'59 Ford Inspired DIY Forge

I bought a piece of 3/16" thick stock steel last week to make a couple of custom brackets to mount my '59 bed to my '84 frame.  These are the last of the brackets that I need for the body.  Woo hoo!  Mounting the body has proven to be a challenge and I'm glad that at least this part of the project is coming to a close.  It's been a fun learning experience, but I'm ready for the part that actually begins to make the truck functional again.

I already have the front two custom bed mounts and the rear two custom bed mounts in place and bolted.  The bed isn't going anywhere.  That's for sure.  However, I wanted to give the bed two more mounts in the center to ensure that there can be no allowance for warping it in the event I wind up carrying a heavy load which, inevitably no doubt, I will.

I measured and marked the pieces of metal where I wanted a 90-degree bend.  I began to shape it using a hammer and a large, thick piece of angle iron as an anvil.  I started to get the bend, but it wasn't going to be anywhere near a 90-degree angle.  It was going to curve instead with a fairly large radius regardless of how much I would try to convince it otherwise with the hammer.  I needed heat.

I watched a couple YouTube videos of people creating makeshift forges of their own with some pretty commonly found household items.  I looked around a bit and realized that I could make one.  If for no other reason at all, I'm glad I did this exercise just to know that it is now an option for me to create other items in the future.

The video is a small non-polished documentary of me trying it out.  I had never done this before and I openly admit in the video that I don't know what I'm doing.  However, it was a success.  I needed a compound bend with both brackets.  One is a mirror of the other one.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but I got the exact compound bend I was aiming for.  The only way I was going to get this 3/16" steel to bend this sharply was with heat or a very large metal brake.  Since I have no such metal brake (nor can afford one) but can make heat, I only truly had the one option.

With the '59 body mounted and ready to go, my next step is likely getting the steering column installed and secured to the dash.  Keep an eye out for the next update.

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Hot Wheels Collection Organization

From the blog: a Low and behold life (link in 1st paragraph)

My wife found a really nice solution to store our son's HUGE Hot Wheels collection online.  I can't recall if it was Pinterest or Google Images where she found the photo, but regardless of where it was seen, it's true source was from a blog called a Lo and behold life.  They repurposed a wooden shoe rack from Bed Bath and Beyond into a really cool and useful shelf system for their twins' toy cars.

We decided to give the DIY project a shot. The shoe racks were available at our local Bed Bath and Beyond store, so we picked those up last Friday.  We commenced to painting them the following day using our new handy dandy Wagner paint sprayer.  It took Jodi some trial and error with the sprayer to figure out what works best, but she had everything painted in record time.  She also used a ton of paint in record time.  I expect that we will get the settings all optimized the more we use the sprayer.  However, right now, it appears that there's a trade off of paint usage to speed and ease of application.  Maybe, I'll do an official review of this sprayer once we have used it a lot more and figured out how to better balance ease and efficiency.

We hung our shelves differently than how our inspiration did.  They connected two shelves in tandem so that each shelf was wider than the cars.  We stuck with one shelf because the vast majority of the cars easily straddle the single shelf.  By straddling the shelf, the cars don't roll around when you take them down or put them up like they would if they were sitting on their wheels.  This makes them more stable on the shelf.  And, as a bonus, we were able to make twice as many shelves as we would have otherwise.

With the cars having to straddle the shelves, however, I was going to have to space the shelf out from the wall about a half inch.  I could have bought spacers or used washers or something, but the cheapest and most customizable option was to get a 30" PEX water supply line from Home Depot (pictured to the right) and then cut it up with a utility knife to make the perfect length spacers for this application.  One of these lines is only $1.58 at my local Home Depot store.

Here's how our shelves turned out.  Lyric loves them and meticulously placed all his cars on the shelves himself with pride.  Now he has easy access to all his cars.  He can see them all, so he can pick which ones he wants to play with.  And, he'll have fun putting his cars up when he is done.

We also built a bunch of shelves out of pallet wood that was being discarded at my work.  I snatched it all up  and Lyric and I made a bunch of shabby-chic shelves in no time.  

All the shelves displaying his Hot Wheels collection.

A little more detail to show the shelves spaced off the wall.

   

Two of the shelves we made from pallet wood being held up by standard shelf brackets.

  

Four more super-long shelves for the craft room.

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Motorized Camera Slider

I'm a bit of a nerd.  I know it and I'm not ashamed.

Recently, I watched a video on YouTube that was a compilation of time lapse videos.  The video was gorgeous from beginning to end.  It wasn't something that you could just stop half way through.  The most amazing thing about time lapse videos is seeing a lot in a small span of time.  No one wants to watch grass grow but when someone figures out how to cram 3 weeks worth of growth into one smooth 5-second video no one can look away.  So many cool things are happening around us all the time but at a snail's pace.  Time lapse shows us a new way to look at things.  It reawakens our sense of wonder.

One thing that made this time lapse video stand out above the others that I've seen was camera motion.  About 30 seconds into the video, it hit me.  "How do they do that?!"  I quickly answered my own question as I realized that in order to add smooth camera motion (pan, tilt, or slide), one would need a motor to control the motion.

My mind started running, but before I inadvertently reinvented the wheel I jumped on YouTube once again and found a video of an inexpensive DIY motorized time lapse camera slider.  Thanks to this fellow nerd and his willingness to share his design, I feel both empowered to build my own motorized time lapse slider as well as find and proudly wear a winter coat with a large fur-lined hood.

