2010

A Year In Review

Well it's been a long year chaulked full of stuff. The beginning of this year is when I started to get more involved with posting the things I do online. This post will review just what I have done in 2010 using links to those things I posted. Click away.

January

• I made my first blog post here on this blog.
• I started uploading photos to my flickr account. 
• I started listing items in my Etsy Shop.

February

• I spent the weekend up on Whidbey Island with Sarah and Jay, spending the time relaxing, exploring fort casey, and having a one man rave on the beach. 
• I had my first Thrifty Post.
• I had my first Uwajimystery Post.
• I watched Paris Texas and it was awesome. 
• I was a few months into working on Lead Pencil Studio's border sculpture.

March

• I changed my blog name. Will probably change it again. 
• I was doing a lot of welding for Lead Pencil Studios border sculpture.
• I started working on John Grade's new sculpture Circuit.
• I stayed up at Casey.
• I made a video of the quick trip I made over to Port Townsend while staying up at Casey.
• I took down Mantle, John Grade's sculpture at Bitterlake Reservoir.
• I was still welding.
• I saw the crow master.
• I redecorated my apartment.
• I saw some funky fungus.
• I sold my first item on Etsy.

April

• I really wanted to do this.
• I took down John Grade's sculpture Bloom: The Elephant Bed up in Bellingham. More here and here.
• I was still welding.
• I really liked this song.
• I went a little crazy.

May

• I drove across the country.
• I installed John Grade's sculpture Circuit in New York.
• I spent a few hours wandering around Manhattan.
• I started working on the Bells for Lead Pencil Studio.

June

• I shared some important information.
• I installed Windfall, Lead Pencil Studio's temporary sound sculpture at Seattle Center. Here is a video.
• I bought a bike.
• I went to the Fremont Solstice. (previous bike post not related)
• I found and modified an awesome camera, then took it to folk life.

July

• I watched some fireworks.
• I watched Where The Wild Things Are.
• I was doing random jobs.
• I went to Oregon to do even more random jobs.
• I had my first giveaway.
• I played some croquet.

August

• I finished Jay's bar top.
• I went to a birthday party for a house.
• I had my second giveaway.
• I helped to install Gerri Sayler's show at Suyama Space.
• I re-installed John Grade's sculpture Circuit at Davidson Galleries. 

September

• I helped install Lead Pencil Studio's Ramp Drawings at a new library in Bellevue.
• I took a hike.
• I gave away the bells.
• I made a new lens for my camera.

October

• I got a new welding hood.
• I saw this.
• I spent 2 weeks up in Blaine installing Lead Pencil Studio's border sculpture Non-Sign II. Here is the video, and some pictures, and more stuff.
• I came upon this in the middle of the night.

November

• I saw some huge ass lights.
• I had my third Giveaway.
• I started compiling a collection of photos of my etsy pieces.
• It snowed.

December 

• I started on John Grade's newest project, which involves me first dismantling the old sailing ship the Wawona.
• I had my fourth Giveaway.
• I spend a lot of time working and working and working and working on the Wawona.
• I gave my mom this.
• I blogged about what I did in 2010. 

Man when you write it all out that was a lot for one year. I'm sure I'm probably missing a few things as well, but these are at least some of the major things I did or saw in 2010. By far this was the best 2010 yet.

Even More Work

Detailed Wawona Video

Here is a longer video detailing just what goes into removing one of the planks on the Wawona.

Christmas Of Old

Christmas 1987

Oh boy, I uploaded the video of our Christmas morning that my Dad filmed way back when in 1987.

Some highlights of part one include:

In the beginning my sister sends me and my brother up as scouts to see if it's alright to come up yet, at the 20 second mark you can hear my brother give the all clear.

@ 1:35 You can see me look with envy at my brothers gift because apparently his had a little man and mine didn't

@2:30 I quickly forget about all my new toys and start to play with the candle snuffer

@3:20 Classic forgetting to turn the camera off while walking. It's great though because you get a good view of what the street looked like and there is still an empty lot across from the house which had the newspaper shack where I though the paper boy lived.

@5:00-5:40 you can hear me and my brother yelling at my Grandma to sit down, probably because my mom had told us that we can start opening presents when everyone has sat down.

