Floor Horse or Pommel Trainer

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I keep waiting for sunny days and they are so few and far between. This winter has been the cloudiest, coldest one yet in our 11 years here. There is another promise of sunny weather from weather.com, but the last promise fizzled out, so we'll have to wait and see.

Someone forgot to turn off the water to the horses...





After bill-paying errands, including property taxes, OUCH!, we headed over my parents' house in town to borrow my dad's jigsaw to finish cutting out the pieces for Michael's pommel trainer.

Oh, before I go on --- I don't know if you might have an interest, but I am currently watching a web cam of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I often do this, I believe right now you can hear the rioting from the Muslims in the background of the city. There is always something interesting to see or hear there.

http://english.thekotel.org/cameras.asp

Also, a friend, who often helps us with our computer issues and is mentoring Michael in computer education, set us up with an amazing program last year that I recommend to everyone. If you want to have the clearest, most detailed view of what is on your computer, this program will do it. It's very visual and easy to understand. It makes choosing what should stay and what should go on your pc so much easier to figure out, especially if yours is full, like mine. We've been deleting things this morning and still need to move photos off and into a storage device yet again. Anyway, please check out this free program, you'll be so glad you did.

http://windirstat.info/

So, back to our project.

This is for Michael's gymnastics training here at home. We've built some practice parallets for him, have purchased rings we need to hang, and now we are building this:





My incredibly detailed plans.





There are better ways to build this, but we are on a tight budget so I planned this for the least expensive way I thought I could build it and still get a few years use out of it.

My dad is a good craftsman and I knew he'd have some good ideas for us. Rather than getting out the jigsaw, he already had his scrollsaw set up for us by the time we arrived. These will be the arched end pieces, cut from a 4 foot 1 x 8.





Michael and I build a lot of things together, and this was a great chance for him to work on a project with his Grandpa, so I used the opportunity to snap photos and visit with my mom. Here they are setting up.





This is like Wilson on Home Improvement.





Michael cutting out the first piece.





He did a great job.





Look! My folks have crocus out!





Trying out an idea that was later discarded.





From the time I was a kid, I always loved this simple method of storing itty-bitties (ehem... small parts) in used jars.





The only drawback to having my dad work on these projects with Michael is that I don't get to do a step by step tutorial for you. But there are other chances for those.

Using the drill press.





Using the power saw.









Screwing the 2 x 4s onto one end piece.





And here is where we had to call it quits. Michael had his gymnastics class to attend. We'll try to get over there and finish the basic construction today.





I've got to go do my Constitution class homework now, with Michael. We are doing week 9 of 12 tonight. We are enjoying it so much!

Hoping there is sunshine on your face today!

~Faith

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