It has been a long time in the making, but I am finally able to make use of a fully functional master bathroom! I confess that it has been about three years in the making. I worked on it when I had enough money saved up to do what I needed. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of what it used to look like, but then again, it might be safer that I don't! After all, I live in Santa Cruz County. I mean, really, all I did was re-paint the walls. If I did more than that, I'd have to have a really expensive permit to have someone from the county come out and tell me if I did an acceptable job or not. Since I am not very self critical about my work, I would have really needed them to ensure I did things according to code, which is available mostly online.... so I've been told. No, I did not take it down to the studs. I did not repair the rot in the floor and walls. I did not rebuild the entire closet drain for the toilet. I did not build a brand new tiled shower on my own. After all, I have never done this level of concrete work. Why would I do something like this for my first attempt? I would not have completely gutted the electric and replaced it, including a really cool towel heater that has a control module that is connected to the computer in the study to save energy and only power it during times when a warm towel is desirable. I just used the same Hans Grohe shower head with body sprays and automatic temperature control. I certainly did not add a new wet wall to improve the functionality for multiple people in the bathroom. I mean, how would I ever have managed to move all of the plumbing when one of the walls is positioned over a huge beam? How the heck would I have been able to connect to the original vent pipe from across the room? No. Everything is as it is, with a fresh paint/plaster application. The door to the bathroom, and the doorway to the closet are exactly where they were, and were not moved two feet to provide better accessibility. I do not have the patience or diligence to save up for new Kraftmaid cabinets and Corian countertops/sinks. I also would never replace the strange door that led out to the deck with a glass block window. Nor would I ever add 2" strips to the ceiling joists to provide enough room for a shower fan/vent. The tile floor looks really good for having been there for thirty plus years...

At any rate, yes, it took me three years to re-paint the bathroom and give me access. In fact, it was only last weekend that I managed to take the time to clean the now new looking glass walls for the shower. I even had to hire a contractor to come in and clean it for me so it looks like new.

It was quite difficult to find a good position in the bathroom to take decent pictures of the... um... new paint. Nevertheless, here is a glimpse:

Frankly, the pictures do not do it justice. Every morning I take a shower now, I have to pause for a moment with the water rushing over me, and grin. Not too bad for an electrical engineer. I mean, for a fresh paint job.

Not a contractor... but I play one in my dreams.

The time has come! Every fourth grader in California has to do a Mission Project, and we have finally completed ours. Annie has spent every waking moment that she has been home for the past week and a half working on making the best model of San Juan Bautista that she could... with as little help from her father as possible. I was in charge of power tools, and responded to the occasional 'daddy, this won't go together right,' or 'daddy, this won't stick.'

We started out with a trip to the barn to find wood scraps. I cut the base to the maximum dimensions allowed (12" x 12"), which seems way too small, but oh well. Then we were a bit stymied. We decided to print off a paper model from an on-line vendor to use as a template. Annie cut out and glued the paper model together, so we could get a feeling for the overall size, and number of pieces.

We marked the wood and set to cutting out all the pieces including arches, doors, and windows. It was now my turn, and I cut the wood and swore a lot as the old plywood splintered and chipped. I lost track of how many times I said, 'we can fix that later.' Annie applied the glue to the ends, and promptly plugged her ears while I used the nail gun. After a few pieces, I followed Annie's example and got ear plugs given that I almost broke an ear drum. We stared at it for a while, and decided to look at some pictures on-line because I did not trust the paper model.

Fortunately, we found some good pictures, and after some 'encouragement,' Annie agreed that we should add some details so it looked more realistic. We added buttresses to the side, and I cut a octagonal column to mount to the bell tower, which I believe is intended to also be a buttress, and not just a neat looking column. After that Annie spent hours painstakingly cutting craft sticks and gluing them in place to similar to what is on the real mission. She did a great job.

Next, we bought a can of touch-up drywall texture. This was far easier than my original thought of using drywall mud and a paint roller. Annie sprayed the texture everywhere, which means it is on the deck, her, me, and even the dog, I think. A half-hour later, she put in the window muntins that had been constructed earlier, she was spraying the whole thing with white paint.

