THE FOLLOWING IS A WEEKLY STATE OF THE WHALE SKELETON ADDRESS

by Lee Post

Here we are at the end of week four - my projected halfway point. Of course we are way further along than that. At the beginning of the week we were down to a bare pipe and no ribs at one point before heading the other direction. Now we have all the vertebrae on the tail and the pipe, most of the silicone done between the vertebrae, the rib hanging pieces bent to shape and welded in place and the ribs back on. In addition, the skull came down to join us and thanks to Cheyenne and Wesley, the cleaning of the skull got started. Laurel Patrick from Mexico joined us for a week. She has a 60-foot sperm whale skeleton in her back yard south of Ixtapa at her nature refuge. She came to get some hands-on experience working on big bones and arrived at a great time to be very helpful. We also reached a point on the flipper assembly of calling them done. They still need some beautician work with the coloring but otherwise are fairly finished. . .It was an exciting week.

This next week we will be taking Thursday off. Otherwise it should be a week of getting the rib hanging hardware painted and the ribs fastened. We should be able to get rid of the woodwork inside the rib cage so we can get close enough to finish up the silicone. Sam and Marilyn are scheming on ways to create a full size tail for the whale. Cheyenne and Wesley are going to start consolidating the skull. Tammy and Kaylie are finishing up the tail section. There are still fun projects so don't give up coming .

We never did come up with a good T-shirt design. In a town full of artists we should still try for that. Any great ideas?