A Working Man's Journal

Beer & Chick'n

2011-04-02T17:59:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update on the progress of my new flock. Today I cleaned out the brooder box, in the interim confining the chickens to four empty beer cases (three birds per box, which allowed enough room to prevent a potentially fatal “piling” situation). All 12 birds are doing well, and as of now I have three “confirmed” males (judging by comb and wattle growth; unlike with mammals birds have no visible genitals, and can only be sexed by secondary features) which is, fortunately, about what I initially suspected. Sure this means less (if any) Spring Chicken (as I think I can give away at least two of these cockerels), but it also means less dealing with the “issues” of Spring Chicken…

The boys, currently seperated from the girls, huddle together; hiding from the overhanging Sun(pak). Actually this is normal behavior when a small number of chicks are isolated in a dark place; and my über bright flash gun has nothing to do with it (and coincidentially, it fired just over minimum power).

That’s all I have for now. More later…

Peeps!

2011-03-18T17:26:00.001-07:00

Yes it’s that time of year again… And I already got my Peeps!

The difference here is that the ones I bought aren’t marshmallows, they’re “made with real chicken…” Mostly because they ARE REAL CHICKENS!

And here they are. Last Saturday I purchased a dozen Rhode Island Red chicks, and this is their progress after six days.

I’d been wanting more chickens, and specifically Rhode Island Reds if possible. When I went to Tractor Supply they actually had them as one of their featured breeds, so I bought them instead of the Golden Comet pullets in the next brooder over. Of course this means that I have a few cockerels in this bunch, but any I get will serve their purpose (which by the way is NOT replacing my current rooster!)

This Golden Comet cock (rooster) isn’t due for replacement for at least another year, and possibly quite a bit longer, for three reasons. First, he is still too young for his intended final purpose as coq-au-van. Second, as you can see he is tame (at least with me) and the only bird I own that I have any sentimentality about… And third (and likely foremost) this rooster fought a hawk, and won! I didn’t actually watch it happen, but I’m pretty certain that he has chased off, and almost certainly fought, the neighborhood hawk at least twice. If for no other reason that’s worth keeping him around!

Finally here’s one for posterity. Little Mr. Curious looks right into my camera… Or is it Miss Curious? Still to early to be sure…

Photography: Fifty friggin’ Megapixels!

2011-02-03T20:19:00.001-08:00

Unbelievable? Maybe. Impossible? Not for 135 film!

I just purchased and received a high-resolution flatbed scanner with a transparency unit, that allows it to scan both color negative and color reversal (slide) films. Needless to say I am very impressed: At the scanner’s native resolution of 6400 DPI a standard 135 frame (24x36mm) equates to 49.5 megapixels, with a quality level that blows the socks off of anything digital I’ve ever shot!

So far I have tested this scanner with two color negative films (Fujicolor Superia 200 and 800 Xtra) and one color reversal film (Kodak Kodachrome 64) both with extraordinary results!

Anyways here are some 50MP scans of some 135 photographs. Enjoy.

Fujicolor Superia 800 Xtra scan

Kodak Kodachrome 64 scan

Fujicolor Superia 200 scan

Big Mid-December Update!

2010-12-12T15:11:00.001-08:00

After talking about it for over a year now I finally got a proper chicken coop! With the help of my parents I got a Suncast shed, which with my brother’s help I erected yesterday and completed today.

Of course the chickens need a way of getting in and out of the coop, and here it is.

Now the only problem is convincing the chickens that they should be INSIDE that building! Hopefully the heat lamp I placed inside, as well as moving their feeder and water bucket in there helps…

And now for some “Frozen Chicken…” In other words at the time of this writing my chickens STILL haven’t realized that the new, heated building that houses their food and water supply is a good place to be…

In Other News…

Also today I finsihed off my “bonus” roll of Kodachrome 64. Hopefully I’ll be mailing off both rolls this Tuesday, as I sent a question to Dwane’s Photo to see if I could get my empty rolls back (I want them for use as display pieces).

That’s all I have for now… So until the next update…

Sunflower harvest, speedlight guts and more…

2010-11-27T09:18:00.001-08:00

I realize that I’ve been awhile in posting, and that most of my more recent posts have been strictly about photography. The first is just plain laziness, and the second I have taken care of by adding a Flickr photostream to my sidebar.

First: the Fall of the Sunflowers

It’s been over a month and a half now, but my sunflowers finally ripened and I cut the heads down. Here is a photo taken just before the harvest.

One of the astonishingly-large heads that we harvested! Most weren’t quite this big, but…

Just to give you an idea, this is about HALF of the harvest! All in all it equated to about a half-bushel of seeds. I’m rather impressed, especially since only about half of the plants actually made it to harvest!

Of course most of my corn is still in the field (I need to deal with this), most of what isn’t has already been fed to the chickens.

And just one more quick thing… Have any of you ever wondered what was inside a speedlight (standard camera flash)? I had purchased a Sunpak Auto 411 Thyristor (a fairly powerful late 70s flash) off eBay. When I got it the thing didn’t work. So I tore it apart to see if I could find the problem. So far no luck, but luckily for you I photographed the innards for all to see…

Click the picture to see a larger, annotated version on Flickr.

Hopefully I can get this sucker working; it’s fairly small but when it does work it packs a surprising punch!

Well that’s all I have for now. Hopefully I won’t go so long without a post again…

Film Photography

2010-11-03T20:16:00.001-07:00

Yes, it’s a horrible pun but I couldn’t resist. However this still-life is not what this post is about…

Yesterday I finally got back my test roll, and I am very pleased with the results. My $2 Nikon performs like a champ! Aside from the one picture that the lab screwed up, and the two that they (understandably) didn’t print the rest came out beautifully…

Sadly the same can’t be said for the photo CD that came with my enlargements. The main problem is the resolution; the images I got are 1.6 megapixels (remember that a 35mm film camera is essentially a 10-20 megapixel camera, depending on what film you use) and the colors are screwed up (I knew I took a picture of a 24-bit palette for a reason!) Oh well. If I ever shoot any more film after my Kodachrome I’ll be sending it to a professional photo lab that provides “professional” photo CDs, not just the local “lab.”

Below is a somewhat hastily reconstructed picture of a sunset taken with my Nikon 5005 from the p**s poor scans on the Photo CD. The film is Fujicolor ASA 200, camera is using programmed Auto-Exposure. This picture looks “close” to both what I actually saw and what the actual enlargement looks like. I will be scanning a selection of my enlargements and posting them on my online photo gallery soon.

Photography: Kodachrome!

2010-11-01T16:49:00.001-07:00

You give us those nice bright
colors,

You give us the greens of
summers,

Makes you think all the
world's a sunny day,

Oh yeah!

Oops, sorry about that…  I just got so caught up in
the mystique of this legendary film and the old song
that I couldn’t resist!

In case any of you didn’t know, sadly Kodachrome is
a dead product and is no longer in production.  When
I found out about that sad fact I decided that I had
to get a hold of and shoot a single roll of it, as
I will never have another chance in my life!

Well today it arrived, along with a selection of
color correction gels (one of which I used in the
taking of the above photo).  I am rather anxious to
load and start shooting this film, as I have a
deadline (as of 12/31/10 it will be IMPOSSIBLE to
get Kodachrome film processed anywhere in the world!)
But first I want to wait for my test roll to be
developed just to make sure my $2 Nikon won’t destroy
this rare film!!!

(The above picture is taken from a test of a still-
life I am titling “The Past and Present of Film.”
The Olympus camera on the left is a stand-in for an
older 35mm.  Obviously I will be taking the final
picture before I load and shoot my first and last
roll of Kodachrome!)

Yet more photography…

2010-10-26T18:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I finally finished exposing my “test roll” of film, and took it to the pharmacy today to get it developed (the film that is, NOT the camera!) Provided this test proves that the Nikon is in good, solid working condition (despite likely having been dropped, as well as my own attempt to destroy the shutter…) I have one more thing I want to do with it before it goes into cold storage, but I will save that for another post…

Despite the extremely low purchase price ($2) I sincerely hope it’s a good camera, as even though it’s effectively 75 cents a frame to use it is also effectively a 20 megapixel camera! With a massive list of accessory lenses available should I wish to aquire them.

Aside from having nearly completed my Nikon test I also did some timed exposure experiments with my Lumix. My first experiment turned out beautifully (pic and link to full resolution picture is at the end of the post), however afterwards things didn’t go so well…

I decided to try capturing both the stars and a tree in one frame, using my strobe to illuminate the tree. I removed my slave unit from the strobe so I wouldn’t lose it, but not it’s mounting… Just as I was ready to take the picture the strobe suddenly started going off like the Fourth of July!!! Turns out that my home-improvised slave mount finally failed, and after removing it the strobe functioned properly again in “open flash” mode. Sadly the picture I had composed turned out horribly… Still though, with all the random and very rapid flashing it must’ve looked like Beirut in my front yard!!!

Here is a pic of my one “good” timed exposure (the astronomical ones sadly didn’t turn out… The Earth rotates more in one minute than you’d think). The reddish streaks are traffic (this frame was exposed over a period of 60 seconds). The full resolution image may be viewed here.

