Sunday, February 26, 2012

Card Games at School

I bought a couple of card games recently at a teacher store. One game is played like Go Fish, but you have cards with multiplication and division facts. You have to match up one of each that equal the same number. The player with the most pairs wins.
The other game is good for younger kids to practice counting money. They have a card with a picture and a price tag and their goal is to find the matching card that has the coins with the correct amount. It's played like Go Fish, so whoever has the most pairs wins.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Pipe Weld Repair

Everyday is something different as far as work in the engine room. Yesterday upon assuming the watch I did a round(visual inspect all components of the engine room, tank levels, etc.) Then I was told by the 1st engineer to look at the limit switches on the port lifeboat davit, as he was told they weren't working. After fixing them, I found a metal part on the davit which needed replacing. It was so thin from rusting over the years, but painted over now, it wasn't heavy enough to do the job anymore. I don't have a picture of it, but it was a very intricate piece to cut out with the torch and machine part and weld two different size pieces of rod too.


After a few other smaller jobs and supper, we decided to fix a sea water pipe that had been leaking. We found it to be to bad for immediate repair, so we moved in a replacement pipe that had failed years ago and was never repaired, but replaced. So I welded on this replacement pipe in order to fill the small existing hole, but to strengthen and add thickness to the areas where water flow causes great erosion.





After many beads, I got a little sloppy, but the first few layers were perfect. We may also put a ceramic compound over the inside of the pipe to further resist errosion.


I wanted another pic of my Qmed Ben for the blog, so this is the quick pose we came up with in the hall way while I was giving him my wireless internet device to use for the night. He is a very good worker. He is very intelligent with mechanics and a hard worker, the best combination possible. We get along very well and enjoy our breaks with conversation and the occasional chess game. Well that is all for now. Andrew

Grain For Africa


Well this trip will be a little different than the last, because we will be hauling sacks of grain instead of ammo and we will be going to Africa instead of Kuwait. We are loading 19000 tons of about five different kinds of grain and mixtures. Wheat, lentils, and peas I know are some of them. This is all being donated by the U.S. Aid (our taxes) and it sounds like we send hundreds of ships full of grain each year to different parts of africa. We will be unloading this shipment in Togo, between Nigeria and Ghana.


The bags are plastic but rain can still be detrimental to a shipment. So no loading is done while it is raining and the hatches are sealed up very well. When all is loaded, they will fumigate the cargo holds and we may have to stay in a hotel a couple nights as a precaution of us getting exposed to the poisonous gasses.

This is one of the booms on the dock, there are four of them total but the most they have used on here is two at a time. The grain is sent on the conveyor belt and spirals down to the cargo hold and is spit into place by moving the bottom tray of the boom.


And here is me typing a letter to my dear wife. We have only been out to see for five days so far this trip, so I have been able to use the internet, but when out, I use the ships email and thankfully I am allowed to do it on watch in the control room when on break.




Friday, February 17, 2012

Valentines Week

We did a few things last week and this week for Valentines Day. The kids like doing art projects or math centers in my room for the different holidays.One of the older students working with the two preschoolers.
One of the math centers was focusing on ordinal numbers. The students had the letters to spell "Valentine." They cut them out and glued them onto a sentence strip in order. Then they followed the directions with coloring a certain ordinal number a certain color. For example, it said color the second letter red and they had to follow the directions. The first and second graders loved it.
Sisters dressed alike with the same dress! One is in 1st grade and the other in 2nd grade....


They also had a money counting center. I had twelve cards with different amounts of money with pictures of various coins. Students had to count the money on each card. Good money counting practice that is made fun!
And I got roses at the end of the week for Valentines Day from Andrew! A good end to the week!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Houston Texas Fueling and Repairs

My Q-med Ben at the bunker station, watching for leaks and communicating with barge while I am sounding tanks that we are pumping into, the 1st assistant engineer is also sounding tanks, and the chief engineer is controlling valves and watching gauges in engine control room.
The mega phone is always fun to play with but the radios are usually used to communicate.
Me on top of the Port Main Engine just posing. We had an exhaust leak and some oil leaks that we had to fix when we got to Houston. Ben is shown in the next picture hooking up some oil lines that were undone when we changed out exhaust valves and cages. The bottom picture shows an exhaust leak and oil leak near eachother. The oil being blown by exhaust gas where it shouldn't.





Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Fargo trip....

Last Saturday, Stephanie, George, my mom, and niece Larissa came and picked me up and we went to Fargo for the day. It was nice having my family come for the day. The last couple weeks without my husband here have been hard and lonely, so this was a well-needed day....We left around 9 from Rosholt and got back to my house around 8 at night. We made lots of stops: the mall, some used book stores, the teaching store, Farm Fleet and dinner. We ate at one of my favorite places- Valentino's. It's a place of all the pasta and pizza that you cane eat. At the mall-- Larissa 13 months. She loved looking at the water and throwing pennies in!
We stopped at a couple of used book stores and I found some bargains. I found some books that I could use at school-- books about fractions, money, and first aid in baby-sitting.
I also found a couple books for myself. A long time ago, I'd read the Janette Oke books and I want to start reading them again. I'd also like to take up a collection for myself!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Groundhog Day and more...

We started the month off by doing a some groundhog activities for 1st and 2nd graders. One of the older students agreed to help "teach" the project.
Here they are cutting out their body parts for the groundhog. Found the idea on the internet.
A first grader with her project-in-the-making
Working on doing the writing part of it


A second grader with the completed project. We hung them in the hall. The kids like to point out which one is theirs on their way to class!


And, along with the new month, came a sale on The Mailbox (a teaching) website. They have lots and lots of teaching books and supplies. Books were marked down to as low as $1.00. So, to ring in the new month, I got a couple monthly books for February. Hope to start using these this week at school.