Sat, 22 jul 2006 Hi Spokane; I sketched a "virtual PET" at Google's sketchup website . If you "Google Search" giftofmobility you will see my drawing. It can be downloaded with their free "beta version" Sketchup program. Once you get it on your computer you can "walk around it", Look at components, change colors, and redesign as needed. The dimensions are pretty accurate except for the gears and crank. I'm still working on getting those right but the sketch gives the Idea of how it works. J. Scott Kiphart Mon, 18 Jul 2006 The 28 foot Fedex truck will be at the PET Shop at about 9:15 Wednesday morning. We want to make this a celebration. Please come and enjoy this wonderful moment as we send our first shipment of PETs. I learned today that our PETs will go to Mongolia, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua and/or Mexico. It is an exciting time. We have free pizzas from Pizza Rita to share after we load out. The easiest way to get to the PET Shop is to take Hwy 2 N to Colbert Road. At the bottom of Colbert Rd, turn left. The second driveway/road(dirt) is where the shop is. Just go up the hill and you’ll see all of the activity on your right. Please come!!!!!!!!!!! Fri, 29 Jul 2005 Dear PET-Kin, Our fund raiser went well at the West Sprague exit of the freeway. We made about $500 thanks to the efforts of many many people especially those who baked goodies. We had a great time conversing with the travelers. It was a serendipitous joy which we did not expect. So many stories shared over a cup of coffee. We expect God to show us more with the contacts we made. I do want to buy a Lift Lounge Chair {$1000-$1400 depending on features) for a man who wants to work on PET. He was injured in a motorcycle accident and has one good hand and arm but we have hope that by working on the PET, he can regain his left side. Let me know if you would like to help or know where I can find a used one or a donated one. Thanks. I’ve set up a conference call with all of our metal workers for 9AM on Tuesday. I could think of no other way for us to find a time when we can all meet together. I’ve suggested we meet at the Doughnut Parade Thursday morning at 8AM. We still need painters. The hemlock we bought is proving to be a superior wood. Also, we have decided to build some PETs out of cedar since the wood will be given to use free. We will not paint the cedar PETs. PET UPDATE: *** The latest on the tires is that we sent Martin a statement that we would not hold them responsible for the miss-print on the tires, and we expect tires early next week. *** If any of you need to make a shipment of 20 (more or less) PETs there is a United Methodist Nurse in Sierra Leone that wants some, Beth Ferrell. She has received before and does a very good job of selecting and training persons to use them. They have to pass a test, etc. Operation Classroom in Colfax, IN, would ship them in a container. I can provide you with their address/telephone. We sent her some through them. *** We have experimented with a special seat for special needs. We do not at all intend to mass produce these, but it is good to know about them for special needs. We put a padded boat seat with a turntable under it, on a simple platform that slides back and forth on the PET body. Take out four screws, move the platform where you want it, and put the screws back in. The turntable seat allows for easy access. I can send you a photo. We will have one here Oct. 8 for show and tell. *** More parts this week--Axles from Fred Fischer, brake wedges from Tom Grafton, and a new kind of "T" bolt assembly for us to try, from Robert Young. The O'Fallon UMMen called today to say they will be by tomorrow with some more rear bed stakes and some child sized PET beds. The folks at O'Fallon have been supportive since PET began. *** An order of sprockets is due in tomorrow. I have orders from some of you. ******************** "Forget yourself for others and others will not forget you." Matthew 7:12 Mel West 06 June 2005 Dear PET-Kin, The Lord has been moving us along at a pace sustainable given the other calls on our life in Christ. The wonderful gracious men and women He has brought into the PET-Kin clan is a blessing beyond any expectations of building PETs for God’s children living in the dirt. The baby PET made by Harvey and Dave continues to be a serendipitous spokesman around the Inland Northwest as more and more people learn about the PET ministry. A good living could be made just selling baby PETs. Dave and Harvey are coming to the barn on Tuesday as we put together our first PET. This will be a trial run to see how our parts are coming together. The temporary carport we put up to store the donations from Penney Farms is now crammed full of other donations and is soon to overflow. We still do not have a central location because our cash flow has not developed to the point we can be good stewards. There is a building I’d like to buy as a PET “home” for The PET-Spokane Project but that decision faces the same issues. What it would do is create an investment over time rather than paying rent on someone else’s property. Lyle is graciously letting us store wood and next week our first load of steel in his big old dairy barn. It’s OK until winter comes. By then we will have to get back to plan A. The Lord will provide the Light we need, in all confidence, this I believe. Today our Kosovar granddaughter, Amire (She’ll be 13 tomorrow) and I bought a lot of bright and cheerful paint from the local Habitat for Humanity store. We have volunteer painters for our wood and steel parts. Our upholsterer, Lew, is busy with foam, fabric, velcro, screws and washers finishing up seats that have been painted by Barbara, Joyce, Ron, Ted, and Loie. Bill painted the 20 ton press he finished before going on vacation. His childhood friend, Bob (in Tri-cities), has come on board and is busy making parts down there. Bob helped Bill in designing the centering jig we will use with the press. We were hoping the first load of rims and tires would be here so we could test his masterpiece before he left. Integrus Metals has donated a load of steel and galvanized sheet metal. Carlson Sheet Metal is making one hundred of each of the two chain guards on the PET. Fasteners, Inc. has donated boxes of nuts, bolts, screws and other fasteners used on the PET. Amire and I’ve been back to the store three times this week correcting for