Photography: Art Photo #2 “The Glowing Tree”

2010-10-23T16:32:00.001-07:00

Well I’ve had this photograph in mind for awhile: A tree set against the fading daylight lit from in front and beneath by an artificial light to make the tree appear to “glow.” And here’s the result:

(Full resolution image may be viewed here)

This picture is of a Weeping Willow located across the road from me, using my new Lumix on Programmed AE mode with my Sunpak strobe set at full power aimed at the foliage at close range. Of course this picture required me to cross US 24 FOUR times (place my strobe, return, take pictures, retrieve strobe, return), but I think it was worth it…

The Sunpak illuminating itself for this picture! I think it was set at about 1/24 power for this shot.

Photography: New Digital Camera!

2010-10-16T18:55:00.001-07:00

After casually wanting one for the better part of five years I finally broke down and purchased a new digital camera off of eBay this week. It arrived on Friday, and so far I am very impressed.

Here is a picture of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 next to my Sunpak Auto 522 Thyristor strobe. It is an 8-megapixel “Bridge” camera (a camera that incorporates most of the features of an SLR but with a permanently attached lens and no complex mirror system). It includes a lot of high-end features such as a physical zoom ring, a manual focus ring, full P-A-S-M exposure control, Optical Image Stabilization, a hot shoe (for mounting an external flash), a tilting display, an Electronic Viewfinder and a plethora of other features that I don’t care to mention here.

Here is a view of the back of both the Lumix and the Sunpak. Though the screen is smaller than I would like it is very sharp (the EVF is also extremely sharp, albeit slightly laggy but from what I’ve read most are). Yes I took these pictures with my old Kodak (and obviously without the help of the Sunpak strobe). So how does it perform? Well how about a picture of the Kodak using the Lumix!

Here is a picture of both my Kodak Easyshare C633 6.1 megapixel pocket camera (which all of my pictures to-date have been taken with) next to a Nikon N5005 SLR that I picked up at Goodwill for $2! This picture was taken using my new Lumix and the Sunpak strobe at about 1/15 power, aimed at the ceiling as a bounce flash. I have yet to test the Nikon (since it uses film I want to be 100% sure it’s clean before I load it even for a test roll)

My old Kodak is not being retired, it is now my “grab and go” camera. For anything even remotely more serious I now have a better option. After all, my main reasons for wanting a new digital camera are the Kodak’s lack of features (I guess it’s called an Easyshare for a reason…) and it’s poor low-light performance (even with the Sunpak I have to use a flashlight as an autofocus-assist lamp!). So far my new camera meets and/or exceeds all of my expectations.

Of course I decided to take a picture of both cameras next to each other, using my parents’ Lumix. That’s all I have for now…

Photography: Art Photo #1

2010-10-11T19:52:00.001-07:00

After viewing my American flag against the sunset I knew I wanted to take a picture of it in that setting. I finally did so today, not only for the pleasure of doing so but to gain experiance in multi-flash photography (albeit with my Kodak pocket camera, I just purchased a high-end Panasonic “bridge” camera, and plan on re-taking this picture with it as a test if nothing else). And here is the result:

This picture was taken kneeling before the flag, looking upwards at it with my Sunpak flash set about six feet to the side at 1/16 power at about a 45-degree angle to the right of the camera. I am very impressed with the way I was able to both highlight the flag while at the same time giving it depth against the sunset-lit clouds.

Photography: MacGuyver to the Rescue!

2010-10-02T18:18:00.001-07:00

On Friday I finally received my Wein Peanut PND optical slave from Midwest Photo Exchange, and not completely to my surprise it did not fit in my strobe’s sync socket… It turns out that SunPak strobes take an almost-standard 3/32 monoplug (which is several thousandths longer than a standard monoplug). After purchasing a monoplug and finding out it didn’t work I tried manually tripping the flash by simply jamming a nail into the sync socket… When the flash tripped I realized that the monoplug is simply too short. My short-term solution: Wrap most of the nail with label stock, and use two wires to connect the optical slave to the nail and the sync port’s sleeve.

It’s ugly, unstable and all-together sloppy, but it does work! It reliably trips the strobe on my camera’s “main” flash, ignoring the preflash every time. As I expected using an off-camera slave flash does improve the quality of my photos. For demonstration purposes I decided to do some model photography. Since I don’t have access to a proper model I decided to use my cat; Chessie.

Here is a picture of Chessie using only my camera’s internal (and very weak) flash.

And a picture of Chessie using both the internal flash as a direct flash and the SunPak 522 Auto as a slave flash, bounced off the ceiling at 1/16 power. This dual-flash picture is definately sharper, but I get the impression that my exposure compensation may be off… After all I am only an amateur, and one inexperianced in multi-flash photograpry at that! I will try to take more pictures tommorow, and both learn from my (inevitable) mistakes and post my best pictures then. So until then…

Photography: Professional flash gun!

2010-09-25T20:57:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week on one of my frequent visits to the local Goodwill I found this little gem: A Sunpak 522 Auto Thyristor professional photostrobe. It only cost me $5, and I figured if nothing else it'd be something fun to play with. After doing some research I determined that this was in fact a professional strobe (which I had guessed simply by the number of controls when I first saw it), and a rather a powerful one for one that can run on standard batteries!
This strobe came with a camera shelf, which if I ever use it for it's intended purpose I will most likely NOT use; as with any digital camera I can afford I will have to use it as a slave flash I would want to mount it to it's own tripod.

An alternate view of the strobe, showing both it's back panel and it's 3-dimensional aiming.

Of course I decided to try to test this strobe with my "pocket" camera by simply trying to manually synchronize the strobe with the camera's built-in flash, and actually succeeded!

Here is a photo using the Sunpak 522 Auto at maximum power in a quote-unquote "Open Flash" shot (meaning that I managed to manually trigger the flash gun whilst the camera was actually sampling the image). The field plants are at least one hundred feet away from the camera (which has a 3/8 inch objective).For $5 I am rather impressed...

Stereo (rack) Envy... Resolved.

2010-09-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

After spending the morning after Church at my parents' house, while waiting for the local Goodwill to open (which, incidentally, is the place I purchased my receiver) I got to looking at my dad's stereo racks. Finally I got fed up with my lazy set-up (with the receiver, EQ and Phase Coupled Activator, simply stacked on one of my speakers)...
Today I purchased a cheap ($15) "bookshelf" to use as a new stereo rack, and finally arranged my stereo components, Media Center PC and one of my game consoles in a far more logical and elegant way.
Here is a picture of my new setup featuring (from top to bottom) my Media Center PC, my Optimus (RadioShack) Equalizer, a Phase Coupled Activator, my Pioneer 5.1 Ch Receiver, and my Xbox 360, between my television and one of my pair of Rectilinear speakers (with the cover purposefully removed to show the 6-way driver system) given to me by my father as a housewarming gift (and one I appreciate on a near daily basis). These were my father's college speakers; and as he and his roommate were the "stereo guys" in their dorm in college needless to say these are EXTREMELY good speakers! Given a clean input they sound as good at low volumes as they do at "permanant hearing damage" levels! Though the setup works exactly the same as it did before it is now much more accessable than it was, and definately looks better. I feel it was worth the time spent.

Antique Radio

2010-08-22T13:47:00.001-07:00

This last Thursday as part of my vacation I went up to Ann Arbor with my brother and one of our mutual friends. While wandering the town we stopped by a hole-in-the-wall antique store, where I found this gem...
This is a General Electric model 410 tabletop radio in very good condition (as you can see even the cloth speaker guard is intact!) After doing a little research I determined that this radio is about 59 years old. It was sold as working, and work it does with only one slight flaw, there is very little in the way of music on the MW (commonly called AM) band!!!
I had been looking for a low-cost, working or repairable vacuum tube radio for some time, and when I saw this unit marked "Works! $35" I decided to buy it. As I said the only problem is the overall lack of music on the MW band; though the dial is slightly off the reception quality and selectivity is better than some much newer transistor radios. The sound quality is good; with no undesirable distortion . Now all I need is a zero-range AM transmitter so I can supply my own music...

Home Ag: Sunflowers

2010-08-22T13:40:00.001-07:00

In addition to field corn I also planted about 120 sunflowers, which I have neglected to post pictures of until now. Sadly they are well past the "pretty" phase, but that's not why I'm growing them...
These plants are all over 10 feet tall, with most having a head measuring over a foot across. Fortunately they are "droopy," which deters wild birds from stealing my crop.

And here's a picture with me holding a soda can next to one of the lowest heads... Yes they really are that big!
I believe that I lost maybe a fifth of these plants to rabbits that ran under the electric fence, however there are still PLENTY of flowers left over!

Home Ag Update: Knee high by the Fourth of July... YEAH RIGHT!!!

2010-06-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

As you can see from my two test plants, I am WAY past the old adage! Mind you my test plants (I call them that because I planted them to test the "Round-Up Readiness" of the rest of my seed) are a week ahead of my plot, but...

These plants are even taller than the test plants. The tallest of them are already over my head (I'm just shy of 6')! I've only applied nitrogen once since I planted them, and you can see the results.

And the other half of my garden; comprised of four tomatoes, and crop plantings of sweet corn and sunflowers. It isn't doing nearly as well as the field corn, as the weeds have taken over.

And a shot of my entire operation. Enjoy.

Electric Fencing: DANGER 10,000 VOLTS

2010-05-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Well once again I got hit by my own electric fence, this time while "gapping" it to test the potential on the line (a rough estimate of how many volts are on the wire judged by the length of the spark it throws). I got hit while throwing the disconnect, and for the instant the line was hot it hurt worse than the time I touched one leg of a 480 at work (that's 277 volts AC)!
Here is a brief video of a half-inch spark drawn across the disconnect switch. Enjoy what it LOOKS like (hopefully you never get to find out what it FEELS like)!

