Welcome to the shop

Welcome to the shop, definitely not my domain. I prefer the corral. Being covered in mud, manure, slobber and any other animal-related mess is fine with me. Grease, on the other hand, is a problem. The stuff gets in your hair and on your hands and stays for DAYS. Not that I haven't had to help with various projects over the years (I know what it does to hair and hands first hand). I can change a flat, change my oil and fix various other common vehicle-related ailments. But it's not something I do for fun.

My dad and brother love being in the shop designing, building, fixing or their personal favorite-modifying- anything. As I have mentioned in previous posts they do design, build, fix and modify all sorts of things and are very good at it.

This is the latest project. You can see the two of them under it in the above photo. All I know for sure is it's a Ford and that they were fixing the clutch and brakes that particular day. I'm guessing that when they're done it will probably still look bad, but run great.


See, I am a journalist and did my research to determine the make. The year is somewhat in question though.

I did just remember what this particular trucks new purpose in life is! It is to be the new solar panel hauling truck. We use solar power to pump water for our cattle and sheep and by making our solar panels portable we can use them more effectively.

This is one of the making the old new and finding a new purpose for something that is otherwise unusable projects. We pretty much specialize in those at my house.

Now these are what had me excited as a photographer. It was a great lighting situation and looked pretty cool as I was taking the pictures.


So I just kept taking them, despite a couple glares from my brother when I used the flash or asked him to move. He just doesn't understand art (well, maybe art is a stretch) sometimes....


This is my brother holding the light for my dad, who is sitting up with his head up in the clouds so to speak. They are trying to get everything lined up and the clutch back on, it appeared to be a very tedious process and they were at it forever. The entire episode was highlighted with several muffled explicits and grunts. I've decided that if I ever frame a shop-related picture it will have to be named either "Oh Shit" or "Well, Shit," since those are easily the most common expressions used.


Right in front of my brother's hand is a jack holding up some vital piece of undoubtedly heavy...something. Both of them were very concerned about whatever it was slipping off the jack, which is why I suspect it was heavy.

This one is my favorite.

Now if they can just get the cactus out from behind the seat where a pack-rat had his very extensive collection of the stuff stored...

Perhaps a full tour of the shop is in line. I took several more photos and may work on that for the future.

I actually really enjoy spending time out there when I'm not getting greasy. It's where you can find my dad and brother on almost every winter day. We've spent many evenings in the beat up chairs in photo one discussing life...and the latest project they're designing, building, fixing and for sure modifying :)