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In October of
2004 we had a large white oak tree taken down in advance of
a large storm. I hated to waste the
when we had
so much wood already from the year before. Anyway, I decided to slice
it up with my 16" craftsman
chain saw. I
dried the planks in the garage for two years and then had them milled
into boards 1.75" thick. They still
have about 19
percent moisture so I am going to wait a bit longer to use them.
Recently my
middle son Ricky has been melting stuff in the backyard. Earlier
in the year he had learned
to make charcoal on
the internet. Next he bought a couple of yards of Naugahide and made
bellows. Then
he bought some special
refractory cement, pearlite and cement and made a kiln. He is now
using a small
chassis fan and bags of store bought
charcoal. Last week he was melting aluminum cans and casting crude
shapes in the sand. Earlier tonight melted a Planters
Peanut jar. He pulled it out of the fire making long thin
strands of glass. A little while ago he sent Doug in to say
that he had melted his steel poker. It was white
hot and looked sort of drippy, but it was not obviously melted. I can
only wonder what is next.
To find out about Douglas, our youngest you will have to visit his web
site http://www.shoofle.net
In May
of 2005 our oldest son graduated from Christopher Newport
University. Randy is now earning a
living as a web comic
with his www.xkcd.com He is also
looking at graduate programs in applied physics
or mathematics. In November, Red Hat Magazine did a profile on Randy
and his web comic. Red
Hat Profile
For a period
of time around 1982 I worked for several friends who did painting and
general contracting. Like my
on David
Doehlerts ferocement cutter, I liked these jobs best when they allowed
me to indulge in a bit of reckless
climbing.
This may date back to my days of "tree tag" on the U of D knoll on
South College Avenue. Dave's boat
had a 57 foot
high mast. That is about the same height as this ladder on this
painting job in Elkton, Maryland.
Back in 1971, my motorcycle completely changed my world. It was a
great escape. Did Beth know they were
taking a picture? Boy, did we all look that good back then?
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