The Greenhouse

Here I am starting the Greenhouse. It is about 10:00AM and it is already 90 outside. I work a little and then get in the pool. I work wet and the breeze keeps me cool until I dry off.






I started with the back wall. Those panels are steel and weigh about 150 lbs each. They are shelving backs that I found behind a store. Most of the material for this project was free. Some of this is made from material that I got when I have been taking down the barn that I built from lumber that I got for free from work years ago











The Greenhouse is
going to be right
in front of the garden.
When finished it will be 23 feet long and 14 feet wide.


These are the produce that I picked this morning from my garden. Onions, tomatoes zucchini squash, crookneck squash and a cucumber .

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

On the 4th we go to the Coates household for a BBQ. Chuck and Jerri are making plans for the tailgate party later tonight.







Here is the master chef. He is cooking hamburgers and hotdogs. We also had chips, dip,watermelon, beans, deviled eggs,onions, radishes, carrots, cucumber, macaroni salad, frosting coated pretzle sticks, two kinds of pie.
yum yum



Tammy brings Chuck another pack of hotdogs. We don't want to run out of food.









There is the party animals. We are in the parkinglot of Rite Aid. There is a big tailgate party. A lot of other people from the town are there to watch the fireworks that the high school will shoot off shortly.





The Coats family are right next to us. It's a good thing we brought some foot to the tailgate party. We didn't have much dinner.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

Jerri sits in the bed of our truck waiting for the big fireworks show.









We have a great view of the fireworks.










This was a great way to celebrate the 4th.









On Sunday Stephen, Krista and Danny go swimming in our pool. At lunch time we had chili dogs cooked on the BBQ.






This was the best 4th of July we have had in a long time.

GREAT PLANS FOR THE WEEKEND

That's right. Let's clean the slime off of the pool that we let sit for the whole winter.







We took a break to BBQ some steaks and an onion from the garden with butter and garlic. Yum Yum. It's almost like being in Hawaii.








We even ate outdoors. Can you see the palm tree? I told you it was Hawaii.










It was ONLY 104deg. outside, 120deg in the empty pool. What a bunch of wimps. Get back to work.

ROMANTIC WEEKEND

There's nothing like scrubbing the bottom of a scummy pool to make a romantic weekend.










It's only 3 inches deep but we waited 2 days for this.










I think I will keep the pool clean all year this time.












This was the view from the bottom of the pool. The summer clouds really helped us at least for a few minutes.







It is finally full. We were so excited that we hired a helicopter to take this picture.

SQUASH RECIPE

Here is my recipe for stuffed squash.

First you have to grow a big yellow squash. Once the squash starts to form it is this big and ready to pick in days. Don't forget to grow some tomato and onions too.



Slice the squash long ways .











Next you scoop out the seeds and place in a glass baking dish. (throw the seeds away.)







Mix, 1/2 LB of ground beef, 1 egg, 1/4 cup bread crumbs, 1 TBL spoon chopped garlic, 1 TBL spoon parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup diced white onion, 1TSP basil, 1/4 cup tomato. Place mixture on top of squash and place in oven. Cook for 45 minutes at 350 deg.
This will feed two. Serve with Fettuccini Alfredo.



And here it is. It was as good as it looks. I am growing a lot of good produce and will have fun all summer trying new foods.

FATHERS DAY

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!
I should have stayed home and worked on my garden. But NOOOOO. I wanted to go to a home and garden show at the fair grounds. When we got there we found out it was a home and backyard show. They don't have vegetable gardens in back yards I guess.

We almost bought an $8,000.00 hot tub. We would be paying for it long after we could no longer get in it.








Next we got the bright idea that we would get a free cruse for listening to a sales pitch. We went and almost became fake travel agents. This would get us great deals on all our travel.
It was only $6,000.00




Finally we went home and I opened my great fathers day presents. I got 2 shirts, a star trek scene it game and a star trek trivia game.

MY GARDEN

While I was gone for a week my garden grew a lot. I am growing Tomatoes, Carrots, Squash, Onions, Radishes, Pumpkins and a whole lot more.

THE TRIP HOME

I had to train the painters on the procedures that we had developed to fix their quality issues. They were a great bunch of guys and were eager to learn how to paint better quality parts.





We are finally in the air and on our way home. You can see the spoilers on the wing of our plane. They open to help the plane keep level. This is a Boeing 737. These Spoilers were built by our company and there is a good
chance that I painted them a
few years back.

LAST DAY

Oh finally a shipment of spoilers has arrived from Monrovia. The Mexico facility will assemble them and then add paint. There is enough spoilers in that box for one wing.

THERE IS A SALVADORIAN AND A MEXICAN IN A CAR..................








Is this lady afraid or the Swine flu or Spoiler dust?

WHO IS DRIVING?.............







This Boeing 737 is the kind of plane that our spoilers go on. This is also the same model of plane that we flew to Mexico on.


...............A POLICEMAN

Day 4 What an Adventure

There are a lot of boats docked in the marina in front of our hotel. My favorite boat is called Mello Yellow.











The factory is large with a lot of room to take on more work. The workers here keep it real clean. We are working hard to help them improve their performance. There are a lot of issues with paint quality that I am working on with the 5 painters employed here. Most of the cause is a new workforce with no standard work in place.