@6:10 Me: "I want to open my big one now!" My Dad: "You don't get a big one." Me: "Uh huh"

@6:54 My Dad: "Who's it from Ian?" Me:"I DON'T KNOW?" I didn't know how to read yet.

@6:59 Sarah, why the hell are you grabbing my present? HANDS OFF! Seriously WTF.

@6:15 Mom:"The potato head family" Grandpa:"A potato peeler?"

@7:47 Dad: "Is that an old skirt?"

@11:50 Wrinkle cream

@12:50 My sister throws something at me, and my initial defensive reaction is to scream, but I stop mid scream either because she threw some candy at me or I get distracted by my stocking, I can't quite tell.

@13:20 The infamous Australian Plate is mentioned

@14:47 Me looking at a wrapped gift. My Dad: "What is it Ian?" Me: I throw my hand up. My Dad: "Who's it from?" Me: "I DON'T KNOW!

Here are the highlights from part 2

@1:04 My Dad: "Sarah come on were getting hungry."

@2:43 My Grandpa: "A Chinese host considers it their duty to get their guests drunk." My Dad: "It's their duty? In Japan they get their guests laid." My Uncle Dan: "I thought that was Hawaii."

@3:17 Dad: "Don't jump you'll break the floor."

@3:32 NSFW

@4:47 My present I made for my mom. It's not just a piece of wood. This year I also gave my mom a piece of wood for Christmas.

@9:20 Pants, and I quote "I hate these pants" I still hate corduroy.

@11:08 My Dad's present to my Mom is a video cassette cabinet, Just what my Dad always wanted.

Christmas

My Mom's Present

This year I decided to give my mom a piece I've been working on for about a year now. I've been working on it off and on every now and again while working on other things for my etsy shop. This piece was much more detailed and took a lot more patience to work on. The original design concept is based off of organic form doodles that I had been doing. The pattern consists of an intertwining, overlapping, multilayer form. It's all carved from one single piece of rosewood and is backed with a piece of sterling silver.

Christmas

Christmas 2010

Well, Christmas has come and gone. Here are a few pictures I took of the Gillville Christmas this year. The evening was filled with lots of good food, beer, wine, camera battles, more food, then even more food, then to top it off my aunt Julie gave everyone the finger, just another typical Gillville Christmas.

View Count

Super Titi View Count

I've posted a number of videos to Youtube, most of which I post in this blog. After I post a video I never really check on it, I basically use Youtube as a video hosting site for this blog. Well recently I was looking at the view counts of my videos and one stood out with an unusually high number of views. That video is my Super Titi video from the blog post I did about it. Currently the video I made for that post has 4,533 views.

Here is the video

There are also a number of comments on this video that are all in French, here they are with a google translation along with them.

Ou est l'intérêt de poster ce genre de vidéo ? - Or is the point of posting this kind of video?

Mais pk maitre sa sur YouTube - But his master pk YouTube

Mais pourquoi ne pas savoir écrire français - But why could not write French

MDR ! - LOL!

 From what I can figure my video must come up when people are looking for this guy.

I guess he's some French douche bag that pranks people when they litter?

More Work

How I'm Spending My Days

This is pretty much all I do now.

Each plank takes about an hour to remove. Each section I'm working on is roughly 15 feet long and the plank is attached to 4 ribs. For each plank there are on average 4 Iron spikes and 12 wood pegs. The wood pegs are really easy to saw through once the plank is wedged up slightly to get the saw in. The time consuming part are the iron spikes. Originally I tried to pull the spikes out with a spike puller but it was not going well. If you look in my previous video you can see Emmett trying with no luck trying to get one up. Those spikes have sat in the same spot for 120 years and are happy where they are and don't want to come out. Trying to pull the plank up with the spikes in will actually damage the plank because the head of the spike will blow out the bottom of the board and can actually spit the board. So, I decided to square off the heads of the spikes with a chisel. My carbide tip chisel cuts through that old iron like butter. Once the heads are squared off the board easily slides up off the rest of the spike. So far it's the fastest method that results in the cleanest and best way to prevent damage to the planks.