First, there was a trip to Lowe's to pick up the angled aluminum for the main rails, the all-thread for the dive shaft, and a bunch of various pieces of hardware for the legs and connections.  I already had some leftover flat bar aluminum from another project.  I built my wheeled camera platform completely from random materials that I already had.  I did have to buy a universal ball joint camera mount, low-speed electric motor, and AA battery pack from Amazon.com.

I also still need the gearing.  Unlike this guy, I'm not going to connect my electric motor directly to my drive shaft.  I'm going to gear mine down.  In the video he says that his motor turns at 24 revolutions per minute (rpm).  Mine turns pretty close to 28 rpm.  The all-thread I'm using is 5/16" so it has 18 threads per inch.  My slider is 4' long, but will only have a camera travel distance of about 3.5' or 42".  That means I have 756 threads of camera travel.  At 28 rpm, it would take exactly 27 minutes (00:27) to complete the camera motion.  That's not enough time to get the kind of time lapses I want to get.

This video is full of examples of the duration of time I would like to cover with my time lapse videos.  I'm looking to cover about 2 hours.  That would allow me to capture sunrises, sunsets, celestial movement, substantial work being performed, etc.  27 minutes just couldn't quite get that.  This guy's slider is shorter than mine and so he has even less capture time than that.  I think that I am going to buy a 16-tooth pinion gear and a 72-tooth spur gear.  These are used on hobby remote control cars so they're durable, readily available, and cheap.  By fastening the spur gear to the drive shaft and turning it with the pinion gear on the motor's output shaft, I am able to slow the drive shaft down to 6.22 rpm.  At 756 threads of available camera travel. it will take 2 hours and 1.5 minutes to get from one end to the other.

Another difference in our designs will be that I will have two tripod mounts, one on each end of my slider.  It will allow me to mount it in a wide range of different positions to capture motion going up, down, sideways, etc.  It will have legs just like the one pictured here so that it can be used on any flat surface, but with the added tripod mounts I can set it up anywhere.

I'm looking forward to the finished product.  I've got other things going on, so it's not a "front burner" project or anything.  But, I'm sure I will get it all put together soon so that I start setting it up and capturing some cool video.  Of course, you'll know when I have some because I'll be posting some stuff on here.

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Goodbye, Facebook

I have decided to delete my facebook account.  It was an easy decision to make, yet did not go without several instances of personal reluctance to do so.

Why?  This is the question I keep getting asked by those who have a facebook account.  I'm not getting asked this question by those who don't have one.  Because, they don't know I'm deleting my account.  And, they don't care.  I look forward to being one of those people.

There is a grand myriad of reasons why I am tossing off the yoke of facebook.  I couldn't list them all if I tried, but I can list some of the top reasons that immediately come to mind.  They are, in no particular order:

• Lack of security.
• Facebook is a business.  They sell your information.  They always have.  And, they don't hide or apologize for this.  It's genius, really.  They have created a motive to get people to willingly profile and track themselves.  Since this information is so specific, it's very valuable for marketing.  Marketing you, that is.
• It's not reality.
•  What people post on facebook doesn't usually say much about them at all.  I cannot compare the time I have spent with friends with the time I have spent reading those same friends' facebook posts.  Time spent with friends is meaningful and I get to know them well.  That time is real and so is the content.  I can't say the same for facebook.
• It's not a responsible use of my time.
• I am married.  I am a father of three children.  I am involved in my church.  I work 50 hours a week.  I have many real friends.  I am renovating a house.  I am restoring a car.  I am coaching a soccer team.  Etc.  Etc.
• With all that I have going on in my life, I don't have time to maintain a digital profile of myself for others' sake of "knowing" me.  Nor, do I have time to browse an endless sea of junk to spot the few tidbits of "knowing" others.
• Define "friends"
• Let's face it.  I'm not friends with most of my facebook's friends list.  I've even been pretty picky about whose friend requests I've accepted.  Still, if not for facebook, I wouldn't know two cents about a lot of people and those people wouldn't know two cents about me.  That's not a bad thing. 
• I know things that I'd rather not know.
• Some of my facebook "friends" and I have not seen eye to eye on things.  And, while it's no requirement of mine that those I associate myself with carry all my same values, I wish there were some others' soapbox speeches I hadn't been exposed to.  I wonder if I would be better friends with some people if I weren't subconsciously using my "facebook impression" of them as a screening tool.  Don't hate on me.  You do it, too.  The difference is that I'm admitting it.
• I read that "Facebook Erodes Real Community" and I agree.
• I know that people don't make as much of an effort to visit friends since the introduction of facebook.  Why would I see that friend I haven't seen in three years when I've seen every post of his/hers since our last visit.  What could I possibly catch up on with them since we're already "caught up".  At the very least, it stands as a seemingly valid justification to put off visiting someone.
• What am I teaching my children?
• Do I want my children to be on facebook?  Maybe you do and that's fine.  Use your own judgement for what's good for your children.  But, I don't know that I want mine on there being exposed to an online social world where people say and do things that they wouldn't say or do in person.  Or, maybe I would allow them to have a limited profile with some heavy monitoring.  I don't know.  But, seriously, when I think about it, I think of how heavy of a burden to parenting it will be if or when it comes up.  Maybe things like that are better left to adults.  Regardless of how I want my children to use or not use it, one thing is for sure: I can't legitimately limit or restrict it's use for my children while I have given myself no limits or restrictions.
• At the end of my life, what total number of hours spent on facebook would satisfy me?
• 1,000?  100?  2?  It seems that whatever the number winds up being, it isn't anything to be proud of.  I tend to think that the greater the number the greater the shame, actually.  I'm glad that I don't know how much time I've burned scrolling, commenting, and liking.  It's too late for me to have 0 in that category.  But, it's certainly not too late to stop the number dead in its tracks.

