What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

Paul Milner said:

Started another batch of hard cider. Last one came out at 10.5% abv.

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How do you get 10.5%? What sugar content do you start before ferment?I

I made around 10gallons of Perry last season - my first time. I gave around 2/3 to family but I'm already out. Will try to make 40gallons this season and would like a littler higher abv than the 6-7% that I think I got.

jqavins said:

Whatcha gonna do with the motor? Those things are usually real workhorses, and if nothing else contain a good bit of easily recoverable copper.

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I'm not the best at mechanical engineering type stuff so I'd definitely struggle to execute any ideas I may have to repurpose it. Not completely averse to trying something though, so I'll keep it around for a while before deciding to pull out the copper bits.

JamesS said:

How do you get 10.5%? What sugar content do you start before ferment?I

I made around 10gallons of Perry last season - my first time. I gave around 2/3 to family but I'm already out. Will try to make 40gallons this season and would like a littler higher abv than the 6-7% that I think I got.

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2 cups brown and half way thru brewing one cup white. On my new batch, I put in 4 cups white with Lavlin E1118 Champagne yeast. Might get as high as 18%.

prfesser said:

Tried to catch a small black stray cat that was on the neighbor's deck. No luck. We catch-and-release; catch them, take them to the vet to have little parts removed, let them heal inside for a couple of days, send them on their way.

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Tried a Hav-a-hart trap, yet?

Raided the Strategic Fabric Reserve in the basement for mask raw materials.

Binge watching "the Orville"

dr wogz said:

Binge watching "the Orville"

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I liked that show, but the next season is now on something other than my local Fox station. And it ain't Netflix, which is the only subscription service I have free access to. And I'm not ponying up for another service. So, that show is dead to me now, unfortunately.

John Kemker said:

Tried a Hav-a-hart trap, yet?

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Unfortunately, since this is a rural area, one is quite likely to get a 'possum or a skunk. We got a possum once.

A very good friend and colleague of mine had so many squirrels that they were driving him literally nuts; dropping nuts and nutshells on his roof. He was tender hearted, so he used a Hav A Hart trap. He (and almost every other faculty) disliked the president of the university at that time. Friend took the trap to the president's stately home and let them loose on his property.

prfesser said:

Unfortunately, since this is a rural area, one is quite likely to get a 'possum or a skunk. We got a possum once.

A very good friend and colleague of mine had so many squirrels that they were driving him literally nuts; dropping nuts and nutshells on his roof. He was tender hearted, so he used a Hav A Hart trap. He (and almost every other faculty) disliked the president of the university at that time. Friend took the trap to the president's stately home and let them loose on his property.

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Was this at Murray? (on a slightly related note, my fiancée finished her 2nd Masters at Murray last year while working as pitching coach for the softball team)

prfesser said:

Unfortunately, since this is a rural area, one is quite likely to get a 'possum or a skunk. We got a possum once.

A very good friend and colleague of mine had so many squirrels that they were driving him literally nuts; dropping nuts and nutshells on his roof. He was tender hearted, so he used a Hav A Hart trap. He (and almost every other faculty) disliked the president of the university at that time. Friend took the trap to the president's stately home and let them loose on his property.

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LOL!

Nytrunner said:

Was this at Murray? (on a slightly related note, my fiancée finished her 2nd Masters at Murray last year while working as pitching coach for the softball team)

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Yup. It was many years ago, back when ~140 applications for the university presidency were followed by a dozen candidates coming to Nashville for preliminary review, and three coming to campus for a full-blown interview.

The winner was an untenured assistant professor who had never held an administrative post. I'm sure that the fact that he was the son of the (at that time) current president had absolutely nothing to do with the decision...

Today I made a batch of my favorite bagel/cracker/raw vegetable spread:

8 oz neufchatel (lower fat) cream cheese
8 oz fat-free cream cheese
1 tsp dill weed
3-4 green onions, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
Black pepper to taste

Allow cream cheese to soften at room temperature, an hour or so. Blend all ingredients in a food processor. Allow to stand in the refrigerator overnight for flavors to meld.

Usually fat-free stuff is vile, but the additives in this particular propellant make it very edible.

