MAN WORK!!!

So, being an engineer, I spend a lot of time sitting at a desk looking at my computer. When I do get out of the office, most of the time it is to watch someone else work, very rarely do I ever do any actual physical labor. I kind of miss it. I spent all of my childhood helping on the farm. Carrying siphon tubes, shoveling to get the potato rows watered, rolling hay bales, feeding the cows, digging potatoes, even working in the garden; weeding, picking, watering. I started building when I was 10 years old when we started remodeling and building the house that we lived in. I worked building apartments when Erica and I first got married and were living in Bountiful. I worked for a general contractor when we moved to Logan to finish school for two years before I got my job at the water lab. So sometimes I miss doing some good old fashioned work. MAN WORK!!!

I got to do a little MAN WORK this weekend. For those of you who haven't heard, I bought a new dirt bike. It is a Yamaha WR450F. I bought it from a guy in Idaho Falls and since I don't have a trailer (or a truck!) Dad took it to his house with his truck. Here is a photo real quick:

Not my bike, but this is what it looks like. Some actual photos will be posted as the summer progresses.

Anyways, to remedy the fact that my new bike lives an hour away, I started building a trailer to haul it this weekend. Well, more like remodeling. Dad and I salvaged a little boat trailer a couple years ago that has been sitting out in the junk pile. It was in pretty bad shape and Dad had taken the rollers off it to use for a trailer that he was building for a boat. We looked at this old trailer and decided that it would work pretty good for a little motor bike trailer. So this is where the MAN WORK comes in. Dad had to go work on fence for a while so I had to cut the supports off for a boat. Nothing like using a big grinder, hammer, and cold chisel to break loose some welds. After repositioning the brackets for the leaf springs we bolted the axle back on. The tongue was way too long so we cut it shorter and will put a new hitch on it. We welded some additional braces across it and are just about ready for a deck. Some tires, lights, and a bike frame and we will be set!

It was very satisfying to see sparks fly, metal being melted and cut, and to use a big hammer. Everybody needs to do a little MAN WORK sometimes! Especially us desk jockeys.

Oh and on a minor side note, Jamison pooped in the toilet today. Pretty exciting for the people who have to change his diaper!