Thrifty #14

Beauregard D. Hound Mug

It's been a while since my last thrifty post, mostly because I haven't been doing a lot of thrifty shopping and the things I've been finding aren't all that great. Well today that changed when I found the most random, weird, amazing, strange mug. Where to start, well there is a picture of a dog, whose head has been photoshopped onto a portrait of a confederate soldier. In fact his name is Beauregard D. Hound, Private, 2nd Louisiana Regiment CSA. Have a look at him.

 

If your sitting there wondering who is this dog? Don't worry, there is also a story on the mug telling his tale.

To make it easier to read I'll just type it out here.

Private Hound looked good in uniform.

Real good. Shallow and caring little

about the cause, he spent hours while

on the battlefield admiring himself in

the looking glass he carried in his

breast pocket. One sunny day near

Petersberg, VA, reflections from that

mirror inadvertently signaled his 

company's position to Union forces.

Following a brief skirmish, Private

Hound was taken prisoner by his own

comrades and turned over to the

enemy. Unfortunately for him, his

mirror was never recovered. 

Ok, got all that? I'm not sure where to even begin with all of this. Umm.... yea, I'm at a loss for words on this one.

There is also a website address on the mug dopeydopeydopey.com which links to this site www.cafepress.com/dopeydogart Go read their "About Us" page to get a better since of just what is going on here.

They do have this mug with the dog on it for sale.. They actually have a whole Civil War Parody section. Along with mugs you can get t-shirts, sweatshirts, notecards, mousepads, pillows, tiles, and more. Avalable in numerous dog breeds, all with their own story. If your there saying to yourself, but Ian, I don't have a dog. Don't worry they also have items for your cats, goats, horses, and iguanas.

Wait, why did I buy this again?

What I'm Up To

Flippin' The Wawona

(if you know what I mean)

Today I was working out at the site where the Wawona is and spent the day working with a crane to flip the sections of the ship. Most of the wood that John will use is the outer planking which is much more well preserved then the inside planking. A lot of the inside planking is rotten or cracked but the outer planking is pretty well preserved because of the paint and care over the years. The sections of the ship are about 15x15 feet and I'll probably spend the next two weeks pulling the planking off by slowly wedging and cutting the wood dowels holding them down.

I took a time lapse today of the flipping process, which was pretty strait forward. The crane operator said each section weighed on average between 13,000 and 16,000 pounds. I'm planning on documenting the removing of the planks quite extensively over the next two weeks. This planking has been in place for over 120 years and in just a week or two it will slowly be dismantled.

Here are some photos of the outer hull planking with a hint of the red/green paint still on.

Super Giveaway

Giveaway Bonanza

Today my friend Moorea is going to be having a giveaway of epic proportion. Throughout the day she will be posting new giveaways to her blog with a total of four giveaways with six items you could win. She will also be hosting another giveaway on LA-Tv tonight at 5pm where you have a chance to enter to win an additional three items. Go over to Moorea's Blog to read the rules and enter to win some amazing things, and be sure to check back throughout the day to see all the new giveaways.





One of her giveaways today will be for one of my looking glass pendants. This pendant is one that had cracked while I was putting in the last screw but I was able to glue it back together. I would be surprised if you can tell where the repair is. Because this piece is a repaired piece I feel much better giving it away rather then selling it. So be sure to check Moorea's blog throughout the day for a chance to win this pendant necklace.

Interested? Go sign up!

Work

Dismantling The Wawona

If you need me in the next two weeks or so this is what I'll be doing.

More about this project here.

New Items

Lots More Etsy

I've been posting a bunch of new items to my Etsy Shop over the past week. Some have been items I've been working on for a while and just finished. I've actually had them for a long while, I did a post about them back in February you can see here. I hit a snag with these items where I just could not figure out a easy way to make a bail for them. This was my original concept piece and I did a custom piece which I sold on esty that I designed a custom bail that tube riveted to the wood. The bail not only acts a a way to hang the piece it also acts as a cover for the knots at the beginning and end of the wire. The cap worked great but it took a bit to much finessing for me to want to try and do it for the other production pieces. I wanted a quick and easy, but still good looking, and custom technique for each one.

Here is the origingal bail design.