We mounted the whole thing to the base, and she started built the door and gate. She stained the plywood that was to be used for the roof, and plugged her ears as I nailed the boards in place. We had talked about ideas for making roof tile, but it was going to be extremely time consuming. Fortunately, I found some plastic forms at the craft store that Annie was able to cut and glue to the roof. They looked great. After the door was installed, Annie started the next super-tedious job. She painted craft sticks with nail polish that was roughly the same color as clay tile, cut them into small squares, well, mostly squares... they were squarish. Anyway she glued all the squares on the base to make the tile walk ways and a small patio at the entrance.

By now, it was really, really looking good. The bells were put in the tower, and we were trying to figure out how to mimic the metal sheets on the bell tower. First we tried copper tape that I had in the garage. It wasn't horrible, but it really didn't look great. Annie would frown when she looked at it. As we pondered what to do, I had an epiphany. Before I picked up Annie on Sunday, I made a pitstop at the lab (work). I remembered some thin circuit board material that I used about ten years ago in an experiment. Unbelievably, I found it in about five minutes. We cut it and glued it in place, and it looked great. It was a little crooked, but it still looked great!

Anyway, all the was left was adding dirt, crosses, and plants. Oh yeah, we needed to mount our 3x5 index card detailing some facts about the mission. Everything went smoothly except the plants. Note to self: do not glue down dirt before gluing down plants! Annie had gone to the garden and got a bucket of dirt, which she sifted through a colander. She spread glue all over the base, and then coated it with dirt. Some of the dirt stayed loose on top (this comes in to play later), and it looked tremendous. Unfortunately, it made it very difficult to glue the plants down now that we had dirt everywhere. Nevertheless, she struggled on. She scraped the dirt away in places, and placed the glue down. Then she mounted a plant. It would come out, she'd moan, and then she did it again. Finally, she had success. Sometimes it took five tries, of course. She mounted some of the artificial plants that she bought with her mom and step-dad, but ultimately decided she wanted to find 'real' plants. We spent 45 minutes walking around the property looking for good plants. Interestingly, she made some really good choices. At any rate, she managed to come up with a few more 'trees' and shrubs, and got them in place. I drilled a hole on top of the bell tower, and she mounted the cross she had made out of toothpicks painted with silver nail polish. It looked stunning. A quick frame was built as a stand for the index card, and the project was complete. I think she held up our reputation for making cool projects like this. Our hotel last year rocked. I'll let you judge for yourself (click on the picture for a larger view)...




You can't see the buttresses or the cemetery, but you get the... er... picture.

Well, as you might expect, the ferns were showing serious signs of wilting this morning, as was the 'bush' made out of redwood needles in the back. However, it still worked. She sat in the car with a towel on her lap as I gently put the project on her lap. Unfortunately, I had to stop a little suddenly, and Annie lost her hold. She reacted quickly, but not before a bunch of dirt flew off and onto the floor. Luckily, nothing broke, and we were able to moderately salvage the dirt problem. It still looked really good. She proudly put it on the table where it looked like the crown jewel of the projects.

It was great, but thank God it is over.


Is the school year over, yet?

I may live in a small and non-affluent community, but our field trips rock! We left Boulder Creek just before eight this morning and ventured to China Town in San Francisco. For whatever reason, I only had two kids in my big, roomy truck. The trip to a field trip is always so informative. You find out so much about what kids are thinking. We talked about video games, video gaming systems, movies, and the boy with us also explored his thoughts on the political structure of the United States. I didn't offer my own thoughts, as I thought this would be inappropriate. However, from my vantage point in the front seat where they could not see my face, I grinned a lot at what this nine year old had to say...

We arrived in San Francisco in really good time. We then spent 25 minutes trying to make the last three miles to the parking garage. I breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered that I could fit my truck in this garage. That is not always the case. We were the second vehicle to make it there, and the kids played on the playground above the parking garage for quite a while before everyone trickled in and we joined our tour guides. I won't go into all we learned about China Town, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. For the most part, I think the kids found it interesting, but I don't think they absorbed what they were being told.

