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.

Category: Oddities

Who’d’a thunk it?

  • Rail Trail: Fallen Tree Clearing

    Rail Trail: Fallen Tree Clearing

    We rolled up to a pair of walkers who had just watched a long-dead tree fall across the Dutchess Rail Trail ahead of them:

    Rail Trail - fallen tree - 2021-09-15
    Rail Trail – fallen tree – 2021-09-15

    Which is why I now carry a fold-out pruning saw in my tool kit:

    Rail Trail - fallen tree - cleared - 2021-09-15
    Rail Trail – fallen tree – cleared – 2021-09-15

    The mowing crew we encountered half a mile ahead had a chainsaw and cleared the remainder.

    Stay alert out there!

    Although I don’t have a picture, there was a freshly dead bat lying underneath the main trunk. I think it rode the tree down, only to get slapped hard against the gravel beside the trail. I’m sure bats power up faster than I do, but not quite fast enough.

  • Bondhus Wrench: Missing Ball

    Bondhus Wrench: Missing Ball

    Around the beginning of the year, I updated my collection of somewhat worn hex wrenches with a set of metric and inch ball-end hex wrenches from Bondhus sold by and shipped from Amazon:

    Bondhus hex wrenches - missing 7-64 ball
    Bondhus hex wrenches – missing 7-64 ball

    When I applied the 7/64 wrench to a setscrew, the missing ball came as a surprise.

    Even though the inch wrench set doesn’t get a lot of use, it’s possible I broke the ball off during a previous adventure, but a look at the end shows the black oxide coating covering the end:

    Bondhus hex wrenches - missing 7-64 ball - detail
    Bondhus hex wrenches – missing 7-64 ball – detail

    Yeah, it was born that way.

    I wonder if and how their lifetime guarantee works.

    [Update: It does!]

    Protip: as of this writing, the Amazon listing has two other “sizes” showing exactly the same set at significantly higher prices from two randomly named sellers:

    Bondhus hex wrench set - Amazon listing
    Bondhus hex wrench set – Amazon listing

    It is safe to assume Amazon no longer has its customers’ best interests in mind.

  • Bat House

    Bat House

    We found this critter while checking for water after Hurricane Ida drenched the area:

    Bat on attic vent
    Bat on attic vent

    It’s on the outside of the vent screen and we have no objection.

    We should put up a bat house to encourage more of its friends to hang out with us …

  • The Patience of Trees: Guide Rail

    The Patience of Trees: Guide Rail

    Found behind a store in Red Oaks Mill, overlooking the Mighty Wappingers Creek:

    Tree stump around guide rail
    Tree stump around guide rail

    The old rail fell off its (long gone) post before the tree grew around it and the newer rail (upper right) definitely isn’t fresh from the factory, so this tableau has been on display for quite a while.

    The tree’s growth rings have pretty much weathered away.

  • Red Oaks Mill Dam: Flood Stage

    Red Oaks Mill Dam: Flood Stage

    The remnants of Hurricane Ida dropped half a foot of rain in our area, so we walked to the remains of the Red Oaks Mill Dam to see the water:

    Red Oaks Mill Dam - 2021-09-02
    Red Oaks Mill Dam – 2021-09-02

    The white water crests stand in place over rocks in the stream bed, with hypnotic flowlines.

    The concrete abutment over on the left is now completely submerged. It was more conspicuous in May:

    Red Oaks Mill Dam - 2021-05-17
    Red Oaks Mill Dam – 2021-05-17

    Surprisingly, most of the tree trunks and debris collecting over on the right remain jammed in place, as seen in March:

    Red Oaks Mill Dam - 2021-03-19
    Red Oaks Mill Dam – 2021-03-19

    For completeness, the scene in February:

    Red Oaks Mill Dam - 2021-02-25
    Red Oaks Mill Dam – 2021-02-25

    The USGS has a hydrology station just downstream that reported about 10 feet of water, the “moderate” flood stage, around the time I took the first picture. The normal level is 3 feet.

    The “major” flood stage is 14 feet and, back in 2007, this is what it looked like at 15 feet:

    Red Oaks Mill Dam - 2007-04-17
    Red Oaks Mill Dam – 2007-04-17

    Our reference point is a drain pipe on the retaining wall behind the hotel: when the Mighty Wappingers Creek covers the pipe, it’s well and truly flooding.

    Searching for “red oaks mill dam” will surface more pix and stories.

  • No Dumbing

    No Dumbing

    Spotted on a walk around the neighborhood:

    Private Property - No Dumbing
    Private Property – No Dumbing

    If only it was a sign of the times …

  • Guten Tag, Deutchland!

    Guten Tag, Deutchland!

    Mostly, this blog ticks along with 400 to 500 page views per day, with 300-ish visitors looking at a page or two each.

    This week, something happened:

    Blog Stats - 2021-08-28
    Blog Stats – 2021-08-28

    Both of those spikes came from Germany:

    Blog Countries - 2021-08-28
    Blog Countries – 2021-08-28

    Traffic spikes generally come from a single post getting fifteen minutes of Reddit fame, with a zillion visitors hitting a specific page.

    In this case, a German “visitor” read nearly all of my 4461 posts on two days: 822 + 3561 = 4383. I’m reasonably sure no human finds my writing that interesting, so it’s likely a scraper capturing my text for the purposes of spinning it into a blog-like site with “unique content” for the purposes of SEO.

    Perhaps the first traffic spike was a targeting run?

    I’ll never know the rest of the story, but if you happen to stumble across a blog with an uncanny resemblance to this one, written by something with a wide vocabulary and no techie knowledge, let me know.