Home Ag Update: The corn is up!

2010-05-23T15:08:00.001-07:00

Finally about "one third to half" of my corn has sprouted! So far the first two planting days' worth of corn is up, with the rest about a week behind. And at least so far it looks like I have a very low mortality rate (as in by far and away most of the seeds have sprouted)!
Here is a picture of once of the further along seedlings, as well as a few of it's neighbors. However as you can see some weeds have sprung up, and though I had hoped not to need to I may wind up having to spray the corn patch with 2,4-D (I can't use Round-Up, as only about a third of the corn is guaranteed to be Round-Up Ready). This won't kill the grass, but it will take care of the broadleafs. We'll see, if the corn grows fast enough I won't have to spray at all...
That's all I have for now. More when the results are more dramatic.

Home Ag: Field Planted!

2010-05-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well two weeks after starting all of my corn (both field and sweet) are finally planted!
The three dark areas are the areas I planted today (I decided to "water-in" those areas).
So far I have planted a "mixed bag" of modern field corn and two varieties of sweet corn (Golden Cross Bantam hybrid, a classic sweet corn and Ruby Queen hybrid, a red-kernel sweet corn). As for the space left in the middle, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'll have to make a trip to a greenhouse before long...

Home Ag: Fixin' the Cistern!

2010-05-09T16:45:00.001-07:00

NOTICE: Second post today!

I feel very fortunate that my house came with a cistern; a now all-but forgotten source of fresh water. A cistern is a large underground storage space for water, which is generally supplied by rain collected by the house's roof.
My cistern is located on the north wall of my house, and has no clear design feature for filling it. I plan on using aboveground courrogated drain pipe to move rainwater from the eaves through the access hatch visable in the picture, and to use a sump pump to actually use this water to irrigate my crops.
In order to do this I need to run both a water pipe and an extension cord down the raised hole on the right side of the picture, and fish them out through the access hatch to attach them to a pump. Most likely this will be easier said than done, but in the end will be well worth it, as this is a source of FREE water for irrigating both my garden and my lawn!

As of right now the only function that my cistern serves is to provide a home for a single frog! Currently the cistern holds about two inches of water, and as you can see the wreckage of the old wellhead pump are still in there. Once I have a pump in there and connect the eaves to it, the frog will have to move out... Sorry, but I now officially need the stored rain water...

Home Ag: More Garden / Mini-Field pictures

2010-05-09T15:40:00.001-07:00

Well this time it's more or less just pictures, since I've done some more work to the garden and want to show it off...

First picture: The garden (this year it's just a corn field) viewed from the road, with electric fencing installed and the first three rows planted. For this field I used "poly-wire" for the electric fence. Poly-wire is, in this case, comprised of three strands of PVC-encased fiberglass rope interwoven with three aluminum wires. The advantages of poly-wire, especially here, are enhanced visability to both people and animals (the "poly" in this wire is bright yellow and black) and ease of handling, which will be very important this fall when I will have to coil the "wire" back up before I cut the dead cornstalks down with my scythe.

Second picture: The (most likely) temporary hookup for the garden fence, with three pullets and the rooster making a cameo. The gate handle is made out of nonconductive rubber, and a strand of highly visable poly-wire connects the chicken fence to the garden fence. Eventually I will probaly replace this system with a buried cable with a disconnect switch, but for the moment, at least, this system should work just fine.

That's all I have for now. More after my corn starts to spring up...

Home Ag: Tilling complete!

2010-05-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Before

After

Finally, the tilling is done... Needless to say I'm very tired right now, so this post will be short.
The tilling did NOT go easily. The sod was very thick, well developed and so on. It took everything I had to keep the tiller under control, even on the final (supposedly easy) pass.
Before the last two passes I added 20 pounds of 12-12-12 fertilizer to further improve the already good soil (corn is a very intensive crop after all). After those last two passes I was too tired to continue, though it could've used it.
Anyways that's all for now. Below is a picture of my Uncle Marv's tiller that I used, and my spreader. I'll post again once I have my seeds planted and they sprout.

Is this... Corn?

2010-05-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

I finally aquired my corn seed today, and all I have to say is it doesn't look the way I expected! Of course the corn seeds are much smaller than the harvest kernels, but the color is what threw me. I knew that the seed was likely to be coated (generally with fungucide and/or starter fertilizer) but I hadn't expected the color.
The reason the seed is multicolored is because the bag contains several different brands of corn. This is a very good thing, as diversity helps avoid problems. THis is the seed that was left over when the farmer cleaned out his planter this year; it is all high-end seed that should yield very nicely!
Now I just need to till under the jungle and actually put some of this into the ground...

Home Ag. prospects: Putting the Lawn into Production!

2010-04-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

Let's be frank here; I don't like mowing the lawn. And I am cursed (many would say blessed) with a 2-acre lawn, a solid chunk of which grows at a near-rediculous rate. For much of the time that I have owned this property I have wanted to put this "jungle patch" into production, and grow a large garden. However my current job situation (extremely busy) all but prevents this (I don't have near the time or energy to maintain a garden with "traditional" practices, such as hand-pulling weeds and a mixture of companion planting and nicotine spray to manage insect pests). So I have come up with an alternative that also supports my poultry hobby; grow my own feed corn!

Pictured to the right is the result of my "homegrown" (quite literally in this case) soil quality test two years ago. Whilst out woodchuck hunting I "borrowed" a couple of modern hybrid dent corn seedlings (which are virtually dependant on fertilizer) and transplanted them on my lawn, just outside of the "jungle." I only used fertilizer of any sort (TSC-brand 12-12-12) once, WAY too late in the season. Yet the picture shows the results. The two surviving cornstalks, though decidedly stunted, each yielded an ear this size, very close to the size of the whole-ear corn sold commercially as squirrel feed! I'd say my soil quality test was a success!
I have currently staked off most of the "jungle," an area that measures 25x100 feet, and plan to till this area under within the next couple of weeks. By doing the math, and using the preferred planting rate for modern field corn of 36,000 seeds per acre, I figure this entire area would require about 1,200 seeds (which equals just under a pound of seed). The problem is that corn seed is sold in 80,000-seed bags costing between $70 and $400! I will need to talk to the farmers I know and see about buying a couple of pounds of seed...
I want to set aside the last few feet of this mini-field aside to grow a few tomatoes and a couple of rows of sweet corn, but that's all the gardening I have planned for this year. As I stated I simply don't have time to do more... The corn (both the sweet and field varieties) require minimal maintenance once established (especially since I'm not going for maximum yield, it's mostly for fun, and to put my land to use). Of course come fall I'll have 1,200 ears of corn to harvest (by hand!) and store, but I do have the space and (hopefully, by then) the time...

The Chicken(s) and the Egg(s)

2010-02-28T06:25:00.001-08:00

Finaly, time for an update on my hobby farm project...
My chickens are now fully grown, and they are none too small. The silver waterer pictured here holds five gallons, and you can see how big the birds are standing next to it.

Here is a better picture of my rooster. He is not a small bird; I'd say he's easily as big as a house cat.

And, finally, I'm getting eggs on a regular basis. Right now I'm getting about four a day, and as you can see from this picture they are quite large too.

The Server Rack: Almost a real server rack!

2010-02-21T12:53:00.001-08:00

Pictured here is a shelving unit that came "free" with my property, albeit in rather decrepit condition, in my workshop. I knew as soon as I saw it (even before I bid on my property!) what I wanted to do with it...
Well I finally did it!
After about a week of drilling, fitting, frustration and procrastination I finally repaired the shelf and moved four of my servers onto it.
The names of the computers are, from top to bottom and left to right: Dell-Orean, Volatile, The Hive and Quadrajet (the SCSI enclosure is there solely for storage).
And yes, Quadrajet (my genuine IBM server) is the massive monolith beneath the two mid-towers and SCSI enclosure! It really is that big!

Hopefully more updates about lower-tech stuff soon...

Inside The Hive: Information Technology, Redneck Style!

2009-12-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

Look at the captions on the images... I think that's about all I need to say....

