A hard day's work...

A hard day's work...  Yesterday morning my brother Scott came over, and a little later a couple of his friends from Newton (Tammy and Cheryl) joined us.  The four of us worked all day long toward the end result of planting 14 baby (bare-root) trees in our back yard.  Each of the trees got four T-posts pounded in around it, and chicken wire strung up to keep the dogs away from the trees.  These 14 trees were just a few of the 140 bare-root trees I had purchased a few weeks ago, so the rest of them needed to be bedded down.  We put them in two yards of potting soil spread out above a piece of weed cloth, all under a big willow in our back yard.  That potting soil all had to be moved from another location (tractors are so handy!), smoothed out, and then holes dug for all the trees.  Then we had to water it all down really well.  Debbie served us up a delicious lunch of homemade chicken salad sandwiches – we had a bit of trouble moving after that. :)

In the photo at right you can see the little T-post enclosures we made.  Inside them are an assortment of trees, including Nanking cherries, elderberries, lilacs, cotton-less cottonwoods, western red cedar, and a couple others I've forgotten.  All the plants looked nice and healthy.  You can also see my “lawn” there – sod laid down late last fall.  The tracks you see running directly away from the camera were made by my ATV when I was spraying.  We cannot figure out why these tracks appear in our back yard but not in the front yard.  The shriveled-up plants are the remains of dandelions killed (or seriously dinged) by the spray.  Obviously we have a lot of work to do on this.  Our front yard, by contrast, is quite lush with beautiful dark green grass.  Same sod, laid at the same time.  Weird!

Grill cabinet progress...

Grill cabinet progress...  I made a start on installing the cedar sheathing yesterday (photos below).  Each tongue-and-groove piece is glued and screwed in from the back side.  I'm not happy with the screws; they're not gripping well in the (relatively soft) cedar.  Starting this morning, I'm going to nail them in the conventional fashion (nails hidden in the tongue section). 

In the second photo you can see one end panel completely sheathed.  It looks great already; should look even better after sanding and varnishing.

A fellow from our granite vendor came out yesterday morning to “template” the countertop.  Basically that means making a very precise measurement of the surface the granite will sit on.  First he measured the flatness of the plywood top, using a laser tool.  If the top wasn't perfectly flat, they'd need to either flatten the plywood (using a belt sander) or match the contours by grinding the granite's bottom (expensive!).  My cabinet top was so flat that no corrections were needed at all – something he told me happens only once out of 20 or so cabinets he measures.  Nice!  Then he used a fancy tool that measures the exact dimensions of the actual countertop.  This becomes the template that they use when fabricating the actual granite.  We're scheduled for delivery tentatively on June 25.

I have a busy day here today!  Along with hopefully making more progress on the cabinet, I have to go buy some T-posts and fence wire, a Tesla technician will be here to repair some broken brackets in the luggage area, and contractors will be here to work on our landscaping, on our lawn, on my office air conditioning, and on installing the natural gas feed for the grill.  Lots of balls in the air!

Beautiful Indian paintbrush...

Beautiful Indian paintbrush...  On a drive out toward Ant Flats yesterday afternoon I spotted a group of spectacularly crimson Indian paintbrush – perhaps 20 individual plants scattered over a few square yards.  Most of the Indian paintbrush around here are far paler than these.  The photo at right will give you some idea (click to embiggen)...

Grill cabinet progress...

Grill cabinet progress...  The photos below show various points in the construction of the three bottoms.  The first photo shows what turned out to be the most challenging bit: fabricating “rails” for the bottom to sit into.  These rails hold the entire weight of the cabinet, so they have to be nice and strong.  I glued them and put screws every three inches – they shouldn't be going anywhere!  :)  In a couple of the photos you can see the creating clamping I needed to hold the bottoms onto the rails while the glue set up.  I finished the third one just before I wrote this post; it's now glued up and creatively clamped.  All that remains to do before the granite template guy shows up tomorrow is to flip that last cabinet right-side up, and bolt it back onto the other two.  Almost there!

