Ike

This is Ike...
Sorry wrong Ike...

All the way up in Louisville Kentucky Ike was a force that had no equal, pulling up trees and throwing them into houses or power lines, whatever was closest. Because of this it took 14 days to get all the power in Louisville back on! We were glad when our power came back on, on the sixth day. It was a hard time... I sharpened some sticks to go hunt the deer in our back yard. But I did not get to use them (shucks). Time all over Louisville was crazy. Ice was selling like water to someone on fire. Restaurants were packed. But we did not go to them... we just ate our meat extra rare (not really). We were so thankful because our house has gas heated water. It was a life saver. The best part of it was that our pastor was talking about hardship the Sunday it all started.

Here are some pics of the damage around us.

Hurricane Ike

A storm raged all through Louisville on Sunday afternoon. There was no rain, just 80 mile per hour winds. Louisville has a lot of old trees, and almost all its power lines are above ground. These old trees are almost never trimmed, which means a lot of them got blown over, and landed on cars, houses and lots of power lines. Hundreds of thousands of homes were without power, ours included, till Saturday. We were lucky and were able to borrow a generator from some friends. This gave us some power but we were still very glad to have power back on Saturday.

The Manual for Real Boys

Today we finished the fourth and final project from a book called Backyard Ballistics. I have dubbed this book,"The Manual for Real Boys." Backyard Ballistics is a book with instructions on how to create fun, easy to do, ballistics.

We constructed the famous Potato Cannon for our first project, which is created completely from PVC pipe, PVC pipe cement, and duct tape. The cannon's barrel is a long piece of PVC pipe with a sharpened end. At the back is a piece that is shorter but has a wider diameter; this is the firing chamber. We wrapped duct tape around the firing chamber and its connection to the barrel, thus helping to prevent the pressure on the firing chamber from being too great, which might cause the Potato Cannon to explode. The back of the firing chamber can come off with a spark mechanism on the back. To fire it you need to simply insert a potato in the front, the sharpened part slicing off part of the potato, causing a decent seal. The potato is shoved down the barrel with a broom stick, not too far or it will fall into the firing chamber. The back is unscrewed, and hair spray is sprayed into the firing chamber. The firing chamber is screwed back in quickly and use the spark mechanism to make a spark within the firing chamber. The hairspray will light on fire and the expanding gas will shoot the potato out the barrel with incredible force! If you do it at night you can see flames come out of the barrel.

Hints: The cheaper the hairspray the more likely it is to work, and work well. Put a paper towel down the barrel before the potato so it will create a tighter seal. We have put in about three times the amount of hairspray they tell you is safe, but I wouldn't do that, because we are suicidally dangerous, and I will hold myself responsible for my mistakes, not yours. (Doing three times more hairspray is fun if you can avoid being blown to bits.)

Safety: Buy the book, it has lots of safety instructions and you will not regret it. Don't try to build one with my instructions, you will regret it. Don't point at people or animals, they will regret it.

Not Safety: Doesn't this make you wonder what would happen if you lit a match in a room full of people wearing cheap hairspray? Put more hairspray in the firing chamber!!!

The second project we did is the tennis ball mortar--easy to build, but can only be fired a few times. So I remember little of the tennis ball mortar, other than the fact that it shot a tennis ball extremely high, used a Pringle cans, and was a lot of fun.

The third project we built was a Pnewton's Petard, and like the potato cannon, fired potatoes. The main difference is that Pnewton's Petard used air power instead of combustion. The Petard also uses PVC pipe but looks like a T when complete. On one side of the T was an air valve, allowing you to pump air into the top part of the T. On the other side was a PSI meter, to keep track of air pressure. As you may have guessed, the bottom part of the T is the barrel, and you are correct, and at the start of the barrel is a ball valve, keeping pressure inside the top part of the T. Once we had completed the Petard we had to test for leaks. If there was a leak we would have to start all over. First we pressured it to 10 PSI as we held our breaths. The pressure stayed at 10 PSI. Then we pressured it to 30 PSI, and it held.

Hints: Use wadding, and you can also put a potato in, then stuff the leftovers in, causing a grape-shot like effect. And we have also pressured it to 45 PSI, but beware, the cannon might explode, causing injury.

Safety:Don't pressure it more than 30 PSI. Don't aim at people.

Not safety: Pressure it more than 30 PSI for a better launch. Doesn't this make you wonder what would happen if you built a giant Petard, put people inside, then pressurized it?

The fourth project that we just completed yesterday is called the flinger. Have you ever seen a water balloon launcher? If you have that is just what the flinger is, but homemade. If you have not seen a water balloon launcher, imagine a gigantic rubber band, with a pouch in the middle, and a strap on the back of the pouch. Two people hold onto the ends of the rubber band, and one person places an item in the pouch, grabs the strap, then walks backwards. The launcher releases the strap, flinging the object a great distance!

http://backyard-ballistics.com/

Here are videos of each item in action,(Excluding the tennis ball mortar.)