The Server Rack: The Hypervisor and VMs (or, in English, playing with Pretend Computers)

2009-11-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

When most people get bored, they watch TV... Me, when I get bored, I waste my time on Wikipedia. Fortunately this introduces me to all sorts of innovative concepts. Unfortunately this almost always costs me money, as I invariably get involved in various oddball projects...
About a month ago I came across something called a hypervisor, or Virtual Machine Supervisory Operating System. This is a concept that I have known about for a very long time, but until recently have mistakenly referred to as VMS. What a hypervisor does is allow a computer to run multiple instances of an operating system, or several discrete operating systems, simultaneously... Mainframes have been equipped with hypervisors for the last thirty years, however this technology has only recently appeared in the microcomputer (PC) market.
In my research (or, more correctly, browsing) I happened upon the VMware website. Years ago I had experimented with VMware (then a PC emulator), with disappointing results. However more recently they came up with a true hypervisor called ESX, which recently has been released as freeware as ESXi. But, as is usual with me and freeware, it isn't exactly free...
Pictured above is my new server: The Hive. I gave it this name because, when it is fully configured, it will be "a swarm of virtual PCs, waiting to be unleashed." It is built from the scraps of at least three dead PCs; the case and hard drive are from my last desktop PC (which died due to a defective front-panel USB connector). I later painted the case with bronze hammertone paint when the Media Center lived in it, the board and memory are from my brother's last PC (the board is his SECOND warranty board, which he said is "dead to him", but with a CPU purchased from EK Computers for $25 works just fine for me). The remainder of the system (video board, fans, power supply) were gathered from my collection of parts.
Unlike my previous "science projects," this one did not go easy... It took no less than a month of experimentation, aggravation, playing games with computers (as opposed to playing games on computers), frustration, and so on... But I finally got it working.
Here is the inside of "The Hive." This is my brother's premium gamer ATX motherboard, an EVGA Socket AM2 nForce 590 SLI board with integrated dual gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), USB 2.0, AC'97 audio, dual PCI-e 16x slots (for graphics cards), Serial ATA (SATA) and a myriad of other features. Of course for ESX server 3i, most of this is basically useless (at least when one is using mostly surplus parts)...
For starters is graphics... ESXi uses the now basically unheard-of resolution of 80x25. This means that the screen only displays 80 columns and 25 rows of text, with only ANSI (or text-terminal) graphics. This renders the long PCI-E 16x slots basically worthless, and I use an ancient SIS 2MB card that I had laying around for the console.
In addition to this the 8.1 surround AC'97 CODEC audio chip is completely useless (ESXi has no support for audio whatsoever), I am unsure as to weather or not 1394 is supported... However many of this board's features are both usable and beneficial to ESXi. For starters, this board supports dual-core processors and dual-channel memory. This allows two applications, or "guest operating systems" to access resources simultaneously. Both the SATA and Dual Gigabit Ethernet features are supported, as is the USB 2.0 interface (for attaching hard disks by USB).
Unlike a typical PC, an ESX server is used entirely over a network. The image displayed on the monitor above is the only thing that ESXi EVER displays on the attached monitor... However the VMware Infrastructure Client (VIclient) gives full access (including a virtual console) to the hosted operating system.

This is a screenshot of VIclient running on my Vista-based laptop. Shown is the console for a Windows 2000 Server virtual machine. On the left of the console is a list of all of the configured Virtual Machines. The ones highlighted in green are currently running. As you can see this single computer is currently running three operating systems, with a fourth shut down. With ESXi the number of operating systems that can be run simultaneously is limited only by the available resources of the host PC; and in all actuality the number of VMs can exceed the available resources of the host PC, at the cost of performance. Configured properly this PC may be able to run nearly a dozen separate operating systems at once!

Well that's all I have on this project for the moment... There may well be more later...

Just a note: the name "LIABnet" on the top picture refers to the computer gaming group comprised of most of my friends and myself, called Losers in a Basement. LIABnet is my part of Losers in a Basement; though all of us are very computer literate and most of us built our own computers, I am the "server guy" of the group, and host the Losers in a Basement Network, or LIABnet.

Hand Tools: The Scythe Pt. 1

2009-10-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

As promised this post is about something somewhat lower-tech than PBXes and server computers...
While working on clearing weeds on the railroad, and thinking about hacking down tall weeds with a machete I had joked about using a scythe for a similar purpose. However after doing some research I started to feel that maybe the old-fashioned tools and ways may not be so obsolete as many would believe.
I purchased this antique, American-style scythe about a month ago, and over the course of that month as I have taught myself to set it up, sharpen the blade properly and to properly wield it I am increasingly of the opinion that with the proper skills a scythe can do the work of a bush-hog with similar (if not less) physical effort on the part of the user.
Unlike machetes and similar tools a scythe works by slicing plants; when used properly a full-length cutting stroke (a swath) uses no more energy than a miss. A machete on the other hand requires a "concentrated" swing in order to cut down plants, all but preventing prolonged use.
Since I took this photo I have put the first two coats of linseed oil on the snath (handle) , peened the blade once and applied a coat of linseed oil to the "solid" rust covering the non-cutting portions of the blade (this is to prevent further rusting. In the old days metal tools were intentionally rusted and finished with linseed oil, a process called browning. Of course a "proper" browning job is considerably more involved than simply oiling a rusty tool, see my second note below).

Pictured here are my four scythe blades. The top three blades were given to me by my grandmother. Of these three, in order, one is physically worn out, the next is severely damaged but repairable (I have already partially repaired it) and the third is quite literally in like-new condition and only needs peened and sharpened.
The topmost blade is sadly unsuitable for anything except a decoration. It has simply been worn out, and deserves to be attached to a similarly worn-out snath for display. A sad but distinguished end for any good tool if you ask me... Now I just need to find a worn-out snath with a good blade...
The second blade is severely damaged, but is quite salvagable. All of the cutting edge is in excellent condition, however the entire blade is slightly twisted and (when I aquired it) the tang was bent a full 45 degrees. As an amatuer blacksmith repairing the tang was easy, however I have yet to get a chance to try to un-twist the blade. Once this blade is fully repaired, peened and sharpened it will once again be prime to cut literally acres of grass and weeds on end...
The third blade, which has been stored better (and I believe has barely been used) is in literally like-new condition. All it needs in order to be usable is to be peened, sharpened and oiled.
The fourth and final blade is the blade that came with my scythe. When I first purchased it the blade was nearly destroyed, and required a substantial amount of filing to remove the damage from the cutting edge. However after peening this blade and tuning my snath it is finally able to cut grass again. Even before this it had proved it's weed-cutting abilities, which are now truly spectacular.

A note: In this post I repeatedly talk about "peening" blades. Peening is basically cold-forging. This is the "proper" way to resharpen a scythe blade, as it both greatly reduces wear on the blade and work-hardens the cutting edge (increasing it's sharpenability without making the rest of the blade brittle). Peening the blade literally forces the edge back into the correct profile, minimizing the amount of steel that needs to be removed to obtain a suitably sharp edge.

Another note: Many antique tools are "rusty," however unlike most rusty tools the rust is always small-grained and even. This is because the tool has been "browned," that is intentionally rusted and preserved. A full browning treatment involves cleaning the tool to bare steel, applying a rusting agent (such as salt or salammoniac), allowing it to rust, removing all rust, reapplying the rusting agent, allowing it to rust, removing all rust and so on until the coat of rust is very even and "solid," that is that the rust won't flake off even when struck against a hard object. At this point the tool is finshed with linseed oil, then waxed. In this manner the rust itself provides a means of preventing further rusting. It is amongst the oldest methods of preserving iron and steel, and in some cases is still used today.

That's all I have for now. In part 2 I will show the restoration of the long blade in detail.

The Server Shuffle Pt.2: Servers Shuffled and more PBX stuff

2009-09-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's finally done.
The first half of the project, installing the Asterisk PBX software and my existing TDM card in the IBM server, went as well as could be expected. The only hiccup involved a dead CMOS battery, which concerning the age of the server (about 8 years) and the fact that it sat in my parents' basement for close to one of those years that isn't surprising. Replacing the rediculously overpriced battery ($5) fixed all of it's problems.
The other half of the project, transferring the Windows 2000 file server from the ICP Electronics computer to the dual Pentium-III workstation box (the former PBX) proved a lot more... interesting.
First, it appears that I had a bad IDE cable; I had as a last resort on the ICP box tried using "tube" cables to increase airflow, and one of the two storage discs apparently failed... After transferring the system to the new computer the problem continued... In frustration I gave up for the night, and the next time I tried the system I discovered that the fan in the switching power supply had failed... Fortunately I had a spare, and since by now I suspected that the hard disk failure was due to a cable problem I replaced the tube cables with standard ribbon cables. Problem solved. Now I just need to finish working that computer through the entire Windows Update cycle and it'll be finished. This computer uses the failed Slot-1 processor form factor, which has decicive advantages over the previous (and current) ZIF form factor, mainly in the area of cooling. The large form factor of the processors (approx. 2.5x5 inches) allows plenty of room for very large heat sinks, which should eliminate all overheating issues... Of course this server could still stand to be upgraded (a redundant power supply would be nice, as would be ECC memory...), but it will work well for now. And probaly for much longer.

And now for PBX stuff...
As I stated in my last post I am now using my IBM Netfinity 6000R as my PBX. This is an obsolete corperate-class server computer incorperating a veritable laundary list of features. The system is highly robust, and capable of "tolerating" a failure of virtually any component (including CPUs and memory modules) save the motherboard and memory board. It incorperates four CPUs, three power supplies and uses error-correction memory. I also added a ServeRAID board, which provides hardware-accelerated RAID functionality. Using a RAID-5 array utilizing three hard disks it is possible to remove one of the disks, shoot it with a rifle, and replace it with an identical disk without the operating system even noticing! In addition to it's redundency this technology also provides a substantial preformance increase, effectively doubling the hard disk access speed.
In addition to all of that this server incorperates the "Netfinity Advanced System Management" board, which is literally a seperate computer dedicated entirely to making sure the server funcions properly. This "service processor" (located in the upper right of the photo) constantly monitors the system and using LEDs located throught the system highlights any defective component in the system... It provides real-time monitoring of any component in the system, a technology that is common now but at that time was only implimented in this class of server.
For analog telephony functionality I have added one (soon two) TDM PCI cards. These cards, also called Zapata Telephony cards (formerally abbreviated to "Zaptel" cards, a name no longer used due to a purely accidental copyright infringement) provide an inexpensive way for a computer to interface with the PSTN. At the most basic level these cards are 4-port modems, however instead of converting data into sound they essentially do the opposite, and convert sound into data. These cards accept four modules each; each module is capable of duplicating either an FXO interface (capable of answering a phone call) or FXS interface (capable of ringing a phone). It is VERY important to note that the interface and signalling on these modules are reversed: Forigen eXchange Station [FXS] represents a telephone, and answers a call; Forigen eXchange Office [FXO] represents the telephone company, and rings a phone. The modules are named for what they are to be connected to, not what they actually do).
What all this means is that using this software, a used server computer, and telephony interfaces aquired via eBay or other online discount sources it is possible to construct a truly full-featured Private Branch eXchange (PBX) for a tiny fraction of the price of a conventional Key Telephone System (KTS) used by many small businesses (as I personally know)... It is possible to create a 24-port Asterisk PBX, with or without digital connectivity (T1 or ISDN-BRI), for under $1,000 (utilizing a used server as it's base). By comparason a 24-port KTS would cost easily ten times this amount, and any other true PBX at least double that!
That's all I have for now... After this high-tech garbage I think the next post will be about something decidedly lower-tech...

