Progress on the truck bed.

Here's a post for Warren. This is our F-450's flatbed after I stripped all the nasty wood off it. I was pleased to see it is very structurally sound with lots of supports. Next step is to sandblast the under-surface, paint it with rust inhibiting primer then gloss black paint. After that we will be attaching diamond plate steel sheets where the wood used to be. We will have the coolest looking heavy duty truck in California.

Aye, now thats a manly truck!

Today I picked up the truck Warren purchased. It is truly a beast of a truck and is in very good shape. I expected some small dings and such but the body is in near perfect condition. We will be painting it gloss black, it should look awesome! I am kind of concerned about Suzette though. Recently I have noticed her quietly mumbling something about contacting Sheila and between the two of them getting a restraining order against Warren and I ever using eBay or Craigslist again. I am sure she is only kidding, I think.

Apparently I have become my father!

So I woke up this morning, pulled on some comfortable clothes and went down stairs for a cup of coffee. Suzette takes one look at me and starts laughing, she says "Oh my god, you have become your father" and ran for a camera. The worst part is at first I didn't even know what she was talking about, I actually thought I was dressed OK. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, my dad dressed rather unusually. It wasn't uncommon to see him wearing striped pants with a plaid shirt and when you questioned his unorthodox dressing habits he would proudly brag about how he bought his whole outfit for less then a dollar at Goodwill. Its sad to say apparently the apple does not fall far from the tree.

This is "The Hook" AAARRRRR. I went and checked it out when we were camping up north. I almost went out but it was pretty small on that day and I whimped out and sat on the cliff drinking my mocha coffee drink. There was one good set that came in while I was sitting there, with about 5 foot waves which made me feel like a fool for not getting in the water. Then the waves got really flat. But this place definately kicks when the swell is in. I really liked the surfers etiquette sign and had to take a picture of it.

Mr spider says Hi

Tis the season to be stepping on lots of these if you don't watch where you step, we see them everywhere. We love them and try to scoot them off the roads when we see them. They don't always appreciate this as I think they like the hot asphalt.

No post is complete with out a picture of an airplane and a truck. Warren just purchased the Ford F-450 below for our contractors business.

I thought Jason might like to see his truck, I start it regularly and it even has a spot in the barn since I organised the area.

Our camping trip was an adventure.

Here is a few pictures from our camping trip at New Brighton Beach. Yes we had little fat bandits raiding our camp every evening. Here they are chowing down on Polly's dog food. Luke and Matt had fun playing in the water although it would have been nice if it was warmer. We also rode the steam train up a mountain, that was lots of fun.

Halloween or candy overload

Matt and Luke had a lot of fun on Halloween, Matt was dressed as a baseball player and Luke was a stormtrooper. We went trick or treating in Creston then went to a friends haunted house in Templeton where Suzette took the boys on another round of candy gathering. Looks like I may have had a little to much candy myself by the last picture.

Matt is really enjoying baseball

Matt is in Little League this year and has a great eye for the ball. I'm thinking baseball scholarship Ha Ha.

Suzette bought this setup which has a ball mounted on it and you use it to practice hitting the ball.

I have already planned out the location for our baseball field. Now that I don't have an ultralight I can use my landing strip as a baseball field. Matt and I are practicing hitting and catching a little every day. He seems to be having a lot of fun and that's what counts.

Church and rodeo combined, only in Creston.

We had an interesting church service the other day. It was held at the rodeo grounds at Creston. Every year they have a large rodeo and traditionally they hold the church service in the grand stand and then the rodeo events begin. I thought this was a cool picture, and they served yummy donuts. You know we will be back again next year.

Hey look, the grass is growing and so are the weeds

Here is a shot of Suzette striveing to beat down the weeds. The grass is growing fast but man, those weeds are growing even faster. We have to continue hoeing them out for at least a few more weeks, then we can hit it with Weed-and-Feed and really put a hurt of them. Suzette has been out there every day working on it.

The grass plugs are planted and my back hurts.

