Happy Halloween

A fun holiday.  For kids, certainly.  For adults, increasingly.  For dogs...not so much.

 Hank goes berserk every time the door bell rings.  He's not sure if it is People to Love, Burglars, or Giant Squirrels.  His response as such is a mixture of alarm, adoration and Red Alert.  It gets old fast.

So it has been suggested that this might be a good time for me to take him on a long walk.  But, he can't go out without a costume!  I won't make dogs wear things they hate.  Hats for instance.  I think LED lights would be a bit much.  But he has an insulated dog jacket.  One that is in an orange hue for protection during hunting season.  Perhaps with just a little modification.....

Orange Dog Good.

The Ghost of "Father" John Fostler

The year was 1895.  An early settler of Chippewa Falls passed away.  The local paper described it in this fashion:

They used his correct name, which was unusual. In general he was referred to on the rare occasions where his doings were noted under the name John Fostler.  Here's his story.

John Klinck came to Chippewa Falls in 1855.  This was about the same time as Catherine aka "Mother" Fostler and her husband Andrew came to the fledgling community.  Klinch worked in the mill.

Mother Fostler ran a saloon, one of the first on the Chippewa Falls side of the river.  As I've discussed previously there were several over in the suburb of Frenchtown, but only one confirmed tavern that preceded her.

I'm not sure whether she started this effort earlier, but circa 1857 the Fostlers had to move after a fire, and started a drinking establishment down at the far end of River Street.

Andrew Fostler joined the Union Army at the start of hostilities.  Mrs. Fostler kept running the hotel/tavern.  Now, maybe she needed more help. And maybe she got lonely.  Even in that era the ratio of men to women in town was pretty lopsided, so she probably got plenty of attention.

Andrew Fostler came back from the war.*  Actually he was only away for about a year.  But he did not come back to Catherine.

John Klinch just stepped into the role, and was generally referred to as John Fostler.  He was a sort of local character, doing various outrageous things in the bars, living in the tumbledown ruins of the former Fostler House.  

But he seems to have been at peace that morning in 1895.  I'm assuming he was enjoying the morning sun, which would probably put him on this location at the intersection.  Now it is City Hall, but then he'd have been sitting on the doorstep of a friendly tavern, one of many on that street.

Obituaries for those on the fringes of society are often more honest than for the titans and magnates.  John Fostler/Klinch's concludes by saying:

"John acquired some money and property, but also the habits that scatter both, and of late years, in a little shack just back of the ruins of the old hotel, he has lived supported by charity."

I don't know if spirits linger on after death.  But if they do they'd likely persist where they were the happiest in life.  Perhaps this spot, where John Fostler/Klinch spent so many happy nights and his last cheerful moments, would be where you'd find him.

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* Mother Fostler's obituary a few years later says that Mr. Fostler #1, Andrew, died in the service.  I suspect this was a polite fib.  

Oh, Deer!

A good three generation hunt.  My son actually got this nice buck, but there was a fair bit of tracking in the dark and hauling out of the woods to do.  My grandson is the best tracker in the family, while I take pride in having a durable back well suiting to dragging deer, including this really big one, out of the dense underbrush.

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I had of course planned a "below the fold" addendum called "Oh Deer Me!", but the critters have thus far outsmarted me.   Grumble, grumble.....

Robot School Third Update

Robot School rolls along.  The kids have the main project bot moving now, but there's still a lot of work to do to optimize ball pick up, transfer and launch.  Among other things they are learning the concept of "kludge" when designs behave a little differently in the real world than in CAD!

I do like the target that the build team has constructed.  It's adjustable, so we can modify it a bit depending on what sort of trajectory the final full power shooter can manage.

So far it would not come anywhere close, alas.

Other things are also happening.  We had an epic nuts and bolts sorting competition.  This was a good opportunity for them to show team work and cooperation.  It also helps us get thing sorted for the upcoming high school team season.  We basically try to use only two sizes of bolts.  Everything that is "close but not quite right" needs to be identified and taken off the hardware cart.  Sure, you need the occasional weird metric bolt, but we have a special quarantine for them!

We've also had the kids doing a bit of CAD work.  Designing signs seems like a good first project.  In fact, we had a couple of them work up a sign that has all their names on it.

The new router enclosure they built contains the sawdust very nicely, so clean up was easy.  Here's a few shots of the sign in process.  Mostly shot through the clear vinyl curtain.

Deer Hunting Third Report - Avoiding Boredom

The deer are not cooperating.  Various theories are in circulation.  The venerable Moon Deer Theory that posits a full moon changes their activity.  The Acorn Cycle Theory, which notes a multi year cycle whereby that tasty treat has a bumper year in 2025.  So they could be camped under Oak Trees, lolling about.  The upshot - no pun intended - is that we trying multiple sites trying to figure them out.