BTW: TDM is an acronym for Time Division Multiplexing, a scheme for combining several (usually 23 or 24) analog channels into a single digital channel. The usual use of this scheme is the DS-1. More commonly called a T1, it combines 24 telephone circuits onto a single pair of wires (generally speaking, one of the channels is used for signalling, a scheme called ISDN-PRI). The TDM cards impliment TDM in software (either by de-multiplexing a T1 or by combining as many as 24 traditional analog circuits into a single datastream). By utilizing a Zapata Telephony card this data can be handled entirely by software, allowing applications like Asterisk to interface with the PSTN.

The Server Shuffle Pt. 1

2009-08-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well I guess it's been a long time since I last posted, though a lot of planning (though not as much doing as I would like) has happened since then. So let's get started with one of my current dilemmas; my server situation...
Owing to the recent heat wave and my unwillingness to air condition an uninsulated house my file server has been experiancing severe reliability issues. This is mainly due to the extreme tight clearances on it's motherboard, and thusly the inability to install better heat sinks on it's CPUs. After some deliberating I decided that it was time to mix it up...
First of all I finally moved my massive IBM Netfinity server over to my house (it honestly weighs over 100 lbs fully assembled!). I made the decision that this huge yet design-constrained system will be my PBX, the current PBX will become my file server, and the existing server will be retired from active use.
The IBM Netfinity 6000R is a corperate-class server (albeit one that's 10 years old). It is a high-reliability, high-stability, highly-overbuilt system featuring 4-way SMP (that's QUAD CPU!), interleaved Error-Correction memory and hardware RAID capabilities. However owing to it's design it is essentially limited to a single consumer-grade hard drive. And seeing as I can't afford to upgrade my storage disks I decided not to relegate this system to that role again. I primarialy purchased it to use as a game server, a role it filled eagerly, however I have a strong feeling that any LAN gaming requiring this robust of a server is probaly long since past... The way I figure I have the thing, I may as well put it to use. Even though it is extremely overpowered for my telephony needs the additional power this system has may be of use if I ever get ambitious...
The existing PBX system is a workstation-grade dual Pentium-III motherboard that I happened upon. This will become the file server, and after some memory shuffling (to maximize it's available memory) it should fill this role happily. And hopefully it will be less suseptible to the thermal issues of my current server...
Which is an ICP Electronics Single Board Computer with an expansion/multiplexing backplane. The entire dual Pentium-III motherboard featuring onboard video, sound, USB and dual Ethernet is crammed onto a single full-length PCI card (about a quarter of the size of a standard motherboard). The Expansion Backplane allows this single-board computer to function as a standard motherboard (and accept both PCI and long since defunct 16-bit ISA expansion cards). For a long time this server proved very satisfactory, however owing to the extremely cramped conditions on the system board, and a design flaw on Intel's part (the CPUs that this board accepts have an extremely small heatsink contact area). Because of this in order to improve CPU heat dissipation I'd either have to upgrade to copper-core heatsinks (and hope that they fit) or place gold (!) wafers between the CPU and the heat sink... Both of these options simply aren't worth the money!
As of the moment I have moved all of the telephony hardware from the old PBX into the IBM machine, but haven't done much else. Currently I am suffering from either a cold or mild smoke inhalation (from cooking over an open fire for over 15 hours over the course of the weekend) and only got two hours of sleep last night. I hope to accomplish more on this project later this week... Until then...

(P.S. I have more planned to post, I simply want to wait between posts to make sure none of it gets overlooked)

Electric Fencing Pt. 2

2009-06-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the last two weeks since I purchased the A50LIL fence controller I had it and two others fail on me due to a design flaw... Disgruntled with that model I returned the third defective unit for cash and purchased a second B10LI, identical to my original controller. For me this is a proven, dependable unit that more than satisfies all of my fencing needs, except for the possability of adding a Storm Guard module to the fence controller... However I have a feeling that I will probaly be safe without one...
I installed the new B10 on the fence earlier today, and put the old, "proven," unit back in the blister pack as a backup/secondary controller. I add the secondary because if I decide to use an electric fence around my garden the B10 is capable of running up to a month and a half on four "D" cell flashlight batteries, and requires no shelter from the elements. For common pest control a 6' ground rod driven only 4 feet into the ground is more than sufficient (as I learned when I purchased the first B10). This makes using electric fencing around my future garden easier, as I don't have to string insulated wires across my lawn (which would need to be reeled up every time I mowed).
Anyways, aside from my fence energizer fiasco I have made a few additional upgrades to my fence since the last post. First and foremost I added a lightning arrestor to the control post. Second I added a second 8' ground rod to the grounding system which, especially in dry months, will substantially improve the performance of the fence. Both of these are "invisible" upgrades (the ground rods and their wiring are completely buried, mostly so I don't have to mow around them, and until I finish the control post I'm not going to bother taking pictures of the lightning arrestor).
Third I finally re-strung the lower wire and added the second wire I had talked about in the previous post. The lowest wire is a mere 4" off the ground to exclude vermin, and as you can see already needs weed-wacking. The second wire is about 16" above the ground, and is the main predator control wire. It is between the average nose height of cats (or raccoons) and cyotes, the main predators that I am worried about. Any animal brave enough to climb the chicken wire will still have to deal with the tightly strung top wire, and with over 150 feet of it touching the ground an animal touching both this wire and the chicken wire is in for a nasty surprise!
As you can see both the Mighty Rooster and two of the pullets made a cameo in this picture. I think they have already grown significantly since the last post... With any luck my next post will be about the Henhouse.

Home Farming: Electric Fencing Pt. 1

2009-06-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

As stated in my previous post I have opted to use electric fencing both to help contain my birds and to exclude other animals (rodents, feral cats, and true predators such as foxes and cyotes). The principle of electric fencing is simple: An energizer produces a very high voltage (generally between 3,000 and 12,000 volts) in controlled pulses of 1/10,000 of a second once every second. Seperate wires lead to both the fence and a ground rod system. When an animal touches both the fence and the ground simoultaneously, when the fence is energized, it completes the circuit and recieves an electrical shock.
To some electric fencing may seem cruel, however it is far more humane than the alternatives. When properly installed electric fencing is infinately safer than any other fencing system. When an animal is "hit" by an electric fence it recieves a high-voltage, high-current pulse of electricity, however this pulse of electricity lasts only a tiny fraction of a second. This pulse is rather painful (as I personally found out last week), however it contains so little energy that it is physically incapable of injuring an animal or person. Thusly electric fencing is more of a "psycological barrier" than a "physical" one. Conventional fencing, such as barbed wire, relies on either sharp edges or physical restraint of animals, either of which can kill either a person or an animal.
The picture above is of my upgraded electric fence controller setup. After both doing the math and considering the options I opted to purchase an AC-powered electric fence energizer, on the grounds that it would cost about the same as purchasing two batteries, a dedicated charger and a (decidedly substandard) backup fence energizer. The unit I purchased is the Zareba Systems A50LIL (if you ask me the name is rather ironic, since the second "L" means "Large Cabinet"). It is a 2-joule low-impedance energizer which, (unlike my B10LI self-contained unit) can accept Zareba's "Storm Guard" module, a purpose-built surge arrestor intended to mitigate the effects of lightning strikes to the fence. Since my fence controller is located inside my house I plan on installing both this and a true "lightning arrestor" on the fence line itself. Considering the extreme power of lightning I feel that it's worthwile taking every practical measure to mitigate it's effects on my property... As before, the two new danger signs (the two 10KV signs and the Authorized Personnel Only sign) I printed off myself.

After the heavily-insulated leadout wire leaves my house it first stops here: the "Fence Control Post." The post itself is temporary as I plan on replacing it with a pressure-treated 4x4. In addition I plan on adding seperate cut-outs for the top and bottom wires, as well as a third cutout for temporary garden fencing (for when I plant a garden next year).
Though it is not visable in this picture the leadout wire is bent several times to serve as a lightning choke. The short-radius bends discurage the high direct-current lightning stroke from continuing along the fence wire, and finding an easier ground...

Which leads to this: My temporary, "Home-Brew" lightning arrestor setup. Here I pushed a short ground rod into the earth and placed a solidly-bonded grounding wire just outside of the 10KV arcing range from the fence wire, right next to the leadout wire. This was an "emergency measure" I took last night, due to the predictions of severe weather over the next three days. After today's rather absurd lightning storm I felt that this system was well worth my time... Thankfully I don't think I got to find out if it worked or not...
I plan on replacing this system with a true lightning arrestor with a fully-buried 8-foot ground rod as soon as is practical. Here you can also see a new fiberglass rod with two insulators for the new permanant exclusion fence. Hopefully I will get to post about that tommorow...

