Another Rainy Weekend

I can say that this was a WET weekend. The only thing I got accomplished between downpours was to erect the screen house so I would have a dry place to prepare meals and eat. But first, I had to remove yet another mouse...


... who had lined her nest with material from my screen house.


Then it started to rain. I could hear it coming for 2 or 3 minutes before it arrived. It sounded like gravel tumbling down a metal chute. Within minutes my road was a small river.



The only joyous part of the weekend was the discovery of a bird nest above what will someday be my large living room window. It contained 5 eggs. I am fairly certain that this was the nest of a Great Crested Flycatcher. The evidence; egg color, nest materials, parent calls, and visual sighting of the mother bird entering the house.

It was raining so much and so often that I finally gave up and headed home. On the way, I stopped at the Tellus NW GA Science Museum. This is a new incarnation of the old Weinman Mineral Museum vastly expanded in both space and scope.

Armed Forces Day

I have admitted it before. Sometimes I let fun get in the way of work. Saturday was one of those rare occasions. And what better way to observe Armed Forces Day than with a little clean gun fun.

NOTICE: Due to recent memos from Homeland Security and the fact that several of the participants (having served however honorably in the Armed Forces of the United States) may be on certain lists, no faces or names will appear herewith.

The day began around 10:30 with a review of safety rules by the Range Safety Officer. This was followed by two and a half hours of carefully coordinated mayhem. Many different kinds of firearms were brought to bear on many official and unofficial targets. My personal favorites were the Zombie targets.

Around 1:00 (just as a great black cloud was passing over) we adjourned for some delishous repast. There was grilled fillet and chicken, salads, bread, fruit, and veggies. Not to mention vast quantities of very naughty desserts.

After lunch were the skillet shooting contests. There were three - 50 foot pistol, 100 foot iron sight, and 100 yd scope. To enter, you purchased an aluminum skillet for each of the contests you wished to enter. The best group of three shots closest to the center was the winner in each category.

After the contest was my favorite part - the free for all! The really wacky targets came out and a good time was had by all. Following are a few short videos for your amusement. Also, I have included some stills extracted from the videos for detailed analysis. Those who want to view the video in slow- mo or frame-by-frame are encouraged to get a tool such as the free VirtualDub (available from http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/). Then contact me for original AVI files.

These videos were shot at 30 frames per second. Click on the stills to see a larger version. Enjoy!



In frame 2 below, you can see the initial impact at the bottom of the jug and in the upper left, what might be the plastic wadding.








In the first frame, you can see the traces of several of the pellets. In frames 2-4, it looks like the wadding is visible.










Frames 2 - 4 below show an expanding cloud of gas prior to ignition.





Just after the fireball died down, a few tracer rounds came sailing through. These two frames caught a single round as it passed through the target board. (Look behind the white board in the second frame.)

Rainy Weekend

This was the first rainy weekend enjoyed under the new metal roof on the cabin. The laurels are blooming.

We spent some time cutting pieces for the brackets. Carolyn cut pieces to length and then trimmed the decorative points.

I worked on notching and cutting the cross brace.




The roof has been on scarcely a week and already we have a resident mouse. While sweeping up, we came across her nest which she had made inside my rope bag. She took off with one baby still attached to a nipple but was quickly back looking for the others. We helped her find them ( four others) which she took from my hand. What a fine example of motherhood just in time for Mother's Day.