I set up a ground blind back at the spot where I got my first deer back in 2020.  Golf Course Corner has converging trails where they go on and off the abandoned course.  Basically a big green deer feeder that covers many acres.

For a ground blind you need to be wily.  This is where my Grandpa skills, specifically Hide and Seek and Blanket Fort building pay off.

Behold, the Blanket Fort of Doom.

Camo fabric wrapped around some trees and posts.  Then festooned with the dead ferns that grow everywhere in this section.  Not bad I'd say, the point is to break up your outline.  Deer's eyes are like using your photo editor with the Contrast function dialed way, way up.  Of course I'll be sitting in there and my head and shoulders will be visible.  So.....

Sometimes I think this is all just goofing around, avoiding boredom.  Forts, dress up costumes, all sorts of Grandpa activities.

On this particular night I decided to leave the crossbow at home.  Deer have a degree of memory from one day to the next.  So I figured it would take a while for them to not be interested in this new patch of brush.  By the way, every trip there I'll add a few more handfuls of dried ferns.  Maybe I'll put some on the hat too!

So you'd assume that a gigantic buck would have stopped 20 yards off and viewed me with disdain.  Well, nope.  But for the first time sitting out I actually did see some deer in the distance, far out of bow or even rifle range.  Dancing about safely on private property.  Alas.

More boredom relief.  For ground blind hunting you should have a bow rest to stabilize your shooting.  I have an entire basement workshop full of robotics surplus.

Here's my fancy robotics bow rest.  It's one leg of a damaged camera tripod bolted to a section of 80/20 aluminum extrusion that we use for prototyping.  With a spike attached to the bottom to plant it in the dirt.

Should work until said dirt is frozen solid.  Chilly days are coming, but probably have a few weeks yet before that.

Tree Shaped Tombstone - Barron Wisconsin

Today an unusual exception to the general rule that if you find one "Tree Shaped Tombstone" in a cemetery you'll always find at least one more.  Nope, this specimen in the cemetery at Barron, Wisconsin, seems to be a loner.

I've been by here a number of times in the past year and so its surprising that I've not stopped to search.  

Barron is an unusual community.  It started out as a typical small Wisconsin farm town.  Cows, implement dealers.  Catholic and Protestant churches.  Lots of taverns, which for all I know also have denominations.  

But by virtue of some industries in town it has a large population of immigrants.  So there's a mosque.  And back when my oldest was playing soccer this little town had an absolute powerhouse team, since many of the families came from places where Futball ruled.

Anyway, its still a nice little place where everyone seems to get along.  The tombstone above is a fairly typical medium style.  Ropes, ferns, an unrolled "scroll of life".  Nice coating of that very specific yellow lichen you find on these.  There's a subsidiary marker that is hard to read.  But of course it just says FATHER.

And then there's this odd little thing on what looks like a corner of the family plot.  I'm not sure what it is, and I don't recall seeing one before.  A corner marker?  Seems sort of drab, and it has no buddies at the other edges.  Was this the mount for some auxiliary object?  Like a planter perhaps?  Seems a bit small for that.  I did cautiously nudge it with my toe to see that it was firmly planted.

Thank goodness it was.  I don't need L.F. Whittemore coming back to haunt me!

The Great Idea - And the Fatal Flaw

I was back for another round of the great Clean Up/Clean Out of my parents house.  It's not for the faint of heart.  I was often dreaming of being off in the woods, watching the trail for a deer to turn up, breathing that fresh North Country air.......   And I had an idea.

Without exception, everything you find in a project like this comes in multiples.  Bottles of an over the counter pain med or vitamin?  Dozens.  Walking canes?  I think I came across eight of them.  And I got an idea.  Not a good idea, nay, it was a Great Idea.

One area we favor for bow hunting is a special type of public land.  Because it is along a river you can hunt there, but not put up any stands or blinds that stay overnight.  So, its pack everything in, and pack it out.  Quietly.

For me that is a fold up blind, my trusty folding chair, my crossbow of course, and ideally a rest for same.  I'm a good shot out to 30 yards with a rest.  The problem is that the one I like to use is a bit big and klunky.  So....why not just modify one of these walking canes?  Lightweight, adjustable, and there were so many that I just took four or five home for experiments!

Here's my first version.  Simple is best.  Just use hose clamps to attach a spike to the bottom.  This lets you just stick it into the ground at the proper spot.

And the crossbow rests very nicely in the original hand grip.

So, what did I forget?  What is the fatal flaw?

I'd forgotten that when I came home with these things that Hank the Dog immediately stopped his happy pup celebrations and started sniffing them with intense interest.  I won't trouble your day with the long list of odors that could be grabbing his attention, but rest assured, any deer within a couple of miles would notice!

I had him check out the final product just to be sure.  Yep....sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff.....

Well, maybe if I cut off the foam hand grip and bury it in a pile of leaves and bark for a couple of weeks, then spray it with anti scent stuff...........