Keeping up

Tuesday we all went and played mini-golf at the Pirates Cove. Erika won a free game of golf by getting a hole in one (the only one of the game) on the mystery hole. The entire golf course was pirate themed and we saw one of AJ's chainsaw carvings (an alligator) in a cave. The whole place made me want to work on my Halloween projects again this year. It's hard traveling and having no place to work or store big projects for the future... Our day out ended with a visit with some friends that we met down in Brownsville Texas at the RV park. We found out while down in Texas that they live only minutes from where AJ's shop is located, so we made plans to hook up again here... It was nice to hang out and catch up.

There's a big event here in Minnesota coming up next month that involves some camping. We were all sitting around burning one of the tiki poles and someone came up with the idea to try to sell them at the event... Long story short, I sort of got nominated to help make the tiki poles, so I spent the day making a template (so they would all be fairly similar) and carving a few. I managed to get 5 of them carved up. I am sore this morning from holding the chainsaw for so many hours... We're shooting for at least 30 or so by the end of the month. I should be able to manage that if I take a day or two each week and carve them up. I get a bit faster with each one that I carve, so I should be able to get more done next time.

AJ has a bunch more projects that he wants to get done, so I have been putting some of my own projects on hold for now. Hopefully I will get some time to work on my solar hot water project again. The panel that I built works with a pump, but I need one that thermosiphons so I don't have to rely on a motor that requires maintenance and electricity. The goal is "free" hot water, so another panel design will need to be built.