This week I finalized my project by finally editing all my videos and uploading them to my website. I used the app CapCut, as I have on a previous video, to edit the rest of the videos I had, which were 4 in total. I used the clips I had from previously working on my project and just combined them and edited out unwanted footage. I didn't do anything too fancy and just made them basic to simply show the progress I made through my project. This process did not take me long, but making sure to extract unwanted footage took the longest. But with the convenience of the split feature on CapCut, it helped speed up this process a lot. I also worked on making my presentation since we are presenting early next week. The first thing I did was pick the website and the template I wanted to use for the visual presentation aspect. I went from website to website, finding what would be the most convenient, user-friendly, and had the best template selection. This took me a couple of days to experiment with each website until I finally chose Google Slides. The selling point was being able to find the perfect template on slidesgo.com. This template has a mountain background with trees to show how the project mostly consisted of the outdoors and trees. After picking the website, I went to work on the presentation. I implemented a timeline that goes through all 12 weeks with bullets to jog my memory when presenting and icons to show the audience what I did that week. I wish I had got to learn more skills and get more experience with them this week but was unfortunately unable to. I do think I still learned enough throughout the process of this project to show that I have been successful in learning how to run a tree business.
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This week my main mission was to cut a poplar tree, and I went out and did that, well, sort of. After getting to the tree, my dad and I started cutting the notch in the tree. My dad started by cutting the bottom of the notch, and then I continued it until it was done. He then started the top of the notch, in which you go down at an angle, and I continued that as well until it was finished. Then I proceeded to knock the notch out with a sledgehammer. My dad then started the back cut, the final cut, until we stopped to put wedges in so it would help guide the tree. I then took over by cutting the back cut for what felt like forever. When I was making the final cut, it felt like an adrenaline rush because at any moment the tree could fall. I kept looking up and down to see if the tree was starting to fall, but nothing happened. At one point, my dad decided he needed to take over because it was becoming sketchy. He said it was sketchy because I had cut it so much, but it had not yet fallen. So, he took over, and after about 30 seconds of cutting, the tree finally fell. It was a double tree, in which it had one big fork near the base, and when it hit the ground, it split in two. Heading into the final week, I feel that I am about to cross the finish line, but there are still a couple of tasks I need to finish up. First, I need to clean up the tree I cut down this week to finalize the learning and applying skills phase. Next, I need to finish editing videos to incorporate them into my final presentation, which is also another task I need to do. I need to focus on this next week and put as much time as I can into finishing everything up to be ready for my final presentation.
We are finally closing in on the final weeks of this project, and I have had my most unproductive week yet. With the bad weather and how busy my schedule I was unable to get anything done. At first, I planned on getting more experienced with the chainsaw, so I could show how I have progressed throughout this project, but I was unable to arrange a time with my dad to do so. This is because of family get-togethers for Mother's day along with the drowsy weather. With not being able to practice with the chainsaw, I am going to have to skip that part and go straight into preparing my final presentation, along with cutting down a large tree and cleaning it up. Cutting down the tree and cleaning it up will show how I have been able to apply the skills I have learned with the help of my dad. If cutting the tree down works out, it will start with me notching and dropping the tree, cutting the tree down, and then I will work on cleaning it up with the skid-steer. This process will most likely take the entire next two weeks just in time for me to arrange the final presentation to show the class. And for my final presentation, I will use the videos I have accumulated over the process of this project to show how I have learned skills, applied them, and talk about how I could use them in the future. Finally, I want to try to make this week somewhat productive by trying to put together a couple of videos and uploading them after I finish writing this blog. I have some lined up that just need basic editing with a minor explanation of what is happening. Not editing the videos has been a problem of mine because I slack off too much, and I need to work on getting out of that habit. I hope that these next couple of weeks go to plan and I can wrap up this project.
