Dust

Hello everyone! It is VERY dusty here right now and has been for the past few days. By dusty, I am talking barely able to see 200 yards in front of you. The sad part is, it is only going to get worse as the weather heats up. The part that really sucks about the dust is that the Air conditioner in my room broke, and so I have to have my door open to keep my room from getting super hot. Oh well, I will just have the Army do an X-Ray of my chest when I get home to make sure they pay for anything that I might be catching from all this dust. Other than that, the weather around here has been a bit on the strange side. The last time I was in Iraq, it was rather cold and rainy this time of year. In fact, it did not break 65 untill about the begining of april. However, I was a lot further North than I am now and that might have something to do with it. All I know for sure is everything looks like an old 1930's movie. Very grainy, brownish color. OH! From what I have been told, they are not going to take my shop YET. They are going to order all the tools that I am missing from the shop, get it complete, THEN they will take it. Hopefully, the stuff doesn't all come in untill long after we are home. Well, I think that is all for now.

Plexiglass

This week I thought I would show you all just how bored I can get sometimes. Normally, when there is work to be done, it comes in large amounts. But when there is nothing to do, there is NOTHING to do. So, I thought I would mess around with some Plexiglass. This is what I have made, SO FAR.


I love to play cribbage. However, I can never find a board that is not being used, so I can have on in my shop. So, I decided to make my own. It is a four person board with over 500 holes in it. I drilled each hole myself with my cordless drill. I am using long rivets for the pegs, and it works great. The michigan cards that mom and dad Blain sent me (Thank you), came the day after I finished this board, so it is only natural that they be the cards that I use.

The next two pictures are of a box that I made to hold hear plugs. Since I run a sheet metal shop, things can get rather loud in there. So, instead of having the hearing protection in a cabinet, I decided that we needed them to be displayed near the front door. As you can see, I notched all the peices. This was done with a band saw, taking one blade width at a time untill all the notches were cut. Above is a picture of it before it was completed. Below is a picture of the box finished. I know in the picture, the box looks like it is completely enclosed, but the tops of the front and back are open. You pour the ear plugs in the back, and then you can grab them easily in the front. It is a very basic design, but I am proud of myself. Especially for my first attempt at anything like this.

Well, that is all for now. More to come next week. So far, they have not taken my shop. Keep your fingers crossed!

That is the Army for you

Well all, I know it has been a while. I am no good at all this Blog stuff. So, let me bring you up to speed with what is going on in my world. As you know, I recently got a new shop. It took us a long time to get a real shop with all the tools that we need. Well, now that we got the shop, we are able to get a ton of work done. It is great. So, last week, I was told that I had to pack up the TV, DVD player and sound system. Our shop had to look like all we do is work, not hang out. When I asked why we had to do this (Especially when the people telling us to pack it up have spent some time watching movies in my shop), they said that we just had to hide it for a few weeks. Appparently there are some "Powers that Be" that are going to be coming over to check out my shop. I have to convince them that we need the shop so that they do not take it away. What do they want to do with this shop you may ask? Well, they want to send it to Reset, where it gets repaired, new tools, etc. Then it will sit for a while untill it is needed again. What do I get to replace my shop? NOTHING. That is the Army for you. Hopefully, they do not take my shop. I am going to do whatever I can to prevent this. Also, my command is livid about this! They are about as mad as I am about this. On a different note, my firend who got hurt in Texas has finally joined us. I am glad that he is here. He has a great sense of humor that cheers us all up. The weather here is GREAT! It is like a perfect Michigan summer day every day. I am enjoying it while I can, because we all know what will happen in a few months. Well, that is all for now.