Building and Hunting

Derek's final physics project for school was a choose your own adventure kind of thing. He had to pick a project, do a report on it, build and demonstrate it, and write up a quiz for the other students in the class. True to his medieval fantasies, he chose a battering ram to be his project. Because it was something that really interested him and went along with his love for building, this was one homework assignment that he didn't need any nudging on.

When he informed the teacher what his project was and that he was building a demo the teacher asked if he would need a full desk or table to demonstrate. Uh. . . how about a truck, trailer and an outdoor demonstration? The thing turned out to be almost six feet tall! It was so windy that day that during the trip to the school the thing was blown around a bit even though it was secured to the trailer. Before the trip it actually stood rather level. Those chains blowing to the left were whipping all over the place.

Those cute little people in the bottom right were his cheerleaders. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the class to come outside so during the wait we had a little pep rally to keep them entertained. Even though Derek couldn't see or hear them while doing his presentation, they were rooting for him with all their toddler energy and the "make a silly face" cheer.

He built, he studied, he practiced and was very excited with the actual ram. He was nervous about the presentation but once he got into it and his classmates showed there awe at his creation, he got into it with humor as well as information and earned a solid "A".

I wanted to take a video of his presentation and when he rolled his eyes I promised that I would be sneaky about it and not embarrass him in front of his teacher or peers. I held up my end of the bargain but the wind was so bad that the recording didn't pick up much of what was being said, except for the teachers comment, "we love destruction".

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We consider Derek and Chris to be the scarecrows for our raspberries. Maybe I shouldn't be so enthusiastic about the killing but we are country folk and we protect our crops. Though we have joked with the boys that they are now the meat providers of the family they refuse to pluck and clean them so we now have a bird cemetery in our back corner.