Lies, Damned Lies, and Sean

Mars and Minks

Noelle dropped by last night, interested in seeing Mars through telescopes while it was at its closest.  The night was clear, so I decided to go.  While Noelle ate some leftovers for dinner,  I drove us in her car to the small town of Sultan, SE of here, where there is much less light pollution from the cities, and we picked up our friend Laurie on the way.  We managed to find the athletic field at Sultan high school where the telescopes of Boeing's Astronomy Club and others were set up.  Mars loomed bright and larger than usual in the distance, meanwhile amateur stargazers walked about with their red flashlights.  There were a dozen or so telescopes and various numbers of people lined up for each.  The first telescope we peered through was small and poorly focused -- we only saw fuzzy white dot.  The next was better, and had a red filter.  The next was comparable though lacked the filter.  I was expecting something like the Hubble telescope images of Mars I had seen online, but no features on the planet could I see in these 12" (or so) wide telescopes.  The last one was worth tens of thousands of dollars and was 20" wide; it was the size of a hot water heater.  By far it was the best, as it made Mars look about a quarter of an inch in diameter, and some surface features could be seen.  

We headed back home, but after driving a few blocks Laurie spotted a mink on the roadside.  We recognized it as one of the 10,000 released from a local mink farm in Sultan by some extremists in the Animal Liberation Front a few days ago.  So far, about 9,000 have been recovered.  Noelle pulled over to try to catch it.  Elle and I watched in the car while Noelle and Laurie ran around the trying to nab the poor thing using a sweatshirt.  Noelle stepped on in its tail but fearing it would be injured, let up.  It escaped into someone's yard and they gave up the chase.  We saw another along the highway, but kept on driving.

The rock picker

Thanks to Noelle, I now know how to run a Bobcat.  Her next door neighbor has a horse arena, constructed with layers of gravel, small gravel, and sand.  She kindly lets Noelle use the arena.  Unfortunately, the gravel rocks, being larger than the sand, move to the surface, which leaves the horses lame when they practice jumping in there.  Noelle's neighbor said she would pay for the many tones of fresh sand it now needs (though she doesn't jump, so the rocks are less of a problem), but Noelle had to remove the rocks first.  To this end Noelle rented a Bobcat with a rock picker attachment.  The rock picker mounts in the front where the scoop normally resides.  It has a hopper to hold the rocks and tines that dig into the ground and throw the rocks and some unlucky sand into the hopper.  Mostly it worked.  

The problems we had are:

• With the rocks we dumped about 10 cubic yards of sand, which seems quite a waste.


• I had to go in reverse all the time because it scoops up too much sand otherwise


• Adjusting the picker's tilt and elevation was tricky -- too high, and it didn't pick rocks; too low, and the hopper fills with sand, which we must dump with the rocks, wasting it.


• Noelle directed from outside the Bobcat because it wasn't possible to see where the picker was relative to the ground or how full the hopper was from within.


• Dumping the hopper was slightly dangerous, as the back wheels sometimes raise off the ground, causing Noelle some consternation.


• Not all the rocks are picked.


• The gravel base is chewed up in places where the sand is too shallow, resulting in more rocks.


• It is deafeningly load, in part because the picker works best when the Bobcat's throttle is at maximum.


• The steering of the Bobcat uses two leavers rather than a wheel, so hitting a bump can produce a forced oscillation: I'm thrown backward, and inadvertently move the handles backward with me, which slows down the bobcat, which throws me forward, and I inadvertently move the handles forward, which speeds the bobcat, which throws me backwards even further, etc.


• The edge of the arena is surrounded by a nice fence, so we don't dare get too close to the fence with the machinery, but the horses are often run near the fence, so having the rocks removed from such a high-traffic area is desirable. As a result, I spent four hours picking the rocks out by hand. Noelle spent a few hours hand picking too, and our friend Laurie spent perhaps an hour.

The job we did by hand around the periphery was superior to the picker's. I think five men paid minimum wage would cost as much as the picker and do a better job.

We discussed making a small robotic rock picker that would work like the robotic lawn mowers. They stay confined to an area defined by a wire antenna. They randomly mow about, and as time goes on they probably will reach all locations. The rock picker would be more complicated and need a greater power source, a sifter, a kind of conveyor, a hopper, and a way to empty the hopper.

My first paycheck for 2003

My mom's friend from Garden Club needed some help with her computer.  I drove over to her house in Bear Creek Country Club and spent four hours tutoring her to use Windows XP on Saturday.  She also wanted to back up her many digital pictures, so I picked up an MSI CR52-A2 (CD-R/-RW 52x24x52) CD burner on sale from PC-Club in Bellevue for $36 plus tax.  They only had 52x media in 100-disk packages, so I bought one of those for around $22 plus tax (25 cents per disk is pretty cheap), thus she now has a lifetime supply of CDs to burn.  I installed the CD burner and spent another hour explaining how to use it.  She compensated me with $200 plus expenses and a quick piano lesson.