What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

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You can rent goats for that. Sheep love the stuff too, but goats are more voracious (or so I hear).
Are there... arboreal goats? we're talking some maples I can't reach my arms around. I located a few "satellite" taproots, but frankly, this year is going to be a "eff your verdant tentacles, I'll deal with your nexii later" year...
 
I did, shockingly enough, model trains! 😁
Today I got all-weather garden railway track laid on my apartment's balcony!
First of that kind of track I've ever had.
Bought it with some of recent stimulus money.
I paid a high price in pain but help from modern medication made the day tolerable.
And the same 2 hairy little orange fellows who shed on my submarine 'helped' me with the track.
And running trains after.
And speaking of sub, had made subassemblies of track a few days ago.
That reduced the amount of time I had to spend on hands and knees.

There are several different neurological, endocrine, mitochondrial things going on, & on top of that several musculoskeletal things happening all over my body from my feet to my hands to my neck.
smiley-frown.gif

I seriously want a refund on this body, but since I didn't buy it to begin with, there is no refund! 😕

(and have you ever tried to convince Social Security that since you are disabled more than 40 hours a week they owe you overtime?)

When you are physically disabled, can't work, live alone, aren't married, have no children, a day like today is a really big deal.

And right now tonight, my brand new train track is out on the balcony getting rained on
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and I'm just tickled with that
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because the track is made to be rained on!
And snowed on.
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And sunshined on.
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And this is the first of that kind of train track I've ever had.


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Yesterday I removed three trashbags full of kudzu from appx. 1/8 of my yard. Probably helped out a fairly old tree, definitely overdid it as far as my back is concerned...
Ow! Sorry you have the back trouble.
I grew up bouncing around Georgia, Virginia, the Carolinas, and , yeah, kudzu ...
The sun can go nova and vaporize the Earth and there'll be this web of charcoaled kudzu hanging in space ...
And then there'd be a little green sprout appear ...
 
Ow! Sorry you have the back trouble.
I grew up bouncing around Georgia, Virginia, the Carolinas, and , yeah, kudzu ...
The sun can go nova and vaporize the Earth and there'll be this web of charcoaled kudzu hanging in space ...
And then there'd be a little green sprout appear ...
Kudzu and cockroaches will outlive us all
 
Well, no, but they'll eat everything they can reach, clearing most of the yard. And probably kill the vines around the trees, but you'd still have to clear the remnants.
I mean... When I alluded to using a Tarzan technique, I meant I was literally climbing up using these vines... Some of them were as thick as my wrist.
 
Oh, a comment about one photo above: this 45mm gauge, "Gauge 1" track actually bolts together sort-of like the real stuff used to before thermite welding became a thing in the field and other welding became a thing at the factory.
That piece of paper is to reduce the chances of those itty-bitty 5/64 Allen wrench screws falling between the deck boards.
2 screws go in each rail at each joint.
:) And I didn't lose any of them!
Did fumble the similarly itty-bitty Allen wrench a few times.
Several moments of stress there but it stayed "above board". :eek::D

The 2 screwdrivers are Phillips head because I'm also using some 2ndhand track and it has screws instead of the Allen head screws in a coouple spots.
There are 2 trunouts/switches I decided to not put in today, my defective body paid a high enough price as it was.
Eventually the turnouts will make a 'cutoff loop' I can switch cars in and out of.

Looked several places in our little county seat farm burg & I'd have to order a 5/64 screwdriver from hobby suppliers.
It would have been a lot easier on my hands but I wanted the track down today, not waiting another couple weeks.
Which may sound a bit odd after having waited since 2009 to get the track! 😄
Yeah, I got several G scale train sets & and 3 individual locomotives in 2009 with some of the disability settlement back pay.
The sets came with indoor-use steel track & I've had it set up on the balcony a few times.
But I wanted the all weather track now since my health is rather less conducive to frequent getting down and getting up.

2nd image below is from May 2010 with that steel "tinplate" track.
In May, 2010, the month before little Georgie kitten joined our lives in June 2010.

I painted the non-UV-resistant plastic ties and the sides of the steel rail to help them stand up to being outside during dry weather.

The large scale trains were a strange wonder to little Georgie.

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Oh, a comment about one photo above: this 45mm gauge, "Gauge 1" track actually bolts together sort-of like the real stuff used to before thermite welding became a thing in the field and other welding became a thing at the factory.
That piece of paper is to reduce the chances of those itty-bitty 5/64 Allen wrench screws falling between the deck boards.
2 screws go in each rail at each joint.
:) And I didn't lose any of them!
Did fumble the similarly itty-bitty Allen wrench a few times.
Several moments of stress there but it stayed "above board". :eek::D

The 2 screwdrivers are Phillips head because I'm also using some 2ndhand track and it has screws instead of the Allen head screws in a coouple spots.
There are 2 trunouts/switches I decided to not put in today, my defective body paid a high enough price as it was.
Eventually the turnouts will make a 'cutoff loop' I can switch cars in and out of.