Here's the grass planting warrior working the soil and spreading potting soil on the surface. It's been so hot during the day that I put out halogen lights so I could work on it in the evening when it was only 80 degrees.

Once the soil was prepped Matt and Suzette really worked hard and made it all possible. We had 20 flats to plant with 72 plugs per flat, that's a whole bunch of plugs at 12 inches separation (for you people without a calculator handy, its 1440 plugs). We got an assembly line process going after a little practice. I measured and drilled the holes and watered them, Matt got the plugs out of the tray, dipped them in a root grow solution and dropped them on the holes and Suzette planted each plug.

And here is our finished product! I am so glad they are in the ground.

I fired up the sprinklers and everything is looking good. Of course my back is killing me. Lucky for me I have a cold corona with lime in the fridge calling my name. Waayyyne, Waayyne, please come drink me.

Gotta go, duty calls.

Check out this cheesy shot of me in all my SWAT gear. You know what they say about boys and their toys.

Jason's truck

Jason's truck is looking like a true Creston vehicle (its covered in dust and needs a wash). I am starting it regularly and its running fine. It can't wait for your return so someone will wash it. It's also very jealous that Anna would talk about getting another car Ha Ha. Sorry Anna, your out of luck, the Falcon is going up for sale once I get it looking better. And yes, gloss black is going to be its primary color although I will include some red on the sides and the hood scoop.

OOOH NOOO, its here early! Suzette ordered lots of very expensive, super grass that will supposedly need little water and loves high heat and clay soil. It was not supposed to be delivered here until Sept 12th, which would have given me a little time to properly prep the soil. I came home the other day and it had been delivered early ARRRRRGH. So now the push is on, gotta get it into the ground. Right now its taken over the garage and it's doing well but I need to get it into the ground pronto. Well, it will be nice to have it better established before winter gets here but I would still like to throttle those people at High Country Gardens.

My longboard is sick. I had some bad delamination on the deck. I was talking with a surfboard shaper and he told me how to fix it. I have pealed the fiberglass cloth off and will be filling with some stuff called Q-cell mixed with resin, then I will top it with new fiberglass cloth. Don't worry Anna, I will leave your surfboard alone Ha Ha. It's still hanging on the wall waiting for your return.

Look! the drip system is paying off and the plants are growing great, even in August. In years past they were lucky to survive the August heat

I thought I would take a picture of my latest project I have started on. Its a 1961 Ford Falcon Futura. I found a set of four lug rims with tires for $50 on Craigs'list for it so I dragged the car out from under a ton of trash where it was stored in the back of the barn. After I sell the forklift this will be the next thing to get fixed up and sold.

We had a great vacation!

Luke is ready to hit the road!

We stayed over night at Lake Havasu, the motel was not that great although it was cheap, but the lake more then made up for it and the kids got a kick out of the London Bridge. It was great to have a break from driving and take a dip in the water.

Luke and Matt really like the horny toad lizard the Gabe and Jackson caught for them to see!

Here is a shot I took with Barbara on the front porch of her house.

Here is everyone but Barb on the front porch of Barb's house. We really had a lot of fun in Las Cruces! Check out Suzette's Blog as she has a lot more photo's.

Here is what I enjoyed the most about Leggo Land. They had a giant water area with water shooting everywhere, this picture really does not do justice to it. The parents were supposed to stay with their kids but mostly it was a ton of out-of-control kids blasting each other (and us parents) with water. The huge buckets on top of the structure would fill up with water and when the center of gravity got too high they would dump, lots of fun.

My sister Barbara came out from New Mexico to visit for 4 days. We had a fun time eating way to much good food!

Here is a shot of the Sonerai IIL frame, work in progress.

Here is a picture of my latest tool I purchased (Craig's List of course). I have wanted an Oxygen/Acet welder for a long time. It's next to the forklift which needs to be sold.

I have welded in the brackets for the gas tank and added the panel. Its a little sparse on instruments so far but that will come with time.

On Friday we had a fun family day at Pismo Beach.

Here's Art and me in our favorite mode, accept you can't see our bottles of cold Coronas.