To start this week, I finally got my second video done. However, unlike my other video, I used CapCut on my phone rather than DaVinci Resolve on my computer. I felt that this was easier because it bypasses having to upload all of the clips to my computer before being able to edit the video. It also is user-friendly for being on an phone and allows me to put together the videos at school during genius hour time on Wednesday. The next thing I was able to get done this week was cut a log. The first thing my dad and I did was file the chainsaw as well as gas & oil them. Next, we headed over to where the logs were, and when we got there, my dad positioned a log to where I could cut it. After that, I measured the log to see if it was long enough to go to the sawmill for money, but it was not. I then cranked up the chainsaw, and my dad helped pick where I should cut the log. After that, I started cutting until it was time for my dad to flip over the log so I could cut again. However, on the second cut I did, it was at a different spot which made the process longer than it should have. But after flipping the long once more after the second cut, I was able to finish cutting the log. Next week, I hope to be able to complete editing more of my videos and hopefully finish doing so. I also want to work on trimming a limb when it is on the ground. Because when a limb is on the ground that is too heavy to drag, it is best to cut it up so you can move it out of the way. I am also hoping on good weather for the upcoming weeks as I close in on wrapping up this project.
I have now made it to week 8, but this week did not go as I planned. At first, I wanted to practice/learn skills with the chainsaw. This, unfortunately, did not happen because my parents went out of town this weekend, leaving me with no one to help me with the chainsaw. Even though my plans did not work out, my brother came over on the weekend, and I helped him replace a part on the dump truck. To start, we grabbed a 5/8 wrench and a 15/16 wrench. The 5/8 wrench was used to take off the old part, and the 15/16 wrench was to put on the new part or sensor. After that, we opened the hood and climbed up to where we could reach the sensor. Using the 5/8 wrench, I loosened the part until I was able to take it fully off. Then, we prepped the area for the new sensor by using a rag to wipe the surface clean. My brother then gave me the new part, and I was able to screw it in with no problems. My brother then did what was necessary to connect the sensor, so it was able to work, and we were finished. Finally, we closed the hood and then realized the front left tire was low. After realizing the tire was low, my brother decided he needed to test drive the dump truck to see if the part fixed the problem. So, I rode with him up to the truck stop, where he filled up all the tires on the dump truck just in case. After arriving back at the house, we checked under the hood to see if there was still leaking where it leaked before we installed the new sensor. And there was no leaking, meaning we successfully fixed the dump truck.
I have now made it to week 7 of genius hour, a little past the halfway mark, and feel I have accomplished everything I have set out to do including this week. However, this week has had me stressed with lots of tests and quizzes throughout the week to get ready for spring break. While fighting through a tough schedule this week, I chose that it would be best to learn how to load a good-sized log into an approximately 10-12 foot tall dump truck. So to accomplish this, I went with my dad to work where he needed to get logs for his trailer to lay boards. When we arrived my brother cut up the necessary log into a 6-foot log. Once that was done, I climbed in the skid-steer and grabbed a hold of the log. This took me a couple of tries because the first time I tried to grapple it, it slipped out and fell to the ground. The second time I was able to position the log securely into the grapple. I then backed up, and aligned the skid-steer parallel to the dump truck. Finally, I raised the boom on the skid-steer and crept up to the dump truck until I felt it was safest to drop the log into the dump truck. After dropping the log, I backed up slowly and then proceeded to park the skid-steer. I felt that I did a good enough job to be able to move on from the skid-steer and focus on learning something else. So for the next week of genius hour, I plan on possibly cutting logs with a chainsaw or just continuing to practice with the chainsaw. But for now, I am comfortable where I am in this project to head into spring break unstressed. Edited 10:20 AM 4/20/22
For this week, my dad taught me how to load logs into a dump trailer with a skid-steer. First, my dad demonstrated it to me so I could learn. Next, I got in the skid-steer, and he showed me the control to work the grapple. After that, I tried by myself while my dad watched for any mistakes. First, I slowly approached the log and made sure to get a tight grip on it with the grapple. Then, I steadily raised the arm of the skid-steer and maneuvered my way in line with the dump trailer. While I slowly approached the trailer, I rose the arm high enough to clear the side of it. When I reached the trailer, I used the hydraulics to position the log above it and dropped it in. After doing it once, I decided to get some practice at it and load the rest of the logs. It went well, and I did not require much help from my dad as he continued watching for me in case of an emergency. This week helped me practice being smooth with controlling the skid-steer and helped me prepare myself for next week. This is when I will be loading logs into a bed of a dump truck which is much higher than the dump trailer. With the dump truck bed being taller, you have to be way more careful because if the log weighs too much, it will cause the skid-steer to tip over. This is why my dad wanted me to start with loading into the dump trailer first. Finally, this week I thought about how I wanted my final week to go to show fully show the progress of this project. After thinking, I decided after cutting down the big poplar tree to show I can run a tree business and cut it all up and move it with the skid steer to dispose of it.
