoes are coming along nicely in their little growing setup, though, they are getting a bit spindly. I thought using the combo natural window light and CFL would keep them from getting that way, but, I guess that isn't the right mix of light. Nonetheless, they are growing like crazy. I'm sure they will fill out once I get them in the ground.

I'm coming up with a pretty extensive "To-Do" list as I'm typing here. 1. Finish purchasing the rest of my seeds. 2. Purchase greenhouse started plants. 3. Do a garden layout! (I'm sort of waiting to do this until I know what seeds I'm going to be planting.) 4. Till more garden space. I tilled up the 30' x 50' space that was a garden last year. My Wife took one look at it and said, "We aren't going to have enough room." She's right, so, I'll be tilling more space. We are putting in a lot of plants. It is going to be a HUGE garden!

Starting Raspberries Too Early? I'll Find Out.

It is April 11 and today was a gorgeous day. The temperatures reached into the 60's, so, I decided to work outside as much as possible today. It has been roughly a month (1 week shy) since I last posted, and I had started tomato seeds then. Well, those seeds are now little seedlings, up and growing strong under the bulb and light from the window. I had one pot that didn't have a single seed start, but all of the other ones had both seeds planted come up, so, I carefully transplanted one seedling from another pot into the pot that flopped. I'll see how that goes. I touched the leaves of the plant only, hoping to minimize the chance that I killed it by moving it.

Last week, my raspberries from Gurney's came. There were six bare root plants. They arrived looking healthy, and, even though, technically, we are not past the last date for potential frost, I plunked them in the ground today. I picked a spot behind an old livestock building on the property that gets full southern exposure to the sun, and, I'm assuming has seen it's share of "organic" fertilizer. If they don't freeze off, they ought to do well there. I'll watch the weather, and if it looks like we are going to get to freezing temps again, I'll cover the plants with a tent of plastic.

Starting Seeds

I realize this post is titled, "Starting Seeds", but I've decided I'm going to buy the majority of my vegetable seedlings for the garden this year. I'll give the seed starting thing a little more of a try next season once I figure out what does, or doesn't do well this year. The one plant, I am going to try to start from seed, indoors, then transplant, is tomatoes. I have to admit, I really don't like them fresh all that much, but, my wife loves fresh tomatoes. I guess, I do like salsa, and it seems like tomatoes are the thing to start early, from seed, so, that's what I've chosen to try.

I'm just going to attempt to start seven plants. Mostly because that is how many containers I happened to have on hand. (Seven is also a lucky number!) My son Henry and I had a great time putting the dirt in the pots... cut off 1/2 gallon milk cartons and a couple of reused plastic nursery pots. We planted the seeds about a 1/4" deep. I put in two seeds per pot, in case one is bad. I'll decide when they come up, which seedling looks like it has the best chance, then pinch off the other one. I believe the last frost is around the first week of May here in Northwest Iowa. The tomato packet says to start the seeds 6 to 8 weeks prior to planting, so, I think I'm pretty close on the time line. I, admittedly, didn't give myself a whole lot of time to compensate for errors or a lack of germination.

In the interest of keeping my little growing operation out of the way, I've put the pots on a window sill in the basement that gets decent light, and I'll supplement the natural light with a compact florescent bulb on a timer. It should be a little better on the electricity usage than a traditional broad spectrum grow bulb. I've read a few places that florescent bulbs are as good as long as you have a warm and cool bulb. I'm hoping the window and a CFL will do the trick. I've also read that if you don't supplement your light with an artificial light of some kind, your seedlings will be tall and spindly. Which, isn't good. You want stout seedlings with relatively thick stems. "The experts" recommend around 12 hours of light a day for starting seedlings. I'll see how this setup goes. Speaking of experts, here are a couple links to Iowa State University pdf files on Home Vegetable Gardening and Starting Garden Transplants at Home, which, is where I got a lot of this info. Consider this a nod to my source.

I purchased Burpee organic tomato seed. Baxter's Bush Cherry Tomato and Beefsteak varieties. I used some regular potting soil that I had around. I don't know if having "seed starting" soil will be an issue or not. Maybe. I think potting soil has less organic matter in it, which doesn't allow the soil to get overly wet for the seedlings. One thing I did notice after the fact, is that the potting soil I used is not "organic", so, technically, it was pointless to spend fifty cents more per packet to buy organic seed. True organic vegetables never touch a chemical or pesticide anywhere in the process. I can't imagine it makes that much of a difference in the long term growth of the plant. Unless my potting soil has been sterilized by using arsenic! Anyway, I'll keep posting on how my little seed starting experiment goes... It's not like I can go weed the garden right now. So, I guess this is what I have to "garden" at the moment.

Here is a picture of my seed starting setup. Yes, it looks a little ghetto, but, I'm experimenting. I'm not going to go crazy with intricate lighting and containers. If I can get seeds started in this manner, think what will happen when I actually put some time into it!

My Vegetable Garden Wish List

This is the list I've compiled of vegetables I would like to try in the garden this summer. Again, I am in Northwest Iowa. I'm considering this list a place to start. Admittedly, I will have to whittle this down into something more manageable as I'm sure I won't have the space, or probably time, to put in, and maintain, everything that is on it. Here it is, in no logical order at all.

