Author: Dad

Draft Design for a Complex Machine to Generate Electricity from Water Power

brother, creation, school, science

Alexander is designing a “complex machine” for his 8th grade science class. He recorded a short AudioBoo today and described his design, which I photographed and embedded below. Please share comments and feedback.

listen to ‘A Complex Machine Design’ on Audioboo

Complex Machine Design

I shared the “Sweeping Down the Plains” STEM project from K20-ALT with him this week for ideas and inspiration. See Video Part 2 on the project page, starting at the 4:46 point to see the design for an electrical generator/dynamo using a wind generator design. The Google Doc lesson plan includes the supplies used for their project. This extremely clever design uses a CD, neodymium magnets from AmazingMagnets.com, a wooden skewer like those used on a BBQ grill, a suction cup, and other inexpensive items. Hat tip to Adam Zodrow for sharing this amazing project with me a few weeks ago. See this post and podcast on Oklahoma EDUshare for more info about this project and K20-ALT.

I’m thinking Alex’s greatest challenge will be building the water wheel, gears, and the dynamo. This is going to be a great opportunity for problem solving, engineering, design and tinkering!

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New Mexico Green Chili Chili Recipe (mild)

cooking, dad

This week I’ve been gearing up for tonight’s Chili Cook-off at our church in Edmond, Oklahoma, and I’ve prepared a “New Mexico Green Chili Chili” inspired by Dan Tubb’s creation last year. I based my recipe on “Karen’s Classic Old-Fashioned New Mexico Green Chili” with a few modifications. Last Sunday I ‘practiced’ for the first time, and yesterday I made my second and ‘real’ batch. In the initial attempt I used tomatoes, but in today’s version I did not.

I used six Anaheim green chilis in addition to 4 small (4 oz) cans of Hatch green chilis.

Anaheim Green Chilis

I roasted these in the oven using these instructions, basically turning them every 1.5 minutes under the oven broiler for a total of 10 minutes cooking time.

Roasted Green Chilis

Then I covered them with saran wrap for 15 minutes and they were ready to peel.

Peeling the Chilis

I added about a tablespoon of oregano to my recipe, which wasn’t called for in “Karen’s” version. I also added some sliced and sautéed new potatoes, which Dan had encouraged me to use.

New Potatoes

Sautéing the potatoes

Now we’re off to church to see who wins and taste everyone’s creations! For more inspiration, check out the video I made last year at the Chili Cook Off! I may try to make another documentary this year.

Update: My chili was well received, but there was not NEARLY enough of it. No prizes this year. Next year if I make it again, I’ll double or triple the recipe.

The finished chili

The February 2012 Chili Cook Off

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A Train to Fort Worth

travel, trip, video, youtube

We surprised our kids in April 2008 with a train trip to Fort Worth from Oklahoma City. This is the best resolution version of this movie that I have at this point. What FUN this was!

I found this video tonight as I was looking at data on an old hard drive. Unfortunately the new version of iMovie isn’t compatible with the older version I created this with. If I find a copy at some point I may encode this at a higher resolution. At least we have this version!

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Our 2011 Family Christmas Card

movies, youtube

Inspired by Ben Grey‘s December 7th post, “Challenging Seconds,” I’ve opted for a sixty second video this year in lieu of a family Christmas Card. Following the rules outlined by Ben, this is a 60in60 video:

  • 60 images
  • 1 second per image (total of 60 seconds)
  • The video tells a story

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Fryers in Oklahoma City!

Merry Christmas 2011 from the Fryers

Artist: Steven Curtis Chapman

Buy “Declaration Of Dependence” on: Android Market, AmazonMP3, iTunes

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Sharing Sermon Perceptions Through Art

art, christian, littlesister

Rachel is now in the habit of creating illustrations during the sermon each Sunday in church. Here are some of her recent drawings.

Rachel's Art: Temptation

Rachel's Art: Truth or Fiction

This was the drawing she made on Sunday when she took communion for the first time.

Rachel's Art: Communion

Rachel is taking away a lot of ideas from church each week and I think it’s great she’s sharing her perceptions through her art.

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Delicious Prime Rib

food

Tonight for Christmas dinner we cooked prime rib. It turned out delicious! I probably should have left it in the oven about 10 more minutes. Here is some documentation of how I cooked it in case you’re interested, and for my own later reference.

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This was the recipe I used and modified slightly. We bought 4 pounds of prime rib at Whole Foods, which was 2 bone-in ribs/steaks. We were feeding 7 people. This worked out fine, but I would like to have an extra rib next time for the same number of people.

For the seasoning rub (which turned out amazing) I added some Montreal steak seasoning to the four ingredients included in the recipe: coarse sea salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper. I didn’t baste the sides during cooking. For our 4 pound roast, I cooked it 15 min at 425 degrees and then 1 hour, 15 minutes at 325. The meat thermometer read 130 at the end of the cooking time. I covered it with foil and let it rest for 20 minutes after that. As I said it turned out amazing, but since we had several people who like more well done meat it would have been good to leave it in the oven just a touch longer.

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I cut it with our electric knife which worked great. To keep the meat hotter before serving, however, next time I’ll try to have all other items ready for our plates before cutting the prime rib.

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