The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Month: June 2019

  • Monthly Image: Turkey Hen and Chicks

    Mary saw a fox trotting behind the garden, gripping a (dead) turkey chick in its jaws, with the hen in hot pursuit. The fox dropped the chick, circled the pine grove, picked up the chick, and departed stage right. The hen eventually led her remaining chicks into the yard, but gathered them underneath while watching for danger:

    Turkey hen with chicks - alert
    Turkey hen with chicks – alert

    She settled down for a few minutes:

    Turkey hen with chicks - resting
    Turkey hen with chicks – resting

    With the fox safely departed, she released the chicks:

    Turkey hen with chicks - emerging
    Turkey hen with chicks – emerging

    Then they returned to foraging, with one chick trying out its wings:

    Turkey hen with chicks - dispersing
    Turkey hen with chicks – dispersing

    Two days earlier, she led nine chicks through the yard; we think the fox picked off a chick a day. She lost two more during the next four days, suggesting they rapidly improve their ability to scamper out of harm’s way.

  • Monthly Science: Water Bottle Refill History

    This year’s Northern Star Quilt Guild show in the O’Neill Center at WCSU gave me an opportunity to update last year’s data points, although not quite in the way I expected.

    The overview:

    Gym water bottle refill station B - overview
    Gym water bottle refill station B – overview

    The left display is rotting out:

    Gym water bottle refill station B - left
    Gym water bottle refill station B – left

    The center display seems undamaged:

    Gym water bottle refill station B - center
    Gym water bottle refill station B – center

    The right display took a direct hit:

    Gym water bottle refill station B - right
    Gym water bottle refill station B – right

    So the middle station refilled 3025 = 10460 – 7435 bottles, roughly eight bottles a day, every day, for a year. Seems like a lot of refilling, doesn’t it?

    Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of the other watering hole last year, but here’s what it looks like now:

    Overview:

    Gym water bottle refill station A - overview
    Gym water bottle refill station A – overview

    Left:

    Gym water bottle refill station A - left
    Gym water bottle refill station A – left

    Center:

    Gym water bottle refill station A - center
    Gym water bottle refill station A – center

    Right:

    Now, it’s entirely possible I have the two stations reversed, in which case I have numbers for all three displays:

    • Left = 242 = 4758 – 4516
    • Center = 633 = 8068 – 7435
    • Right = 800 = 9689 – 8889

    Does a bottle or two a day, every day, for a year, seem more reasonable? Hard to say, so, with a bit of luck, we’ll have more data next year.

    For science!