The USS Namekagon

My place up north is near the Namekagon River.  A nice stream I've canoed it on numerous occasions and have helped with fish surveys there twice.  It is quite scenic, and is named after a Native American chief who lived in the area and supposedly had a stash of silver nuggets that was never found after his death.  

But it is not exceptional - I actually waded across it last deer hunting season - so I was surprised recently to learn that a ship was named after it during World War Two.

The USS Namekagon was (see below, maybe still is!) a smallish tanker of the Patapsco class.  Only 1850 tons empty and a bit over 4000 fully loaded they were built for the US Navy to shuttle gasoline between various island outposts.  They were mostly named after small rivers and were commissioned late enough in the war that they did not see any real action.  The Namekagon for instance had just finished her shakedown cruise and arrived at Pearl Harbor when the war ended.

This class of ships is unusual in that many were built about as far from salt water as you can get in North America....on a backwater of the Minnesota River.  Specifically at Savage Minnesota, at the barge terminal known as Port Cargill.  In an age where we seem to have difficulty getting things done competently we look back and marvel at the fact that a bunch of barge mechanics built a class of 23 ocean going ships.  Here is the Namekagon as it made its way down the Mississippi River after its launching.

When the war ended a lot of surplus ships headed straight to the Mothball Navy or the breakers yards.  But these little tankers were pretty versatile.  The career of the Namekagon is a good example. 

After the end of the war she spent 18 months shuttling fuel to the far flung islands of the Pacific.  Then in 1947 she underwent a refit before heading to her new base in Kodiak Alaska hauling passengers and freight to stations in the Arctic and down the West Coast.  After a few more years operating out of Pearl Harbor again she went into reserve in 1957.

In 1962 she was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy and given the name HMNS Endeavour.  Now she headed to the Antarctic delivering fuel to bases there until 1971.

That same year she was leased to the Republic of China's navy and renamed again, as the ROCS Lung Chuan.  The Taiwanese eventually purchased her outright and kept her going until she was decommissioned again in 2005.  Her final disposition is said to be "unknown", so there is a slim chance that the Namekagon is still out there as an aged tramp steamer!  The first ship in the class, the USS Patapsco was converted to a fishing trawler is said to still be afloat and in use.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Calvary Cemetery Milwaukee

My visit to Calvary Cemetery on the west side of Milwaukee was impromptu.  I had a bit of extra time, the traffic was not too bad, and there was a delightful sort of mist in the air.  Just right for taking tombstone photos.  I did no research.  I could tell from driving past it on other occasions that it was the proper age.  And within about a minute of entry I could tell it was a Catholic establishment.  There are just some styles you almost always see in such places.  Like this:

There were quite a few of this style, one I refer to as the "Rugged Cross" variant.  Other than a tendency to turn up in Catholic settings these may have been over represented here because it is a hilly place and these look to have a bit more stability to them.  Were people thinking that long term back in the late 1890's?

Here's another kind you see in Catholic cemeteries so frequently that it is almost diagnostic.  A cross tacked on the top of a conventional "tree".

But this one had something very special.  You don't often get these little clues into the construction of tombstones.  Let's zoom in on that dove, shall we?

Clearly this was made in sections.  The tail has broken off over time revealing the bronze pin that held him together!

There are lots of variations on where the cross got perched on these tombstones.  Here's an odd one.  I also am puzzled by the pattern of the green moss....visually interesting as always but why so patchy?

The specimen above is the exception to the rule at Calvary, it is tall and thin.  Most of the trees I encountered were on the short and tubby side.  Maybe it was just the style of the carvers.

The cut off limbs here each have a name and dates of birth and death.  The latter range all the way from1870 up into the 20th century.  Clearly this was a monument put up later that incorporated earlier family members.

Here's one I post just to show how skilled the stone carvers really were.  The distant view:

Cool by the way that the name is STONE.  And here's the elaborate detail.  Remember, carved by hand:

There are other interesting things to see at Calvary.  Here's the front entrance as seen from inside:

And a tomb so fascinating that I had to snap a pic.  Anyone other than me recognize what they were copying?  Hint, its not in Egypt.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - A Good Dog

I don't get over to Milwaukee all that often but happen to be here on, well an errand I'll go into on another occasion.  I made a point to drive over early because there is a very interesting cemetery that I'd seen several times zipping past on I-94.  