my sizing mistakes. They have been very gracious as has been all of the business people coming along side this wonderful ministry. We had an anonymous donation of a 4x8 foot sheet of 4 inch foam. Lew made a jig to slice it in half and Bob has improved on it. Last night the Book Club met here for our first summer pot luck and movie night. A whole family volunteered to paint PET parts. Ken continues to make wood parts in his shop and Courtney remains busy making metal parts for 5 PETs. Amire and I delivered some long bolts to his shop. It was the first time we’ve been to his shop. Once we get steel coming in, more and more steel parts will be forthcoming. Haskins Steel is cutting all of the parts for 50 PET yokes and Rick’s people at R.W. Fab will weld them together for the PET-Kin. Gary and Bill and Bill and Dave are metal fabricators willing to make steel parts as time allows. Debra will probably have our first newsletter out come early July. Please pray for Annabelle Jones. She’s Bob’s wife and was hospitalized this week. Bob is working on our DVD and several other projects for the PET. He’s one of my top encouragers. Our first big fund raiser is set for 26 July. We need a lot of volunteers and a lot of cookies baked. We will be hosting a rest stop on I-90 just West of Spokane. For you out-of-staters, Washington allows charitable groups to serve coffee at their rest stops. It must be free but we are allowed to have a jar for donations. It has proven to be very popular with the driving public. It will be a long day from 6AM until 10PM but with many hands, it will prove to be light work for the Lord. Scott and his company, Boyds, are donating the coffee and brewers which will be a great blessing for this event. We are also looking at a golf tournament in September. That what’s happening in this neck of the PET woods. If I’ve forgotten anything or anyone, please forgive me. This old brain gets foggy at 04:39 Monday morning. http://www.thepetspokaneproject.org/ 23 May 2005 Here's a status report you can add to the website. Also, I want to introduce our Board members to our readers. It¹s amazing how people encourage me with the PET Project. On my desk are two $20 bills. A friend, Gale, at Friday morning¹s Bible study has, the last two weeks, slipped me an envelope. Each one contained a twenty. He is saying to me, ³I want to help and this is the way I can do it.² He reminds me of the lady at Perspectives class, who after I had shown a PET literally slipped me a $20 bill so no one good see. So what follows is an update on where The PET-Spokane Project finds itself come tomorrow¹s Monday morning. We still don¹t have a building. I¹ll check on my last proposal for one in the morning. The steel materials list for 1-10-25-100 PETs was e-mailed to our probable steel supplier Friday. It took a couple of weeks, with many e-mails and discussions to get a complete list by size of every piece of metal on one PET. The company will donate some and sell some at their cost. On Friday one of the big contractor¹s in Idaho ask me for a cut list of every piece of wood on a PET. He¹s going to start saving 1x(X) lumber for me from their jobs. He is even going to have his men cut the pieces to size for us. He¹s doing this not only for PET but for his company as it will reduce what he has to pay to get rid of by taking it to the dump. We have 10 solid core tires and the cones needed to press them on to the rims of which we don¹t have any yet. But the supplier faxed the forms for me to complete and send back to him. We have 24 air pumps coming for the front tires of which we have one. The metal fabricators have started working. Rick, at RW Fab, is making 50 yokes and the steel has been donated by The Couer d²alene Steel company. One of my High School friends has sent us 24 colorful knit caps to send with our boxed up PETs We need painters for the 24 seats Harvey and his brother finished. They have to be painted before we can upholster them and put the set belt on. Monday I have to find a source of 2² ultra firm foam (If you know a source, let me know. Fasteners has all of my nuts, bolts and screws ready for me to pick up. Bill Murray will have everything he needs to build our 20 ton press when I deliver the tires, rim and cones he needs to get started. There are two boxes of solid core tires in the foyer. Courtney Johnson, Bill Havercroft, Bill Musgrove, Dave Razor and Gary Jones are making metal parts for us. Bob Jones is working on making DVDs for us as well as helping produce materials for flyers and newsletter.I¹ve decided to make one more PET for publicity use. I may have a contact in Seattle to fund raise and publicize for us. We still need a source for the #35 industrial bike chain used to drive the handle assembly. The legal paper work is about half done. It has been delayed by my health. I hope to finish that and mail them off to the State and the IRS this week. Our WebMaster Jimmy donates his skills for our website. We have a great website for people to learn about PET and how they can be involved. A lot¹s been done, gone on and a lot more to do. But when you work for a passion, it¹s not work. on Tuesday, 26 July, we will sponsor a fund raiser by giving coffee to people who travel Interstate 90. We will be at the West Sprague Lake exit from 6AM until 10PM serving coffee and varieties of trumpets. People make generous donations for the service and for The PET-Spokane Project 2 May 2005 Over the weekend we have decided to ask you to start fabricating and cutting parts for the PETs we will assemble and ship from Spokane. This morning I will try the final negotiations on the building (1414 N FootHills Drive) we want. If it fails, we have a Plan B which allows us to store raw materials, completed parts and finished product. Plan B will be a bit more awkward but is very doable. Please let me know what you need to start producing parts. Those volunteers not on e-mail, I will be contacting to let them know of this decision. We are stepping out in faith. Please bathe this in prayer. Our biggest out of pocket expense will be the initial inventory of tires and wheels. It will help our cash flow if you can line up either churches, foundations, individuals, companies and service clubs with whom I can share the passion of this ministry. Our local DVD is not ready to go yet so I'm using the very good ones from our Sister PET Ministries around the country.