Out of the Blue, Clear Sky

A couple of years ago, we put this reflective heat blocker film on most of our upstairs windows to give the old furnace/air conditioner a fighting chance. We've been looking at a deceivingly dark backyard ever since. When we noticed the film has suffered some chipping and damage (and that the corners were peeling) Brennen decided to not only peel the stuff off, but polish up the window afterwards. It looks so clear, we keep thinking the glass is missing :) 

He wants to keep peeling the other windows, but we're just going to make sure the HVAC can keep up with our greenhouse effect when the days warm up and the clouds clear off. (Plus, we can look out the windows and no one can see us because of the reflective nature of the anti-heat stickers. A little generational OO7 there ;)





Another cool project that the kids took on recently . . . bike building! Inspired by cousin A, perhaps :) A couple of years ago, my sister's fam gave us a pair of retooled bicycles. We've moved these from shed to garage and back again for several seasons (it's all hills 'round here, so family bike rides aren't something we do . . . although we had big plans for ourselves when we took the bikes). Graysen rode one until the back wheel couldn't be repaired, the chains grew rusty(er), and Brennen took the seat clip for his new bike (as noted in a previous blog post). We basically had bits and pieces of two bikes that no longer functioned.




When we found out our pastor's family was one bike shy of a family bike ride, Brennen decided to pull all the good parts off the broken bikes to make one solid bike to gift as we were gifted, before. We looked up videos on how to remove a chain (and then gave up because that wasn't happening!) 

Gabby suggested they move the big tires off the bike with no seat onto the better-shape bike with the broken back wheel. This plan worked well to replace the back wheel/tire, but the brace on the front tire was more narrow. This required the wider tire to be deflated and the tread part moved onto the front wheel (yay, that the spoke/wheel size itself was the same!), the van keys were required to run an air pump, and amazingly two working, matching, tires appeared on the bike! Graysen switched the kickstands, Brennen fixed the brakes (well, as well as older brakes can be fixed) and got most of the gears working. Gabby got herself covered in grease and then polished up the frame. Quite the transformation!



Buck decided he should give the bike a try, so after a third work day (I don't have pictures because I had to lay down and sleep for awhile that day) he and three kids headed off into the woods with their bikes. It was not an easy ride, but Buck determined the bike was rideable and safe for our pastor's daughter (even though it's a boy bike, she won't care :) Gabby polished it up a second time, and tonight the girls are delivering the bike at their class about listening to God, taught by our pastor's wife. Whew! It's hard to write this without using names :)



Anyway, it was a cool project all around! We got to recycle two throw-away bikes into one functional one. Brennen learned some sweet new skills. We made a family happy, and we now have two fewer bikes to move from the shed to the garage and back again ;) One of these days Buck might get himself a comfortable bike and start riding again, but after 20 years of not, he realized it is like hopping back on a bike again, but also very much not, ha!