| This is more of an addendum to the other letter that Terra posted a few days ago. We took our disposable (camera in a box) camera to the local Walgreens located a convenient 25 miles away and dropped it off for processing. Now that we have another digital one, we are no longer in need of the remaining photos left on the disposable. Once we got there we were informed that it doesn't matter how many photos you take (or don't take) you are charged the same price for the processing, so the store clerk proceeded to waste the remaining photos on nothing such that the film wouldn't be ruined during the processing. |  |
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After the shock of that wore off, we were on our way. We told Ethen that we were dropping off the camera for developing, and he asked what developing meant. You see, he has been born in the digital age, and doesn't know what film is nor does he know the term developing. I guess that kids come with the knack of being able to make their parents feel old with out even trying. Any way, the two cameras cost $5.50 each to put their contents on to a CD (I don't know what to do with actual physical photos anymore) and a mere $11.00 later we were on our way. After going over these costs, I can't afford not to have a digital camera anymore. |
| Back to the photos. Jeff Hickmann (Terra's brother in-law) is in to the hobby of miniature railroad. He owns two engines - a smaller electric one and a larger 18 horse power honda gas powered one, along with about 20 cars to pull behind the engines (box cars, tankers, flat cars, two cabooses, and various cars fixed with auto seats on the for people to sit on and ride around the pard). This hobby is pretty impressive. I had no idea that it actually existed in this form. I had heard about it among different family gatherings, but had never really grasped the breadth of what went on. |  |
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These cars are all scaled (working) models of actually machinery that has been manufactured either current or past. The most of the railroad is scaled to 1 foot = 1 inch. Jeff, however decided that those small cars are to small to actually ride on comfortably, so he modeled his after narrow gage rail. Since the engines that ride on narrow gage rail road are smaller than the ones on the standard rail, and the scaling had to fit on the already established tracks, his cars and locomotives are 1':2.5" scale, thus the scaled models are larger. |
| While we were there, we rode around on a few different trains, and I was able to drive the boys around on the electric engine with a very small train. They really loved it. I don't know the actual speeds that we were reaching, but I would guess that it was close to 20mph. Even though it was Phoenix, and in the middle of winter there was no need for jackets. The ambient temperature was probably in the 55-60 range, but once you were on the move, the breeze that was generated was enough to make you feel fairly cool. |  |
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At one point in the journey, I managed to de-rail the engine that I was driving. Since these beasts weigh about 900-1000 pounds it is a little bit of a chore to put them back on the track. Jeff carries a few tool just for this purpose in his box cars that he pulls being his larger locomotive, so we were able to get it up right and continue on our journeys. |
| All in all it was a real fun weekend. As it turns out there is a "meet" coming up in January 14-18 where people from all over bring their own engines and play around for a few days. I was looking at some of the photos on their web site and it looks like an fun event to attend - if for nothing else to just view all of the different working exhibits. From the photos, there are quite a few of actually steam powered engines, some fired from propane, and others coal. |  |
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I think that this hobby would be a fun one to take up, but it also looks like it requires lots of money and time. Two commodities that I seem to be running short of at the moment. Oh well, maybe next year... |
| In other news, I put in a little dividing wall between the grass and the garden in the back yard. With some old railroad timbers that I picked up from work (old timbers from the Apache Railroad - owned by Catalyst). These timbers looked perfect. They are already soaked with creosote and weathered just enough to have character. Unfortunately, they also had some of the hardware that held the tracks in place. Pulling out these spikes proved to a small problem. After sorting them out and finding the "easy" ones to pull out, I resorted to getting a 5 foot long pipe and place it over the end of my hammer to generate the extra force required to pry these spikes loose. Again unfortunately, this did not seem to help the spikes get loose, but did manage to snap the steel shank of my framing hammer. |  |
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After I broke that hammer, I decided to take a better approach. I would simply abandon my previous plans and turn the railroad timbers such that the long side was down and burry all of the steel in the ground. This seemed to work, and I applauded myself at my ingenuity. That was until I was almost done with laying the wall. |
| You see, I had taken very careful planning when getting ready to place these logs in the ground. I went and found each sprinkler that would be in the vicinity of the boards and then measured from the wall to the sprinkler such that the boards wouldn't at all interfere with the sprinklers. Well when I made the decision to turn the boards such that the long sides would be horizontal and not vertical this also interfered with the sprinklers. |  |
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After I had placed three of the horizontal boards and two vertical boards, and was in the process of digging the hole for the third vertical board, I found the sprinkler pipes. Then I got worried, and started frantically looking for the sparkler that should have been in the area. After I couldn't find it, and after getting Ethen and Terra involved in the search, I decided to hook up the air compressor to the lines and blow them out again, hoping that the line would expose itself. |
| Once again, great thinking, but poor execution, you see the fitting for the air compress or is on the very edge of the irrigation box, such that you have to bend the piping to make the air compressor fit on it. So I started to pull on the piping, and after I thought about it for a second realized that with the temperature of the pipes (below freezing) I would probably break the manifold, so off to ACE I went to get some 1/4" pipe and put a few 90 degree elbows in the line and extend the fitting out from the edge of the box. I did (after two trips to ACE) and then blew out the lines (on the next day because they close at 5:30. and found the sprinkler. |  |
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Yep, you guessed it, right under the blasted log. So I say forget it, I am not moving the logs, instead, once it warms up a bit out side, I am going to dig up that sprinkler and relocate it to the south about 2" and call it good. |
| It is sure amazing how one little decision (forced to be made by lacking the proper tools to remove railroad spikes - and to cheap to go and purchase the tool for such a small job) can cause so much grief down the road. All of the could have been avoided had I been able to place the timbers such that the long side stood up and didn't lay down. |  |
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At any rate, it is finished, and Terra likes the way it looks. I guess that is the important thing. I wish that I was done, I still have to go back and relocate the sparkler next spring. I thought about doing it now, but I want to keep as much of the grass intact as I can as it limits the amount of mud that the kids can get into. |