I figured it would be good hunting, its the oldest Catholic cemetery in the city, and the ethnic groups who seemed fondest of tree shaped tombstones - Germans and Czechs - are abundant here.  I was not disappointed.

But I'll save most of these for another installment.  With only time for a quick update I'll just show you one example.

As an example it is just OK, a bit fussy with the branches for my taste.  But look down at the base!

Dogs are not common at all.  This is perhaps the fourth I have encountered (one was an indeterminate critter and one a borderline "tree"), and is the best specimen to date.  Look at how the leaves and twigs make a bed.  And the nice touch of having a slab for the dog to rest his head.  But the best part of all?

We have his name.

Good dog Barney.

Addendum.  I've looked up my other "dogs" and each is different.  Unlike say, doves, which came in standard patterns it looks as if dogs were one offs.  It would be great if the carver worked from a photo.

FIRST Robotics - Seasonal Observations

Every FIRST Robotics season is an educational experience.  Obviously for the students, and this being a largely rookie team a great deal was learned.  But even we grizzled veterans keep on learning.  Sometimes the easy way, sometimes that other way.

I got a number of things wrong.  This is rarely due to pure stupidity on my part, mostly it comes from a misread of the omens and portents.  For instance, when the team decided early in the fall that a Week One event - i.e. the shortest possible build time - was a good idea I said sure, why not.  I failed to factor in a resurgent strain of Covid that hobbled our early build season.  Time lost in the early stages of build, when you are designing in CAD and doing rapid, effective prototyping, can never be made up.  On the tail end of build season we had to give up on one key mechanism that would have made us more competitive.

I also misjudged the level of competition at this early event.  Usually if you show up ready to play with a solid machine and kids who know how to drive it you will do rather well.  This time we saw most of the other teams turning up with more complex machines than ours, and they mostly had them mastered.  I think the difference is that there are many more "out of the box" solutions now than in years past.  If you don't mind buying your engineering answers - and this is rather Real World - you can get a really nice machine running faster than if you were inventing the wheel.  Or more accurately inventing something that has clever wheels in the correct places.

Additionally this year's game was quite similar to the last pre-pandemic one.  It is felt that FIRST HQ wanted teams who missed out on 2020 entirely to be able to take the effort they had put in on that similar game and carry it forward.  They did.

Other things I had a hand in were mixed results.  We promoted a number of 8th graders who showed promise.  Mixing cultures is always tricky, but overall this worked out well.  We were settling in to a new home.  It had pros and cons, but by the end of build season we were starting to get the place figured out.  There will continue to be storage and access issues, but the stumbling blocks we encountered can be understood and hopefully addressed.

Clear victories?  I'll claim a few.  I got the team a cordless rivet gun.  Man is that nice.  Although our robot was not a wonder of modern tech it sure was solid.  The quality of construction overall ended up being quite good.  Hence the actual Perfection of the pit crew.  There was simply not that much that could be broken.

We also did well with some grants.  One very nice one was predicated in part on our being a team that welcomes diversity.  We earned that one, going from our usual one or two girls on the team in our early years up to 8/25, with several stepping up to leadership roles.  We are also starting to find funding for various capital expenses.  When the school does not have things that can be reliably available to us we simply get and maintain our own.  This is the path forward to more sophisticated engineering, and of course the need to acquire, set up, maintain and cherish our own tools and machines is highly educational.

So we ended the season with a sub .500 record but a crew of kids who appear to enjoy robots, working and each other.  A good foundation to build on.

Disappointing Science with Kids

Ah, the Science Fair Volcano.  Bit of a cliché that.  But I'd never made one.  Well the stars all seemed to be in alignment.  We had the grandkids for a few days while their parents traveled.  We had a gallon of vinegar.  And, thanks to FIRST Robotics, we had big box of baking soda.

That last bit might seem a bit of a leap, but in FIRST you are expected to take safety very seriously.  You are supposed to have a "battery acid spill kit" at the competition.  Protective gloves, baking soda to sprinkle on the acid, a trash can to put it in.  Since everyone at the event has the same set up I image the extremely unlikely event of an acid spill in the pit area would quickly become a blizzard of white powder being thrown about.  Especially as our team a few years ago thought a four pound box was necessary.  (We've since downgraded to a more rational size so this was now surplus).

 Baking soda, vinegar, dish soap and food coloring staged on the tractor.  Wait, a tractor?

Well, we were going for excess here, so plowing up a big snow mound for the volcano made sense.