I could go on, I'm sure, but then I'd be wasting my time doing this.  Plus, my lunch hour is over.  Time to get back to work.

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Home Renovators!

Almost everyone who knows us, also knows that we are DIY home renovators.  But, what is a DIY home renovator?  What does that mean?  Allow me to explain.

We are a rare breed of human.  We're superhuman.  We aren't natural.  We're supernatural.

We see into the future.  We don't gaze upon the work to be done, we visualize the finished result.  We peer into the possibility of a potential project and see what others cannot.  With our house, even our realtor tried to talk us out of it.  "Too much work", she said.  Scoff.  Quiet thy tongue, mortal.  This is our destiny.

We walk through walls.  Literally.  To our home, we've added 12 new doorways and closed off 10 old ones.  We changed the floor plan drastically to make more sense and to add 550 square feet of livable space.

We wear tool belts that shame Batman.  He may have a grapple gun for quick repelling and bat-shaped boomerangs to stun bad guys, but we have tools that shape steel, slice wood, shoot nails, and bond materials.  Batman may have items meant for destruction, but we sport the goods for mass construction.

We have immunity to the elements.  We breathe dust.  We shake off electrocutions.  We eat lead.

Our marriage (with God (the ultimate Renovator) intertwined as the third strand in our cord (Ecclesiastes 4:12) defeats the enemy on all fronts.  This article by a leading home renovation magazine states that a poll they took of their readers showed that over 12% of them have seriously considered a divorce while knee deep in a renovation project.  That's sad, of course.  But, rest assured, the most difficult project is no match for us.

All the joking aside, we really are different.  Major DIY home renovators are certainly the minority in this country.  I found this article online and really liked it.  It is a list of 9 things to do to keep your sanity during a home renovation.  It points out many of the difficulties that one will face when attempting even a small home improvement project, much less a large scale one.  Most people simply aren't cut out for it long term.

Proof that we are on the extreme end of DIY home renovators is the following list I also found online.  It listed 10 home improvement projects that you should NOT attempt to do yourself.  Yeah, we have already performed 8 of the 10.  Pshh.

• Tree Removal
• Cutting down trees, or even removing branches requires climbing and working with dangerous tools from a high distance off the ground. This is disaster waiting to happen, and definitely something better left to professionals who are trained and paid to do this.
• Home Additions Or Structural Changes
• Knocking down walls might seem like a simple task, but behind those walls could be electrical wiring, gas pipes and plumbing that can cause huge problems in your home. Rather than taking a chance, consult a contractor first!
• Paving Your Driveway
• Paving stones can turn a boring driveway into a focal point. And while they look relatively simple to install, the reality is that the measuring and positioning of paving stones can be tremendously time-consuming. (Think of it as a game of Tetris on steroids.) But a team of professionals can cut installation down to a day, depending on your driveway size.
• Electrical Work
• It's one thing to flip a fuse switch to the power in your home on or off, but another to attempt to repair faulty wiring or any other electrical issues without professional help. Working with electrical wires can be deadly and the proper precautions and knowledge are crucial.
• Plumbing Repair
• Unless it's something simple like unclogging a toilet or fixing a drain, messing with plumbing can cause major dilemmas (Just think about an overflowing toilet or unstoppable burst in a pipe...not fun). It's always better to ask a plumber before trying to tackle any plumbing issues on your own.
• Repairing An Above Ground Pool
• While we're sure most people wouldn't attempt to tackle a project like this on their own, we figure we should mention that it would be extremely dangerous to make these repairs. All it takes is one loose piece of siding, and the entire pool could collapse.
• Roof Repair
• Besides the fact that working on top of a roof is very risky because one could easily lose their footing and slip, it can also be detrimental to your home's structure if you don't know the proper way to install or repair roofing. If you are going to check the roof for damages or cleaning gutters, bring a friend and proceed with caution.
• Installing Siding
• If done properly, siding can last for years. But if siding is not securely installed, weather conditions can tear it off, or seep underneath, causing harm to the frame of your home. Rather than taking this chance, it's safer to have a professional install it properly.
• Adding Or Replacing Windows
• Specialized tools and methods are required to properly install new windows to make sure they are well insulated and secure. While it can be costly, a professional can ensure that you'll be comfortable in your home for years to come.
• Creating An Outdoor Kitchen
• We're the first to admit outdoor kitchens are fantastic, but attempting to put one in yourself could be disastrous. It might seem easy enough (a little flooring and a grill-station) but you could end up with a half-finished patio and plumbing gone awry. So while it might be tempting to build one in your backyard, ask yourself if you'll really use the kitchen year-round...and then, of course, call in a pro. 