The Forest Discovery Center

We traveled 10 minutes to get out of state, a novel idea for former Southern Californian residents. After crossing the famous Ohio River and into Indiana we traveled another 15 minutes through green countryside dotted with houses and barns. Our path took us to The Forest Discovery Center built by the Koetter family to demonstrate woodworking and forest management techniques.

It was strange to walk through an indoor forest, but seeing how the seasons are actually "seasons" here, it made sense that to have a year round display, you have to put it indoors. This realistic-looking forest gave a glimpse to the travelers of different native trees (though you couldn't actually find all of these trees in the same real habitat).

Woodworkers busily manufactured their pieces of home decor woods like wood flooring and crown moulding in this famous mill. This was my favorite part of the tour as we walked on the catwalk high above the factory floor to see wood change from sawn lumber into pieces of usable and decorative artwork for a home. Koetter wood pieces fill the East Room and Oval Office in the White House.

The videos on the activity floor were designed for younger audiences so we just sighed over the silly characters, the puns, and the animation. Our exclamations changed to delight as we watched an on-site master craftsman hand carve wood into intricate artwork murals--I would have taken one home but their prices matched the careful work involved in making them.

Of course, following famous Wallis tradition, the trip home took longer because we wandered over to Huber Farms for fresh Golden Delicious Apples, cheeses, and Indiana peaches (just as good as the Georgia peach). Also, we had to try a different route home to see if it was faster--it wasn't--but we saw some beautiful countryside while Carolyn took at least one wrong turn.

http://www.forestcenter.com/

Our Bathroom

What We had to do to make our bathroom look "Better".

1: Strip the wallpaper. This was the longest the most time consuming part. It was also the hardest. We tried wallpaper stripper, wallpaper scorer, and several different tactics. The most effective one we found was to score the wall all over with no more then ¼ inch dividing each hole. Then taking hot water and using a roller plastering the wall with the water. Then let it sit for about 1 min. Then the wall paper would come off relatively easily.

2: Then we put tape and plastic over all the edges and furniture.

3: We then painted the walls.

4: We moved the tape from the walls to the ceiling after the paint had dried, and then we painted the ceiling.

5: We removed the tape and did a little touch up.

6: After all that work, taking about two weeks if not more (working ½- 2 hours a day), we needed a break. So we took one. It was nice!

Bathroom of Horrors

In our new house we have 3 bathrooms, two of them are okay, however the one in the basement is, THE BATHROOM OF HORRORS. It had 30 year old light bulbs, doors, drawers, towel racks, mirrors, wallpaper and toilet. We knew we new it needed to be fixed, we decided to change how it looked because it looked terrible! This is a step-by-step account of how we made it look nice--

Step one: Remove two layers of wall paper on walls.

Step Two: Remove toilets, mirrors, towel racks and various other items covering up wall paper.

Step Three: Removing more wall paper and cleaning up from steps two and three.(Wall paper removing it extremely messy!)

Step Four: Planning for and purchasing paint. (A lot harder than it sounds.)

Step Four: Prepping every thing for paint.. (Primer, Sanding, Removing more stuff.)

Step Five: Putting the first coat of paint on doors, drawers, cabinets, ceilings and walls.

Step Six: Putting the second coat on doors, drawers, cabinets, ceilings, and walls.

Step Seven: Putting the third coat on the things that needed it.

Step Eight: Buying new hinges, door knobs and handles and towel racks.

Step Nine: Putting new equipment on doors, attaching drawers and towel racks, then inserting drawers.

Step Ten: FINISHED!

Painting Lessons

Our first family painting lessons were in the basement bathroom. We studied and decided this would be a test case for us. We did survive the process and will apply what we learned to other rooms in the house. Maybe we can spare you a few of our mistakes.

The basement bathroom was covered with a plaidish yellow/blue vinyl wallpaper. Removing it was a painful process especially since the walls were not properly prepared for wallpaper adhesive. We could only tackle it in half hour segments despite our scoring and Dif applications. A friend or a family member's presence was very appreciated not just for the help but to carry on conversation. Lesson #1: Do not apply wallpaper.

We read articles on and watched a few videos done by professionals to help us through this process. They had the help of staff, current and correct supplies, availability of other restrooms, and fast motion on their cameras. Lesson #2: Do watch the videos and read the articles but expect it to cost twice as much and take ten times longer.

We selected our paint (a committee of brothers is not the best system but they had some important skills to learn in the decision making process), purchased our supplies, and began the long process of preparing the walls and cabinets. This is a long process if you take the time to do it right when you don't have the skill to avoid painting other surfaces. Lesson #3: Do not use high contrast paints unless you are very good at drawing a straight line. Note: There is a reason the professionals discount the paint job if you use all the same color!