Looks great and works great, just takes time. I finally decided on a new design that I knew would be fast yet still look good. I decided to invest in a small propane torch that I could solder with some degree of control. Up until now if I wanted to solder something I used my camp stove burner which I have no control, it was basically on and off. Having control while soldering silver is really important, silver can be very unpredictable and it hard to judge if you are close to melting it before it melts. Using a propane torch for such small pieces would still be difficult but it can be done.

Here is a picture showing the top of the rosewood frame which has a small carved out nook which hides the beginning and end knot of the wire.  The tubes fit snugly into holes drilled into the wood and an epoxy resin is used to keep them in place. You can see the rough bail on the left which I soldered a flattened piece of sterling wire. I then use more epoxy to hold the bail to the wood and then I use a sharp punch to ream the inside of the tube to rivet it to the bail. Using a tube to rivet in this situation is necessary, I would not be able to use a wire rivet because hammering it might damage the wood.

I was able to make four bails in about an hour, where using my original bail design would have probably taken me a whole day.

Here are the four pieces I have posted to my shop with the new bail design. 

The square piece was a little challenging. The little nook hiding the ends of the wire were on the side of the piece and to make the bail symmetrical I needed to cover some of the stitching on the other side as well. There is actually a groove filed out on the back side of the bail to accommodate the wire. The tubes had to be placed after the bail was glued to the wood, but I think the placement of the tubes in this piece make it the strongest of all of them.

I'm planning on making more of these now that I have the bail figured out. I'm probably going to be doing some more soldering as well now that I have that figured out.

Another piece I soldered is the clasps for my chainmail bracelets. With these pieces I'm able to use my camp stove. I've been using coins as the clasps for these pieces. I have some coins that my grandma gave me from her travelings back in the day. I made one braclet using coins from Thailand and one from Greece, these coins look great outright but with the patina I gave them and sitting on the chainmail bracelet make them look amazing.

I've also been making some wood rings. These are fairly strait forward and easy to make and it a good way of using up small scraps of wood I have. I decided to make some varying sizes and will probably replace each size as they are sold.

And last, but not least, it this long etsy post are some rubber bracelets that were salvaged from some old camera lenses. You know all those lens pendants I've been making? Well all those lenses came from old camera lenses. So along with having a bunch of lenses I have a ton of random lens body parts lying around. Some of which are the perfect size to be used as bracelets. Like these two.

They are the focal grips from the old lenses that I took off and cleaned up a bit. These along with everything else in this post can be found right now in my Etsy Shop.

What I'm Up To

ETSY ETSY ETSY

I've been filling up my shop with new lens pendants this week, go check them out HERE and snag one while they are still on sale. I'm also going to be posting some new wood rings I've been making and also some more chainmail bracelets.

There is one piece that I've been working on and off for a while now is starting to near its completion. Here is a little sneak peak at all its pieces.

It consists of three lenses, two hand machined copper covers, one wood housing and one spring loaded fully functional aperture taken from an old camera lens.

You will be able to look through the center at a fish eye view of the world through the three lenses and then be able to slide the aperture to your choosing, or just click away like you're taking pictures.

I'll probably have this one finished within a week or so, assuming I don't run into any problems. I have a few more apertures like this one from old lenses but I'm not sure if I will make more of these. I'll just wait and see how well this one is received. What say you? Is this something you can imagine yourself wearing?

Next Project

The Wawona

Since I finished up my last project, Non-Sign II, I've mostly been working on items for my Etsy Shop which you can see and buy from here. I've enjoyed finally having time to work on my own stuff, but seeing how working on my own stuff doesn't seem to pay the bills I have another project for John Grade lined up which I'll start here soon. It will first involve dismantling the old sailing ship the Wawona which is currently sitting in huge pieces out at Magnuson park.

Here is some back story on the Wawona.

Built in 1897 in Fairhaven, California by noted Scandanavian shipwright Hans Ditlev Bendixsen, the Wawona was one of the largest three-masted schooners built in North America. Designed to carry lumber from Washington State to California and more distant ports, the Wawona sailed with a mimimal crew and without ballast for the Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company.

In 1914, the Wawona was sold to the Robinson Fisheries Company in Anacortes, Washington. She was refit to fit for cod, exchanging piles of timber for stacks of dories, and some of her immense cargo hold for crew bunks. Using the "dory-and-mothership" fishing system of the Grand Banks cod fishery, the Wawona and her crew caught more than 7.2 million cod over 33 years.

