Before and After

Here’s the before and after shots of the doors that have been recently refinished and repaired. I can’t believe the difference!          George

Before...

...and after

Catching Up

Time to catch up. The observatory platform is ready to go. The observatory is in Singapore…next stop is China. 

Our cherry tree finally bloomed after five years. It’s tall enough so that the deer can’t eat the leaves. Speaking of deer, I installed new fencing around one of Erika’s gardens. Erika lost all of her crops last year because of the deer.

It’s finally time to work on the doors. I have three doors that need to have the glass panes replaced. The doors also need some repair and paint. 

First, I removed the doors from the hinges and then removed the glass panels. Since I replaced the small panes of glass with one large glass panel, the mouldings were destroyed.

I made new mouldings and glued everything in place. Any cracks were filled with epoxy putty and sanded smooth. The doors will be painted gloss white so any defects will be hidden from view. New satin nickel hardware will be added later.

                                            Two more doors to go…

                                                     ...then it’s time to have a BBQ!!      
                                                            George

Observatory update

This morning the ScopeDome passed through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea  on its way to Singapore. Meanwhile back at home, the observatory platform is almost complete. The lumber arrived last week. Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating.

100VAC and 200VAC will be available at the pier

Working between the snow flakes and raindrops I managed to get all the planks down. The platform still needs a couple of coats of stain. Before installing each board, I gave the undersides a coat of stain. I want this deck to last a long time.

The pier is isolated from the platform to prevent any vibrations from being transmitted to the telescope imaging equipment. The equipment is extremely sensitive to movement and must remain rock solid while imaging. The gap between the platform and pier will be filled with foam backer rod to prevent any uninvited guests from entering the dome.

CAT 6 cable is available for remote imaging

Before staining, all of the knots will be filled with epoxy and sanded smooth.

Mount Yufu

After almost 5 years, we finally hiked some of the trails on Mount Yufu. We had no intention of climbing the mountain. We just wanted to give the doggies a chance to explore some new territory.

 Lucky and Kiley had a blast chasing deer up and down the mountain. The funny thing is that the dogs are scared of deer! 

We hiked a couple of the side trails. I know many people would rather climb to the top of the mountain, but with doggies it would have been very difficult since some of the sections of trail are steep and require hand rails. 

Besides, the hike was for the doggies and I think they really enjoyed it. 

We had a good time too! We'll be back since it's only 10 minutes away.