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Rounded Deck Stairs

I saw these photos on my news feed on Facebook last week.  They showed up there since the person unknown to me tagged a friend of mine.  I suppose that they had been in a previous conversation about them and the person posting the photos was trying to show them as an example.  Just speculating.

I really like the rounded steps and it has me reconsidering my planned deck design.  As you can see in my mock-up below, I was planning on having a set of long deck stairs, but with two 45 degree angles in them to get them to wrap around and make the corner.  I think what I'll do different is replace these stairs with one set of rounded ones instead.  I won't quite get the same deck area from doing this since I'll only be able to bend these out so far.  But I think that it will be a nice custom touch that will help add a little calm to the deck design.  It will also tie in to the rounded brick patio area.

Another thing I realize that needs changing about my design is that the height is not at all to scale.  This design comes from a 3D version of my house that I built using Google Sketchup.  I began this project for the sole purpose of seeing what the house would look like in different color schemes.  My intention was to just build the house pretty basic and only focus on the front and one side so that I could show my wife as many different color schemes as her heart desired from the one angle.  However, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was searching the web for 3D versions of some of the most needless detailed additions to my model.

The benefit is that I can use it for things like this to help me design the perfect deck.  Concerning the unscaled height I mentioned earlier, there's no real way to fix it on Sketchup without completely redoing everything from the foundation up.  What happened was that I just guessed at the height of the foundation when I started the project.  In reality, my house sits about 18" taller than what this design shows.  In turn, my deck only shows three steps coming down into the yard, but it'll be more like five or six.

To remedy this partly, I may add a couple steps from the back door to the deck.  This will lower the entire deck height and allow me to only have three or four steps from the deck to the yard.  If I do this, I can also make those steps rounded and help tie in the deck design to the house a bit.

I don't yet know when we will start this project but I'm certain that, with at least 4 years of planning already under our belts, we'll have all the bugs worked out when we do.

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Repurposing Pianos

My wife and I are a real pair, I tell you.  Those of you that know us are nodding your heads in agreement right now, I'm sure.  And, those of you who don't know us would be nodding as well, I'm certain, if you did.

Our most recent undertaking is adopting old pianos that people are practically begging others to come take off of their hands.  People just don't want them anymore.  They're heavy.  They're huge.  Most are slightly out of tune or have keys that are stuck.  And who needs a piano these days anyway?  It's much easier to iToss the iPod in the iHome and iRock out to iMusic.

Despite our lack of appreciation for them, pianos are a really interesting instrument inside and out.  Most people haven't bothered to check out the insides of pianos, but it's shameful that their evident internal craftsmanship remains hidden behind its external shell.  I did some reading about the manufacturing process of pianos and found that they are incredibly more difficult to manufacture than I had even previously thought.

A piano is essentially an ornate cast iron harp that is mounted to a very thick quality-built hardwood soundboard.  This soundboard is designed to take the resonance of the strings transferred through the harp and through the bridge.  It doesn't absorb the vibration like virtually any other material would, but rather it continues to maintain the resonant pitch from whichever string is struck.  The strings are hit by a felt hammer.  Each string has its own hammer that is sized and weighted specifically for that string. The action, the intricate mechanism that translates the pressing of each key to its respective hammer, is a work of art all its own.  It's a beautiful piece of mechanical engineering that not only is delicately made with precision, but is surprisingly built with such quality that most of these have lasted well over a century in excellent working order.

Here comes the crazy part.  In the last few weeks, Jodi and I have quickly amassed a small collection of six upright pianos, all of which were free for the taking.  It'd be seven if we hadn't already found a home for one of them.  Well, I take that back.  One of them, we already had and another we got for free last fall.  So, really we just got five and gave one away immediately.  So, you're probably wondering what we're doing with them.  Well, many things actually.

I've decided that we'll be using all of them, not unlike how the Native Americans used every part of a buffalo.  I already have two desks in the works that will display the harp beautifully while creating a unique workspace that will inspire creativity.  Jodi made a cute pair of "kissing songbirds" from two of the hammers.  At least one of the actions will remain intact as a display piece.  We've already converted two of the keyboards into hanging art pieces.  The player section of one of the player pianos will become a unique wall shelf complete with a loaded music roll still mounted and "ready to be played".  We're making another wall shelf out of the player's bank of air diaphrams.  We have several other art ideas and and will no doubt come up with many more as we continue.  What I love about this more than anything is that it's yet another thing that Jodi and I are finding that we love to do together.  And, that's what truly matters.  Stay tuned.  Photos to come as projects are completed.

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4 Weeks Down, 8 To Go

This week, I had a HUGE spike in calorie consumption in a single day.  Sunday to be exact.  Several of us went out to lunch to Dickey's Barbecue Pit after church.  I knew that I had been doing fairly well and that I had been meeting my goals, so I figured "why not?".  I had the all-you-can-eat buffet.  And, boy, did I eat well!  I managed to bring in a total of 2264 calories for that meal alone!  Wow!

But don't judge me too soon.  I found out the other night that this is much easier to do than most people realize.  Take a pretty standard American-Style meal at a prominent national chain like Steak 'n' Shake.  If one orders the signature dish, a steakburger with a side of cheese fries with a chocolate shake to drink, they will wind up consuming 1970 calories.  Make that a double steak-burger and you just surpassed my all-you-can-eat buffet experience.

