Work Cont. on Camper portion of Trailer

 I broke the tiny trailer construction into 3 parts. Part 1 is the trailer, part 2 is the under-storage, and part 3 is the camper itself. So the trailer came from HF. It is 4x8 with a 1700 lb rating. The wheels are 13-inch in diameter. One of my purposes in building the square drop trailer is a place to store our camping gear and equipment. I noticed most teardrop trailers have no storage other than the room itself. My design incorporates n under-storage portion of the trailer. I designed the under-storage to have a height of 12 inches. The under-storage consists of three areas. One part is a pass-thru storage area with access from the outside. The second is an under-storage accessible from inside the camper. The third area is accessible from the rear of the trailer and is part of the galley, providing under-the-countertop storage and or lower access to the refrigerator. As of today, the under-storage is roughly framed in ready for the camper portion to be placed onto it. Both will be placed on the trailer. It is my intention that the under-storage and camper can be removed from the trailer, giving the trailer other purposes in its life.

Work for parts 2 and 3 took place on the HHS campus. I was able to build the under-storage in room 14 and then built the camper just outside the room. I cannot place them all together until all of the parts are outside the school fence. The gate is only 58 inches wide. I hope to move it outside the gate tomorrow, Tuesday, July 27.

 

 

Trailer Build Complete

 Today I finished the assembly of the HF trailer. One issue I encountered was during the installation of the electrical lighting. I did a rough installation of the wire and it did not work, when it should have. I recalled watching a video of a young lady who said she had a grounding problem with her electrical on her HF trailer build. I installed the electrical to her specifications and everything worked!  It turns out that the paint acts as a very good insulator. I used some self-tapping screws as she had to ground the wire to the trailer frame and the lights work!

 

Trailer Arrives!

 Back in April 2021, I ordered a trailer from Harbor Freight for the Portable Chicken Coop Grant Proposal.  The trailer arrived, I have been told about 3 weeks ago, but the information they had numbered to the district which no one has been answering? I called last week and was told to call back after Tuesday, which is the delivery day. When I arrived at HF I gave my name and was directed to the manager, where again I gave my name. There had been no delivery. When I said it was for Upland USD, he responded differently saying it was delivered 3 weeks ago and they were having trouble reaching the school, no one was answering. I swear I gave my cell phone number as a contact. Anyway, I picked up the trailer, it cost me $3.50 for some type of fee. As of the writing, I have successfully put it together. I was a little taken back when, as part of the installation, it is a requirement to repack the bearing in the wheel while placing the wheel onto the trailer.

Chicken Update

 The baby chicks that hatched the last week of school are doing great. There are 9 chicks. Four Black Copper Marans and five Blue Copper Marans. Well, something like that. 3 chicks were hatched from Chocolate egg colors, 3 from Olive egg color, and 3 from blue eggs. This is not a controlled group. These chicks were hatched because I had just got rid of six out of nine roosters from the November 2020 hatch of BCM's. I could not keep all of the roos around but I wanted to keep some of their DNA. So I randomly collected eggs in hopes of collecting some. I believe I did because all of the chicks currently have feathered legs and feet, a trait that would come from the mother and father. The two main roos currently running the flock do not have feathered legs so there is a high probability that the DNA grab was a success. What is exciting about this hatch is that three of the chicks could be hens and could be carrying the gene for egg colors of green and red. Now it's about a 24-week wait. We will find out on or around the first week of 2022. It could be later because that is the dead of winter and the hen's reproduction slows way down.

A side note is that we had three chicks hatch out on the farm this past week mostly from brownish eggs. Two of the chicks are orange and one is black. None have feathers on their legs.

On my recent trip to Tahoe where I was asked to watch a Tahoe neighbors chickens, there was a chance that the eggs could be fertilized. The owner had just got rid of a roo, so there was a high probability that the eggs could be fertilized. I repeated myself. These eggs, 5 total, and 5 more from the HHS farm were placed into an incubator in early July. From the HHS farm 2 chocolate, 2 blue, and one olive color egg.

Move Completed!

  On the last week of school, I was called into the principal's office and informed that I would no longer be using room one as I have for the past 15 years. Starting as soon as I could get the room up to speed I would now be using both rooms 13 & 14 to teach computers, farm/gardening, and construction. This past school year I began using room 14 for storage for the tiny home project. I was awarded a grant for the portable chicken coop project and that just made room 14 more valuable, but also brought up the concern for safety for the two projects that were ongoing. So Mr. Adams proposed the idea to place me out in the two rooms, and also adding a gate to the existing exterior fence to bring the projects inside the school's wrought iron fence both for safety, and getting the work closer to the tools!

Room 13 has been occupied by the Math/PE teacher Mr. Dashinski. Mr. Dashinski was asked to move to room 1 where he would be closer to a new proposed weight room that is proposed to add to a remodeled storage room in the student center.  Mrs. Hernandez moved Mr. Dashinskis classroom materials to room 1, while I moved all of my stuff, and I mean all my stuff to room 13.

The best thing for me about the relocation is that the move gets the projects closer to the students, and the students closer to the projects. There will be less downtime in the setup and takedown of the tools and the transportation of the tools to the job site.  Now the Jobsite is literally outside the classroom. The next project will be to have a window removed and the space remodeled into a roll-upr door!

17 Year Old High School Student makes Olympic Team in Track & Field

 17-Year-Old Erriyon Knighton makes Olympic Team in Track & Field for the Tokoyo Olympics in the 200-meter dash! The teenager breaks the under 18 world record of Usain Bolt. His record is the fastest any US high schooler has run, but since he signed a pro contract will not get credit for breaking the 200 high school race.

High School track records

California Track Records by Year

The Olympics are just around the corner..High Jump

 I was a young lad in the '70s and I recall going out for the high jump in 7th grade, this would have been around 1972.  Our coach was teaching us the western roll in the high jump. In the 1968 Olympics, a young jumper from Oregon changed the technique of the high jump that year and slowly his method changed the high jump technique forever. By 1974 all high jumpers were being taught the Fosberry flop.

While at Fallen Leaf Lake.

 I recieved a foot massage from some fish......

and then a crawdad....... where I felt obligated to catch for awhile.

While in Tahoe

 While in Tahoe filming a bluejay about to make an attempt to snatch our peanuts we hear a large crash. I hopped on my e-bike and rode to up the hill to where the accident occurred. While riding my bike up the hill I was passed by the emergency responders.

A little trip to Lake Tahoe CA in early July