Day Two - Two Challenges

The day began with a challenge; build a chair. Building a chair is one of the fastest ways to learn a whole lot about the strengths, powers and limits of 1x4.

The kids took off with it. They started by drawing their designs on scrap wood (the paper would be purchased later that day, we are still recovering from Sunday's hectic start).

Measuring, marking and cutting filled the next few hours.

Anya sets out ambitiously

Sophia works on her chair

Katia is excited to get building

Elizabeth demonstraights her classic level of focus

Segal marks and measures

Zada makes rapid progress

Last night a crew of the kids began playing poker with a fairly classy set of chips brought by Jonah. Obviously played without any actually money, this game has quickly become and amazing social centerpiece to the evening. When presented with the challenge of making chairs, a few kids set out to make a set of chairs and a table to enhance their playing experience. Interestingly, due to supply constraints, everything stayed small and low.

Evan works on his 6 in high poker seat

Addison is committed to nearly perfect alignment

Althea tries to make the connections secure

The chairs start to take shape and get strong, often with interesting structural solutions.

High backs and even office style swivel chairs were experimented with

Jonah and Frannie cut out the table's top

The poker table take shape and gets used

Sophia's throne is made from the 1x4's of her fallen foes

Ben plays with a innovative 3 leg solution made entirely of available scrap

In the afternoon, with some serious trial and error under our belt, we announced the week's big project. We are going to make bike pulled campers in teams of 3 and four. We each have 12 1x4s, 1 2x4, a tarp, and a sheet of super thin ply.

Excitement builds, plans are drawn and building starts right away. The excitement was so high and concentration so deep that Josh and the collaborators didn't get as many photos as usual.

Portrait of a Tinkerer: Ben tries out on the bikes we will be using to pull the campers

Sejal and Zada build outside

As the creative juices flow and the hard work happens, the ranch animals keep us company and snacks keep us sane.

At one adorable moment half the camp devolved into a lovely game of "get the baby goats to hop on us".

There is one more silly story to leave you with from our day. Ben made his chair into a small adorable character that went on adventures and met some animals.