Sweet Corn (hey, this is Iowa after all)
Sunflower
Pumpkins
Gourds
Squash
Cucumber
Beans
Tomato
Melons
Lettuce
Raddish
Beets
Carrots
Strawberries
Zucchini
Potatoes
Peppers
Garlic
Onion
Cabbage
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Peas
Egg Plant
Spinach
Asparagus
Cauliflower

I've already ordered "Heritage Raspberries" from Gurney's. They say they will deliver them when the time is right for planting. I will slowly be working through the rest of the list above, and determining what varieties and how much of each one of the above I will be planting. Check back, hopefully I can post notes on my research for the best plants.

69 Degrees in March

So, it is 69° and it is March! Beautiful day, and since I'm home "parenting" the kids today because the Wife has the flu, I thought I might go outside and measure my garden space while the kids are napping. (My dog Franny was happy to help...)









Obviously, I have room to expand if need be, but one has to wonder if you can make a garden too big? So, I measured, and the space that has been used is 50' long by 30' wide. That's pretty big! I've lived in apartments smaller than that.

Following are a few pics of the garden. Other than being under a mushy mess of mud and slush, it is an exciting thing to see the ground again. Gives me hope that spring might actually come again. Next step will be to draw the space out to scale, and see how the vegetables I want to put in fit.

The Farm Under Tons of Snow

Thought I would post pictures of the farm and all the snow we got. Yes, the house is yellow. No, we didn't pick out the yellow. Yes, we will be changing the yellow. But I digress, even though I'm looking at 8' piles of snow, I'm still thinking about my garden. If it warms up a bit, I might go out and measure the garden space so I can do some plant layouts. Wow, I'm exciting.

-0° and I'm Plannin' My Garden

Really? Has it been since September since my last post? Wow! Well, a lot has happened since August of this past year... as I think I mentioned, we moved our family from the relatively large city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to a farm (my Wife prefers "acreage") outside of a small town in Ioway! I'm closer to work. We've got room to spread our wings. I've got lots of buildings to tinker with and in...

Funny, we seem to have picked the worst winter in recent memory to move to a farm. I'm reminded of just how much I really don't know about this world and how really vicious it can be... Read here: getting my car stuck in the snowbank half way down the driveway. Proceed to walk the 1/4 mile down the driveway to get the mail and nearly die of hypothermia. I'm thinking of Pa on Little House in the blizzard here. Yeah, internet, cell phones, cable t.v., cars ...and mother nature can still simply kick your tail when you aren't paying attention.

Anyway, to pass the time this evening, on a cold January night, I'm planning my garden. I've got room to plant here people. And I'm wondering if I've got more ambition at this point than is healthy. Sure, I grew up with a garden, but, somehow, it just took care of itself (thanks Mom!). Since this is a blog about what I'm into... I figure it is fair to make this process of planning, growing, maintaining and harvesting my garden this year a regular feature on my design blog. Hope you'll (whoever "you" are) look in from time to time on my success and failure. Maybe you'll learn something from my trial and errors... I'll try to post pictures and keep a relatively interesting journal. Thus, the TownKid becomes the FarmKid. What can I say, I'm a complex individual.

Studio Mama's Pallet Stool Download

Check out another great Studio Mama project out of the ultimate potentially free resource, wooden pallets. Download the Pallet Stool by clicking here!

Ain't Studio Mama great! Thanks Studio Mama! Buy some of her stuff!

Update on DIY Wooden Train Sets

I've been informed that the link to the instructions for building your own wooden train set is no longer active. See my original post on building a train table and your own wooden train set here. They were great instructions posted by Mr. Donnely. Unfortunately, he's apparently decided to stop keeping that site up, and I never got the chance to put his great ideas to the test. But, I will do my best to fill you in on what I remember from his methods, and share some sites that might help you make your own wooden toy train set.

First a useful site kept by a wooden train enthusiast with instructions and ideas for making wooden train sets. Hoogerland National Railways. Hoogerland also offers some good sources for parts to make your trains.

Wikipedia listing on Wooden Trains.  Some great info as well.

Making the track: Dimensions for the track can be found at Hoogerland National Railways. The best method Mr. Donnely used was a router bit set designed for this specific purpose. I found a source at Rockler.com. A quick Google search will get you a few other sources as well.  Bosch-rotozip-skil 12 Piece Router Bit Set & Accessories 91012 (Google Affiliate Ad)

He also used a second method to make the "male" part of the tracks. It involved gluing in a wooden dowel and putting a ball end cap on the end. There were a couple of problems with that method in my opinion, the ball had to be sanded slightly to get it to fit, and, I thought if the ball came loose from the dowel, it could be a choking hazard.

The trains: Another quick Google search will get you all kinds of wooden wheel and axle sources. Here are a couple: Cherry Tree Toys Lara's Crafts or Casey's Wood Products.

Here is a message board that addresses some other stuff regarding the wheels and magnets you need. A couple of notes regaring the magnets... basically, it seems, you can find them at pretty much any hobby store, on the net, or even Radio Shack. The important thing to remember is that you make sure you get the magnets installed so they oppose each other, so the cars hook up to one another. You also need to use a domed nail of some kind to make sure the magnet doesn't stick together too firmly, and so you can turn corners.

One thing I was disappointed to come up empty on was the domed axles like they use on the commercially available train sets out there. If you come up with a source, I'd love to hear where you find them.

I'll close by mentioning Hoogerland National Railways again. This gentleman, Todd, has done a great job of filling us in on some of his sources and methods. I urge you to check out his site.

Good luck with your build. If you feel like it, I'd love to see examples of what you come up with for your own homemade, DIY wooden toy train sets.