May 19, 2009
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?
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?