Thankfully, like I said, I did well the rest of the week so the Sunday lunch binge didn't have a lasting negative effect.  As you can see from the graphs, I once again came in under my weight goal despite Sunday's Mount Everest.

Also, I'm pretty proud of myself for turning down free food yesterday.  That's huge for me.  I love a free meal.  And, I was given the opportunity to choose between two boxed lunches from Panera Bread.  I chose to pass on both.  Yikes!

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3 Weeks Down, 9 To Go

This week, I did much better watching my calories.  I had a couple of treats through the week, but those were on days I had done extra well, so I got away with them.  What I didn't get away with was the weekend.  I blame a poor choice at Wendy's on Saturday and not realizing that my Qdoba meal on Sunday was 900 calories.  900?!  I sort of felt that Qdoba was a healthy option.  I guess it still is, just in a freakishly large portion.

I do feel a little better.  The weekly soccer pick-up games are doing their thing.  Last Friday, I wasn't even sore after Thursday's game like I had been experiencing the day after playing in previous weeks.  That's something to get excited about.

Yesterday, I rode my bike to work instead of driving.  It was nice, but I must admit that it was harder than I planned on it being.  I worked up a pretty good sweat despite the cooler morning.  It's 5.5 miles one way and it took me 29 minutes each direction.  According to MyFitnessPal, the two rides (to and fro) complete my exercise goal for the week.  ???  That can't be right.  Can it?

As you can see from the lower graph, I made up for last week's goal being missed by .4 lb and even weighed in .4 lb under this week.  So, I'm feeling pretty good about my results.

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1 Week Down, 11 To Go

The first week of my 12-week weight loss challenge came and went.  And, I think that it went really well.  I'm using MyFitnessPal.com to track my foods, caloric intake, fat intake, etc.  It's pretty helpful.  I especially like that it has a handy app for your smart phone so that you can add to your log on the go.

As you can see from the top chart, I didn't completely stay under my allowed calories for the week, but I did hover around my goal which is good.  My daily calorie goal is set to create a running deficit, so that my body is forced to burn a little of its stored up fat to make up the difference.

This second graph is charting my weight over the course of the next 12 weeks.  It may be hard to see without clicking on it, but I hit my goal exactly to a tenth of a pound for the week.  The blue is the goal trend line and the red is my actual weight.  Now losing 1.6 pounds over the course of a week may not seem like much, but bear in mind that it's from doing virtually nothing different than before.  I'm just recording what I eat and making better decisions because I'm questioning myself on whether something is actually worth eating if I'm going to have to record it and see my goals missed because of it.  This is the competition with myself.

So, I'm right on track to hit my end goal.  Kudos to me! (not the candy bar, though)

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Weight a Minute!

I weighed 8 lbs and 13 ounces when I was born.  That was the least I have ever weighed this side of the womb.  34 years later, I am weighing in at the most I have ever weighed: 204.6 lbs.  I weighed 204 lbs. once before back in 2007, as well.  Since then, I've usually teetered around 195 though have dipped to as low as 185 at times.

It's clear that a sedentary occupation contributes to my weight.  When I have been in a more physically-laborious job role, I have easily kept the weight around 190.  But, I mostly sit in a chair all day anymore.

When my weight gets brought up in conversation, many people are surprised at how much I weigh.  I carry it pretty evenly, so I don't appear to weigh as much as I do.  I'm not real tall, and many taller people find it hard to believe that I weigh more than they do.  But, the scale doesn't lie.  It's brutally honest.

The reason I bring all this up, is because I'm starting a challenge at work.  When there is a competition involved I am many times more likely to hit my goals, so I joined up.  For the next 12 weeks, I'll be getting weighed and measured every week.  There is money involved to be shared by all those hitting their goals and more money to people who are found to maintain even after the competition is over.  I'll be posting all of my measurements on this blog, as well.  The more accountability, the better.

My goal is to lose 20 lbs over the course of the next 12 weeks.  I also have another personal goal, as well.  I met my wife, Jodi, on December 6th, 2003.  I weighed 175 then.  This December will mark our 10th yeariversary.  Yes, that's right.  I said "yeariversary".  Our anniversary is celebrated from when we were married.  Our yeariversary is celebrated from when we met.  One way or another, for our tenth yeariversary, I will weigh 175 lbs again.  That's 29 lbs in 6 months.

So, how will I do this?  Self-control.  It starts with cutting out all the junk that I eat.  I'll also be incorporating several exercises into my life.  I will start riding my bike to work a minimum of twice a week.  I have just joined a weekly soccer pick-up game for charity that will help immensely.  I'm also going to flip the quantity of food that I have at meal times again.  I once had a lot of good results simply from eating a large breakfast.  It positively changed the way I ate the rest of the day and I didn't experience hunger ever.  I'm also keeping a food log on MyFitnessPal.com.  I was using that for a couple months and lost 9 pounds just from keeping my food consumption visual.

Of course, only time will tell whether or not I'm successful.  Everyone has heard people make all kinds of promises and it gets kind of tired hearing the same old jargon.  So, sorry if this sounds like just another one of those.  But, I fully expect to be able to show some pretty good results when I am done.

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Writing Down

It seems that there is a trend happening here with my blog writing.  Am I tired of it?  Is it not fun for me anymore?  Did I just not have anything worthy to write about?