Chickens Update

2009-06-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Finally, through only partial fault of my own, the chickens are outdoors... Now, the explination:

Yesterday I erected what was intended to be a temporary enclosure for the chickens. I didn't have nearly as much wire as I had thought, and had to improvise a coop for them... After several near escapes I thought I had the birds contained, and left for game night...
I was wrong...

When I came home at 1:00 the first thing I saw when I pulled in was what looked like a dead chicken. Fortunately it was still alive, but very VERY far from where it belonged. It turns out that it and one more bird had ran right under the electrified chicken wire. About an hour later, just as I was getting to bed, I heard a lot of commotion outside, and when I went out with my flashlight... NO CHICKENS!!!

The next morning after I got up I looked around and, sure enough in the pine trees on the north edge of my property I found five of the birds in short order. Soon thereafter I found the rooster in another pine tree by himself. After reuniting him with the hens I left for Tractor Supply to get supplies to make a much larger run for the birds. Here are the results:
The run is about 50 feet long and 15 wide. The chicken wire is topped with an electrified security wire, and the base is surrounded by a second electrified wire. Both wires are energized with a 6,000 volt pulse once every second, which (according to the fencer manufacturer) is enough to control all predators and livestock as large as bison! This fencer is rather overkill for my purposes, but it is a "weed clipper" unit, which means that it has enough power to literally "burn through" weeds. This is both good and bad: Good in the respect that out-of-control spring weeds won't negate the fence, but bad in the respect that the unit is more than capable of starting brush fires in dry weather... I plan on adding a seperate cut-out for the bottom wire, so I can turn it off during drought and red-flag warnings.
This fence was not as cheap as I had thought: All told it cost about $250-300 (mind you I had bought most of the electric fence parts three years ago, which accounts for just less than half of the total). This is the main reason for my advocacy of electric fencing: For what I spent on a 200-foot chicken fence I could've built a 5 mile cattle fence using a purely electric fence. The other reason is that electric fencing is very humane compared to the alternatives (such as barbed wire). The shock is rather painful (as I found out while testing the fence), but causes no actual harm to the animal. Barbed wire, on the other hand...

Now for some pictures...

My custom indoor electric fence energizer setup. It features a Zareba Systems 1/4 joule battery-powered controller currently running off of the battery from my big truck (which is currently out of commision). I printed off the "High Voltage" signs myself.

Four pullets enjoying the evening beside on of my pine trees.

And the Mighty (in his own opinion) Rooster... When the birds escaped last night he had picked his own tree to hide out in, and unlike the hens had actually climbed up into the tree to roost. His wings were the first to be clipped, so I doubt if his tree climbing prowess will be a problem...

The Blue Bird returns to Waterville!

2009-05-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay, but I have still been busy as of late...
After a long and arduous struggle taking almost six months of time and the countless efforts of over a dozen people, the TLEW's Blue Bird passenger train arrived at the Waterville station for the first time in years a mere 45 minutes behind schedule!
My previous post gave details of the work needed on 5109. In addition to this close to a mile of track needed repairs. Though most of this work was accomplished in the last two months of our maintenance seasonwe still made opening day!
Below is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime photograph of 5109's prime mover (engine), with any luck the scale of repairs requiring all of the doors to be removed won't be nessasary again!

5109

2009-04-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

I think it's high time to post about the project that has been consuming the vast majority of my free time for the last several months: Toledo Lake Erie and Western locomotive 5109...
Over the course of the winter I have been involved in several nessasary repairs including replacing fan and drive belts, a severely belated oil change on the locomotive's air compressor, general maintenance and, most importantly, replacing the number 5 cylinder head and sleeve...
By now I have spent more time in the so-called "dog house" then I care to think about... But at this point I am not going to be satisfied until I watch this locomotive hitch up all three coaches and board the final coach for the trip to Waterville...

Unit 5109 is an S4, built by the American Locomotive Company (Alco) in 1953 for the Chessapeke and Ohio railroad (later known as the Chessie System). It is powered by a Seymour and McIntosh (Alco) 539 6-cylinder, turbocharged prime mover rated at 1,000 horsepower. It is a switcher-type locomotive, and thusly it's gearing and traction wiring are tailored for low-speed, high-torque operations.
This locomotive is over 50 years old, and is showing signs of it's age. Over the last three years the compression seal on cylinder 5 failed, resulting in a catastrophic compression leak. Uopn removing that cylinder's head it rapidly became obvious that both the head and the cylinder sleeve would need replaced; both showed a very obvious gap in excess of .020 inches (though this may not seem like much this is a compression seal that during the power stroke is subjected to tens of thousands of pounds per square inch pressure). Work ensued removing the damaged components from 5109 and scavanging replacement parts from one of TLEW's "dead" locomotives, engine 112.
This last weekend we seated the replacement cylinder sleeve, piston and cylinder head, and are striving to finish repairs and test the locomotive, and remove the "dog house" from the locomotive, hopefully before this weekend...
Here are some pictures of the parts involved, just to give an idea of the scale of the work involved...

The head of a single cylinder of the Alco 539 prime mover. Each cylinder displaces 1,595 cubic inches, for a total displacement of 9,572 cubic inches across all six cylinders. The two men in the background should give an idea of the size of this part.

The cylinder sleeve. This massive steel tube is pressed into the cylinder block, and is sealed by four O-rings. I had initially thought it would take two minutes to install the sleeve... In fact it took almost eight hours of excrutiating work. Installing the equally impressive piston (which I do not have pictures of) took a a mere two hours total...

The cylinder sleeve, installed into the cylinder block. The socket and extension at the edge of the picture are a 1-inch drive...

Chickens Pt. 2

2009-04-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well after owning chickens for two weeks I have realized two things. 1: I in no way regret my decision to get them and 2: they are very messy birds! As of right now I am having to clean out my waterer at least twice if not three times daily because they keep fouling the water with depleted bedding... However the birds are progressing nicely, and have already doubled in size, with the exception of my rooster (pictured) who has almost tripled in size!
These are "Straight-run" chickens, meaning that there is no way of knowing what breed they are. However judging from their current plumage I have at least three if not four breeds. Most of the pullets (hens) are showing dark brown plumage, and are most likely Rhode Island Reds, or a descendant of that breed. The cockerel (rooster) has so far maintained his overall yellowish color and is most likely a white breed. And two of the pullets have noticeably different plumage than the other three, however it is still too early to be sure...
I will keep you posted on the birds' development, and will have pictures as soon as I move them to larger quarters (right now they are borderline overcrowded by the box I am keeping them in, making their care burdensome and any photography options poor at best). This week I hope to move them to larger quarters out in the old bar, I will take and post more pictures then.

Home Farming: Chickens

2009-04-16T16:06:00.001-07:00

With my busy schedule I decided that I couldn't take the 2-3 days nessasary to prepare and plant a garden this year... So I decided to go for the other aspect of agriculture that I'm interested in, and to buy some chickens!
This is my flock of six as they looked a week ago. They've already grown, and are well on their way. I plan on erecting a henhouse on the concrete slab located on my property, however I have time to wait on that before these birds are big enough to require such housing.

Magnaflux Spotcheck

2009-03-26T16:28:00.001-07:00

Magnaflux Spotcheck is a product that I learned about at work. It is a method of nondestructive testing of metallic objects for surface defects (such as cracks). Since I own overhead lifting equipment I felt the need to aquire the tools nessasary for OSHA-mandated safety checks (even though I am not governed by OSHA, since I don't have any employees). That and this test kit has many other uses...
In essence Spotcheck is a 5-step process involving three chemicals: A solvent-based cleaner, a penetrant and a developer. The solvent cleaner is just that, a solvent. Before purchasing the materials I did my research and discovered that the Magnaflux brand cleaner/remover is nothing but petroleum napthata, which is far more inexpensively available as Zippo lighter fuel, hence the yellow bottle of Ronsonol at the top of the kit.
At the heart of the kit is the Magnaflux Penetrant Dye (the right aerosol can). In essence it is nothing more than a mixture of a blood red dye and the most powerful penetrating oil that money can buy. This mixture is sprayed on the test part, allowed to soak and then wiped off with a rag soaked in solvent to remove any penetrant left on the sufrace.
After this the developer is applied. Basically the developer is merely talcum powder suspended in a powerful solvent (yes just talcum powder, or even finely ground clay, works, just not as well). When sprayed on the cleaned test part it draws the penetrant out of any defects, and the red dye stains the talc. This readily shows any defects in the test part.
I purchased the supplies to assemble this kit for less than half of the cost of the ready-made kit (which includes a can of penetrant, a can of developer, two cans of cleaner/remover, a penetrant marker, a shop rag and a case). The only part that I wish I had was the penetrant pen, other than that the rest of the kit wasn't worth the extra money...

Below is a demonstration of Spotcheck on a known surface discontinuity; where a flat-head bolt meets a plate. The results of this test were not as expected, I will explain below.

Penetrant (the blood-red stain) applied to the test part. I allowed about five minutes for the penetrant to work before the next step.

Surface penetrant removed with a rag soaked with Berryman's B-12 Chemtool. Notice the penetrant left in the "socket" of the allen-head screw working it's way up to the head of the bolt...