Galton boards, lilacs, and cabinets...

Galton boards, lilacs, and cabinets...  I recently bought a Galton board (from Amazon).  You can read all about it, and see video of it in action, at the preceding link.  This is definitely a most geeky gadget: a mechanical device that demonstrates (beautifully!) a normal distribution.  As one whose nickname (“six sigmas”) is related to the normal distribution and standard deviation, this was irresistible to me. :)  I've yet to work through the math to understand why it works, but watching it work is positively mesmerizing...

Just north of our house, in a field on the east side of State Highway 165, there is a gorgeous group of lilacs.  We stopped yesterday to take these photos of it (below).  The scent was very intense just downwind, where I stood when taking all of these photos.  After standing there for a minute or so, then re-entering our car, the car smelled downright bad!  :)

I made more progress on the cabinets as well.  I've now unbolted the units so I can work on them separately, and I'm fabricating the bottoms.  These are made of 3/4" birch plywood (really pretty stuff) with a 3.5" high “pedestal” constructed of redwood 2x4s underneath it.  This pedestal provides a “toe kick” at the bottom of the cabinet, to make it more comfortable to work right at the cabinet edge.

Grill cabinet progress...

Grill cabinet progress...  At right is the current state of the cabinet: all frames completed, all 1.25" thick plywood tops installed, and the three units bolted together.  The fit of the three units together was practically perfect – I needed a little sanding on some overhanging plywood, but that was it.  The three units are held together with 8 bolts (3/8" x 2").  My plan is to finish all the woodworking part of them in the shop (including finishing them with marine spar varnish), then move them into place on our deck.  At that point I'll assemble them and call the granite folks to come install the countertop.  I think each unit is going to be around 120 pounds, maybe 150 for the longer center unit.  That's quite enough to have to move around – no way I'm moving them with the granite installed!

Yesterday morning I took the two units with cutouts over to our deck to test fit the grill components.  To my vast relief, they fit perfectly.

The first two photos below show how I cut the plywood tops (from ACX plywood).  You have to look close to see that I have two sheets of plywood clamped together there: one 3/4" piece and one 1/2" piece.  The two together get me the 1 1/4" thick plywood the granite countertop requires.  The saw is a battery-powered Makita circular saw.  It's not merely convenient – it makes a very nice cut with just a 1/16" kerf.

The third photo shows how I attached the bottom sheet to the frame (the same way for each frame).  I put screws every 3" where the frame touches the plywood.  Before I screwed it in, I put down a coat of wood glue on the frame top.  That piece of wood isn't going anywhere! :)

The fourth and fifth photos show the glue-up for the top piece on the two units with cutouts.  That used a lot of clamps!  For the third unit, with just a big flat countertop, I had to do some tricky clamping to make sure the center of the two pieces of plywood was under pressure.  Then of course I forgot to take a photo of it.

The last three photos show views of the three units aligned and clamped together, before I drilled the holes for the bolts that now hold the units together.  That was the first time I had tested the fit of the three units to each other – I was really happy to see that they fit so well!

My dad...

My dad ... would have been 94 years old today.  It's been over four years since he died, but I still miss him every day.  Happy birthday, dad...

Grill cabinet update...

Grill cabinet update...  Bottom line: progress!  As I write this, all three frames are complete and test-fitted to the grill components.  Everything fit, proving once again that measuring actually works! :)  I got delayed a bit yesterday by the need to mow down about 2.5 acres of weeds.  That was made worse by the fact that my mower died about 3/4 through the job – had to borrow my neighbor's mower to finish the job.  This morning I ran that broken mower up to the service facility and  bought the remaining lumber I need for the cabinets – along with about a zillion screws and two gallons of marine varnish.  This afternoon I'll be putting plywood tops on the cabinet units: first a 3/4" thick top, then a 1/2" thick piece over that.  The 3 cm thick granite we bought for the top requires this much plywood as underlayment.