The manager of finance and the manager of procurement in Monrovia joined us today. We showed them what we had accomplished so far.
Here Ivan is showing them the improvements that have been made in the assembly end of the process. A lot of us have been involved in the success of our first international facility.

DAY THREE

I finally found someone to take a picture of me to prove I am here. Our factory In Mexico feels like home. Everyone is real friendly and takes pride in their company.













Ivan is explaining the concepts of lean
manufacturing . We have been following each operation and documenting each step with the time it takes to perform. We are looking for ways to improve the process and remove wasted steps.







This Is Christine, She is helping me find
planning for parts that I will be training the painters to paint for their first time on Wednesday.












Gilda and Cesar are Timing the sanding operation in preparation for painting. Cesar is the Quality Engineer And Gilda has a degree in international business.













After work some of us went to this small restaurant in old Guymas . We had great tacos cooked outside on an open grill. I ate too many hot jalapeno chilies. Do you remember coca cola in a glass bottle?

Day 2 finally we're at the factory

This is the restaurant that we ate at tonight. It was called El Bronco. The food was great. Steak, beans, squash and hand made tortillas.












These painters are sanding spoilers that they will paint soon. Spoilers are the flaps that help the plane lift off and land. These spoilers are for Boeing 737 aircraft.







This is part of the team I am on. We are observing the paint process so we can set up standard work. This will help keep the quality, cost and on time delivery consistent.










This is the hotel we are in. It is a real fancy resort hotel at the marina in San Carlos. We have a pool, hot tub, internet, fridge, 2 tvs, 2 phones.
Across the street is a great coffee shop. We had breakfast there this morning. huevos rancheros.
Stay tuned for more of my trip.

Trapped in Mexico

I'm off to Guymas Mexico again. I met Ivan at Ontario airport where we flew to Phoenix. The plane from Ontario landed real rough. I was not sure if we landed on a dirt runway or our brake drums were warped.








This was our plane that we flew to Mexico. It is a Boeing 737-300. Their pilots fly a little different. They burn rubber on the runway and in about 300 feet they shoot straight up. When we arrived in Mexico we had to fill out a medical form and a doctor took out temperature to check for the Swine flu. I did eat a pork sandwich in Phoenix.





We are staying at the same place that I stayed the last time I was here. This is the view from my window at sunset. (We are really suffering)

Stay tuned and I will add more each day. There will be a drawing at the end of the trip of those that leave comments. The winner will receive
a fish taco that I will bring back in my suitcase.

Alan

OUR VACATION PART III

On one of our romantic walks along the Colorado river we stopped at the Golden Nugget casino. They have build a gigantic greenhouse full of tropical plants and a waterfall. My next project at home just happens to be a greenhouse.









We had a great pool at our hotel. Each day we went down for a dip and got some sun. Jerri would not let me have any sun. She sprayed me down with sunblock. She even sprayed my bald spot (I have a bald spot?).








Here I am having a great time by the pool. Don't I look happy?












This is the machines that took our $2.00. Don't worry, tonight we plan on getting even.

Thanks for all of your comments. Stay tuned for the next episode of our vacation.

OUR LAUGHLIN TRIP PART DEUX

I wanted to do a little gold prospecting while I was here but I could not get my burro to go. I guess I was dragging my ass.


















Jerri and I have loved our romantic walks along the river late at night. OK we just like the 99cent Margarita's. Stay tuned for more of our vacation. Thank all of you that leave comments. The more comments, the more pictures.

ON VACATION

Where back! We are on vacation in Laughlin Nevada. So far we have been to Wal mart, Home depot, a pawn shop, a craft store, an Antique store and a fabric store. Oh, were we supposed to gamble? We went for a walk along the Colorado river last night. It was real warm and almost started to rain. We played a Star Trek slot machine for a while. We lost BIG TIME. We lost $2.00. I hope we can win it ALL back tonight.

New paint

Stephen painted his car a beautiful blue and then added a clear coat with metal flake in it.







He did a real good job. I wonder where he learned those skills?











A couple of weeks driving his car to work the motor exploded. A piston broke in half and a valve sucked up into the head. The entire motor was toast. We sure use our engine hoist a lot.




Looks easy! The old motor is out.










Stephen found a great motor in a shop in Rialto. It was a 1995 motor. That is 4 years newer than the one he had. Now we are going home to put it in. We need to finish in two days so Stephen can drive it to work on Monday. It's a good thing we own Phelan Escort Service.

The next disaster

Stephen says that the motor is ready to be put in the car.











Danny and Stephen add oil and are ready to start the new motor for the first time. It is 9:00 Sunday night. The car runs great and he is ready to drive it to work on Monday.

Stephen drove his car to work Monday morning but the transmission started slipping and finally quit. We had to rent a trailer and go to Barstow to bring the car home.











Chuck and Anthony brought their truck and helped us bring the car home.











Stephen drove the car onto the trailer and we finally got the car home about 10:00 PM. Now we get to take the transmission out and find another one. Male bonding........UGH

LEAD FIGURES

Just when you thought I was not boring. I also collect lead figures. Here is my current collection.