At any rate, we walked down various streets, seeing interesting parts of the community. We visited a Buddhist temple, and while we were there, a lady came in to make an offering to someone. I found that incredible. She left a bowl of fruit on the alter, said some prayers, and then lit a stick of incense at the rear of the room. This is not like a large Christian church. This room was only a little larger than my Chickdominium. She had to walk around 30+ kids and parents to get where she was going. Granted, we quickly cleared a path. It was an incredibly welcoming and personal environment. I was very impressed.

We walked through streets learning about the people who had settled and continue to live in China Town. I won't go into everything, but we visited a fortune cookie 'factory' as well. By the way, fortune cookies were invented in San Francisco. This 'factory' might not have been larger than the Chickdominium. But, we all filed in on one side of the narrow entry aisle, and filed out the next as best we could. The large back of cookies was $3.50. I found it whimsical that there were bags listed as 'adult fortunes,' which cost a dollar more. The guide told me that those were very popular with the elderly. Is that Chinese Viagra?

Everyone we met in the stores was very friendly and welcoming. However, when we were crowding an entire alley, some people walked by that muttered some things that I doubt I will learn from my Chinese lessons with Rosetta Stone. We walked around and learned for an hour and a half. Then we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I had been looking forward to this, but it turned out to be my personal low point. I think Annie really enjoyed it, though. As is typical, eggrolls and potsticker were given as appetizers. We drank green tea and water, and with several exceptions were very considerate about turning the Lazy Susan to make sure everyone was covered. Then lunch was served. Huge bowls of chicken chow mien, beef and broccoli, and fried rice. Unfortunately, the boy sitting on my right was not someone I knew. He has never been in one of Annie's classes (including this year), but half of our table was from another class. I was trying to help kids get their food without it ending up all over the table. This boy excitedly grabbed his green tea... and proceeded to dump it on the table and my lap. I looked like I had just had an 'accident.' One of the other parents was kind enough to go get me a pile of napkins, so I just cleaned up as best as I could, and salivated over the food.

By the time I had made sure all the kids I could reach had their food, and were happy, half of them had finished... second helpings. I still had not had a bite. Fortune cookies were being distributed, and I took the opportunity to eat.... actually, 'shovel' may be more appropriate. I am horrible with chopsticks, but I was able to move quite a bit of food very quickly anyway. Unfortunately, I was not fast enough. The same kid that dumped tea on me reached over my plate to get the fortune from the boy to my left. His sleeve was dragging through my food. I told him that it was not appropriate, and he just looked at me with disinterest. He did it three more times. I persevered by envisioning myself holding him by the throat over the balcony outside the restaurant.


Annie and her friends at our table enjoying the cuisine.


After lunch, we chaperones were supposed to walk back towards the parking garage exploring the shops along the way. The kids were allowed to buy a souvenir if they had brought money. As quickly as possible, I abandoned the other chaperones, and was able to find a point of calm again. Annie, Jason, and I were able to leisurely walk through the touristic offerings without me wanting to strangle anyone. Annie bought a dragon for luck that is really cool, and she has given it a place of honor in her room. Jason got a very interesting wooden crocodile. It is kind of hard to explain, but it has a tremendous number of movable joints, and moves around at the slightest touch. The lady that ran the register was great. She laughed when she saw it and made it move around in the air toward Jason, and asked him if he was scared. He replied that he wasn't, but his face suggested he was. I don't think it was the wooden crocodile that was scaring him, though.

We took a different route home that allowed me to escape the surroundings of the city and traffic longer. We climbed up our mountain range right outside San Francisco. The kids were falling asleep, and I drove through the fog in welcome solitude. Granted, most of the way along the ridge the fog was so thick I could not see more than thirty feet. The little light that made it to the road reflected off the water such that it was the same color as the fog. The only guide I had was a dim set of yellow lines on my left... If it wasn't on my left, I knew I was in trouble...

We had a great time. I love these field trips. I think our next one is to NASA. I was sooooo ripped off in Missouri as a kid.


Zai Jian!

The Chickdominium is essentially finished! Which means it is time to move on to the next project. I actually have one more thing to do, but I ran out of daylight. The top of the nestboxes is flat, and one of the chickens thinks it is a good place to roost. Consequently, it is currently covered in poop. I've decided that we will fix that when we clean the coop next.