The answer to all of these questions is no.  I guess, I just haven't been spending that much time on a computer save for the time spent working.  And, I've neglected something that I've really enjoyed doing to make more time for other things that I really enjoy doing.

So, it's May of 2013 and this is my second blog for the year.  While a third of the year has passed us by already, I've set a lofty goal for myself of writing more blogs in 2013 than I have in any other year to date.  More specifically, that means that I have to write 84 more blogs in 245 days to beat my bloggin' year of 2008 with a total of 85 blogs.  I think that should be pretty doable, after all, that's only one blog every 3 days.  But, it's not as easy as you may think.  Don't believe me?  Try it yourself.

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Audiophilistic Moment

I love music and I do thoroughly enjoy a good quality artistically-composed song.  At unexpected times this love stands out to me and I'm reminded of it all in a wave of rushing emotion and a super-heightened appreciation for every minute sound within a recording.  The ebb and flow of the melody carries with it my full attention for mere minutes, however my concept of time sort of melts away as my internal clock pauses it's relentless ticking to match the tempo of the song.  Then, the song ends.  A new one begins.  The atmosphere changes with it.  And, I find myself wondering why the composer only made the tune to last five minutes.  Though, I suppose our emotions are just as fleeting as the timeframe of the average modern song.  Thus, there's seldom a need to carry on longer than the 4-5 minute standard.

My sound set up at work includes a single computer speaker attached to my work computer on which I play my mp3 collection via Windows Media Player.  Since I only brought in the one speaker, as opposed to the pair, I'm only hearing the right channel.  Sound quality was obviously not my goal, but rather I wanted a simple and inconspicuous set up so as not to attract any potential new prohibition of music in the offices.

Today, I was caught off-guard.  I was listening to Ryan Adams' 'Night Birds' from his 2005 album entitled 29.  This isn't an album that I have given much play, but a certain song caught my ear and I wanted to hear it better.  So, I pulled out my headphones and plugged them into the stereo output of the single speaker.  The song truly came to life as I was able to hear both channels and a nice bass response while also having the opportunity to increase the volume to my eardrum's desire.

The next song on the album was 'Blue Sky Blues'.  It was this song that inspired me to write this blog.  It's mostly compiled of a piano and Ryan Adams' voice, but also adds some very subtle horns, a few almost imperceptible wind sound effects, and some gorgeous stringed accompaniment on the chorus.

It's songs like this that inspire people like me to become audiophiles.

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Back to Eden (part three)

Part three of our Back to Eden gardening style adventure, was the planting!

I must admit that we did some major procrastination on getting our seeds for two major reasons.  The first was the fact that this year spring came way earlier than expected.  Everyone was pretty thrown off by it.

The second was that we didn't have the slightest clue as to where we should get our seeds from.  We finally were recommended Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds by the owners of a small natural foods market, Wild Root Grocery.

We headed out there attempting to make it in time for a lunch that they serve, but we arrived and made it to the restaurant minutes after they were done for the day.  This was due in combination of allowing just enough time to arrive at the very end of lunch hours and getting lost from taking a shorter path that happened to not have any signs of any kind, including road signs.  You definitely have to leave pavement miles before you come to Bakers Creek.  Luckily, a woman offered to make us some cinnamon rolls despite the bakery being closed for the day.  Mmm.  And, WOW, they were large.  Thanks, Debbie!  So, we ate cinnamon rolls in the sun and enjoyed the day.

Then, came the seed buying.  This was a little overwhelming.  As you can see from the photo, there are seeds galore.  We stood before about thirty varieties of tomato seeds and finally made our decision, only to find out moments later that we had just been looking at the overflow of the real tomato seed section that housed well over a hundred varieties.

At the end of the day, we had purchased a blackberry bush, a raspberry bush, a bag of Yukon Gold potato seeds, about 25 strawberry plants, and lots o' seeds including tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, carrots, 3 varieties of lettuce, sugar snap peas, green beans, and a lot more that I can't think of at the moment.

It was a lot of fun and I was very impressed with what all they had built out there at Baker's Creek.  It's a neat little village that was well worth the drive.

Once again, I have made a little video using time-lapse photography for your viewing pleasure.  Check it out at this YouTube link.

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Deoin Bedell

Members of our church have maintained a long-standing tradition of organizing meals to be brought to couples in the church who have just had a baby. They did it for us when Lyric was born in 2007 and it was a huge blessing. For two weeks solid, we didn't have to worry with the daily task of deciding upon and preparing dinner. It was brought to us ready to serve by a new face every evening.

In 2006, we were still relatively new to our church and didn't know too many people yet. Jodi volunteered to make dinner for the Bedells who had just had their beautiful baby girl, Nia Rain. This was when I officially met Deoin Bedell. We showed up to their home with a big batch of Jodi's Italianized version of Rasta Pasta, a meal I discovered I loved on my first date with Jodi at the Rasta Grill in Downtown Springfield, MO. Jodi made it far better, though, substituting garlic, olives and other Italian spices for the Caribbean Jerk spice found in the Rasta dish.

We've been friends ever since and helped each other along the way with whatever creative projects we had going on. Between the four of us (our wives included), we've invested financially into joint business ventures, invested creatively into each other's art, and have taken turns being a catalyst to the others for progressing our desired goals.

Recently, Deoin had almost completed a song entitled This Is My Life. With his idea for a music video storyboarded out, it hardly took any time at all for us to see its conversion from an idea to a finished product. Deoin also sought the help of my wife, Jodi, to add a needed vocal layer to the chorus.

