This video illustrates Scott's ferocity when working on a project.  Often times we will simply stand in amazement and watch him (just like Sten does in this clip).  He can get more done in a day than most and we have been guilty of snickering at his cartoon-like intensity.  Work is play to him; especially if it involves "working" in a shop.   That familiar phrase - "going at it like your killing snakes" - comes to mind.  Scott's philosophy - it ain't hung up - you just need to pull harder! Looks like I better fire up the sewing machine and patch those coveralls - oopsie.

Mr. Weld-er

Warning!  Don't stare at this picture too long, it may burn your eyes:)

Dirty, sweaty and greasy - surrounded by power tools.  A perfect day. 

Shop Rules:  If sumpthin moves and it ain't s'post to - use duct tape.  If sumpin is s'posta move and it don't, use WD40

A Fork in the Road . . .

March 1st is quickly approaching and we are madly finishing projects and packing up the shop. It is sad to leave our cozy pad as it has suited us well, but we had no choice. We did not wish to purchase the building because it was not ideal in the long run. However, it seems that as one door closes another opens . . .

Well, we are hopeful that it is going to open in a month or so. It would be handy to show up at the "other" door and unload all this junk - but for now, we have to be patient.

Pallets full of boxes and tools, bound together with miles of shrink wrap.

Susie arrived to help us with this "fun" process. We enjoyed a "Susie appreciation" moment at lunch.

For some reason, she takes offense at being called a tech geek. However, here she sits amidst a laptop (one of the two), ipad, iphone, and dog shocker. If this is what it takes to be a 4.0 nursing student, I guess I'd better zip it.

A warm fuzzy to share: beside our building, sits a large cabinet shop that has been in business for years. Due to the economy, they were forced to close their doors recently. As a parting gift to their longtime employees, they designed and built each one a new kitchen. Makes my heart smile:)

Child Labor

Maren had a tooth barely hanging for a week, and it finally fell out on Saturday. We'll spare you the gruesome photos of wiggly teeth (nasty). She also got some new spectacles -

I discovered this site just the other day. It is an online job chart that your child logs into each day and checks off tasks as they are completed. So far, Maren has unloaded dirty dishes out of the dishwasher and placed them back in the cupboards and taken 3 showers a day - eager to stack up her "points." When all jobs are checked off, the child gets a round of applause. My favorite is that you can send notes back and forth between parent and child. Milah's first note to me was, "this is by far the stupidest thing you have done in years Mom." Ahhh, warms a mother's heart.

Progress?

Busy Boy . . . Sten has spent the last two weekends working into the wee hours completely tearing down his trucks before he starts the rebuilding process. He plans to cut the frame on both trucks just behind the cab as the old frame is not long enough to handle the service bed. Then he will join the two frames. When he was younger, he used large quantities of duct tape to complete projects - but I'm thinking this is gonna need something a little stronger.

Sten has even recruited friends to help him - and he offers 5 star accomodations.

Side note: we purchased 2 fold up mats from Costco years ago (they are thick foam and fold in thirds, one side is fabric and one side is vinyl). They are very useful critters - great for sleeping outside or in other strange places such as shop floors. They don't fold compact but they are comfortable. Sure beats those blow up doozies that lose their air at 2:30 am. Costco still carries them occasionally - it looks like we may need a couple more.

This is what he was after. A 7.3 liter diesel engine. The stuff dreams are made of (apparently).

Junk pile - hmmm, need that radiator - Ryan and Will?

What's Better than 1 Ford?

Sten is now the proud owner of, not one, but two Ford pickups. His plan was to purchase a powerstroke engine to put in the 79 Ford, but it turns out it is more cost effective to just buy the entire truck. Big bonus if that other truck (a '95) comes with a service bed and other parts he needs, bummer that it isn't 4 wheel drive. He has that speed bump figured out but now has copious HOURS of work ahead of him. I'm thinking that more than once during the process he's going to question why he didn't stick with a little simpler vehicle procurement program. Good thing he can call on his father for assistance and has access to a shop full of tools - his mother is worthless on this one.

Buzzzzzzz

And, how does one get neatly split and stacked wood ready for winter coziness?

It's "Hay Boy" turned logger!

My cold little piggies thank you

Log'n some Miles

This morning, Scott and Eric (our business partner) headed to New Mexico in garbage trucks. This is not their preferred method of travel, but our trucks are rented for several months in Albuquerque. Road trips are great, but 1375 miles in a trash truck does not make for a giddy ride.

Rainy Day Blues

The ONLY good thing about rain in the middle of June is the possibility of a beautiful rainbow. As I was completing the mundane task of loading the dishwasher, I glanced out the window to discover this bright (double) one that seemed to end at the pond. I donned my leprechaun booties and headed down there, but I guess it wasn't our lucky day.

Before and After - mower shroud, skirt, curtain, hangy downy thing so the hay doesn't fly everywhere. Sten and Scott have been busy getting things ready for Sten's first ever, haying season. Next year, it will be a cinch - but there have been many things to fix/get in order before the phone starts ringing. They fashioned this skirt from a heavy tarp and used rivets and rope to attach it to the frame. A replacement one was 300$, so I'm tooting their horn as big sav'n bargain boys today.

