The Harvest Begins

The growing season is now in full swing. So far some of the crops are ready for harvest. These Chiles were ready to go so I went ahead and picked them. I think I am going to try and figure out how I can get a higher yield from chiles. I would like to produce alot of them for salsa and guacamole and burritos.


These are a variety of hers I harvested. There are green onions, chives, oregano, and thyme. These herbs became spaghetti sauce.

Next I want to try growing Kalamata olive trees.

ABQ-San Diego-Berkeley-San Diego-Las Vegas -Arizona

Last week I went to San Diego to see my friend Billy graduate from SDSU. He he is in his graduation uniform. Congratulations Billy! After the graduation I had to go to Berkeley for a conference to do a poster presentation on my research. I feel it went really well.



This picture was taken on the Day of the rapture. Unfortunately when Jesus showed up he took a look around and decided he didn't want any of us. Now we are all stuck here for the time being ;-).



This is the second surfboard I made. The paint job took 50 hours to complete. I decided it was time for it to have a new home so I gave it to my friend Kathleen so she can try to learn how to surf on it.



The conference food was really great. This is the lunch desert in Berkeley




View of the bay from Berkeley




Can you guess what this is?



It is the sculpture located at the entrance of Berkeley. I first saw it back in 2005 and I really liked it so I look a picture of it.




North Beach



I liked this sculpture I saw in San Francisco



This is the door to the world champion pizza tosser's slice house in north beach. This guy takes his pizza seriously. I like his attitude.



Coit tower



Fighting sea lions



Near Fisherman's warf. I love this bay. One day I would like to sail on it.



Hoover Dam

Near the Hoover Dam Overlook



Painted Desert in Arizona



Petrified Forest National Park



Petrified trees aka Dinosaur Trees



Lots of petrified trees


Dinosaurs speak for themselves


This was a successful trip!

First part on the motorcycle car is done

I have spent alot of time working on my motorcycle car lately, and have not had a chance to report. Here I am getting some pictures so I can get a handle on what the rough dimensions of my car will be.



bushings for the rear suspension in the making.



Here are the final rear suspension bushings. Eventually they will be welded into the chassis.



I made some updates to my chassis model. At this point I have a reasonable idea how I will capture the engine and rear suspension mounting points with the chassis.



Here I am making the rear suspension pivot pin. I rescued this metal bar from the Black Hole.



Here I am putting some 1/2-20 threads on the rear pivot pin.




Today this cat was pretty vocal about wanting to join the team.



I decided to give him a shot so he could showcase his skills. Unfortunately it turns out he was all talk. I told him he might be a better fit as a gopher killer on the farm.




Here I welded a nut on the end of the pivot pin so I can tighten it up.



This is the final rear suspension pivot pin. Part one down!



The final fit up of the rear suspension pivot pin and bushings. This went together very nicely. Next I am going to get to work on the chassis members that will capture the lower engine mounting points.

The plantation is planted

The plantation is in place and ready go grow - Something's going to happen.

Cradle Surgery

Last night I was going to go ahead, and get my motorcycle engine up on the cradle so I could see what I was dealing with in terms of size. Unfortunately, when I moved the cherry picker with the engine over to the cradle, there was no way I could get the engine in place without some gymnastics. The main reason for this, was that the legs of the cherry picker would not fit under the lower longitudinal beam that separates the upright beams on the cradle. I decided I was going to have to break down and do some modifications to the cradle. I decided the beast thing to do would be to remove the lower longitudinal beam on the cradle, and replace it with some rectangular tube placed higher up on the uprights so the cherry picker legs could slide right under it. I would also remove the two lower triangulation members, and I would flip them upside down so the would intercept the new rectangular tube longitudinal members.

At this point I was thankful for all the trips I took to the flea market buying tools.




This project took most of last night and a few hours tonight, but it is now done. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The modified cradle also has improved torsional stiffness because before the torsional stiffness was only provided by the longitudinal channel member. The two rectangular tube sections display noticeably more torsional stiffness.




Once the cradle was put together I pulled out the cherry picker again and got the engine in place. The cradle seems to take the load no problem. That engine looks alot bigger when it is at working height.



Here you can see the engine, and the rear portion of an ATV I will use for the rear suspension. The legs of the cherry picker fit under there no problem. This is nice because now I should be able to align the hook of the cherry picker with the CG of my motorcycle car very safety and easily. I am glad I took the time to do this.

Maybe its a plant holder

I am getting closer to implementing my ideas from a previous post in steel. Here is my current product hanging from the garage door opener. This is mild steel that I cut and then formed using a tree stump and a piece of log. Then I MIG welded it all together. Originally I thought it might be a table but now I am thinking it could be a nice tool holder, or maybe even a chandelier. Time will tell. I am not done with it yet.

atomistic

I felt I needed some inspiration last weekend so I cut up my empty cereal box and started making these shapes. My hope is to implement some of these ideas in furniture or pinstriping. I did do some work on my truck and it is running nice, so it may be time to lay some lines down on it. First I need to come up with the right design though. I think this exercise might convince a muse to show up.



All these shapes are made up of combinations of this atom.