There are lots of formulae out on the internet.  Most of them measure amounts in tablespoons.  We wanted to Go Big.  My wife suggested a full cup of baking soda.  We talked her up to two.  The results were unimpressive.

You'll note the grandkids had backed off to a safe distance.  You can tell they were a bit disappointed.  They resumed playing with plastic dinosaurs while my son and I worked on Volcano 2.0.  He found some sort of cooler in his garage.  It had Willie Nelson on it and seems to have been designed to put a six pack of beer and some ice in a long insulated sleeve.  In went two pounds of baking soda.  Add as much vinegar as will fit and.....

Somewhat better, but it took ridiculous amounts of ingredients to get there.  I think Science Fair volcanos have always been a disappointing flop but nobody ever fesses up to this.  

After the eruptions were finished the Sno-Cano and the pseudo lava were pushed away with the tractor.  Leaving this interesting remnant for the neighbors to wonder about.

Nope, nothing suspicious going on here folks, just keep driving by.

Zombie Fish

A bit of decaying taxidermy I spotted in a garage recently.  I'd be worried if this thing swam up and bit me.  And it looks quite capable of doing so.

Spider Baby

Grandkids sometimes have a wicked sense of humor.  Bouncing baby dolls up and down in a stairwell on the end of fishing line/rubber bands....  This is referred to as "Spider Baby" and of course is the most fun when an unsuspecting passerby gets surprised!

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Louisiana Variants!

We tend to think of burial practices as being pretty standard across the country.  But this is not actually the case.  Major urban areas trend towards cremation as open space is at a premium.  Alaska has permafrost.  And then there is Louisiana.  

Louisiana is more than its chief city New Orleans.  But N.O. tends to dominate our images of the state.  And in New Orleans most burials are above ground.  Hey, go figure, build a city below water level, a city that is kept from becoming a big frog pond only be elaborate levees, and you'll have difficulty digging an honest six foot deep grave.

Recently Jay, a frequent correspondent, sent me several pictures from Houma Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans.  Thanks Jay!

The "Two Fork" style of tombstone is fairly common here up north, but this one is odd in that it is both on the chubby side and has the inscription flat almost at ground level.  Up this way you'd sometimes not see it if the caretaker would not mow the lawn on schedule.  Note the hard gravel surface in this cemetery.  Note also the nifty brass inscription plate which is seriously leaching metal salts into the surrounding stone due the the wet environment.

Close up of the plate, I've seen a few like this in the Midwest.

Perhaps because the burial process is complicated by the water table cemeteries in the New Orleans area tend to be really crowded....and mostly with above ground crypts.  Here a tree shaped tombstone seems to be screened by a later above ground tomb.  I bet the family was not pleased with this development.  Barely enough room to squeeze a bouquet of flowers in there.

Here's a really nice plaque, seemingly a "stand alone" in front of a conventional grave.  Quality work, I wonder what kind of metal it is?  The pressed zinc signs you see up our way would not be this color.  And it sure does not have metal salts and oxides leaking off it so likely not bronze.  Sore sort of electroplating?  That would have been unusual in the era of Woodman funerary markers.

Another tree shaped tombstone jammed in among the crypts.  This has the softer white stone you sometimes see in earlier examples but on magnification actually has a rather late - 1916 - date.  It is already showing quite a bit of weathering and discoloration.

So there's your quick tour around one Southern cemetery.  Trees generally, and Woodman examples specifically seem to be fairly common down that way.  With the popularity of this style among Civil War soldiers it is no surprise that various Confederate Cemeteries are particularly good hunting.  Perhaps for another day.

Reset - Spring 2022

Behind me:

Robotics. Sub zero temperatures.  

Here's the official end of the robotics campaign, a pile of wadded up receipts harvested from various pockets, the floor of my car, one that was in the trash.  Final accounting time.

Ahead of me:

A month of archaeology in England.  Time with the grandkids.  Travels to Pacific Time Zone. 

 Anything else I feel like doing.

Here's a look ahead, the menu of the Bowes Hotel where I'll be staying.  Mmmmmmm, curry and pints of ale after a long day of digging....

Artifact Erosion

With robots done it is time to look ahead.  I'm off to excavate at Vindolanda in about six weeks.  Oddly the first real find of the 2020 season has already been made....and quite by accident.

