Portland Head lighthouse

HI all, today I am posting something I thought was really wonderful. My daughters' grandmother-in-law, took up a class to learn to paint. She is doing very well in it, and has learned she has some really unexpected talent in this area.

Sometimes life is so busy when we are younger and raising our kids, that we really put our self on the shelf. We don't have the time, and often the money to explore avenues of our lives that are talents that we haven't developed. She has all her kids grown now, and her husband passed away some time ago, so now she has time to explore other avenues of interest.

She is currently painting pictures for all her kids, and grand kids. I hope she lives a long time, as she has 12 kids and a whole bunch of grand kids. ha.

She did this picture in oil. I framed it to go with my other lighthouse pictures that i have decorated my sun room in. I wanted to share this with everyone, as I do believe that when someone puts some of themselves into a project like this and then gives that to you, it really should be shared .

This picture is of the Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth Maine. It was commissioned by President George Washington to be build in 1791. It was the first lighthouse commissioned to be built after the Revolution. enjoy!!

Delivered,Tested and It works

HI all, I am so happy today. I had Larry in the area from all his Welding trips, and he helped me take the portable shower that I had been working on over to Kathryn's Wednesday, put it up and tried to get it to work.. oh horrible.. I couldn't get the water to go into the pipe and out the shower head, or the hand held unit, except for just one little gush, and then it would stop. Larry was wonderful and made about 3 trips to Westlakes for an assortment of possible things to solve this problem. Nothing worked..Oh what to do.. well I tired all sorts of things, and decided to go home and get dinner and come back on Friday.
I did some Internet searching, and called the company that made the shower mixer unit for advice. We talked for a while, they said they would get back with me on this.
In the mean time, I and Larry decided today that I would check out the anti-scald device that was on it, as that is the only thing I knew might be a problem. So.. I turned the device to off.. and put the handle back on and we hooked up the hose in the bathroom to the hot, and the kitchen faucet for the cold.. turned everything on and WALLAH...!! it worked just perfectly. Great pressure, perfect temperature control. So I am celebrating today for Kathryn, she can finally have a shower and feel clean all over again.
I am eagerly waiting to see if it all works out for her like i think it will. And Ken will be assisting her with her first shower, so I hope it will be handy for him too.

Portable Shower

Well its finally done! I finally got the Portable Shower done that I have been working on for some time. I think it will do the trick just fine and Kathryn will finally be able to have a nice hot shower and wash her own hair. This shower doesn't require any plumbing or drains to work and is complete able to be taken down and put up again in a matter of 15-30 min. It can be carried in the back of a small pickup or a van.

this is a picture of the inside of the shower

Here is a closer picture of the inside :

I had to have the shower head extend out far enough so she could wash her hair, and I also put a device on it so she can just reach up and turn the water off or on from the shower head, if she wants to. I also added the same device to the hand held shower. This will allow her to have only the shower overhead, or her hand held one going at a time, or if she wishes, she can have both of them going at the same time. Her handle where she turns the water on/off/ hot/cold, still works like normal.

This is a how it looks with the shower chair

Next is a picture of the back where all the pipes , pump , and hoses are:here is a picture of the part of the pump that sits in the basin to extract the water, its called a puddler:

This next one is a view of the side of the shower, with the opening open, so someone helping a person shower, doesn't have to be inside the shower, but rather, can assist from outside the shower, and hopefully, not get too wet.

and the shower had to have a name:

This last one is the shower with the curtain drawn

The entrance of the shower has a one inch ramp for easy in and out.

I want Kathryn to use this shower and let me know what all might need to be changed,if anything, to make it useful for her and anyone else that might need one. I am thinking of selling something like this if this proves to be as useful as I think it will be. I also toyed with the idea of just keeping one or two on hand and renting it to people that maybe wouldn't need to buy one, but would only need it for a few weeks, or months.

My Idea is to make one for a man, and one for a woman, the difference for the man's shower would be the outside curtain. It would have a more manly color/print, maybe a camouflage or something like that. But other than than would be basically the same shower.

I got that Idea to make one to rent out, when I visited a lady who lived in a nice older two story home, and she had knee surgery. Her doctor sent her home with the instructions not to walk up steps, for about 6 weeks, among other things. When she got home, she realized she couldn't go upstairs where her shower was, and had to stay on the first floor where they only had a half bath. She was only able to wash up in her sink, and she really hated that. If something like this had been available to her, she would have rented it. I am just betting there are other people with similar problems, and needs.