During World War II, the US Army took control of the Wawona, removing her masts and using her as a barge to transport lumber and other supplies along the Pacific coast. Following the war, she fished for another two seasons, then was retired and ultimately purchased by Northwest Seaport, then Save Our Ships, in 1964.

However, as a large wooden vessel originally built to last only a few decades, the Wawona eventually degraded beyond repair. After conferring with many experts in the maritime heritage field, locally and across the nation, Northwest Seaport created a plan to preserve key artifacts from the vessel. In March, 2009, the vessel was carefully deconstructed in a local shipyard and artifacts (including wooden knees, beams, and paneling) removed for storage and later display in on-land exhibits and memorials.

John Grade is going to be building a new sculpture using the wood from the Wawona. The new sculpture will eventually be placed in The Museum of History and Industry's new location at South Lake Union. What I will be doing is helping to take apart sections of the ship and select pieces that John can use.

Here are the pictures I took when I went out to check it out last week. Like I said, it's in pieces, many large pieces.

Here is a video of it being towed from it's location at South Lake Union to be dismantled.

and here it is being chopped into pieces.

Eventually the entire ship will be used for something. All of the important and historical artifacts from the ship were salvaged and saved waiting for a home in a museum someday. All the wood for the ship will be used for projects like John Grade's. Wood workers can submit proposals for projects using wood from the ship and eventually all the wood will be given out.  You can see more photos of the ship and artifacts here.

Snow

Frozen Frozens

I went for a walk last night in the snow and I took my camera along to snap a few shots. I found a few interesting things to shoot. One spot I found this really interesting texture in the snow that was created from the wind which was blowing pretty hard. I only took a hand full of pictures because I didn't have gloves and my hand was freezing holding my camera. Plus the wind was driving the snow really hard, especially on the Fremont bridge. I always love going out and taking pictures when it snows, there is nothing else can change the city so much as a snowstorm. Most people just huddle up in their homes, I'd much rather go out and explore.

Etsy

Collection

I created a flickr set which will eventually include everything that I've made for my etsy shop. Sort of like a portfolio of my work. I also took some pictures of my pendants hanging on a mannequin to give a better sense of scale. Right now I have pictures posted of most of the items already in my shop but there are also some new items. I've been making a bunch new lens pendants and I have also been making some hand made beads for some small choker style necklaces. There will also be some more chain mail items such as a few more bracelets and cubes. This next week I'll be posting new items in my shop every day. I will also be having a sale on every item in my shop starting tomorrow and running for a few weeks.

Here is a slide show of my etsy collection as of right now.

Listening To

Late 60's Music

Working late into the night I tend to change what I listen to. For some reason the songs I listen to the most late at night tend to be songs from the late 60's. Here are a few of my favorite songs to listen to while I work late into the night.

Pink Floyd - Cirrus Minor (1969)

The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin (1967)

The Doors - The End (1967)

I think that late at night I like listening to music with surreal atmospheres of sound and texture because I also listen to a lot of Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor.

Something We Came Across

Lunar Lander

Our first night in Birch Bay we had ventured out to find a store to buy food and beer when somewhere we took a wrong turn. Somehow we ended up heading south when we should have been going east. This was around 8 at night and surrounding the road there is nothing but dark fields, pretty much everything is dark. All of a sudden, around a small bend in the road, way off in the distance, directly in the center of the road, a spectacular bright white light appeared. Like moths, we were drawn in. As we approached it from well over a mile away it just keeps getting brighter and brighter as we get closer. Our first contact was one of amazement and bewilderment of just what exactly we were seeing. We drove around the traffic circle over and over again just admiring the amazing sight of this super bright light illuminating the white rocky mound in this otherwise pitch black landscape.