At the start of this week, I decided I wanted more of a plan set in stone to be more organized. So, I decided that in weeks 6 & 7, I will work on running the skid-steer. Then, from week 8-11, I will focus on working with the chainsaw. Finally, on the last week, week 12, I will hopefully be cutting down a large tree if I have the opportunity. As the week progressed, I was not focused on Genius Hour and was busy doing other school work and goofing off. Then my dad asked me if I wanted to work with him on Saturday, and I said yes. So on Saturday, we went out to the job, and the first thing we did was walk around the property to see what needed to be done. Next, we unloaded the tractor off the trailer, and my dad started bush hogging the property. As he was working, I got out the small chainsaw and filled it up with gas and oil, preparing it to cut. The next thing I did was I cut down small trees with a diameter of around 4-5 inches. At first, I was nervous, so I started with the smallest trees out of the ones I was supposed to cut. After getting all of the smaller trees down, I went on the slightly bigger ones, and that went well. I then pieced them up and stacked them in a pile. After that, my dad worked with me and taught me how to raise the canopy of a tree, and worked me through cutting the trees around head height. When I raised the canopy my arms started to get tired, and I started using my body to hold the chainsaw up. This week helped me get familiar with the chainsaw and helped me realize how much hard work goes into running a chainsaw. Edited 7:19 PM 4/3/2022
At first this week, I planned to work on cutting bigger limbs, but that didn't work out. I then changed my plans and worked on something I am more familiar with, the skid-steer. I have used a skid-steer before but just driving it around. I also know how to work the boom, the thing that allows the bucket to go up and down and tilt the bucket. So, this week I practiced the skills while also expanding on them some. The first thing I did was detach the attachments it had on which was the grapple. I needed help unhooking the hydraulic hoses to the grapple, so one of my dad's workers did it for me. It is one of those things you have to do with finesse and experience, which I do not have. Then I attached the smooth bucket. It was easy because the skid-steer has automatic unlocking and locking attachments. Then I drove it around and got my feelings for the controls back. After getting my feeling for the controls back, I used my skills to spread a little bit of gravel. It was difficult to control the bucket just right to spread the gravel well and even. But after spreading a little bit of gravel, I continued to show my skills and loaded the skid-steer on the tilt-trailer. To do this, I backed it up and then made sure I was even with the trailer and slowly backed the skid-steer on the trailer. I used this week to refresh and get myself more familiar with the skid-steer. Next week, I plan to either work on cutting with a chainsaw or using the skid-steer in more complex ways. It will all depend on how my schedule and my dad's schedules correlate because they will be difficult things that warrant more help.
This week I didn't have much time to learn new things, and my dad was busy with work, so I created the video for week 2. I don't have much experience with video editing, besides when I did my group's AP world project video early this year. First, I uploaded the clips from what I learned in week 2 to my google drive. Next, I had to convert the MOV file, a standard file for a video taking off an iPhone, to an mp4 so the video would work in the video editing software. I then, on my home computer put the clips together in the software DaVinci Resolve. Some of the minor editing I did was lower the noise of the chainsaw and add titles. To do this, I broke up the video to make the parts where the chainsaw was running separately. I then right-clicked one of the separate parts and normalized the audio to -8.2 dB. To add the titles, I added a generator, a solid color screen that helps break up the video, and then added a title, basically a text box, on top. I did this to help the viewer understand what was happening next. This video only took me about 45 minutes to make, but I procrastinated and waited till Sunday to do it. Next video, I want to get it out quickly and not a week later. Getting out quicker will help someone traversing my website that sees my blog will understand what is going on in them. This week I used as catch up and didn't get as much done as I would have liked. Next week, I plan to get more into cutting big limbs, and maybe if I get as far as I want, I will cut down a few small trees.
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Evan GaleHello, my name is Evan Gale. I enjoy spending my free time playing video games and being around family. Archives |