The photos below show work from yesterday and the day before.  The first photo is at the request of a reader who wanted to see the pocket screw hole jig in action.  Once I clamp the board into the jig, I just drill down until the stop on the drill bit hits the jig, and voila! – the pocket screw hole is done.  In the second and third photos you can see what those holes look like.  The fourth photo shows my original clamping technique for installing the 45° braces – and the next photo shows my slightly more refined (and much better!) current technique.  Finally there's the last two frames after I finished them.

Now I'm headed down to cut plywood for the tops...

A mangy moose!

A mangy moose!  And a lot of other wildlife – that's what Debbie and I saw on our outing to Blacksmith Fork Canyon last night.  I took a couple less-than-superb photos with my iPhone:

We did not expect to see a moose on the canyon bottom in the springtime.  Our own experience, plus the wisdom of many locals, tell us that the moose decamp to higher altitudes when the winter is over.  Not this one!  She had big patches of fur missing, with her black skin showing through.  From reading, this is most likely the result of a “winter tick” infestation, although it actually could be mange.  Other than the skin condition, she looked healthy enough, and certainly well-fed.

In addition to the moose, we also saw about six bazillion deer – including one herd of eight who tried to commit suicide by running in front of our car.  We stopped in time, and in the process learned just how fast a Tesla Model X can stop: really fast!  We saw lots of birds: several separate viewings of American dippers, a northern harrier, a single female turkey (weird, that, as they're basically always in a flock), a male Bullock's oriole in full mating plumage, swarms of swallows (three different species), a male Lazuli bunting, and several banded kingfishers.  The most interesting sighting was a bird we think is one of several sandpiper species.  We didn't have our Sibley's with us, and by the time we got home our memories were fuzzy.

There were many of the shrub at right in bloom along the road.  I don't know what it is, but they grow up to about 15' in height.  The flowers have a mild, earthy, and very pleasant smell – not sweet at all.  There were hundred of bees on this small specimen I photographed – must be a good source of nectar...

The stream at left is a fork from Blacksmith Fork River, coming from the south.  It's running a little bit higher than usual, making all the rapids and waterfalls noisy and beautiful...

It was a great evening's outing!

Well, that was a depressing read...

Well, that was a depressing read...  Depressing, that is, if (like me) you believe engineers and scientists need to be competent.  Consider:

The science diversity charade wastes extraordinary amounts of time and money that could be going into basic research and its real-world application. If that were its only consequence, the cost would be high enough. But identity politics is now altering the standards for scientific competence and the way future scientists are trained.

Read the whole thing here.

The article is primarily about American education, but the same sort of thing is playing out in other parts of the world as well. It seems clear there's only one possible end result of this craziness: America's work force will become increasingly less able to compete in the world.

That leads immediately to the next question: where in the world is this sort of thing not happening? What comes immediately to mind is India (where they have a host of other education problems), China (ditto), and little outcroppings of sanity like Estonia and Hungary.

So if I let this play out in my mind, the next century's best scientists and engineers will be dominated by citizens of those countries. How will that impact Americans? The last 30 or so years of Greek history provide a model, I suspect: bigger, more socialist government, out of control debt, emigration of the best of us, and so on.

Oh, I get so depressed thinking about this...

Beautiful spring day in Paradise...

Beautiful spring day in Paradise...  As planned, yesterday was a “bookkeeping day” here, and I got it all done by early afternoon.  After a steak-and-asparagus dinner (with crème brûlée for dessert!), Debbie and I relaxed the rest of the day.  It was rainy on-and-off, with a couple of lightning storms passing by us to add some excitement.  This morning dawned mostly clear, but cold (it's 41°F as I write this). 

Today I have a few calls to make, mainly to get some contractors going – and then I'm on to grill cabinet unit #2!

Grill cabinet, continued (and more)...

