It will be spring soon and with spring comes the annual AVAM Kinetic Sculpture Race.

Waayyyyyy back in 2011 the DC Couchsurfing group got together to raise money, design and build an entry for AVAM’s Kinetic Sculpture Race (KSR).  Friends used their skills to help with different aspects from fundraising, cad drawing to fabrication.  We even had team members donating bikes for parts.

While pretty simple looking on the outside, the couch was pretty complex and took us a few months to build.  This was a KSR race entry after all and it needed to be able to tackle the city by land and sea.  It had to float.  On top of the tubular steel frame (made from an old trampoline), we fitted a 12″ thick 3’x 6′ block of styrofoam.

Steering is pretty neat as we were trying to hide the front wheel under the coffee table the best we could.

Three people can ride at once.  Power goes from the three cranks to an idler with freewheeling gears.  This makes it so riders can rest and take turns.  Power is then transferred via a beefier farm chain to a lawnmower differential so we can get this thing to turn.

While we were off to a great start, our day ended early.  We bent an axle, likely during the enthusiastic Le Man’s start, and that eventually led to a broken axle at the bearing. We packed up about a mile in and drank away our sorrows in the very neighborhood Siri and I would move to a year later.

It wasn’t all a waste though.  Our breakdown was spectacular enough that we won the coveted Golden Dinosaur Award that evening. Those of us who were still upright had gone to the ceremony for the free beer and were pretty well sloshed when we went up to receive our statue.

After a few years sitting in the bushes I finally have the space and tools in Baltimore to resurrect this machine.  We can fix it.. we can make it better.  I’ve brought it down and am announcing our 2016 entry.  We’re hoping to find support from the local bike and couchsurfing communities.

Things we’d like to accomplish:

• Move bearings outboard to be closer to the wheels.
• Repair broken axle.
• User stronger wheels with better brakes (moped wheels?)
• Re-grease cranks as they’ve sat in the elements for 5 years.
• Possibly add derailleurs so we can have multiple gears.
• Testing, testing, testing.

As it sits today.

Not quite done in this photo, but this is the last of it. I’ve pointed or relaid every brick in this 10×5′ column from the roof to below and including the basement floor.

Finally I’m done bricks. I finished Sunday morning. I started repointing these bricks September 2013.  Its been nearly 600 days…. not continuous, but it has been the dusty cloud looming over us for a long time.  19.5 months.  Time for something else for a change.  Luckily spring is here, the weather is great and we can do things outside.  Last weekend I did these 2 small projects.

First up was our herb garden. Last year we started a few, but this year we want way more.

Second task was to put up the weather station Siri’s dad had gotten us for Christmas. What old man’s life is complete without a wireless weather station?

Now that we’re finished with the repointing, what are we going to do with all the leftover brick and sand?  Last year it was pretty fun to have beers with friends around our fire pit. Why not make it better?  We remembered killing a patch of grass under and around the fire that didn’t really grow back.  That led to a muddy area around the fire and muddy feet going into the house.  Also, our old fire pit had rusted through completely leaving only the outer ring.  New fire pit was a lucky but easy find from Adam: a massive old wok set in our old rusted out fire pit and surrounded by bricks.  Now how about the rest?

I’ll dig out a circle around the fire pit…

I’ll fill it with the leftover sand…

and I’ll temp in bricks in concentric rings and fill in all the gaps with sand.

But now I have all this dirt! I think I’ll make more garden space next to the shack.  I can also use it to grade in a little fall so water flows away from the shack when it rains.  Should be pretty easy for the grass to grow back in too, but I’ll throw down some seeds to help it along.

It was all worth it though. Its better to sit around than ever.

Epilogue

Since last year though, I had heard a bit of controversy has developed on the legality of fires in Baltimore.

Baltimore code (308.1.4) says “Charcoal burners and other open-flame cooking devices shall not be operated on combustible balconies or within 10 feet (3048 mm) of any combustible construction or property line.”

Luckily we’ve got this big yard and, as you can see in this Sketchup drawing, we can get away with it in one little spot.  We also need to be cooking because the rules for decorative fires says 15 feet.  So while we have it in a different spot now, to keep the fire and noise further from the houses, we could move it if need be if someone raises a stink.

Only a tiny spot where having our fire is legal.