The light was sitting in the center of a recently constructed traffic circle directly next to the BP Cherry Point refinery where Blaine Rd and Grandview Rd meet. The refinery was a massive eerie backdrop to this light. Everything surrounding you seemed to be a commentary on excessiveness. All the excessiveness was rather beautiful though. This light was much brighter then any thing you would ever need, it might have made sense if someone was actually working out there but the light was sitting alone with its engine running all night.  Stretching down the road away from this traffic circle were hundreds of cones with blinking lights flickering away. Off in the distance was the refinery with towers covered in lights looking like skyscrapers in the night time skyline of a small city. There were plumes of steam rising in the air illuminated from below and open flames lighting up the night sky. The contrast between all these lights surrounding the darkness was as beautiful as it was unsettling and unnatural feeling. You could easily pluck this setting and place it in the right gallery and have a very successful show.

Look At This

Captured

Today I developed a roll of film I've had in my modified Kodak Duaflex III since this summer. There were some pictures on there from the Fremont Solstice parade as well as other random shots. You can see the other pictures from this camera here. The first picture I took with this roll was this one.

See that guy in the bottom left corner, that's Freddy. I've worked with him the past few years for John Grade. I had no idea he was there. I was holding the camera above my head looking through the small viewfinder. It wasn't until after I took the picture that Freddy came up and said hi. He totally ruined my picture.

Check This Out

Huge Ass Lights

Check out these huge ass lights.

I was helping out Annie and Daniel move a crate out of the old Lawrimore Project space when they also took back these huge ass lights. They were hanging in the space above the office space. Originally Daniel had bought them surplus not knowing what to do with them, he just knew that he had to have them. They sat around until they were used at Lawrimore project for the last few years. Now that there not being used for anything I've been thinking about just what you can do with these things. They are so large and ridiculous that putting them anywhere besides a large warehouse just seems comical. So I decided to try this out.

Pretty sweet, right?

God help anyone that cuts you off.

You might have to get a few extra batteries to power these things but they would basically turn night into day.

You Should Watch

Mulholland Drive

I've been blogging a lot lately on the sculpture I helped to install, but now I'm going to get back into more of a routine and start up some of my daily themed posts and try not to talk about the sculpture.

So when were were staying up in Birch Bay while installing the sculpture we found ways to pass the time each night. We usually just drank, but a few nights we decided to watch a movie. One night Gregg and I decided to introduce Annie and Daniel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger cinematic masterpiece which is The Running Man. There were mixed reviews. Another night we decided to watch Mulholland Drive, a movie I had watched once before when I was I think 18 so I hardly remembered it.

Now I'm not going to go into any detail and try at all to explain what goes on in the film, mostly because the film does not make any sense. What you basically need to know about the film is that it is a dream, and it's really hard to explain. Being so confusing can leave some people lost and they might spend the whole movie trying to figure out what the hell is going on when all you really need to do is enjoy what is going on. This movie contains some of the greatest scenes ever, and none of them really relate to the other. It is as if David Lynch had a notebook full of amazingly thought out scenes that he hoped to one day fit into a movie but then devided to make a movie out of all of his great scene ideas.

There is also a strong undertone of resentment towards the whole movie industry throughout the film that David Lynch is trying to point out. There are a lot of insights to the shady underbelly of the movie industry. This clip is one of the great scenes in the movie, and again is one of those moments when you wonder just what the hell is going on.

One of the strongest and most powerful scenes in the film incorporates one of the larger themes of this film, it does not exist. There is a club they go to in which all that you see is not real, club Silencio. There is no band, yet you hear a band, it is all an illusion. It gets into a deeper theme of Hollywood as a whole, there are these very moving moments you watch on film that are not actually real. They are fabricated illusions, yet we watch and take them in as if they are real. Even knowing they are not real does not seem to matter, sometimes we may hold those things that are not real over the things that actually do exist. Movies are so great in creating that illusion because they are able to take the time and set up the conditions to make that scene then also to take multiple takes of the same scene until everything is perfect. Where as live stage performers have that one chance every night in order to get it right. Seeing a live stage performer, either actor of musician, pull off that perfect performance seems to be more powerful then seeing someone perform something equally powerful in film. It may be that live stage performers have the advantage of the atmosphere of the moment which influences the audience. You then could say it would be possible for someone to direct a live performance in which the illusions are timed perfectly with the actors in a way to fabricate the illusion and create that perfect scene. Broadway does this all the time with stagecraft, but it much harder to pull off with out seeing some slight outside action from strings of other noticeable back stage actions. You also have the problem of only having that one shot and if one thing messes up your illusion is ruined. I'm not sure if any of that I just wrote makes sense but I'm building up to what I think is the greatest scene in Mulholland Drive.

