Elser Family Blog

New Pony.

Got my 500$ 1995 Harley sportster on the road.
Runs well! I need to g back and tell the story of how I picked this up late last year. It was an adventure.

Making Tesla Coils

They did not really take this activity seriously.

It’s like I was making them do something they did not want to do.

 

Seems like they might have gotten a little more enthusiastic eventually.

Parts and Pieces.

Dad helping.

 

And, this is how they signify success! notice the Tesla coil in Hannah’s hand. It was not very big. lol.

More random December.

Working on the roof on the back of 711 house.

Here is waht it looks like before buttoning it up.

Rockwell is taking Diving! He jsut started in November.

Melinda and I went hiking on the Towpath singletrack. Here we are under Riverwatch on the way back to the car.

Rockwell had to draw an illistration for Faringhit 451 as a school assignment.. The kid has talent!

Longest I have ever been at one job.

The future!! 20 of these are mine! The beginning of the end of fossil fuel dependance, 340W solar panels. 1mx2m in size. Cant wait to install them!

Aluminum and water beads

After making sculptures with Ant hills, we stumbled across this one.. pouring aluminum into water beads! Works surprisingly well.

Pretty!

And here is the process:

Random Activities. Lasers and Ants.

Hannah and I stole and idea off the internet, Melted some aluminum, and poured it into a Anthill. We did not think it even worked, until we pulled this out the ground!

Here is the setup before firing..

Ready to pour!

Melinda is working on her science fair project. She is measuring the fringes of a interference pattern in order to figure out the wavelength of light. The calculation is actually quite basic: wavelength = fringe distance*double split spacing/distance between measurement of fringe and the split. We did the math… and it worked perfect, first time out. That was actually pretty exciting. She has three different colored Lasers to measure.

Rockwell science class project “Nitrogen”

Rockwell said he had to make a atom for science class. He decided on Nitrogen. I don’t know why.

So, I helped him make an atom of nitrogen.

OK, what is the saying? “When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail?” Or something like that. Most of my solutions these days seem to revolve around metal. That’s what I got’, that’s what we will use.

OK Rockwell cut some pieces of metal….

OK, now weld the metal together.

OK, weld more metal together…

OK, paint metal. As he was painting, he said “man, this thin is like a weapon! I might get in trouble for bringing it to class… ” And I said, “If they say anything about it being a weapon, you must reply “Yes! its a NUCLEAR weapon!”.. ” The look he then gave me… lol.

In between here he painted up the balls that make the 7 protons and 7 Electrons.. Did not get any pictures of that.
I’d say he made a FINE Nitrogen atom!

Building Computers.

So, Hannah and I have a friend (Charles Gantt) that evaluates electronics, and gets all sorts of stuff free in the mail. He surprised Hannah with all the makings to make a gaming computer, but the stipulation was she had to put it together. We helped, but she did it!

Here she is getting the processor ready to mount the heat sink.

Here she is organizing the wires getting the case ready to mount the mother board.

 

 

Putting the mother board in.

 

Connecting the hard drive.

 

We loaded up Windows 8, and she was pretty much done! A job well done. Now she just had to get it set up at home with a couple of monitors and she will be all set!

Many things that need documenting.

Like:
Melinda Horse riding,

One of my 2 new “speckled Sussex” Chicks,.. starting its internet training early.

Melinda’s Spanish homework video with her friend.

Hannah’s New snakes,

Melinda’s blue ribbon on her science project,

Rockwell’s awesome science project that did not place.. Being that I was a judge, and saw what he was up against, (I did not judge 6th or 8th grade, and the other judges did not know my kids where participating.) I was really suprised Rockwell did not place. REALLY suprised. Even the Teacher was suprised… You did a great job Rockwell. You simply win some and lose some. It’s a crapshoot sometimes.

Melinda being NAMS student of the month,

Melinda traveling to Washington DC.
She was invited to go to see the capital and the Smithsonian with the 8th Grad GT class. The whole group is taking a bus up there and staying at a hotel.

 

Rockwell Modding his Razor scooter,

Melinda helping to fix the IPad,

Going to the Circus.. the kids have gone to the circus every year almost forever…. And Hannah’s friend Amber almost always goes with us!

Hannah’s Awesome pink Kitten.

 

The Sleepover with the Banks.

 

Hannah Trying to find a dress for Prom,

Melinda DAR Presentation.

Check this out if you want to hear Melinda read her Essay. I love how she is so expressive.

Giving Gigi a little a love.

Finding a surprise Gift from Mom.. ( A piece of the classic old wrapping paper with a nametag)

 

Rockwell Science Project; 3D Bridge Breaking

Science Fair projects. So far, this is a little bit of a failure, Because its TOO successful?? Rockwell had our friend Charles J Gantt help him design and 3D print out some bridges for his science fair project… Well.. so far, we can’t break them! Even the ones that are made out of PLA ( “Polylactic Acid” a bio based decomposeable plastic) are holding over 275 pounds so far! Rockwell is sort of scared to be around it at that weight.. and I don’t blame him. We will be taking it outside this weekend and Iwill help him near the end… I don’t want it falling though the floor when it gives way. smile. They are 300mm wide with 3mm thick walls if you are wondering. Charles.. we might have to print out some 2mm thick ones?? Maybe you can test that new manufacturers product for them!!

Pictures to come. 🙂

Fall, ATV’s, Science Fairs, and the Holidays.

We all went to The Herndon’s house last weekend.. Wes is a man after my own heart.. he owns 4 dirtbikes and 3 ATV’s… they where all given to him broken! Well, we all had a blast riding them all over his property. 🙂

Rockwell started working on his science project! He designed a bridge (from scratch!) that he will 3D print out of various materials, and test how strong they are. Pretty neat!

Here is the first test print.

Melinda has been going to the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art on Saturday mornings recently. The class was called “trees”. This is a picture of some of the students work.. Hers is the second from the left. The pink one.

We also had the North Augusta Christmas parade again this last Sunday! It’s always fun.

I guess Rockwell wanted to bring his Baritone out and participate!

And the Herndon’s joined us again this time.