What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

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Took the Explorer back to the detailer so he could clean the dirt off the outside because of the mud rain. And we got the first snow in the mountains. We had about two weeks of fall and now after the storm it's winter. Sunday had a high of 70. Now it's 54 at noon.
 
What, it's in double digits at noon and you call that winter?
That's the start of winter in southern Nevada. I have seen it as low as 6* in the past. But that's in December and January. 30* & 40* temperature swings are common. 50 during the day 10 or 20 at night. It snowed in the mountains yesterday. Down to about 8000'. Mt Charleston is 12000' and there is a ski resort up there. The picture is from January 26th of this year.20210126_080238[1293].jpg
 
Fixed the crap mailbox catch. As usual now, the catch was plastic and the mail person finally broke the last bit off so the door wouldn't stay closed. That's unfortunate since we are now getting our first snow of the season. Put an eyebolt in for a pull and super glued (medium) a salvaged hard drive neodymium magnet to the door and another to the top inside of the mailbox. It snaps itself shut now if it is within 1/4 inch of being closed. Also worked on the bathroom downstairs, but not nearly as satisfying as the mailbox solution. :)
 
Watched this young lady (about 1.5 metres / 5 ft) dig into a huge termite nest on a gumtree in the driveway and (presumably) lay her eggs. Goanna eggs take 50 weeks to hatch, so around the end of September next year we should have some hatchlings.

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Are the eggs hard like a chicken or soft like a turtle? Must be warm in the termite nest. Don't the termites eat houses?
 
Fixed the crap mailbox catch. As usual now, the catch was plastic and the mail person finally broke the last bit off so the door wouldn't stay closed. That's unfortunate since we are now getting our first snow of the season. Put an eyebolt in for a pull and super glued (medium) a salvaged hard drive neodymium magnet to the door and another to the top inside of the mailbox. It snaps itself shut now if it is within 1/4 inch of being closed. Also worked on the bathroom downstairs, but not nearly as satisfying as the mailbox solution. :)
Sounds more like "Replaced the catch..." It's cool when a simple magnet solution works like that. I lived in an apartment for a few years where the washer and dryer were in a closet, the dryer on a shelf over the washer. The problem was, the top loading washer lid would hit the shelf when it was only half way up, so you had to hold it with one hand while loading or unlading with the other. So I glued a strong magnet to the underside of the shelf just where the washer lid hit. Problem solved.
 
Are the eggs hard like a chicken or soft like a turtle? Must be warm in the termite nest. Don't the termites eat houses?

As far as goannas, I think she's a Heath Monitor which would be a soft shell.

It is very warm in the nest with about 11 Bazillion termites in there.

Lastly, yes, termites eat houses. It's a fine balance between protecting your property (with a Termidor trench) and leaving fallen and standing timber for the termites to live in and feed on.

You know I'm a hippie/Greenie/mountain man and termites are an important part of the ecosystem, providing both a food source and nesting opportunity for other wildlife. In addition they clear away fallen timber which can be a fire hazard. A double edged sword.
 
Planted red cedars in the rainforest regen area and callistemons in the garden.

Watched yellow tailed cockatoos eating wattle bark.

Said, "Hi" to a legless lizard.

Planned the ~120 koala food trees needed to make a 'Koala Corridor' with the property next door.

Wondered why people live in cities. 🤠
 
A couple of job interviews for an electronic engineering intern position we have at work.
I assume that means you were conducting the interviews, not being interviewed for the position yourself. what the heck are you doing applying for internships?

Best of luck to you finding a good candidate.
 
Well, the snake comment was a joke, as I assumed it's not really one. Now, having Googled skink, I'm saying it's not a snake by a narrow technicality, and it's close enough for me.
 
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Timed our group’s annual 5K this year. Actually, this was the postponed (3 times) 2020 edition. Turnout was lower than usual, which is understandable for many reasons, but we still raised over $10k for clean water projects in Bo, Sierra Leone. Pending ground conditions that should do 1 or 2 new wells. The race has now raised about $130k over 10 years, which has funded 18 wells and accompanying sanitary toilets, as well as, a maternity/birthing clinic.

In villages where these wells and accompanying sanitary toilets have been placed infant mortality has dropped 80%. Putting on these races is a pain, but hard to argue with impact like that.
 
Spent 4 hours doing a chore that should have only taken 1/2 hour tops. Purging air from home heating radiators (7 of them). 3rd one in got plenty of air but no water after many minutes. Determined that there was no feed water flow. Drained the system, checked this, disassembled that, cleaned the thingamajg to finally discover the galvanized feed water pipe was blocked from internal corrosion. My handy Big Box store would gladly sell me a 10' section of pipe and cut/thread the 29 1/2" that I actually needed. Couldn't do the same with the 3' section of pipe on the shelf cause "it's store policy". Left before I gave them 29 1/2 inches of store policy sideways up.........

Anyway, took it home and bored it out. Connected everything back up, filled and bled. Success...........till 1/2 hour later when I discovered my hot water heater leaking all over the floor. 🤬🤬 Looks like hobby time will have to take a back seat for a while.
 
50ish years ago, when my parents were newly married, my father made my mother a rather large blanket chest from aromatic cedar. My mother kept her most prized things in that chest such as the hand crocheted blanket that my paternal grandmother made for her and keepsakes from each of us kids. In honor of my dad's passing I've decided to make a smaller version of that blanket chest for each of my sisters, to be given as a Christmas gift. Today I picked up the cedar for the first chest. 20211016_132128_1.jpg
 
Went to my daughter's rental place and did some jobs for here. Running some cables out of sight, sealing up some skirting boards, fixing a cat scratching post etc. The good this is that she is taking an interest and learning how, and having a go herself.
 
Well, the snake comment was a joke, as I assumed it's not really one. Now, having Googled skink, I'm saying it's not a snake by a narrow technicality, and it's close enough for me.

Well, no.

Legless lizards have eyelids that open and close, external ear openings and jaws which do not open as far as a snake's. They have to eat things smaller than their heads.
 
Couldn't do the same with the 3' section of pipe on the shelf cause "it's store policy".
That's why I still have my gradfather's pipe vice, cutter, and die set.

Gotta sharpen the chain on one of my saws. Lucky to not hit it more square, just caught the edge of it. Not expecting this on what was an 8' high limb. Lucky the saw didn't jump or do anything crazy.
The way the iron dyes the wood can be really cool in the right circumstance. I know a guy (my wife's sister's husband's brother) who took a tree down in his yard and found that in a couple of different colors, probably from both iron and brass or bronze pieces. He had the wood into thin boards and made beautiful hard sided brief cases.
 
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