It's on netflix instant view, so go check it out. Just don't try and follow the plot, because there is none.

Watch This

Installing Non-Sign II

Here is the time lapse video I made of the instillation of LPS new sculpture Non-Sign II at the border crossing in Blaine.

While we were installing I set up my camera to capture various stages of the install as well as the buzz of movement over a given day. The piece took two weeks to install and I shot every day except one, the one day it was raining. Each day averaged around 2,000 pictures and in all this video is made up of around 20,000 pictures.

Stuff I Saw

Border Crossers

While I was Installing the piece at the border we were right next to where all the traffic from Canada was coming through. When it was quiet we could even hear the conversations between the inspection agents and the motorists. Usually it was just a constant flow of ordinary traffic passing through, but every once and a while you would see something that made everyone stop working and stare. Here are a few incidents that I remember.

There was a woman, older, larger, woman, who crossed the border what seemed like every day on roller blades.

There was a motor-home hauling a small car behind on a trailer, only the ball on the motor-home was too tall for the trailer, so the back end of the trailer dragged on the ground. He spent a long time at inspection and I could kind of overhear questions about it but he must have convinced them it was alright because they let him go through. As he was passing through the temporary paved road with a speed bump, there were secondary officers there which stopped him and probably questioning him again because he was making a hell of a lot of noise. Again they let him go and he sped off up the on ramp to I-5 dragging his trailer the whole way. I wonder how far he got.

We saw on multiple times US border patrol agents on the north bound I-5 stretch randomly stopping and searching cars headed to Canada. Why? Who knows.

There were often helicopters paroling the border, some would just be following the border east to west, some would hover for a while looking at something. One day there was an unmarked lear type jet that approached from the east, made very sharp tight turns right over the border station and headed back east. The strangest thing was that it was only a few hundred feel off the ground but it was nearly silent.

I would often see very strange or odd looking cars passing by. One of the strangest was one I saw on the first day. At first it looked like a Smart car, but at second look it was half the width of a smart car.

With a little searching I found that its a Tango. I wonder how many times he parks his car only to come back and find it tipped over by hooligans or a small breeze.

It reminded me of this.

Look At This

Install Pictures

Here are pictures I took during the install that were not apart of the time lapse. Throughout the day my camera was tied up so these pictures were usually from early in the morning or near sunset when we quit for the day. I'm going up there again on Thursday so hopefully I will get some better shots of it completed. We actually finished the last day after the sun set which was also the last day we had the condo so we had to leave for Seattle that night. It was a bit strange not having more time to be around the piece once it was finished.

Watch This

Border Install

Well we finished up the border install last week and since then I have been stairing at my screen putting together the time lapse that I took of the two week install. I'll probably finish it today or Wednesday, but until then I have a rough clip of the last day.

You can see another picture as well as a description of this piece here.

I also have a to of pictures I will post probably this week once I'm done with the video. There is also a huge backlog of things I want to post about so over the next few weeks I'll be posting about my stay up near the border which may or may not include such things as late night photo shoot near the refinery, trips up to Vancouver for Korean food and the elusive Japadog, trips to Tony's, an attempted trip to find a bar in Lynden, sneaking across the border to buy booze, bike rides in Blaine, the little red caboose, the magical powers of the orange vest, pull tabs, joining the american legion, watching geriatrics dance at the american legion, Arnold Schwarzenegger, hobo scaffolding, having front row seats to see the dead hookers live in Bellingham, and much much more.

Update

Border Install

Well I've been up here in Blaine a little more then a week installing LPS border project. Were on path and everything is going as planned, no major problems yet. The site we are working on is really busy with lots of construction on the new border crossing. Some days it seems like we make huge progress on the piece when we put a new large section on, then there are days which we spend just filling in sections and stepping back and looking  it feels like we haven't done anything at all. There will be a lot of little welding things at the end which will make a huge difference in the piece but actually seem close up like nothing is happening. I'm constantly finding myself having to step back to get a better look at the piece as a whole and away from looking at the individual rods up close.

