The weekend farming update from Ben

Not a lot of farming this week. Opening a college play in two weeks so the focus is there. Mostly.

Quite a few years ago when I was younger and full of energy and enthusiasm, I bought some pneumatic brakes and other air powered things for sets at the college. I used them for some fun stuff. Then I didn’t use any of them for a few years, but this show is using an eight-foot octagonal rolling platform and it needs some kind of stop, and I thought this would be a good use for the air brakes. I use a small tank of compressed nitrogen rather than air, because it’s a little more efficient, and the tank lasts a lot longer than my small tank of compressed air. Of course that’s assuming the stage managers remember to turn it off at night so it doesn’t leak down.

The wheels are called “triple throw casters”. Three swivel casters mounted on a plate with a Lazy Susan. It makes things roll easily without forcing the castor to change direction before moving.

It was fun to do and the students think it’s really cool.

I’m building some triangle shaped flats. (walls are called ‘flats’ in theater lingo) and they will be covered with cave paintings.

The show is an original, written by our own artistic director, Jerry, called “Ouch”. It’s about a young cave person, who has new ideas, such as words, or cooking food with fire rather than eating raw, and the elders don’t like all the new ideas. Not a lot of set; some fake rocks and the rolling platform upstage (at the back), and the walls with cave paintings. And shadow puppets for the Mammoth of course.

I spent two days in the lighting catwalks swapping out newer 2015 fixtures for 1980 fixtures. And converting some from incandescent / halogen to LED. The LED lights then need ‘data’ cables to them. The others were just swapping out the old for the new. The reason for that was better light out of the new ones, plus, they’re able to be upgraded to LED if we get money. We’ll see at the end of the year how much money is left. An LED upgrade kit is about $600. A whole new LED fixture is $2000 -$3000. Each. All the fancy stuff gets an address, so the lighting board know which light it’s talking too. That’s called “patching”. Each light gets it’s own number, meaning address. One universe of lighting has 512 addresses. My lightboard can output 4 universes. The first universe goes downstairs to the dimmers. The second universe is up to the catwalks and a lot of stuff up there. Universe 3 goes to the stage, and universe 4 has a Wireless gizmo to control some other lights on stage. This photo shows how many of the 512 addresses are being used in Universe 2.

Each parameter of a light takes an address. So intensity, red, green and blue, would be 4 addresses. A light that moves and can do patterns, colors, zoom, and might take 65 addresses. At that rate, 512 doesn’t go far. Something like the Olympics or a rock concert might be using 20 universes of lighting. I know I probably cover this every time I’m working on a show. Sorry for the repetition.

Last Sunday Kelly and I took a drive to see the leaves. We were a little early so there wasn’t a lot of color yet. We started following the Zumbro river at Zumbro Falls and my goal was to drive gravel roads with no traffic. That mostly worked. Down to Hammond, out to Millville, eventually to highway 60 and over to Wabasha, and Nelson for ice cream, then back to Weaver and through Whitewater on that gravel road, Elba to Plainview and back home. It was a nice day for a drive.

At home I’m trying to finish some stuff before it gets too cold. The plan is to pour concrete the last week of October. I have help lined up. I went to one of those big box stores and spent – I mean SAVED big money the other day. I have most of the concrete tools I need now. If this concrete project works out, and I expect to learn a lot, I plan to do more concrete next summer. I’m going all in! Had a load of gravel delivered as I need more to put underneath the concrete. My brother will help, Padawan will help. (The job he started didn’t last. He says they just told him “This isn’t going to work out.” He told his step-mom “They don’t have any patience.” He hasn’t yet figured out that she and I talk. We were childhood friends and he knows we know each other. She and I get both sides of the stories that way) So, he’ll help cause he’s got nothing else. Son is bringing some friends to help. I was hoping one of them knew something about concrete, but he says they’re just the muscle, not the brains. Shoot. That means I gotta be the brains. And I only know enough to be dangerous. I’ve done a bit of concrete over the years, and I’ve watched some YouTube video’s. And that’s why we’re starting with small slabs.

I got the front wheels put back on that hay rack. Remember after straw, the frame cracked, the tie rods bent, and the wheels were pointing different directions? My nephew, Matt, put it back together, straightened it, and reinforced it. I repacked the front wheel bearings and tightened them, and just need to bolt the box frame back to the wheels. One more thing to check off the list. My farming seems to be happening in the evenings now.

Some days I fix one thing and break two more.

HAVE YOU TOO OFTEN BEEN THE METAPHORICAL BRAINS OR MUSCLE?