It was nice to get a hand written note from the Cavalcade Staff. Believe it or not, I still have my Cavalcades, though they are not regularly referenced. I know the work that went into producing the 2014 edition will be under appreciated by their classmates now, but no doubt appreciated greatly in the future.
Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Thank you to all our veterans that have served our country over the years. Your service is appreciated.
Here is a list from Christian Carlson and the Friday Five that includes some businesses that are doing a little extra to show their support. He suggests bringing your military ID or wearing your uniform to take advantage of these. Some offers may vary by location.
Image © 2011 Frank Glick, used with permission, all rights reserved. www.liketophoto.com
Easterday Construction has always sponsored a Little League team. We always ask for Easterday Green shirts and they try and accommodate us. The team is pictured to the right. I hit the organizers up about including names with the plaque. Some of those kids may work here someday and it would be fun to see the tie-in. Ha!
You never know what kind of call you will get around here. Diane Osborn called around the first of August and asked if we could build a 12′ tall artist easel for Heartland Artists to use for sign displays during the Blueberry Festival. That’s not exactly something we get asked every day… We did a little research to try and determine what standard dimensions for an artist easel are. It didn’t take too long to figure out that there aren’t really any standards. We eventually found one that we liked and we went about modifying it to increase dimensions and make it collapsable.
We started with three 12′ 2 x 4’s for legs, joined at the top with bolts and nuts. The front legs are the outer legs and these were beveled to allow them to come in against the back leg when spread. A fourth 12′ 2 x 4 was cut in half for two 6′ lengths. One of those pieces was ripped in half again. One of the ripped pieces was joined to the full piece in an “L” shape to create the tray to hold the display. This would be where the canvas would sit on a normal easel.
We loosely bolted the “L” piece to one front leg. At the other front leg, we placed the bolt through and inch lower, leaving it stick out slightly longer. We then notched the “L” to rest on this bolt and lock it in place. This allowed the whole thing to fold up as one linear stack when not in use and without disassembling the parts. When completed, we had things set up so that it could be assembled without tools and could stand with the nuts and bolts just finger tight. We considered adding chains from the front legs to the back leg to set the open distance, but decided this would limit the flexibility of use and would impede how it folded up.
The final touch was to drill holes in the bottoms of the legs for anchoring. These were drilled horizontally through the legs to allow attachment to stakes if the placement was on earth or other mechanical fasteners if the placement was on pavement. At 12′ high with the potential for more than 32 square feet of signage, we were concerned that it would become a big sail and blow over in the wind. (Live & Learn. This was a problem with the film reel we made several years ago and that was a lot heavier and less top heavy!)
Thanks to Bob Cooper and Mugurel Stefan here at Easterday Construction for finding the parts from stock and assembling the structure. Shelley Heiden with Heartland Artists sent us the pictures which are greatly appreciated. Best wishes to Heartland Artists for many years of use.
Lenker services completed the monument move last week. They also removed and buried the old monument base, so the site looks significantly different!
This was a delicate procedure and Tom Lenker is one of the few people I would trust with the relocation of this irreplaceable historic monument. The move was completed without a hitch and the monument looks good in it’s new location.
We have completed installation of the stacked block retaining wall and have begun forming the memorial plaza. The veterans are selling brick for the plaza if you’re interested in helping them out. Contact Brent Martin at B.A. Martin Architects, PC and he can get you in touch with the right people.
Easterday Construction will be donating the installation of a new flag pole at the site as well. The base has arrived for the pole. The pole should follow shortly.