Must you take another picture? (I'm just getting started Farmer Putt Putt)

A Relaxing Saturday (not)

Scott, Dad, Susie, Sherman, and Sten spent the entire day tearing down this building to salvage the metal, timbers and steel trusses. Unfortunately, the weather was not too cooperative and it was a near monsoon and hailing at the most critical point.

Now you see it . . .

Now you don't (thanks to those "Built Ford Tough" trucks)

The muddy, tired, sore crew

Susie has (wisely) decided that she will choose to spend the day with the girls next time they have one of these massive tasks

I think #1 husband looks adorable in a hard hat. Oh, and Dad, you look adorable too, but I think you should have bright yellow rainboots and a red/white polka dotted umbrella with that coat.

Head go-fer. Hey Sten, "Go git ___" Hey Sten, "Can you grab ___?"

I don't know if you've ever seen a "drowned rat", but here are two of them. They were thrilled to run around this property and climb on the filthy rock piles - within minutes they were dirtier than anyone on the project.

Slick's first Gig . . .

We are heading to a trade show this weekend and have been busy putting together pamphlets, brochures, (general propoganda) and this tabletop display. Susie is a whiz on photoshop and has been doing most of the work while I spit out ideas and make her change everything she's just completed. We will place pictures in the middle section of the trucks that are for sale. It's exciting to see everything coming together.

Scott may be headed to Wisconsin to do a retrofit on a truck. Brrrrr.

UPS delivery special

A few months back, Scott delivered this load to Chowchilla CA. Imagine it, he had a few odd stares along the way.

Logo

What did I say a few weeks ago? Something about keeping "trash talk" off of this blog?! Sorry for one more entry, but here's the logo - hopefully you will soon see it on billboards and buses (Ha!). Our buddy, "Slick" is still around, but this buff dude will be doing all the work to Slick's garbage trucks.

Hard at work

It is exciting to see Scott so thrilled with this new venture. If it was up to me, I would've sat in the middle of that mass of wiring and hoses and cried (or screamed), but Scott welcomes the challenge and the first retrofit is nearly complete! He mystifies me with his knowledge and capacity to learn. The company service rep that has been helping him this week is impressed with his appetite - said that Scott enjoys food more than anyone he's ever seen.

Hmmm, let's look at it this way . . .

Lisa and Susie - head shelf painters - this is less than 1/2 of them

We're Open for Business!

They are giddy with excitement and will more than likely NEVER have clean hands again.

My desk at the office - I scrounged in Mom's garage sale finds for this perfect piece of grungy furniture. Some might say it needs to go in the back of a garbage truck, but I love it.

Some old garbage truck ads and a fitting saying, "Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls (or coveralls) and looks like work."


Our itty bitty kitchen. We have been battling an ant infestation and the little ant traps don't seem to be cutting it - we're going to have to bomb the place.


Advanced Waste Automation has opened their doors and they are ready to service, maintain and repair your refuse trucks (especially if your arm is caput). We rented a shop in Lebanon near the airport, so please visit us sometime - even if you don't drive a garbage truck. It is a little smaller than we would like, but it will work for now. I have started a blog for AWA and you can check us out there - I will try to keep the garbage chatter down to a minimum on this one. But, Whoo Hoo- we're excited!

You won't BELIEVE it!

After months of home improvement projects, a few challenging mechanical dilemnas, and a perfecting of culinary skills - Scott is gearing up for the next venture (or adventure). He will be involved in equipment sales and must procure a dealer's license. As a first step, we registered the name of the sales company - quite catchy, don't you think??!!! Dad has ALWAYS wanted to buy/sell used cars so he is thrilled with this new idea, we're printing up business cards for him as we speak. Susie is quite a whiz on Photoshop, so she helped us with the logo. Toot toot, if you don't come see us today, we can't save you any money.

Off to Scrap we go . . .

This morning we donned our "Billy Bob" teeth and headed to sell our scrap metal. It was a first time experience for me but I soon learned that it is one of my husband's favorite things to do . . . he was positively giddy.

This huge grapple can just pick up an entire car in one squeeze and drop it in a pile -

Recognize any of these automobiles?

Wood Crew! We've began our wood stacking for the Winter. The hot water in the floors is heated exclusively with wood, so we need at least 15 cords of wood for the winter - this crew isn't too excited with the wood procurement activity, but they sure like to be warm and cozy.

YIKES! That's Sten driving the neighbor's loader! You can grab a lot of wood in that bucket.

A large tree root that we used in the landscaping

Our best buddy, Danner. Somehow Danner gets out of all the work, gets in on all the play, and gets several naps per day. Danner is a runner - he dashes ahead of us in the car, going about 20 mph UP the hill!

And the show goes on . . .

Happy Birthday, Scott! It's a little difficult to wrap a planer,

but he looks thrilled anyway, don't you think?

What a mess! This thing puts out the sawDUST!

I don't think we'll ever get this place clean!

Hearing protection is extremely necessary

Ok, so I decided to use my hideous color and it
just might turn out to be my favorite room yet.


The linoleum was installed in the hall/laundry/bathroom
today - it looks so clean and new,
I can't stop peeking in at it - I love it!

We are building a storage closet in the family
room that is going to have a rusty
metal roof and barn doors that slide on a track.
A place to hide all my treasures and/or junk

Beginning of project

This is a "real man's" seam ripper. Crow bar to the rescue