Developer applied and allowed to sit for five minutes. The developer applied to bare metal is titanium white; the pinkish color is due to the penetrant contained in the surface rust being pulled back up to the surface. Ideally the bolt should have been surrounded by a red ring, my guess is the lack of a ring is most likely due to both misapplication of the developer and the excessive amount of PB Blaster that I had soaked the bolt with prior to this test (and more likely than not didn't fully remove prior to the test). The entire head of the bolt is highlighted only by the penetrant seen seeping up from the socket as seen in the previous photo.

I want to redo this demonstration at a later date on another known discontinuity, at which point I will revisit this post...

Home Farming

2009-03-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

I believe that the content of this post more accurately reflects "Hobbies and Interests" than "Home Improvements," so I will post it here instead of on my Home and Bar Improvement blog.
Within the last few years I have been steadily developing an interest in agriculture; both in the growing of crops and animal husbandry. To this end I have decided to make an attempt at at least some level of homesteading (the practice of growing and/or raising that that one needs to survive).
First and foremost I plan on planting a garden to grow those vegetables that I love the most: Tomatoes, carrots, sweet corn and asparagus. The last of these requires special care and growing conditions, which I have the means to provide... In addition to my planned vegetable garden I plan to plant at least two asparagus rows; one planted with a "local" variety of asparagus from my family homestead of Grelton, and the other with a commercial "High Production" variety.
As for my garden I plan on planting a variety of vegetables I enjoy, including but not limited to carrots, lettuce, string beans and sweet corn. I also have a desire to grow dent corn, but that desire more reflects my desire to make my own beer than that of growing my own food...
In addition to the usual garden vegetables I also would like to grow dent corn (as I already mentioned), grapes (which I would like to aquire from clones of family grape vines) and my own hops (which can be purchased from home-brewing suppliers, however it is too late this year to aquire the hop roots). I have the land and growing conditions to accomidate all of this, and though I am in preference of natural farming practice I am certainly not opposed to the use of commercially-available chemical fertilizers (from my decidedly limited experiance I like TSC-branded 12-12-12 fertilizer).
As far as pesticides go I tend to prefer the deterrance route (electric fencing), however I am an advocate of an old, effective and totally human-safe insecticide. It is made at home by boiling one full-size pouch of chewing tobacco in one quart of water. After boiling the tobacco is strained out and discarded, and the resulting "tea" is sprayed on the desired plants. Cigarette tobacco (which is considerably cheaper) can also be used, however suger will need to be added to make the mixture "sticky." Since the tobacco is prepared for human consumpion it is completely safe to eat, even without washing. However the nicotine contained therein is lethal to most insects. It is notable that this mixture is water-soluable, and will need to be reapplied after watering or rainfall.
As I said I am also interested in keeping livestock. I had originally planned to have more land than I do, and to live in the country. As such I had wanted to keep 5-10 head of cattle, and pasture then over a "rotated range" of 3-10 acres in three "zones." By moving the cattle between these zones it ia supposedly possible to raise saleable cattle without the use of commercial animal feed or feed corn. However with my property it is doubtful that I would be able to grass-feed more than one or two steers, and I don't have either the housing for those steers nor the money to build one.
As such I am considering raising chickens, which are considerably smaller (and thusly easier to feed). I belive that by fencing off a fifth of my property and fabricating a henhouse I could easily house at least a dozen hens.
I have read that by raising a kitten alongside the baby chicks is the best way to deter rodents (as the resulting adult cat will be accustomed to the chickens, and vice versa, yet the cat will remain agressive to any intruding vermin), and if I decide to erect a henhouse this is what I plan on doing, in additon to the double protection of both chicken wire and low-level electric fencing.
Thouch I would like to keep cattle I doubt that it would be possible given the limited amount of land that I own. However a gerden and mini-farm are dreams that I have not given up on...

The Village (of Texas) Blacksmith

2009-03-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on this subject, so I think it's high time that I did so. Though I have not done nearly as much smithing this winter as I would've liked to I have gotten some accomplished. Here is what I have accomplished so far:
This is the "Hot Set" that I mentioned in a previous post. It is made of S7 tool steel; properly austentized and quenched, and tempered at 500 degrees. Though it looks rough and doesn't follow the traditional profile of a hot-set (which greatly resembles a hatchet) I believe in function over form, and this tool accomplishes it's intended function; that of severing heated metals. Of course it still needs a handle (as it is the recoil of the hammer blows is almost hard enough to break fingers!!!).

This is the beginnings of a large kitchen knife which, owing to my late delivery I may as well say was intended as a gift for my mother. This is a fragment of an old file (1095 tool steel) which I was in the process of seperating the blade and tang when I lost my ambition (both due to burnout and serous flaws in my forge). When I get around to finishing it I see the blade as being 6-8 inches long, and I plan on handling it with either stag (my preferred choice) or hickory wood.

A dual-purpose scraper I made for the TLEW railroad out of rebar (probaly the lowest-grade steel of them all, but adequate for the intended use). The flat end is sharpened at a 45 degree bevel, the flat end is square. Both ends are hardened (a relative term considering the extreme low hardenability of rebar), and the shank is left both unfinished and untreated.

The tools I used to make these: My (considerably undersized) anvil and a pair of cross-peen hammers. The right hammer is a 3 lb. cheap Chinese "Harbor Freight" hammer (whose brother, by the way, I recently managed to break at work!). The right is a 4 lb. Mexican hammer (a considerable improvement over the other) which cost more than both of the previously mentioned hammers combined! I also have a small ball peen hammer (a gift from my father), and I plan on adding a 2 lb. cross peen hammer to this collection. I would LIKE to add a 4 lb. straight peen hammer (identical to the pictured hammers, except the "pointed" end is parallel to the handle), however I think it unlikely that I will find one...

The Server Rack: Private Branch eXchange (PBX)

2009-01-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

My latest pet project is once again in the one field of Information Technology that I actually enjoy working with: Server computers.
My latest server is an application system built around the Asterisk Telephony Engine and the GNU/Linux Operating System. The whole project got started by happensance: Whilst searching through images for VMware I found out about Asterisk, an Open Source program for managing telephone connectivity. Despite my minimal use of telephones the subject of Telephony holds a great fascination to me. Owing to my somewhat obsessive nature I got more than a little interested in this software, as it gave me the oppertunity to play with a device that I have always found facinating: the PBX.
Building the physical system turned out to be easy: A trip to EK Computer to find an empty case yielded a nearly complete computer. The case, which I purchased for the price of $15, contained a CD-R drive, a floppy drive, a 450-watt power supply and, very surprisingly, a 2-way SMP Pentium-III motherboard with a pair of 500MHz processors! All that was needed was some memory (which, after some scrounging and a surprise find at Goodwill, turned out to be 512 megabytes) and a hard disk.
Installing the software was the easy part: Digitum (the creators and sponsors of Asterisk) released a specialized Linux distrubution named "AsteriskNOW" specifically tuned for the PBX software... After adding a ATA (Analog Telephony Adapter) card and customizing the configurations I now have a working PBX... However as of the moment it lacks any sort of interface to the outside world, severely limiting it's usefulness...
I plan on connecting the PBX to Skype, through which I can have a real telephone number and basically unlimited calling for about $60... A year! However currently the only way to make this connection relies on unsupported software, which I have yet to get working. Oh well, it's been done before, and I have no doubt that I can get it done eventually.

Note: The cases on the rack are (from left to right) Windows 2000 fileserver, Asterisk PBX, a SCSI drive enclosure (currently just being stored) and a power conditioner for the PBX. The left monitor is connected to the server, the right to the PBX.

Motive Power

2008-12-21T16:51:00.001-08:00

This is a picture of my lawn tractor after the first wave of improvements. The unit is a Sears Craftsman model ST/16, and though I can't find any information I estimate it to be over 30 years of age. I purchased both this tractor and my lawn mower (another ST/16 in far worse condition, equipped with a 48" mower deck in lieu of the plow) for a total of $300 from one of my friends. And, both at the time and in retrospect, it was $300 very well spent!
The ST/16 is a 16-horsepower lawn tractor. According to my friends at the time this unit was made a 16-horsepower rider lawnmower was invariably built to commercial standards, and this is quite evident in it's construction. All of the working parts are made of steel, and all critical assemblies are easily accessable. The Tecumseh-built engine is air-cooled, is equipped with Timken roller bearings on the crankshaft and is capable of running flat-out for hours on end without problems! This tractor is in prime condition, however despite having more than a few problems the lawnmower does still get the job done, and extremely quickly; it seldom takes me more than an hour and a half to mow my 2-acre lawn!
When I purchased this tractor it came with the plow, snow chains and that large concrete block mounted to the 3-point hitch. The block is intended to provide more traction weight, however left it useless for pulling. I remedied this by fabricating a drawbar out of heavy barstock and attaching a "universal hitch" to the end of it. As you can see the hitch includes a ball, a tow hook and a pinhole hitch point, as well as a loop for attaching safety chains. The drawbar is attached to the tractor frame via a 3/8" grade 8 bolt, and I have tested it as being capable of withstanding a greater strain than the tractor's limited weight and power can produce!
On Friday, after nearly taking out a road sign when trying to enter Chestnut Street I thought it was a prime oppertunity to test out the plow. All I have to say is that I am VERY impressed! I was able to plow out Second Street, the portions of both Chestnut and Walnut Streets between Second St. and US 24, as well as the intersection of Walnut St. and Third St, and the unplowed portion of the intersection of Third St. and County Road 4A, in about two hours and with less than a gallon of gas! I did this work wearing my safety vest to help assure my visability. During my second round I donned my TLEW hard hat, since tree limbs were falling due to the severe icing earlier in the day.

