here is some interesting stuff

Click on these pictures for a full size view

Here is my dry food storage solution. 2 and 3 liter pop bottles. I made a funnel out of the top of a bottle. I duck tape 2 caps with the tops removed back to back so the funnel screws on. The third cap without top just fits into the 3 liters bottle mouth for filling them. These bottles are almost indistructable. I've used them for water storage for years on backpacking trips.

Here I am positioning a truck to test a fiberglass bridge structure. This bridge was the first fiberglass bridge in the world.

These tests where carried out before installation. Goto http://www.infracomp.com/bridge.html for complete information about these bridges.

normal day at the "office" for me. The office in this case is my Hughes 38, It sold but I still have it till fully paid for. Watching it is why I'm still in Florida and now bought a 27 foot steel boat to fix and sell.

A normal day at the office, Up the mast on my old 38 Hughes.

This is my laundry solution on the big boat. The device is a spin-X spin drier. It's 110v but wet clothes come out of there dry enough to wear, they are damp but not wet. Hung up to dry they dry in 15 minutes or so.

Aztec calendar I will convert to a table for my boat. It will be 4 ft in diameter and I will add a Ipe (brazilian) wood grab rail and trough. It took the builder over a year to make and has over 1000 pieces of wood. I'll cover it with bartop resin.

This is the yanmar YSM8 engine I salvaged in Mobile. The caliper is set to 6 inches, and the wire sticking out the end too.

It surprized me when I stepped on the pulley and it turned, almost face first in the mud because it did. More on the salvage on another page. It's in Florida with me now.

I've started it up and it runs, I've also repainted it.

Ibis in Norm's backyard

Norm feeding a rat to a wild owl, this is an almost every night ritual.

I guess I can sail two boats at once. People have asked me why I have so many boats, you can only sail one at a time... Proved them wrong, LOL. Moving the boats to a temporary safe anchorage while I'm back in Kansas.

The wind was up and the sail was on the boom, so might as well use it. Control was sometimes tricky, jumping from boat to boat to adjust both rudders. The 30 footer is headed to Puerto Rico, the 38 is headed to TX.

Beauty and the Beast, building the stage set. My first project was to make the short railing quickly removable but sturdy enough to sit on. The platform is used three different ways, the stairs in front also remove and a fountain can be added on top.

All the pieces are on wheels and rotate to become something different. Many of the stones are made of foam, hand painted, you would swear they are real till you hold one. Others are painted to look 3D on flat surfaces, with some of each, from the seats you often can't tell what is 3D and what is just made to look that way. The magic of painting realistic looking shadows and using color and perspective.

Early work on the Tavern.

The shingles on the houses are too perfect, they were done by a good carpenter that didn't understand that almost nothing on this type of set should look perfect. It's sometimes difficult to get that idea across, to build in mistakes and pre distress stuff.

Working on the village scene, you can see the fountain. The castle on the left is normally not in this, there is another house behind the left one, that would be pushed forward.

Friend Glen working on the Tavern, much more yet to be done.

Gaston's chair, this was one of my projects for yesterday. Many of the pieces are just found objects from the storeroom left over from past plays, modified slightly, sort of a 3D cut and paste thing.

Belle's house, this was done over three days, each day improving it. Mostly that's how all this is done, build it, step back and look at it, discuss possible improvements then making those changes, each time it could be declared done, but could be better if we changed this or that. It's very creative and I enjoy that.

We finished with hours to spare, actually we were back working behind the curtain 25 minutes before show time but only because we were waiting on an item to be delivered. Sure there is stuff that could be improved or added but it's good enough.