Looked several places in our little county seat farm burg & I'd have to order a 5/64 screwdriver from hobby suppliers.
It would have been a lot easier on my hands but I wanted the track down today, not waiting another couple weeks.
Which may sound a bit odd after having waited since 2009 to get the track! 😄
Yeah, I got several G scale train sets & and 3 individual locomotives in 2009 with some of the disability settlement back pay.
The sets came with indoor-use steel track & I've had it set up on the balcony a few times.
But I wanted the all weather track now since my health is rather less conducive to frequent getting down and getting up.

2nd image below is from May 2010 with that steel "tinplate" track.
In May, 2010, the month before little Georgie kitten joined our lives in June 2010.

I painted the non-UV-resistant plastic ties and the sides of the steel rail to help them stand up to being outside during dry weather.

The large scale trains were a strange wonder to little Georgie.

51152559062_2163794e85_z.jpg


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Please more of these sweet orange boys and trains. I can't tell you how happy those photos make me!
 
Took a break from rocket building this week to finish up an RC warbird for an upcoming fly in.
Dornier Do 335 with a 68” wingspan. Flying weight about 13.5lbs. Twin electric outrunner power with with electric retracts. Kit is an ARF balsa model from Black Horse.
 

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Took a break from rocket building this week to finish up an RC warbird for an upcoming fly in.
Dornier Do 335 with a 68” wingspan. Flying weight about 13.5lbs. Twin electric outrunner power with with electric retracts. Kit is an ARF balsa model from Black Horse.

So how do you like the electric motors? I flew U-Control and always hated how the fuel would get all over everything. Seems like electric would be so much better.
 
So how do you like the electric motors? I flew U-Control and always hated how the fuel would get all over everything. Seems like electric would be so much better.

I fly about 98% electric these days. Still fly a little small 1/2A (Cox .049) RC plus some normal glow. Electric aircraft are 30% to 70% of what you see at the flying fields these days. Still lots of gas powered larger models being flown as electric does get expensive for giant scale aircraft.

The Do 335 has about 2700 watts of power installed. 25.2 volt batteries pulling about 110 amps (both motors, with a little voltage loss under load). Translates to lots of power.

Modern electric aircraft with brushless outrunner motors and lithium polymer batteries give the same or better performance as glow aircraft and cleaning is indeed MUCH easier. Just wipe off the dust. The aircraft last longer as there is no fuel and exhaust damage to the aircraft. And your van no longer smells a little like glow fuel.

Brushless motors and lipo batteries had the same revolutionary effect on RC aircraft as composite motors had on rocketry

Electric was tougher to do until about the end of the 1990s, as brushless motors were rare and expensive and brushed motors, Nicads and NiMH batteries were heavy and limited in power.
 
A couple summers ago, I was able to swim in Lake Superior. The water temperature that day was close to 50 and it still felt like a shock when I entered. I swam out about 100 yards and back, fully submerged once, just to say I have.

I used to camp along Lake Superior up by Houghton/Hancock area.
The campground (FJ McLain) had a beach that went out 100 yards or so, very gradually so that far off the beach you could stand and only be in five feet of water. You could look down and clearly see your toes!
In late July or early August the sun would warm that water to a tolerable temperature.

It was a ritual that I would take a dip in the lake every trip no-matter what.
Sometimes it was amazingly warm (60), mostly not though :eek:.
Still, when I go again I will honor the ritual.
 
I think it was Ford, many years back, that put the horn button on the end of the turn signal lever (whaaAAAAT??). Broken turn signal levers from people slamming the turn signal the way they used to slam the center of the steering wheel...they changed back the next year.
Yes, Ford. Also lots of people bringing the cars in for warranty work because when they pushed the center of the steering wheel the horn was broken.
 
Saturday, I went to a Ham Radio Swap Meet in Tucker, GA. XYL gave me a $600 budget. I found a nice Ten-Tec Eagle (no autotuner) for $750 with the power supply. Thought I had a power supply in the storage shed, so talked them into selling me the radio alone for $600. Rig was near mint.

Got home, and XYL and I headed to the storage shed later that afternoon. We went through EVERY box. I went through every box in my study at the house. No PSU. Yesterday, traded emails with the ham that sold me the rig. He agreed to take $85 for the original PSU that came with the rig. Today, he dropped by the office in Kennesaw and dropped it off.

Went downstairs to go to the truck to go home. The sky is falling and we're under a tornado warning. /sigh I'm stuck in the office for at least another hour or three.
 
Modern electric aircraft with brushless outrunner motors and lithium polymer batteries give the same or better performance as glow aircraft and cleaning is indeed MUCH easier. Just wipe off the dust. The aircraft last longer as there is no fuel and exhaust damage to the aircraft. And your van no longer smells a little like glow fuel.

I think I see an electric control-line (U-Control) plane in my future...
 
Woke at 2am to sciatica, took a ketorolac (very strong NSAID, ask your doctor, it's as good as some opioids for pain but can't take it more than five days in a row). Pouring rain. Tornado siren around 330. Second one around 4am. All clear at 430. Power went out with the second siren. It's back on but the AC doesn't work except the window unit in the room over the garage. Which is where I am now. And probably where I'll sleep tonight.
 
Just fronted up for another covid test. That makes eight now. I have a head cold but I am just making sure. In iso till I get the results back.

New furniture arrived yesterday for our family room. I am unboxing the coffee table and entertainment unit. Also organising homes, where possible, for the old furniture.
 
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