More in Part 2...

Retroreflectors

2008-12-19T13:20:00.001-08:00

No, I don't mean "Old School" reflectors. What I mean is reflectors that redirect most of the light hitting them back to the source.
To the left is a picture of the TLEW emblem reflector that I am borrowing, as well as the two that I have made so far. The "candy stripes" are for use on the door of my truck, the DOT-style one is for use on either the bed or the bumper (thought I may end up attaching a couple of them directly to my rear bumper. they are, after all, the only "useful" bumper sticker in existance!
As with my PPE post, these magnets are intended both for my personal safety, and to make my truck look more "official." I think they do a good job at both.

Cylinder Head

2008-12-19T13:14:00.001-08:00

After weeks of waiting I finally got the tools and ambition to unload this massive hunk of cast iron from the bed of my truck. This is one of six cylinder heads off of an Alco 539 6-cylinder prime mover (the engine of a locomotive). At 450 lbs it is approximately the size and weight of the not-too-small V8 engine in my truck! In terms of physical bulk it is also similar.
This head, as well as the one that needs repaired on TLEW 5109, both have erosion on the large tongue visable on the underside of the head. Time, corrosion and pressure have taken their toll, and both need this tongue either rebuilt or patched in order to avoid further compression leaks.
This head is probaly a sample part; the one currently on cylinder 5 of 5109's prime mover may be in better condition. In either event I am going to use this head to get one or two quotes on repairing the tongue.

Hammer + Anvil + Coal +Tool Steel = Sharp Objects!

2008-12-09T18:09:00.000-08:00

Finally it's time for me to post about one of my hobbies other than the TLEW. In case any of you didn't know I'm also an amateur blacksmith. My interests in this field are mainly related to making knives and chisels (hence the post's title), though I am planning on making tools and parts that aren't intended for cutting.
Thus far I have made a 1/4 inch mortise chisel for my father out of 1095 high-carbon steel (salvaged from a worn-out file, donated by my father!) and a hot-set (a blacksmith's tool used for severing heated steel bars) out of S7 tool steel. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of either of these tools at the moment, I will post them as soon as I have them. Future projects include two more chisels for my father (a 1/4" standard chisel and a 1" standard chisel), several kitchen knives (both for myself and for others) to be made from 1095 steel, which in my opinion takes a much better edge than 440C steel (which almost all good-quality commercial knives are made from), a field knife from S7 steel (which, though it won't take as good of an edge as common knife steels such as 1095, 440C, A2 or O1, is virtually impossible to break without trying!) and possibly a Hardy from either S7 or O1 (this is another blacksmith's tool used for severing steel bars).
Bladesmithing is not an entirely new hobby for me; in the past I have tried to forge knives out of various materials, including leaf springs, bolts, large nails and assorted scrap, usually with almost no luck. Now that I acually know something about the behavior of steels, and the fact that I am working with known alloys, I am having considerably better luck.
I am also experimenting with "selective hardening" with my high-carbon steel projects. By carefully heating specific portions of my workpiece I can create an extremly hard (and therefore very sharp) edge yet leave the "meat" of the tool soft and tough. This can be done either during the quenching phase (which is only practical for chisels), or by selectively tempering the tool after quenching.
That's all I have for now. I know I've used several technical terms and numbers in this post, I will at least give you the definitions of the steel numbers I used. as well as a few applicable terms.

Hardness: This term is pretty self-explanitory. In steels it is usually measured on the Rockwell-C scale, with most knives falling in the range of 58-62 HRC. As a rule, the harder the steel, the sharper the blade.

Toughness: The ability of a material to withstand stress. In general, the lower the hardness the tougher the metal. However other factors, such as the alloy composition, affect toughness more than the hardness.

Quenching: The act of rapidly cooling steel to achieve hardening. The quenchant is determined by the alloy; water-hardening steels are quenched in water or brine, oil-hardening steels in oil, and air-hardening steels are simply allowed to cool in still air. The act of quenching sets the crystalline structure of the metal to an extremely hard, yet brittle, state. In general, unless absolute maximum hardness is desired the steel is immediately tempered to improve it's toughness.

Tempering: The process of heating a steel object to a specific temperature to alter it's crystalline structure to greatly improve it's durability, at the cost of a slight measure of hardness. Depending on the alloy tempering can occur at temperatures from as low as 200 degrees F to 1300 degrees F. As a rule, the higher the temperature, the greater the degree of tempering.
When steel is heated in air it changes color (due to various oxidation conditions) and blacksmiths use these colors to judge the degree of tempering.

1095: Plain high-carbon steel. Also called 95-point carbon steel. High-carbon steel is usually water-quenched, and as-quenched is EXTREMELY hard (up to 66 HRC). Plain carbon steel has very low heat resistance, and is therefore easily tempered.

A-2: Air-hardening, medium-alloy steel.

O-1: Oil-hardening, medium alloy steel. Somewhat tougher than 1095 steel, yet after tempering at typical temperatures retains a similar degree of hardness.

S7: Air-hardening, high-alloy, shock-resistant steel. As the description suggests this steel is EXTREMELY tough, and though it cannot attain the hardness of the previous steels it can withstand stresses that would literally shatter other steels of similar hardness.

440c: High-carbon stainless steel. A common knife-making steel that I have no desire to experiment with. My reasons are three-fold. First of all, many stainless steels are precipitation-hardening (or age-hardening), which I have no idea of how to execute. Second, I have read that stainless steels can be very difficult to forge, and third I have a prejudice that a knife that doesn't rust can't be as good as one that does...

PPE

2008-11-29T20:35:00.001-08:00

Me, dressed in appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for track work at or near grade crossings. For those of you not familiar with PPE I will give an explination of the function of each piece of equipment and why it is important.

Starting at the top is the hard hat. In truth it is largely unnessasary for the type of work I am doing, however with the TLEW emblem it serves to make me appear more "official." In addition it does at least somewhat protect my head from falling debris while clearing brush, doing signal work or working above my head in general.
Next is the safety glasses. I have perscription safety glasses and wear them my entire waking day. Safety glasses protect my eyes from flying debris.
Just from looking at the picture the safety vest's function should be obvious: In normal, non-directional light the white reflectors appear gunmetal gray! I bought the vest for working near road-railroad grade crossings, mostly to be sure that I am visable to passing motorists. But again, I think it helps me to appear more "official."
My Carhartt coat in and of itself could also be considered PPE. In addition to keeping me warm it is also extremely abrasion resistant, and thus protects me from cuts and scrapes whilst I am working.

That's all I have for now. I have plans for another post, and pictures for it as well, which I plan on posting tommorow.

My Truck, Ready for Action!

2008-11-28T08:27:00.001-08:00

My truck actually looks semi-important right now with the TLE&W emblem attached to the door! The emblem is a magnet, which I borrowed to use whilst working on the railroad, just to make me look more "official." I just finished painting the rust at the bottom of the door, which certainly helps make the whole thing look better.

Now if only the passenger side looked better...

Train Whistle

2008-11-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

My first post is about one of several projects I am doing for TLEW: A real train whistle (Train Horn is more technically accurate). Yesterday I removed these horns from Coach 404 (the frontmost coach on the Blue Bird train). When I got them home I promptly hooked them up to my air compressor, opened the valve and... Nothing happened!
Despite not yet having eaten supper I proceeded to tear the diaphram assemblies (the actual noisemaking part of the horn) and found one filled with mud dauber nests, one full of spider nests and the third and fourth just plain filthy. I quickly cleaned them up and tested them again, and one horn then started working. By then I was cold and tired, and gave up for the day.
Today when I got home I went back to work. I cleaned all four diaphrams with solvent to remove the oils and dirt from them before testing them one at a time. Once all three chimed nicely I went to work on repairing the bells (trumpets). Notice the silver band on the longest bell? Yes that's tape! That bell was literally broken in half when I recieved it, the tape is just there for testing purposes. Later I will solder the two halves back together.
In this post is a test video of the horn... Yes it really is that loud! Since one of the trumpets is missing I converted the horn assembly to a three-chime by plugging the air inlet to the damaged diaphram. The result: It sounds like there's a train rolling through Texas! Of course the REALLY impressive part is the fact that I tested this horn on my grandma's air compressor at 100 PSI, which is pretty close to the train brake pressure of 90 PSI. The small air tank can't flow enough air to keep up with one chime (horn assembly), let alone three. However this is not the case on the train, where the air supply is both less restricted and virtually unlimited!
Obviously I'm not done. I still need to see about straightening up the one bell, I need to solder up the other, and I need to strip off all of the old paint and repaint the whole thing, before fabricating a mounting bracket. Once all that's done it'll be ready to be mounted to Coach 408 (the rearmost coach on the train, which acts as the head-of-train when the train is backing up).

Introduction

2008-11-25T15:08:00.000-08:00

Alas, I have created a blog for reasons other than conveniance in logging my home improvements... However my phylisophical reasoning against blogging holds true: This is NOT a "what I did today" blog, at least not in the strictest sense. This is my "hobby log." This blog will deal with my major hobbies (Blacksmithing, my truck, my lawn tractors, aquariums and whatever) as well as my volunteer work with the Toledo, Lake Erie and Western Railway. I get the feeling that more posts than not will be about the TLEW, however I don't see this as being a bad thing...

Just a note: The nickname "Hot Rod" is the nickname that my boss, Mark Woodring, uses for me at work...