It's been interesting staying up here for so long when it's not actually for vacation. I've worked every day I've been up here so we do most of out exploring at night. We have scoured the local landscape for bars or general places of interest. Not much here. Last Friday we ventured up to Vancouver for some good Guu which was nice even though I was somewhat blinded from welding all day. In all its been pretty nice staying up here, the views across the water are always amazing, but I am missing Seattle.

Here is an article about the project I'm helping to install.

Here are some random pictures of the site.

In this pictures you can see the first layer in stalled as well as the partially constructed border crossing and the Peace Arch through that. Also there is my chair and barbecue up on the scaffolding where I take my breaks. 

 Here you can see one side installed and the second side on the ground waiting to be hauled up.

Looking at the side view.

 

Installing one of the side sections, you can see the wedge that we have to fill in order to blend the two sections and to make sure we have a strong connection between the two. 

We will probably have the whole thing installed by this weekend. I have a bunch more pictures as well as time lapse of some stages of the install. Well, I'll try and post some more soon but right now I'm stealing someones internet so I've got to go.

Watch This

Loading

I helped load up the pieces for the border project today, the three main pieces will be placed tomorrow and we will start welding it together on Thursday. I took a quick time lapse of us loading the last piece into the truck. If you look towards the end I take a pretty nasty fall but I wasn't hurt to bad and moon walked it off, then a tornado struck and I was swept away.

What I'll Be Up To

Installing The Border Project

Today I drove up to the border crossing at Blaine to drop off a bunch of scaffolding at the site. Last week they poured the foundation and bolted down some angle we will attach the piece to. The entire border crossing is still under construction and it's actually a huge project going on up there and we will be in the center of it all putting the piece together.

Here are the pieces.



Here is the site. you can see the partially constructed border crossing as well as the Peach Arch and Canada in the back ground. This is actually the view that I'll take a time lapse from. The piece will be installed on top of that mound of dirt.



Here is the view of the slab.



I'll be heading up there probably Monday night and be staying up there for around 2 weeks, so if you need me I'll be staying a the Cabana Club in Birch Bay.

Somethink I Saw Today

Lair

I was up in Birch Bay today looking for places to stay while we are installing the border project. We happened to see a sign for a hostel and decided to check it out. The hostel is on an old air force base and while we were there we saw this.

Looking at the picture is may not seem too impressive but coming up on this thing is a bit surprising. There is nothing around but empty fields and hidden behind these trees is this six story block. The woman at the hostel gave a quick back story on it. It use to be a massive radar instillation with a huge spinning dish on top.

Here are some old pictures of it.

After it was decommissioned the building went up for sale. Some man bought it and he lives inside of it, by himself. Daniel and I were pretty curious about it and thought of trying to talk to him and maybe get a tour but he had no trespassing signs posted all over the place and the woman at the hostel said he pretty much keeps to himself. I can only imagine the grand world domination schemes this guy is plotting deep inside his lair.

O.W.T.O.I.W.T.N.

Welding Helmet

I'm getting ready to head up to Blaine to install the border piece. There will be a lot of welding to do up there stitching all the pieces together and I guess LPS felt my old beat up welding helmet wasn't up to the task, so they bought me a new one. I've had my old helmet for around 4 years and I've done a hell of a lot of welding with it, and it does show it, but it still works.

Have a loot at old trusty.

No, the glass is not suppose to look like that. Yes, that is tape. Yes the solar panel is cracked, a lot. It still charges, you can still sort of see through the glass, if anything it offers more protection from the light. The tape is covering holes where pieces of hot metal melted through, but it's pretty good tape and hasn't caught fire yet.

So here is a look at my new helmet.

Pretty fancy eh?

I gave it some eye balls for some extra vision, and  when I lower my hood to take naps people will still think I'm awake.

I put some ninjas on there for some extra protection.

I put some reflective warning stickers on each side just in case I happen to be welding in the street at night where there are aligators and/or tractors, I'll be covered.

In all its a great helmet, looking through the glass on this compared to my old one is kind of like when I put on my glasses for the first time. I can actually see what I'm welding now, which I'm a little worried about, what if not seeing is what made me such a good welder in the first place? Hopefully it will last as long as my old helmet did.