Both the song and the video turned out great and can be seen in full HD video on YouTube by either searching for Deoin Bedell or clicking this link.

Please support this local Christian music artist by purchasing the song from CD Baby for only 99 cents at this link. And, look forward to the full album This Is My Life coming soon.

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Back to Eden (part two)

The second part of our gardening adventure was to put down the covering. We chose to use un-screened wood chips from Springfield Recycling Center. They were $5 per yard which equates to $15 a truckload. They also have screened wood chips which gets out all the big chunks and leaves much smaller wood chips that will break down and compost much sooner. They run $12 a yard. We decided that it was so early in the season that the larger chips would have time to break down before next year and we were afraid that our covering would break down too soon if we used the screened. We'll see how our decision turned out next spring.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, the covering is what protects the garden and the topsoil underneath. It acts as a fairly decent weed barrier, too. How it protects the garden is pretty simple. Have you ever moved a pile of leaves or even a pile of construction scraps or a pile of virtually anything that has sat undisturbed for a few weeks. You'll notice that when you do, it's always moist underneath. The dirt is always dark and rich in appearance. The reason for this is that it was protected from the crazy environment.

Think of the wood chips to the garden just as our skin is to our body. Our skin protects us. If not for our skin, our bodies would dry up and die. So our gardens go. If they are exposed to the air, they will dry up and the top soil will erode away with the wind and wash away when it rains.

However, if you cover your garden with wood chips, the wood chips retain moisture for the dry periods, keeping your soil moist and rich, while also diverting excess water away when it rains. And, every time it rains it composts and breaks down those wood chips a little bit. And all that organic material acts like a compost tea with all the nutrient-rich tea flowing down into your garden. Your plants will thrive on it. Also, it keeps your soil from becoming compacted. The wood chips evenly spread out your weight and keep the ground from becoming compacted and unworkable. And the plants that grow in it will keep it nice and aerated.

It's been a couple weeks now since we put the covering on. Sorry for the belated posting of the video. I actually put the video together the next evening, but have been preoccupied with other projects. But, here it is. And now all we do is wait until it's time to start planting!

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Back to Eden

Jodi and I recently watched a documentary online called Back to Eden. They have the documentary available for viewing directly from their website. In short, they convincingly show how to garden in a more natural, less toilsome way without the need to till, water, or struggle against dug in weeds.

Yes, it does sound too good to be true. But, feel free to watch the video yourself for all the details on why this is NOT too good to be true.

We're thoroughly convinced and have already begun the process to build our new garden using the methods that the documentary demonstrates. We'll be documenting our progress success throughout this season with some cool videos, photos, and blogs. Come back here to this blog for updates on our garden. To start things out, we've already created a cool time-lapse photography video for your viewing pleasure.

This video shows us going through step one, which is to wet three layers of newspaper and layout over the desired garden plot. It's important to overlap all the connecting edges since this will be necessary to suffocate out all the growth underneath it. This newspaper will itself break down and compose the first season, but not before it's killed everything growing under it. Once the newspaper was down, we placed roughly three to four inches of composted horse manure. This stuff was great. It was already composted so it was pretty much unrecognizable from just regular dirt. I got it from a local horse ranch for $20 a truckload. Two truckloads was enough to cover our huge garden plot which measures 22' x 41'.

We all were able to pitch in and knock it out over the course of a few days. It made for a fun video and I look forward to making a lot more. We've already begun the second step, the covering, and will have it completed soon.

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Breakthrough

Moving to Ozark, Missouri at 11 years old turned me somewhat shy. I didn't know anyone there and it took me a while to make some lasting friends. In that six month friendless window, I learned to keep to myself, mostly.

Later, I became a 15-year-old sophomore at Ozark High School for the 1994-1995 school year. Not much had changed over those four years. I still had the same friends and I was still riding their more outgoing social coattails. I still lacked self-confidence.

Along with the rest of the English 2 class, I was assigned to read a book and then do a spoken book report at the podium in front of my classmates. I dreaded it. We were to aim for a five minute report. I'm not sure since I wasn't counting, but I'm willing to bet that I agonized for weeks over what I would be forced to do during those five minutes.

I had no experience speaking in front of a group and I didn't want any. I was just fine sitting slumped in my chair going pretty much unnoticed by virtually everyone around me. Many people have this same fear, so I felt that it was alright to feel this way. Possibly even a desirable quality. After all, I had no interest in speaking in front of a crowd. I didn't plan on becoming a speaker when I grew up. "Why would I ever need to learn this in real life," I wondered to myself.

The teacher, Ms. Lambert, didn't just give the assignment like some teachers would have. She spent a considerable amount of time instructing us how to give a good report. She gave us tips on how to practice it at home. She got us thinking about how a spoken report should be structured. She didn't harp on us about the way it had to be, only made suggestions designed to encourage us to make our reports better.

I took all of her advice, even practicing my speech to my wall at home with a timer. It wasn't like me to prepare so much, but I was desperate to have what I needed to survive the ordeal. So desperate, in fact, that I even took notes on Ms. Lambert's suggestions. The day came and I nervously waited my turn. During the several reports before mine, I noticed that almost no one in the class was paying attention to the one giving their report, anyway. That really took some of the pressure off. At that point, for the first time, I felt like I could do it without vomiting.