The Chickdominium has no equal… We may be moving in there…

Pleased, and ready to start cleaning the garden...

Every now and then I have to remind myself about the Important Things in Life. Yesterday, I had one of those moments. Annie had gone down to the house, and I was taking a break from digging through the redwood roots to make a trench so we could bury the chicken wire in the pen. I was standing by the truck wondering if my arms were going to ever work again. Of course, they did as evidenced by the beer I was holding. At any rate, I looked up into the trees and saw something I had been seeking for nine years.

The problem with redwoods and douglas firs is that the branches are generally small and do not reach very far from the tree. Granted, there are some firs like the one by the barn, which is ten feet across at the base, but it is not a good location for this critical item in any home: a swing. Not just a swing like the one hanging from Annie's play structure, but a swing that inspires thoughts of really flying. A swing that makes a kid dream of being an astronaut or a daredevil.

And there it was: the Perfect Branch. It was about forty feet off the ground, a foot in diameter where it met the trunk, and extended out about twenty feet. As I returned to digging trenches, I started forming a plan for how I was going to get a rope around it. When I decided to put my plan into action, it proved more difficult than I had anticipated, but doesn't everything... Try as I might, I could not get the weight I had chosen over the branch. I hit it a couple of times, but the drag from the twine just kept pulling it down a little too much. Annie figured out what I was doing, although I didn't want her to know in case I couldn't do it. I was about to give up when I saw the crushed look on her face. We drove to one of our hunting-type neighbors to see if he had a bow. He didn't. I was running out of options. I sent Annie next door to see if they had something, and she came back holding a small lead weight. I was doubtful, but it was small enough to cup in my hand and I could launch it easily. The second toss found its way over the branch... about two feet further down the branch than I wanted. This location did not look as safe to me, so I tried to pull the weight back over. It got stuck... It's still there... with a long length of twine hanging down... I am trusting the curiosity of squirrels to eventually break it free.

Annie went back to the neighbors, and returned with another weight. Sometimes being a pack-rat pays off. With renewed confidence, I launched the new weight into the air, and we watched it soar higher and higher. It cleared the branch and came down the other side in the perfect location. We hoisted the rope up, cut a board, and ten minutes later Annie was screaming with enjoyment as she swung out over the hillside.



By the way, that's the old chicken coop in the background. It is now a rat coop.

No, I didn't get as far as I wanted on the Chickdominium, but this turned out better anyway. I really, really want to get that blasted coop done, though.

Happy daddy because of a happy daughter...

Annie told me that I should add pictures from the microscope to the website, so here I am! Here are a couple more from the prepared slides...



An insect leg, well, actually the foot. The hair is really cool!



A leaf cross-section near a stem area. You can not see them here, but in other areas, you can see the cells with the photoplasts that lead to photosynthesis.

Anyway, I love this stuff. Annie and I are going to take some water samples tomorrow to see what we can see. Oh yeah! I contacted the company that sold me the microscope, and they are sending me the correct software and documentation. I hope this changes the view that I see from the microscope camera because it is not quite what I see through the lens...





Dr. Hockanson, I presume?

I gave Annie what my warped brain thinks is a really cool present for Christmas: a microscope. I think it is awesome, and she seems to as well, but she might just be being polite. At any rate, we spent hours on Christmas Day looking at various things. Mostly, we looked at the prepared slides that were included as a free gift with the microscope. The scope can connect to the computer, but they neglected to include the right software, so I have to take care of that. However, I managed to find a driver that allows for a connection with another program. Here is a picture from the microscope and 100x magnification of part of a flea. Don't let this give you nightmares...



We are going to cultivate some water samples to see what we can see from things like the San Lorenzo River, and hopefully the ocean... This thing rocks...
Geek, and proud of it...

Merry Christmas!

