Like always, I generally do not discuss work here but I'll make an exception today. One of the students that I work with is in a welding class. This is a class that's hard to get in but I made it happen for him. The budget in my district has been utterly fawked for the last 7ish years and I still cannot believe that we have been able to keep both our metal and woods classes running. Most schools are not fortunate to have shops like these (more on the particulars in a second). Anyways...my student needs a bit more help than what his teacher can give him so I have been spending some time in there with him one on one. He needs to make a project to show what he's learned so we started it on Friday. This student loves to draw with paper and pencil but it's really hard for him to branch out beyond what he knows. I was hoping that welding would be a different way to do art for him and broaden his horizons a bit. We decided to do a spin on a really well known beginner welding project. A basic cube. My idea was to leave the top off the cube and make it into a pencil holder for him to use with his art pencils. We will also put on some attachments for other tools before we're done. 

We decided to use 14 gauge steel for the project. This is the computer operated plasma cutter. This thing is really nice. The shop has about 5 manual plasma cutters, half a dozen each of MIG, TIG, stick, oxy-acetylene welders, and every tool needed to fabricate some pretty impressive things. About 5 years ago I made a spare tire carrier bumper for my Jeep. Anyway...this is the 4x4 pieces being cut out. 

This beats cutting them out with a cutoff wheel or angle grinder any day. Next I prepped all the edges with a grinder. When I started the first one, I was amazed when the student jumped back about 5 feet from the sparks and said he didn't wanna get hurt. It's gonna be a process. 

I didn't get any pictures of the tac welds but I will this week. A cube is a great project because it incorporates so many aspects of welding (tacking, different types of welds, inside, outside welds, etc.). The student was really scared when the sparks were flying as I welded this area. The same guy was scared of the saws in his woods class before I went in for several classes and helped him out so I know we'll get him sorted in the weeks to come. A lot of teachers are overwhelmed with students like this but I love that this one is cool with me coming in and getting in the booth with him when he simply can't devote that kinda time to one student just for safety reasons.

Yesterday was glorious up here. It was almost 60 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. The sun always feels so warm and intense up here. Bodhi was loving the deck.

We ran a few errands down the mountain and met this little guy. His name was Capone and I would have taken him home.

There's a store in Springs that always has the funniest books. This one contained photos of nothing but rear end shots.

On the way back up we decided to stop in and see the folks at Front Range BBQ for dinner. They have the best smoked artichoke hearts.

That's about all I got for now. Today is the end of week 5 for the Insanity workout. The next 4 weeks are supposed to be the hardest. I don't know how I've done it but I've lost 2.5 inches off my waist. Sorry for the random kinda posting. I just haven't been doing any crazy adventures lately with doing Insanity, working on the kitchen, weather, etc. After Insanity is done I will start riding again. I have been wanting to ride the Kokopelli Trail in one effort for years now and I think this might be the year for it. Soon I'll start prepping for that.

Get out and do something today.