Grill cabinet, continued (and more)...  I got a good six or seven hours in on the cabinet yesterday.  The first of three units is now completely framed out (at right) and another begun.  The unit you're looking at holds a duplex gas burner unit in the opening at top center.  There will be a sheet of 3/4" plywood on the bottom, inset into the bottom of the frame.  The top will have a sheet of 1-1/4" plywood as a base for the granite; that sheet will be attached to the top of the frame.  The three sides that don't butt up against the center unit (this one is the left-hand unit) will be sheathed in 3/4" western red cedar (4" wide tongue-and-groove).  All of that should be considerably less work than this frame was...

This morning I caught an error on my part in the dimensions for the granite.  That prompted some very careful measurements, drawing, and double-checking before I fired off an email to our granite fabricator.  Next time I visit there, they'll probably throw something sharp and heavy at me!

Debbie made her signature broiled scallops for us yesterday, and we both thought they were the best she's ever done.  She doesn't know whether its because the scallops were better, or because she did something different, or both.  Doesn't matter, because DAY-UM those things were good!  She also broiled some asparagus that was excellent.  Afterwards, we drove up to Aggie's creamery and had ourselves some excellent ice cream.  Then we went for a drive in the area round Young Ward, looking for yellow-headed blackbirds – and found them!  That's not my photo, but that's what they look like.  My mom loved this bird; knowing that makes me think of her every time I see one.  We also saw Sandhill cranes, red-winged blackbirds, pelicans, and lots of geese and ducks.

While we were driving, Debbie and I were reflecting, for the umpteenth time, just how crazy it seems now that we were once worried about being able to find good food up here.  Coming from San Diego, we thought we were leaving a foodie nirvana with lots of quality and variety – and headed to a foodie desert with neither.  Oh, how wrong we were!  Those scallops we had today were superior to anything we were ever able to buy in San Diego, on those few occasions when we even found them.  Amazingly, that's true for seafood across the board.  We have prime beef in the grocery store, along with bison.  Our milk is delivered to our door, and it's better than anything we could buy – at any price – in San Diego.  We have three excellent bakeries nearby (and more within 30 minutes drive), so we have terrific bread on our table.  There aren't nearly as many restaurants here as in San Diego, but ... we have about ten excellent restaurants in Cache Valley, and who-knows-how-many more in the Salt Lake City area.  We have great specialty grocery stores (like Caputo's in SLC, and several Hispanic stores in Logan).  It still seems remarkable, but the fact is that on a daily basis we're eating far better food here than we ever did in San Diego...

This morning Debbie spotted the first hummingbird of the year, feasting on the flowers in hanging baskets on our deck.  Spring is most definitely here!

Gradients...

Gradients...  As I walked out to my barn this rainy morning, this rock wall caught my eye.  This is the rock facade on the bottom of my barn's exterior walls.  We're having a very gentle rain, and there's basically no wind.  Above this wall, the steel roof extends out about 18", and there's no gutter.  That means the drips from my roof fall down in a straight line parallel to the wall, but about 18" away from it.  The roof at that point is 12' high, so those drops are falling pretty fast when they hit the ground.  Every time it rains, a muddy puddle forms along that drip line, and when the drops hit, they splash.

If you look closely at the rock wall, you'll see two separate gradients.  The easiest one to see is at the top, between the wet rock and the dry rock - there's a slow transition between thoroughly wet and completely dry.  That's the natural distribution of the splashed drops – the higher you go, the less likely that any drop will reach there, so the less wet it is.  That gradient looks like a linear density change to my eyeball, but I could easily be wrong about that.

The second gradient is hard to see in the photo (though it wasn't hard at all standing next to the wall).  It's a dirt gradient. :)  Near the bottom of the wall, there's quite a bit of mud splashed up on the wall, darkening the rock more than just plain water could.  As you go higher on the wall, there's less and less mud.  Again, it looks like a linear density change to me.  I'm making an educated guess that because a splashed droplet containing mud has a higher specific gravity than plain water, it weighs more and therefore can't fly as high.

I'm sure this dual gradient has been here ever since my barn was built, but somehow I never noticed it before.  I'm planning to put gutters up there this year, so after this year I don't think I'll see it again...