This should be the second to last post regarding the Chickdominium. We have made great progress, and on Christmas Eve, the chickens moved in to their new abode. They do not have a pen, but it has been so cold and rainy, we figured they would appreciate a more cozy, rat-free environment now, rather than later. I have continued to spend my days working on the coop in Annie's absence. Everything seems to take me longer than it should, but we now have gutters, acrylic windows (completed before we moved the chickens), and the poop deck for the chickens to strut across on their way to the new pen.



I chose the acrylic windows so that they could get heat and light during the winter. I know... it is just a chicken coop, and they are spoiled. However, I thought this would help extend their laying time through the winter, and I do not want them to freeze when the temperature drops below freezing as it has in the past couple of weeks. As proof of their comfort in the new coop, we have had five eggs. I thought that the transition would upset them too much to lay, but there you go.

The storage area has turned out really well.



We can store two bales of straw in the straw bin (lower left). The feed bin (also lower left, but... er... lower) can hold 100 pounds of feed and about 15 pounds of oyster shells. On the lower right is an access panel to the waterer so we can clean it when necessary. The large cooler on the right stores the water. I plumbed it so that we can plug in a hose on the outside of the coop, open a valve, and fill the cooler. The cooler then gravity feeds water to the trough, which has a float valve to shut it off at the right level. I had a similar system before, but had to carry buckets all the time. This will be easier, and of course the cooler is twice as large as the bucket that I had in the old coop.

There are two access panels that stretch clear across above the food and water areas. These are to provide access to the nest boxes without having to walk in to the poop area of the coop. Granted, Annie loves to go in to the coop, and I understand why. Frankly, it is rather soothing to listen to the chickens when they are comfortable and happy. I walked in today and Lila Bird immediately 'assumed the position.' Originally, I found this endearing. After my friend Bruce told me that it meant that she expected me to mount her, it began to sicken me. At any rate, the chickens clucked contentedly while I looked around at how they were doing in the coop.



They have adapted beautifully. Lila Bird and Mickey both perch on the roosts mounted on the right. Mickey prefers the high bar. Unfortunately, Minnie likes to roost on top of the nest boxes, which are now covered in crap. I may need to build something to deter her from that activity...

At any rate, the coop is looking beautiful. I know it is much more than is necessary, but it has taught me a lot, and I like it... So, bite me.


Crowing...

I have forgotten how many times I have written about the chicken coop, but I have had several requests for updates. Well, we are making progress. We continue to make mistakes given the temperature and the fact that we have to often do our work in the dark given the loss of day-light-savings. That said, I am pretty pleased at what we have accomplished. Annie and I hope to move the chickens into the new coop by Christmas day. We have been challenged every step of the way! We were painting the walls during the cold snap, which resulted in me walking around with a flashlight and a paintbrush fixing the runs that happened because of the temperature. At any rate, here is a picture we took a couple of weeks ago.



We had put up the siding and roofing... actually, I had put up the roofing and siding because Annie was gone that weekend, or doing homework. I scared the crap out of myself when I almost fell off the tall side of the coop. I would assuredly broke my leg...

We have continued working when we could find time, and with the storms coming, I have been fairly aggressive on making progress. I finished the shingles last night at dark to fend off the rain expected last night, and woke up this morning to my surprise to find sunny skies. I foolishly decided I could get the trim pieces for the casing and get it in before the rain started again. While I was cutting the last pieces, it started raining. God has it in for me. Nevertheless, I managed to get it together well enough to finish. I will probably wake up tomorrow to see that the coop looks like it was crying given that it has been so cold that the pain hasn't completely dried, let alone cured. I tried, though, and I think it looks beautiful.



Of course, it looks better in the dark!



Do I really have muscles there? Why do they hurt so much?

My neighbor calls our chicken coop building endeavor the 'ChickDominium.' I thought I would offer some pictures of how we have progressed. I know. It is just a chicken coop. However, it has been a good vehicle for figuring out what my capabilities are. I am fairly pleased, but realize this could not be a career option if I am part of the 6,000 people being let go from my company.

The walls are as straight and plumb as crappy, twisted lumber would allow, and I am not displeased. The chickens are always watching us work, and offering suggestions for amenities. However, they are not going to have a hot tub, nor are they going to have a worm-dispensing machine.

I hope we are able to finish the outside before the rains begin…

Master of the ChickDominium...