Best -- Terry

prfesser said:

The winner was an untenured assistant professor who had never held an administrative post

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Are you saying that the administration at an institution of higher learning is not a strict and disinterested meritocracy? I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say.

opened my right of way railroad signals and replaced the door gasket of 1 signal
and opened the wiring terminal to make sure no mice were nesting and no wasps starting to
build a nest

Golf!

bobby_hamill said:

opened my right of way railroad signals

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OK, I'll be the one to ask...

opened my right of way railroad signals and replaced the door gasket of 1 signal
and opened the wiring terminal to make sure no mice were nesting and no wasps starting to
build a nest

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the signals that have the arm that comes down across the road to stop traffic is called a "grade crossing
signal / gate "

The signal that is parallel to the train tracks are called right of way signals. They are controlled
by the train dispatcher and are used to let the engineer of the train know to slow down, speed up, be prepared to stop or if the train will be going through a switch to move from 1 track to another track

below is a photo of a right of way signal in use the signal in the right hand side of the photo
is for track 2 the left signal is for track 1 the signal below the red line is for trains approaching in the
opposite direction

video of me testing the lights after a complete rewiring

bobby_hamill said:

the signals that have the arm that comes down across the road to stop traffic is called a "grade crossing
signal / gate "

The signal that is parallel to the train tracks are called right of way signals. They are controlled
by the train dispatcher and are used to let the engineer of the train know View attachment 411179 to slow down, speed up, be prepared to stop or if the train will be going through a switch to move from 1 track to another track

below is a photo of a right of way signal in use the signal in the right hand side of the photo
is for track 2 the left signal is for track 1 the signal below the red line is for trains approaching in the
opposite direction

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It’s the word “my” that threw me....

bobby_hamill said:

the signals that have the arm that comes down across the road to stop traffic is called a "grade crossing
signal / gate "

The signal that is parallel to the train tracks are called right of way signals. They are controlled
by the train dispatcher and are used to let the engineer of the train know View attachment 411179 to slow down, speed up, be prepared to stop or if the train will be going through a switch to move from 1 track to another track

below is a photo of a right of way signal in use the signal in the right hand side of the photo
is for track 2 the left signal is for track 1 the signal below the red line is for trains approaching in the
opposite direction

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Have lived about 1000 feet from a main line going into downtown for over 40 years now.

Never hear the trains any more. Or the air freighters or B52s...live a 3-4 miles downwind from a former military airbase.

Perfect storm.

o1d_dude said:

Have lived about 1000 feet from a main line going into downtown for over 40 years now.

Never hear the trains any more. Or the air freighters or B52s...live a 3-4 miles downwind from a former military airbase.

Perfect storm.

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"He chose.....poorly."

well they are my signals as I recovered them from a local scrap yard and restored them.
1 light section is heavy as heck, All cast iron and steel. Just 1 light section and 2 mounting
brackets weighs 470-500 pounds !

The more modern signals weigh around 150 pounds and made of aluminum and tin

John Kemker said:

Tried a Hav-a-hart trap, yet?

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We trapped our feral cats using these, & got them fixed. It actually helps to put a blanket over the trap and of course the stinkiest cat food you can find, just leaving the opening showing. Once they are trapped, cover the cage with the blanket and transport them this way - it keeps them calmed down better.

I have also used this (as the prfesser says) for critters - ground hogs love to climb my apple trees and I got tired of stalking and trying to shoot them from 50 yards out like Atticus Finch - especially since I'm technically not supposed to be discharging firearms in the borough, so taking a safe shot is limiting as well. So I just set the trap in my mini-orchard and put a sub-sonic bullet in them from close range - I try not to make them suffer. Racoons & Ground hogs get shot, opossums get released. But we've also caught the neighbor's cat (on fruit?!), and once, a red fox!

bobby_hamill said:

well they are my signals as I recovered them from a local scrap yard and restored them.

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What do you do with them?

Neil

I hope to pour a concrete footing and stand the signal up in my yard

Are you going to light it in any manner? That'd be pretty cool!

Blast
Yes it will be lit up just not all of the time
There will be a flashing relay installed cause sometimes a certain signal aspect requires a flashing green
You can see in my YouTube link above where I test the lights after dark

Bobby

prfesser said:

if I'd just taught for a few more years, I could have gotten half a semester off, paid.

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I hope the outcome is that you opted for retirement with penalties. After having already selected my retirement date, I realized that I made a miscalculation based on my assumption that a certain calculation was based on a prorate of months rather than days, and that I would have to work another month to get the calculated retirement pay, otherwise I would get less. I said "screw it, I'm retiring today." Took the loss, never looked back. No regrets, Some things are more important than money. I liked my job, I like retirement more than my job.

bobby_hamill said:

Blast
Yes it will be lit up just not all of the time
There will be a flashing relay installed cause sometimes a certain signal aspect requires a flashing green
You can see in my YouTube link above where I test the lights after dark

Bobby

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Nice! Just make sure it's out of sight of the tracks!