wanting to do something extra special for Sophie after her fall I embarked on the adventure of building a big toy for her. In the end I want it 40 to 45 inches tall with lots of rope, leather and blocks to climb and chew.
Here is the beginning............. Two boxes of different type of wood blocks at Walmart costing about $15. I had to drill them putting a 3/8" hole in each piece in order to be able to thread them.
At a local leather craft store I found a large piece of vegetable tanned leather they sold me for $20.

those are my home made tinker toys I built for Cricket and Benji. Thats about half the stuff I made. They love it too!!

Can't wait to see the finished toy!

Me either!!

Ditto. I know this will be good.

here we have the blocks soaking in a flavorful mix of water and grapefruit seed extract.



then I carefully place the blocks "just so" on a tin foil (aluminum foil) sheet...



then bake at 250 degrees until tender!! Or dry.

mmmmmm looks tasty doesn't it?

You are such a tease.

Jim? You still around??? How did the baking go?

The baking went quite well thank you!!! Tender chunks of wood!!!
I gotta tell ya Kathie, next time I get a hankering to build one of these monster toys, I order the lumber from you!! 148 pieces of wood means I had to drill 148 pieces of wood. It was all good up to about 75 pieces......... hehe