Julianna performs in Utah Youth Symphony Concert

They performed Mahler's First Symphony (all 4 movements) in Abravanel Hall on May 14, 2011. It was a wonderful concert.

Lee's Rollover

In February, Lee went to California to do a job for Desktop Visuals. On the way home when they were about to Beaver, Utah the roads were bad because of weather. Tiffany was driving and lost control of the van. It began to fishtail and she started to yell or scream. This woke up Lee, who was sleeping in the passenger seat.

Lee woke up just in time to see the road coming toward him from the right front part of the van. The van was rolling. It broke the windshield and the passenger window. The van rolled onto it's top and slid through the median and ended up in the lane of oncoming traffic with Lee outside the van in his Tshirt and stocking feet. He hurried to the driver side of the van to help Tiffany out of the van but by then, she had unbuckled and got out of the van through the passenger window.

A car came by and called 911. Another car came and asked if they needed anything. Lee said he was cold (imagine standing in the snow in a T shirt and stocking feet). They let him sit in their car with a towel wrapped around him until the ambulance came. When the ambulance got there, Lee got out of the car and walked over to them and showed them his left hand that was injured. They had him lay down on the board etc. and transported him to the hospital where his hand was treated.

While at the hospital Lee met a group of young people who were driving from California and had also had a similar accident. They gave him a sweat shirt (one of the ones they had intended to sell at their destination). It says Liberty in North Korea.

We are grateful that Lee was not injured more than he was.

Don't Try This at Home ...

Unless you are neighbors with Erectors West.
The concrete floor of the garage will be poured on top of B Deck which is 3 foot wide sheets of galvanized steel that are corregated and are connected together to cover the whole ceiling of the room below. The B Decking is supported near the house by a piece of 3 inch Angle Iron that is fastened to the existing house wall. It sits on the top of the other walls of the room.
We bought the B Decking and the Angle Iron. Rick needed to put holes in the Angle Iron so he could screw through it to connect it to the house. With the Drill Press and a brand new, high quality bit and cutting oil, he started to drill his first hole. He figured he would need to drill about 60 holes. After about a half hour, he almost had 1 hole drilled. Thank Goodness that our neighbors across the street had suggested earlier that they had a machine that could punch holes through angle iron. When Rick realized how impossible it was to drill through the angle iron, he asked Nick for help. Within an hour Nick was able to punch (like a giant hydrolic paper punch) the necessary holes in the Angle Iron. Then Rick and Lee held the HEAVY piece of Angle Iron in place as I marked where the first 2 holes would be drilled. Before long, Lee and Rick had the first piece of Angle Iron in place.

Tar Baby

Before we backfil around the new rooms,

we needed to put a tar waterproof surface on any of the concrete that would be burried.

Its a messy job,

so I put on the polyester suit and gloves and shower cap

so I wouldn't get it all over me.

But it was a pretty tough job...

and it was hot

and before I knew it, I was asking Rick for help.

I would roll the paint roller in the tar....

.... and hand it to Rick so he could roll it on.

He just tried to be careful to not get in all over his clothes and arms.

Boy it was messy and sticky.

James in Music Man at Rodgers Memorial Theater

James is in Music Man at Rodgers Memorial Theater. The show runs from July to Aug 28 but was extended because of sell out audiences to Aug 31st.

James was rehearsing almost every night through June and July and loving every minute of it.

James' character's name is Marcus and he is in the Monday, Wednesday, Friday cast.

One of the fun things about the show is the costuming. At the beginning of the show, all the costumes are black and white. As Harold Hill casts his spell on the "Stubborn Iowans" in River City, the costumes become more and more colorful. In the finale, the band costumes and all the colorful costumes prove that Harold Hill really did change the "River City-iziens' " lives.

When we watched the show, Rick said that the band uniforms that the boys' band wears are the same uniforms that he wore when he marched with the University of Utah Band back in his college days.

On the first day of the show, James did the suggested hairstyle (slicked back tight on top and curled up on the sides). We did the hairstyle, but were unsure if we had the right look. When the director saw his hair on the first night, she (as well as other cast members) said that they loved it and he would have to wear it that way every night! His head is getting tougher as I style it with gel and other products and blowdry it with a round brush every other day.

The Davis County Clipper published an article about the show and talked about James' cast.

Pouring Storage room floors

Pouring the floor under the garage....

Mike and Lee floated the big room.

....And in the storage room under the front porch.

(This one is a bit more crowded)

Ron did the small room mostly by himself.

Thanks a lot for your help. We couldn't have done it alone.

Stripping the Forms off the Garage Walls

The North Wall with forms...

... and, at the end of the day, without.

The West Wall

with outside forms stripped off and inside forms still there.

Star (with his duct tape collar made by Angela)

and the west wall after the forms were all stripped off.

The South Wall

looking east, with most forms still in place.

Dad had already dug the concrete away from one of the 5 foot forms

and took it out.

Lee cleaning up the bottom of the hold outside the south wall.

(after all the forms had been removed)





Lee, using a grubbing hoe to break up the concrete
that had flowed around to the back of the form.
This was a 5 foot form but the bottom foot has concrete setting up.
If Lee doesn't break up the concrete, the form will be here permanently.






Lee is standing where the form was that Dad dug out.

Lee dug on the outside form while Rick and Mike stripped the inside forms.

Lee took a much needed "texting break".

The hole Lee is standing in and digging in was dug by Mike a few minutes earlier.

(before, the dirt went from the back door almost all the way to the forms)

Lee has got some big chunks of concrete out

and we think the form is almost ready to come out...

...so we called Mike over to help remove the form.

Mike knew just how to remove a stuck form...

You need to hit it with a sledge hammer

and work some 2 x 4's down in.

So you can pry the form off with the leveredge from the 2 x 4.

The concrete is still holding the bottom of the form in place from the outside of the form.

But Lee and Mike working together got it pulled away.

The sledge hammer moved it the last bit.

Now, they have to lift the 5 foot form

with the bottom foot of it filled with concrete
out of the hole.

This is a picture of the bottom of the back of the form.

They took it out the back door

and knocked the concrete out of the form

before it finished hardening.

Then Mike started trying to get the next form off.

After the other forms were off,

Lee went back and cleaned the plywood and wood braces out of the hole.

(the plywood was supposed to keep the concrete from getting behind the form)

(we don't know how it actually got back there)

Mike said that he was amazed at how fast the concrete hardened.

He had seen concrete walls that had sat 12 more hours that were less cured than this was.

They removed the pieces of 2 x 4 that were screwed down to the footing

which held the bottom of the forms in place.

There was enough pressure on the bottom of the forms to bend the bolts.

They removed all the braces and waylers and started removing the forms.

It is getting to be the end of the day. See how sweaty Mike is.

He worked so hard all day long.

Mike was there to help in every tough situation.

Mike always seemed to know what to do to get the tough forms off.

It was cooling off...

... the sun was going down.

We were so happy to be getting the last forms off.

Tomorrow they will haul most of the forms away and ...

...then it won't look like such a construction zone.