We roughed out the major framing today that will turn XyloVan into JANUS, the Celestial Player Piano.

My excellent son, Biomass worked tirelessly with me all day, regaling me with jokes and generally kicking ass on every little task.

Here, he’s disassembling the 1×6 framework that Alan and Dave roughed out yesterday, to make way for the same structure made of 2x4s …

Once we built these, we installed them – no photos, since it was just the two of us and no one to hold the camera.

This involved me dead-lifting the structures (made of three 10-foot 2x4s each) into rough position, where Biomass lashed them to the rack. I then bolted them down with 3/8-inch carriage bolts.

We then drilled holes into the rear bumper and the body metal just aft of Keyboard 1, and mounted 2×4 framing level with the ground.

We finished out the major framing at the rear with crosspieces at the top, and at the bottom, where I’ll add a plywood bridge from the frame to the bumper to act as the bottom step. It’s always been a little challenging climbing from the slippery bumper to the bottom rung of the ladder and the last thing I want is some happy, drunken burner to become an unhappy, drunken burner with a broken ankle or busted shin, so this is good.

Snacktime – Slurpees and hot pockets from 7-11. Note the smudges of dirt on his nose.

Please don’t call Protective Services. He’s a lot happier than he looks in the picture. Honest.