There is a stream that runs past the site.  Of course the fort is built on a hill, and logically stuff rolls down or is tossed down said hill over the centuries.  Well, in January a fellow clearing a fallen tree in the embankment came across this tangled in the roots:

It is a broken section of a Roman altar!

How did it get there?  Was it chucked off the fort battlement when the Empire went Christian under Constantine the Great?  Did it knock around a while getting reused as part of assorted Dark Age and Medieval structures?  That is impossible to say.

But I have a theory about how it got so worn down and eroded.  I have it on very good authority that stream levels vary on a regular basis.  Something to do with volunteers walking to the site along the road adjacent to the stream after having had several cups of tea (British diggers) or coffee (Americans) to fortify themselves for an active day of work!

FIRST Tournament 2022 - Hank the Tank

Given the limitations of a young team, middlin' resources and six weeks to pull it off, our mantra for this build season was "Hard to Break.  Easy to Fix.  Made with parts we have."  I report with mild surprise that we actually pulled it off.  Many frustrations and distractions aside the final product - Robot Hank - is the most resilient robot we have ever built.  After a few tweaks based on the Thursday practice matches we fired it up and ran through seven matches without a hiccup or a repair of any significance.  

It is a somewhat limited design.  The trade off for building a tank and having a bit of time to practice drive it is that there are some high level functions you can't build in.  In fact this robot is able to go out and score approximately 17 points tops.  And you know, it did it.  Basically in every match.  We have a simple but effective autonomous routine.  100% success.  We can climb low or medium bar as the demands of our alliance require.  Also, 100% success.  In between we take some shots where we an get them, and got good enough that teams started specifically targeting us for defense from time to time.  With some dramatic near tips ensuing!

Really good work by drivers, pit crew, programmers.  And because this does not happen all by itself, credit also to the media/pr crew who helped us secure funding.  We've even got some artistic talent turning up.  

A few robot pix.  

Lots of robots have fragile, delicate hooks for the climbing phase of the match.  Hank has a massive riveted together system that pops up pneumatically....then grabs the bar and pulls up, eventually securing it to the top of the robot with about 140 pounds of grip strength.  Lots of robots falling off their climbs today.  You could demolish the building and you'd find Hank still holding on like a determined pit bull.

Casual shot of some pit crew, drive team and others posing with Hank.

The playing field from way up in the top rows of the stands.

Time to rest now.  Robotics events are tiring on many levels.

FIRST Tournament 2022 - Life in the Pits

Short post at least for words.  I'm pretty tired.  Up before dawn, rode the bus with two dozen kids leaving at 6am.  We made it to Duluth, got our paperwork and robot inspection cleared in record time.

This was an afternoon for practice matches.  We had three scheduled and got in two extra by being ready when others were not.  A few minor hiccups, as is to be expected, but overall the robot, drive team and pit crew all seem solid.  A few pictures of the day.

Software dials things in.

We have a mascot with home made outfit!

The field of play is way busier than the drivers expected.

High speed pit modifications.  Successful by the way.

A team tradition from year one onward.  Pit cartoons with a good night wish.....

Robot Hank

In a build season with much frustration here's a welcome bit of whimsy.  The team named the robot Hank.  I don't know why, but it is coincidentally also the name of my son's frisky dog.  Puppy Hank is a most estimable canine who gives me many happy moments.  He adores me and I feel the same about him.  Robot Hank on the other hand has caused me a great deal of worry, and once banged me on the shin when he was feeling electronically out of sorts.

Here is Hank in his final form.

It was always going to be a challenging build season.  Pandemic, earliest possible competition schedule, and a team of kids who had little experience.  Indeed, this robot was primarily built by 8th and 9th graders.  And to their credit, the darn thing does work.  At least it was working on Tuesday night! 

Unless you are a very high level team the build process starts with high ambitions, but the compromises begin soon after.  It takes a certain amount of time to do the complicated stuff, and a bit of time past that to make systems robust and reliable.  When you fall behind in the first couple of weeks you can never make that time up.

It has been hard.  Some of my posts showing gnarled, twisted trees covered with ice are a bit of poetic expression.  

Well a great deal has been learned, and having a young team does mean the experience pool deepens quickly.  We have things to address logistically before we can start talking about next year.  But first.....tonight the robot goes off to Duluth the night ahead of the main team.  I'm riding a school bus with a couple dozen robot kids Thursday morning.

With what few functional neurons remain to me after that experience I'll try to post a bit about how Robot Hank does in competition.