Hank versus that Snooty French Squirrel

Hey, all squirrels are punks.  On that humans and dogs concur.  My dog Hank is particularly antagonistic to them.

On a recent walk we came across an unusual one.  Very snazzy dresser, sleek black and white trim.  And snooty.  Barely gave us the time of day.  I've encountered this attitude and fashion sense mostly in Paris, so I figure its a French squirrel.

In the interests of international amity I did not let Hank off the leash, so he had to content himself with giving ol' Monsieur LePeu an earful of canine cursing.

Seasons Change

Seasons change.  In their own good time and at their own pace.

Summer to fall, everyone sees that coming.

Other changes are slower but no less certain.  

This is a house in our neighborhood.  Nice people lived there.  The wife died a few years back.  After that the husband lived there alone.  He spend a lot of time puttering in his extensive gardens.  He was always willing to chat when we walked by.  I suppose his world had gotten quieter.....  Recently he went into assisted living, so there was an Estate Sale.  I picked up a whole bunch of nails for the Homesteaders and some camo fabric that will come in handy for deer hunting.

Most of the flower beds were hostas, and the old gentleman was justifiably proud of them.  He had many interesting varieties, each with its own name tag. 

Change of seasons.  Their pace we can't always know.  But sometimes we get hints and omens.  Here's the annual Wooly Bear caterpillar prediction of winter.

A fairly broad lighter stripe, so not too punishing a season ahead.  But I do note s/he is moving along at a brisk pace.  So maybe it will come sooner than we expect.

 

Deer Hunting 2024 - Sagitarii

Deer hunting update.....

The process for permits in Wisconsin is a little complicated.  What deer you can shoot, where and when varies a great deal.  As mentioned in my first hunting update, permits to hunt in the immediate vicinity of our cabin were in short supply this year.  So when I went into the online lottery system it was with minimal expectations.

But....you are assigned a spot in the queue to wait for your chance to sign up for tags.  This is random, and I got the lowest number any of us have ever had.  Great!  It was only a few minutes before the queue shortened.  I was number 1000.  Then 500.  But at about number 400 something happened.  The power went off in our house.

This knocked out the modem, and kicked me out of the queue.  When I logged back on with my phone I was at number 20,000, and the preferred tags were out of reach.

Evidently a guy who built a compost bin for us in the spring had hammered the corner posts down into the ground without worrying about where power lines were.  I don't know why it took so long to finally fry, but I guess it is just as well that we were not out of town for a week.

So, deer hunting will be different this year.

I have options, the one of which is bow hunting down where the Homestead is being built.  Lots of deer there.

But for assorted reasons, gun hunting is less appealing there.  So it is time to learn how to use a crossbow.

Last time I was down my son and I took turns practicing.  A ladder makes a decent approximation of firing from a tree stand with a rest.  House is coming along nicely btw.

So far I seem to be quite consistent at the ranges we'll be needing.

We also spent time putting up a tree stand that covers some promising spots.  And did a bit of brush clearing to get roughly 40 yards of clear shooting.  Later that day the trail cam we set out started to send us encouraging data.......

Sagitarii btw were archers in the Roman Army.  They used standard bows.  Something equivalent to a crossbow was known by the Romans but it was much bigger and designed to be deployed on the ramparts of forts.  I may look into getting one, but don't think I can haul it up into a tree.

Unsheathing the Sabre....

The FIRST Robotics team has come a long way since its inception in the fall of 2015.  We used to build things out of steel tubing and with only a little planning.  Now its aluminum and various plastics, and almost everything is done in CAD design before the tools are picked up.  But a good design that still depends on hand measuring and cutting is still imprecise.  To take it to the next level you need some form of CNC equipment.

In recent seasons we've outsourced some work.  A combination of milling, laser cutting, water jet cutting.  But there are obvious advantages to doing things "in house".  When speed of prototyping is the key to success you want to be able to design, fabricate, test and revise in a matter of hours.  You don't have days.

For that a CNC router is the best tool.  And while most FIRST teams make do with more humble desktop units, we took a different path.

A big truck shows up....

The contents are substantial enough that a fork lift and a crew of helpful guys are called for:

And here we have it installed.  It's a ShopSabre 23.

The first thing you have to do is put what is called a "waste board" onto the working surface and plane off the surface to be level to an insane degree of precision.  We were surprised, happily surprised, to see how fast it screams through wood.

Of course we'll usually be working in aluminum and polycarb once we learn a bit on cheaper and more forgiving materials.

Nah, lets just go straight to aluminum.  This is 1/8 thickness and the router goes through it like butter.

Help Wanted President (and VP) 2024 Update

Well it has been an unusual Presidential election cycle.  Seems like just a few weeks ago I had a few things to say about it.  Time for an update.  As the players have changed it's time for me to give a revised scorecard.  I do this every four year, basically outlining what I think would be reasonable qualifications for being either Leader of the Free World/Commander in Chief, or to be the next in line for same.  To review, my point system still is:

Been President before: 5 points

Been Vice President once 3 points.  No bonus for being second banana more that once.

Been elected to US Senate.  2 points.  Served more than one term 3 points

Been a Congressperson 1 point.  Multiple terms 2 points

Governor of any reasonable state (sorry Alaska and Louisiana) 2 points. Elected more than once 3 points.

I give one point for military service, one for meaningful business career, one for being a significant cabinet officer, and in a somewhat discretionary fashion one point for unusual or unique life experiences.  That's it.

Now, this is not to say whether a candidate is likeable.  Or competent.  Joe Biden for instance would weigh in with 11 or 12 points.  This just means they've had various roles where they should have learned useful things if they were paying attention.  And I admit that some elected jobs are more suitable for the Oval Office.  I favor executive experience over legislative.  Running a mid sized, politically mixed state should prepare you better than some other options.

So here goes:

Donald Trump.  President, business career, I think its fair to say he's had some unique experiences: 7 points.

Kamala Harris.  VP, one term Senate, I'm feeling generous with the bonus point today.  6 points.

Tim Walz.  Multi term congressman, two term governor, military career, albeit in National Guard.  6 points.

JD Vance.  One term Senate, military experience, business experience.  If growing up dirt poor is not worth that life experience point I'll stop issuing them.  5 points.

So on paper the two tickets each tally 12 points.  

I guess there ya go.  Make your choices as seems good to you.  Oh, and I like silly signs.  Here's more in what I hope is a non partisan selection.....

Messages from The Before Time

I can't help it.  After years of dumpster diving projects I still look at piles of stuff on the way to oblivion.  This batch of stuff was behind the high school.

Just an ordinary filing cabinet.  With storage going up into "the cloud" I suspect fewer are needed any longer.  The names seem vaguely familiar.  True, it is a small town, but I'm pretty sure I've had one or two of these in robot classes.  Or maybe their siblings.  But it is the dates that grabbed me.  All from 2019.  Probably the cabinet was turned to the wall at that point.  And soon after that the world shut down for covid-19.  Maybe this was the first time anyone has looked at it since.

It seems longer than five years ago.