The grill cabinet is started!

The grill cabinet is started!  I was able to put four solid hours into this yesterday, and I got a lot further in that time than I expected to.  The first photo below shows the four pieces of a side frame, after cutting and drilling.  The poplar is very fine-grained, saws beautifully with no splintering, and drills easily and smoothly.  It's very nice to work with.  The second photo shows a horizontal piece (with the holes) and a vertical piece clamped together and ready to be screwed together. 

My friend Mike B. warned me that I had to be careful that the alignment didn't drift apart as I screwed in the special screws, but with the clamp as shown I had no problems at all.  He also warned me that the square driver tended to pop out of the screws and into his hand; again, I've had no such problem. 

The third photo shows all four main members screwed together.  To my surprise, the squareness of the result was perfect – no tweaking required.  The fourth photo shows the same side frame with four diagonal pieces put in for strength.  That's a completed side. 

I then built a second, identical side and a slightly wider frame for the back, using the same general design.  In the fifth photo one side is clamped to the back, ready to be screwed in.  This was my first attempt at a 90° joint using the pocket screws, and it worked just as well as the other joints.  Finally, the last photo shows both sides connected to the back.  That's a nice strong frame, and the building of it was easy and fast.  This cabinet isn't going to be as much work as I thought it would be! 

I have three units to build, all similar but different in the details.  Today I'll finish the burner unit (that's the one I've started) and start on the other two.  I suspect I'll be all done with the poplar cabinet framing by Tuesday at the latest (tomorrow is ... yuk! ... bookkeeping day).  Then it will be time for the plywood tops and bottoms...

Catching up a bit...

Catching up a bit...  I spent an entire day spraying this week (2,4-D) – our lawn and that of two of our neighbors.  I have a nice spraying rig that I tow behind my ATV.  I sprayed about 6 or 7 acres, and the stuff is working already – the dandelions are shriveling up.  It was satisfying to help out my neighbors.  I got a pretty intense sunburn on my arms in the process, though...

Debbie and I played Mexican train, finishing up a game this week.  Look at that score sheet – I actually beat her!  This is such a rare occurrence that I thought it needed memorializing...

On Wednesday I drove up to my brother Scott's place near Newton, to take him to a doctor's appointment.  The view at left is looking south-southwest from his front porch.  His house sits on a little knoll, and the views all around are really quite spectacular.  The mountains in the background are the north side of the Wellsville Mountains, obviously still snow-capped (the peaks are around 9,000' high).  The water is part of Cutler Reservoir, just south of him.  In the foreground you can see evidence that a “plant person” lives there: compost, manure, and a deer-proof enclosure.   If you look closer, there's evidence of the artist – mainly in the form of collected driftwood, rocks, and found objects that might be used for parts of an art project.  Directly above the windshield of my car, with the water in the background, is the so-far leafless trunk of a Russian olive that Scott sculpted into a very unusual shape – not much in evidence until the leaves come out, I'm afraid.

While I was spraying one of our neighbor's yards, I did a lot of driving underneath their four glorious apples (below).   This was very distracting for me, as I kept wanting to look up at them, with the blue sky making a backdrop.  This made for erratic steering. :)  The aroma under those trees was heavenly.  Plus the noise of the bees was so loud that I could clearly hear it over the putt-putting of my ATV.  I'd happily spray their yard just so I could experience this...

Yesterday we drove over to Tremonton to finalize the granite for our grill cabinet countertop.  It took us an hour or so to do that, during which I got an education from their folks about exactly how they want the plywood under the granite to be arranged.  That's all settled now, and our order is placed – when I tell them Go!, it will take about a week for them to fabricate it and deliver it.  The slab that Debbie chose has been reserved, and we've planned exactly where (within that slab) the countertops will be cut.  I've never built anything with granite before, so it's all an interesting experience for me.

Today I'm going to start actually fabricating the grill cabinet.  There will be updates.  Should be fun!