My turn came and I gave my report just as I had rehearsed it. About halfway through, I looked around and away from my notes long enough to take notice that I had everyone's attention. My nervousness doubled at that moment. And, just when I thought that I was going to make it. A couple seconds later came "the joke" part of the report. Ms. Lambert had suggested to include a funny part to the story to keep your listeners engaged. I knew it would bomb, but I followed my notes just as I had practiced it in my room. Punchline. Laughter. Wait, laughter?! I did a quick left to right and realized that not only did I have their attention, but they were listening to every word that I was saying. The joke wouldn't have made sense had they not been listening all along.

I finished the last leg of my report without the nervousness that previously had plagued me for weeks. If I remember correctly, Ms. Lambert gave me 110% as my grade for the report. I was proud.

Ironically, I went on to fail Literature of the Bible. Twice! And, I couldn't even finish the first semester of English 3. However, I graduated high school and enjoy writing even today. I still occasionally get nervous at times in front of crowds, but I never let it stop me. Since that report, I have spoken in front of hundreds of people at a time, played guitar and sang for large groups, friends and strangers alike, and I have even presented new work concepts in front of a room full of business executives.

I wouldn't be who I am today if not for Ms. Lambert's care to make sure her students knew the strategies and skills of public speaking. I'm not even sure if all that is on the curriculum, but I know I left her class with it. Thanks, Ms. Lambert.

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Global Go Team

Recently, Jodi and I joined the Global Go Team. They're a missions group made up mostly of young couples from our church. They are a non-profit organization that seeks to help those who couldn't otherwise meet the basic necessities for survival. I won't go into too much detail, since the video and the website do that for me.

Which brings me to my next subject, the video. I was asked to put together a 3 to 5 minute video that summarizes the projects that the team has already accomplished or are in the process of. It was a lot of fun to do, and I feel privileged to be the one that gets to make them. But, as you know, it takes a village. Nate and Cristi Harris, two other Global members, managed to compose the beautiful soundtrack that really carries the feel of the entire video. Esther Hawkins gave it a professional sounding touch with her naturally melodic British accent as the voice over. Deoin Bedell graciously allowed us to invade his recording studio to record both the soundtrack and the voice over. His skill in mastering the audio is nothing short of amazing. And, finally, I wrote the script (with some plagiarism from Global's website), directed and edited the video.

The people that helped the most, though, were the ones who did double-duty and performed both roles of Mom and Dad, while the actual Mom or Dad was preoccupied with the video's creation. These unsung heroes are Jodi Felton, Torrie Bedell, Scott Hawkins, and Nate and Cristi Harris (who took turns recording their respective parts of the soundtrack so that one could be with their children). These people made the video possible just as much as the ones directly involved. Thanks, guys.

So, without further blabbering, here is the much anticipated video. And a link to the website which will have the video on it soon.

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Time For A Tasty Change

As a child, I remember disliking cooking shows on television. No doubt, the use of vegetables in every dish turned me off, however there was something deeper still that caused my aversion to them. It was the unknown foods that they cooked. As children, we are all greatly comforted by routine and repetition. We like what we know and are uneasy about the unknown, the undiscovered. This is why children will take pleasure in watching their favorite movie for the 100th time. It's also why they would be content eating just macaroni and cheese for dinner every day.

As mature adults, however, we become more adventurous. Cooking shows make us wish we were cooks and had all the ingredients seen on the program readily available to us in our own kitchens. We are more comfortable in the world in which we reside and take great pleasure in seeing new places, tasting new flavors, meeting new people, hearing new music, and experiencing the "new" to find the "great".

Unfortunately, one stroll around your local grocery store will show that the overwhelming majority they are marketing towards are children or those who eat like one. There are virtually endless varieties of the same boring foods. One can't blame the markets for they're simply selling what sells in the greatest volume. One can't blame the public for they're generally buying what gives them the most quantity for their money, and often looking for what takes the least amount of time to prepare. So, the fault really lies in our accepted culture that is seemingly always short on time while also being habitually convinced that more is better. Individuals, in turn, tend to eat more than they actually crave because they unwisely choose quantity over quality. They continue to eat beyond their hunger because their bland, giant portion doesn't satisfy them.

It's refreshing, then, finding a store that aims to redirect our culture's mistaken values, in regards to cuisine. Devo Olive Oil Company, located in the Battlefield Mall in Springfield, MO. and the Branson Landing in Branson, MO., is home to 50 varieties of extra virgin olive oils and many Balsamic vinegars imported from Italy. All of these are available for you to taste test.

My wife and I had gone into the store with a couple we are friends with and we all really enjoyed our time there. The flavors excite the mind. With every new taste, recipes were being born in my head. After leaving with several bottles, I noticed that we had been in the store for about an hour. I had no idea we'd been in there for so long. It was a great way to spend some time with friends, and we got some really great ingredients to many of our future dishes.

My wife said something a while back that has stuck with me ever since, though I ironically failed to remember her exact wording. She said, "I'm not going to waste stomach space on food that I don't absolutely love." So, I say to you, visit Devo. Get some flavor in your food. Eat something worthwhile that satisfies your hunger and is enjoyable to cook. Shop where you can taste it first. Grow out of your boring childish routines and discover something new. Your stomach will thank you.

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