Dear earthquake friends,

I wanted to share a bit of a milestone for me regarding my seismograph fun. 
Chris Chapman ... I don't know if you are up to reading your email now, but 
I know that you'll get a chuckle out of hearing my "adventure" this weekend.

About a year or so ago, Chris Chapman was kind enough to lend his expertise 
in my efforts to build a seismograph vault.  With his help, I thought I came 
up with a workable plan and send it out to a dozen contractors to see what 
it would cost if I had someone else do it.  Only one bid came back and it 
was nearly $4000, so I knew that I would have to do it myself.  I had 
planned to do it this summer, but I was hired by the Oregon Dept of 
Education to create a set of 20 videos on earth science education, 
earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.  So I came up with an "intermediate" plan that 
was doable this summer in the time that I had available.

We live in a woodframe house with raised wood floors on the Oregon Coast 
(about 1000' from the ocean).  My seismometers are now sitting on a cabinet 
in my electronics lab.  My original plan was to do something in the crawl 
space.  But on my first venture "down under" I saw a spider the size of 
Texas and came scrambling back up.  We have several cats and my husband 
doesn't like the idea of poison, even in the crawl space.

So my "intermediate" plan (at least until I can do my "grand" plan designed 
by Chris) consists of a watertite brick enclosure on the concrete slab 
underneath the porch.  It is obviously not the best solution because it is 
not completely isolated from the house.  But it should be a far site better 
than where the seismiometers are now.  At least they will be away from the 
cats jumping on the cases causing a "CATaclysm" or "CATastrophe" on my 
helirecorders.

The bricklayer did an excellent job with the walls and only charged $200. 
But I needed to raise the floor about 2", so I had my first ever encounter 
with mixing and laying concrete.  We chose a quick set mix, so I knew that I 
would have to work fast to get it mixed and layed before it set.  I studied 
the instructions for a week, and carefully planned all of the steps and 
materials that I thought I would need.  When everything was ready, I began. 
But, alas, it was quite a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. 
Even though it was only 55 degrees F here on the coast today, this (well 
past middle age) woman was dripping in sweat when it was done.  And a 
husband watching saying "tsk tsk tsk" all thoughout didn't make it easier.

Anyway, the job is done.  I'll put the final coat of marine paint on the 
cover tomorrow.  Perhaps in a week I'll have my seismometers in their new 
home.

And, knowing now how hard it is to do concrete, that $3500 for my "grand" 
plan doesn't look quite so expensive now.

Hope you enjoyed the story of my Sunday adventure.

If you are reading this, Chris, I'm sending you all my best wishes.

Kay Wyatt


__________________________________________________________

Public Seismic Network Mailing List (PSNLIST)

To leave this list email PSNLIST-REQUEST@.............. with 
the body of the message (first line only): unsubscribe
See http://www.seismicnet.com/maillist.html for more information.