Warning: the articles all proclaimed that the freshest presentation of newly painted cabinets is dependent upon replacement of the hardware. Lesson #4: Make sure that you can, indeed, replace the hardware on 30 year old cabinets BEFORE you decide on your color scheme.

Overall, we are pleased with our project. It is essential to take before and after photographs to truly appreciate what you have accomplished. We didn't think of this until we had stripped all the wallpaper. The other essential aspect is to determine that you will be satisfied before you are done, otherwise you will never be done.

Ping Pong Ball Olympics

We moved into a house that is furniture-challenged. We have more rooms than we have furniture. Since our empty living room is covered with hardwood we call it our ballroom (for the dancing we don't do). It is our full intention to put furniture in this room once our other house sells (which is another challenging story).

In the meantime, we have camping chairs set up in the basement rec. room and we turned the living room into a ping pong hockey rink for our Ping Pong Ball Olympics. It all started innocently with a ping pong ball and a swimming noodle. It was actually planned as a timed racing event, but remember that we have sons--it soon became a hockey competition of two-on-two.

The next Ping Pong Olympic event took place on the dining room table. Encyclopedias (a must for veteran homeschooling families)laid flat in an intricate path from one end of the table to the next. The objective was to blow the ping pong from one end of the table to the other end staying on the books. This was clearly an event that demonstrated control. After a few individual attempts at this feat, we decided to work as teams of two. Points counted against the team if the ball tumbled off the books. We switched around people into different teams so everyone could win once or twice but Jonathan was on the winning team most often. Does this tell you anything about his developed lung capacity?

I would love to hear other ideas for Ping Pong Ball Olympics because I hear we are in for a colder than average winter and since we may actually experience an ice storm, indoor activities would always be good. However, I hope to be cuddled up on the new couch with an excellent book on those cold days.

Frazier International History Museum

Mom fed the parking meter for 4 hours thinking we would only stay for 2 at our first field trip. 4 hours later, she was feeding the meter again.

Frazier International History Museum contains an intriguing collection of artillery focusing on the development of British and American guns, swords, and protection.

By the end of our trip, we invested in a family membership because we knew we would be back.


Our tips for other visitors:

--Get the audio guide. It is not overwhelming but it is engaging and provides greater understanding of the displays.
--Watch the videos along the way.
--Plan your visit around the Presentations. We saw an excellent presentation on sword play.
--Bring lunch and have a lively discussion with your family.
www.fraziermuseum.org

Sword clashing

The swords clash perfectly in the epic movie, at least to the 21st century American. If anyone from the 15th century looked at the sword clash they would laugh hard and long. The main problem was the sword clashed edge to edge. Most modern people would wonder what is wrong about blocking edge to edge?

The "myth of edge to edge" blades clashing came from the modern art of fencing where it does not matter where you hit, parry, the opponents sword. The parries of the 15th sentry would be edge on flat, with the flat usually angled blade so the sword slid off. This method reduced the force of the blow away from the sword, to ensure that the blade did not break.

If two blades meet edge to edge a deep crack would form in both blades, if the swords did not shatter. Even if the blades did not shatter their strength would be compromised and could break at any time. Even a slanted parry that caused the enemy's blade to fall away would crush your sword. A modern Italian replica-sword maker named, Fulvio Del Tin, said this on edge to edge parries: "…It is improper to bang swords edge to edge…it is better to deflect the opponent's sword. These people that perform swordfighting in the wrong way…they use swords with full strength edge to edge…I wish that in (the) future many people (will) learn how to do swordfighting correctly, instead of imitating Hollywood heroes."

Resource: The Arma http://www.thearma.org/ in the essay The Myth of Edge-On-Edge Parrying in Medieval Swordplay, By John Clements http://www.thearma.org/essays/edgemyth.htm

Welsh and English, different races

Genetic samples have shown that the English and Welsh are two completely different races. It also enforces the idea that the Welsh were the original inhabitants of Britain. When the Roman empire invaded, it conquered Britain, however it did not completely destroy the native populace. Maybe they would have, if it wasn't for the barbarians attacking; Which forced the Romans in Britain to retreat, giving freedom to the British for the next few hundred years.
That freedom ended when the Anglo-Saxons invaded from Europe, killing much of the native populace. But forests, rivers and and the fierce resistance of the Welsh kept the English from destroying them. Later English kings attempted to conquer Wales; with varying amounts of success. But it took them 200 years to actually bring wales under English control, and by then it's easy to question whether they conquered the Welsh at all. Additionally this takeover allowed the Welsh to keep most of there own laws, so no one really minded the take over.

I think we should draw a conclusions from this lesson. This being that not having as much technology doesn't make you smarter; after all the Welsh were "Barbarians" as far as the English were concerned, but the Welsh, with their forest craft and longbows, plus a good dose of tactics and bravery weren't conquered by the English for about 200 years. And even after that it wasn't a hostile takeover, because they got to keep a good majority of their own laws.

Jonathan Wallis